Greetings St. Andrew!
It’s that time of year again, where we send our youngest people back to school, get back into our own more regular schedules, and look forward to resuming Sunday School.
There are a lot of different ways to celebrate the kickoff of a new school and Christian education year. Covid’s presence means that once again, we have to consider different, safer ways of celebrating.
This year we are combining our Rally Day KFC kickoff with the ELCA’s national day of service, known as “God’s Work, Our Hands” (GWOH). While we will not have a carnival or cookout, we will instead focus our efforts on doing a big push for donations for three of the ministries and organizations we support as St. Andrew Lutheran Church.
All KFC families are invited to stay after worship on 9/12 to learn more about this year’s KFC setup, meet some of the KFC leaders, and take a look at our 2021-2022 KFC calendar. We will have hard copies available, and a digital version will be linked on our website. The St. Andrew’s Google calendar will also have the KFC information on it. KFC will officially start on 9/19 at 9:45, in between our first and second worship services.
So, who are we supporting this year?!?!?!?!?!
- The first is our Quilting ministry. Over the course of one year, our amazing quilters will make upwards of 400 quilts and 100 newborn baby care kits. They are a small but mighty group of women who meet weekly for quilting, fellowship, and tasty treats (can’t forget the coffee and treats!). Will you be a part of supporting their amazing ministry, and the ways it connects with the larger church body through Lutheran World Relief, by donating the following items for the baby care kits?
– Sleepers and T-shirts 6mos to 24mos,
– Socks (Dollar Store)
– Large safety pins (Dollar Store)
– Mild soap (Dollar Store)
The quilters work on making sweaters, blankets, and towels throughout the year. Our 2020 Baby Care Kits were sent to Bosnia. Just think–we were able to share love and care with a new mother halfway around the world, and it all started with sharing our own bounty. You can also share financial support of our Quilters through directly donating to the quilting ministry at St. Andrew.
2. Our second ministry is PADS–Providing Advocacy, Dignity and Shelter–is another organization that St. Andrew has actively supported for years. We also collect donated items for them year-round, but want to do a big boost in September. PADS focuses its resources on providing housing to those without it, which often includes supplying food and basic necessities. The most requested and helpful donations are: hand sanitizer, latex gloves, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, grocery store gift cards, fast food gift cards, individual ready-made meals, non-perishable microwavable meals (Easy Mac, Barilla pasta, Hormel Completes, ramen bowls), bread, peanut butter/jelly, fruit cups (with pull tabs), chips/pretzels/snacks, bottled water, reusable shopping bags and boxes, individual meal containers (microwave-safe), travel-sized spray bottles (for hand sanitizer distribution), men’s and women’s sweatpants and sweatshirts.
You can also directly purchase items from PADS’ Amazon Wishlist, found at this link. Financial donations can either be done online at https://www.padslakecounty.org/donate. Or, you can send a check to: PADS Lake County ATTN: Development 1800 Grand Ave. Waukegan, IL 60085.
3. Third, but certainly not least, is COOL–Christian Outreach of Lutherans. COOL focuses their ministry on a food pantry for those in need, as well as providing toiletries and resources to our Veterans. To support this ministry, please bring your food donations (the special item for September is canned fruit, if you need a place to start!) to the church and we’ll make sure it gets to the COOL pantry. To provide direct financial support, please see their online giving page here: https://coolministries.org/giving-opportunities/.
We will have designated bins for all three ministry donations setup by Pr Jenna’s office in the narthex starting this Sunday, August 29. We hope you will add some of these requested items to your shopping lists in the upcoming weeks, and support St. Andrew as we support these amazing ministries.
One of our awesome Quilters, Kathy Youngs, will be helping to coordinate the collection of the items. Rhonda VanderBloomen has worked with our social ministry liaison, Nancy Milne, to provide the updated list of donations requests for each ministry, and can be a helpful resource if you have those questions. Otherwise, Pr Jenna is also available!
Ready, Set, GO!
Peace,
Kathy Youngs
Rhonda VanderBloomen
Quilters of St. Andrew Lutheran
KFC and ChristianEd ministries
Pr Jenna