Giving and Serving – Outreach

Opportunities for giving and serving, both locally and globally, to those less fortunate

Crossroads Feeding Program
Reaching out to the hungry in our local community is another of our ministries. Coordinated through Catholic Community Services, various churches, schools, and civic organizations take turns providing meals for those in need Monday through Friday at the Salvation Army in Bellevue, which is located at 911 – 164th Ave NE.

St. Luke’s participates by preparing and serving a dinner the third Monday of each month, 12 months a year. We serve about 50 people each time. Food preparation time is flexible, and serving time is approximately one hour beginning around 6:00 p.m. For those able, we work in teams, with each team being responsible for a different month of the year. Presently we have five teams, so a team prepares and serves 2-3 times/year.

To date, St. Luke’s has 39 families who are actively participating in this program serving, preparing, and/or contributing monetarily. Feel free to recruit family or friends! Together we have many hands and hearts working for the final outcome of a meal served with love. If you are interested in helping in any way with St. Luke’s Feeding Program please contact the church office.

Emergency Feeding Program
Hunger is a problem that is prevalent both locally and globally everyday of the year. Based on 2 Corinthians 9:12, “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God”. Beginning July 2008, St. Luke’s Outreach Giving Ministry, in conjunction with The Emergency Feeding Program of King County, challenged the members and friends of St. Luke’s to participate in the Emergency Feeding Program for the next year.

Each month a new list of needed items is published and the amount we are challenging everyone to is indicated. Bring the food on Sundays; deposit it just inside the sanctuary doors and at the end of each month, all the food collected will be brought forward to be blessed for those who will be receiving it.

APRIL is BABY FOOD MONTH -  Through the month of April we will be collecting:  28 oz. containers of powdered infant formula, jars of baby food, including squash, peas, peaches, pears, chicken & beef.  Please no “junior” food.

Congregations for the Homeless
A community service project that provides shelter for homeless men and men in transition. St. Luke’s hosts these men during the month of February as part of a ministry sponsored by the Eastside Interfaith Social Concerns Council. Two years ago Volunteer Life Coaching was added to the services provided. Instead of just temporarily housing men, the new program is dedicated to helping them move, in a structured manner, towards productive and independent living.

Ensenada Mission
St. Luke’s, in conjuntion with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) annually travels to Ensenada Mexico to build houses for people who have none.  YWAM is an international movement of Christians from many denominations dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Their calling, as well as ours, is to know God and to make Him known.

Back when we began in 1960, our main focus was to get college age youth into short-term mission work and to provide them opportunities to reach out in Jesus’ name. Today, we still focus on youth, and have expanded the program to involve people of almost every age. Our many ministries while in Ensenada fit into three main categories: evangelism, training and mercy ministry.  Our trip this year is May 7 – 11.  Please contact the church office if you are interested in going.

Frozen Dinner Ministry
Frozen meals are prepared for those who are unable to prepare food for themselves due to illness or other circumstances.  These meals are distributed by the Visitation team. 

Kid’s Holiday Store
This ministry was started by the Confirmation Classes in 1992.  It’s mission is to provide the experience of giving to those who don’t have the means to provide their children with gifts at Christmastime.  This ministry has gone through several phases as has the culture in which we live.  This year we are again assessing how our mission and vision for Kid’s Holiday Store can meet the needs of those who have been caught in the current economic  situation and maintain the intent of St. Luke’s Mission and Vision statement. 

Palm Sunday Flowers
On Palm Sunday, we deliver flowers, along with a schedule of our Holy Week services.  Flowers are delivered to neighbors in communities around the church and our own individual communities inviting them to Holy Week services. This is an annual event for St. Luke’s.

Quilters
Meet every week to sew beautiful quilts which are sent to Lutheran World Relief. This is part of our global mission program.

Russia
St. Peter and St. Paul Lutheran Church – Moscow, Russia
During the Soviet reign church buildings were confiscated by the Communist party for their own use and congregations were disbanded. A completely gutted facility was given back to the Lutherans after the fall of the Soviet Union. In Spite of that a new congregation was born. They have struggled for more than a decade to refurbish the church back to its original state. [photos]

Alternative Gift Giving
Alternative Gift Giving is a positive giving experience employed to realize a simpler living lifestyle and as an alternative to consumerism. Instead of buying a gift for the recipient, you make a donation to a charitable organization in the recipient’s name and the organization provides an “alternative gift” or “virtual gift” – usually a certificate or card – for the recipient. This form of giving allows you to make a donation to a charitable organization that works to make this a better world for all while honoring your friends and relatives with donations to causes that fit their values.

Listed below are the websites for two Lutheran organizations that have much to offer for the person you are giving to and the person whose life it will help change. You are encouraged to go to these websites and become familiar with this type of giving. If you have any questions, please call Carolyn in the church office.

www.elca.org/goodgifts

http://quilt.lwr.org

Local Benevolence
Supporting organizations in our community that provide for those in need is a significant part of our local benevolence.  We give to organizations providing human services, housing and those addressing social justice issues. 

Global Benevolence
As with local benevolence our global giving supports those organizations addressing the same issues as we face locally.