Mission Ministries for 2008

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Staff

The Rev. Erika von Haaren, Associate for Mission Ministries

erika@saintbarnabas.org
480-355-9753

The Mission Ministries that St. Barnabas participates in are decided upon by the people who make up the Missions Coordinating Committee.  Entrusted with the task of this discernment of ministries by the Vestry, the MCC gathers quarterly to explore our Missions, to discern new ministries and to offer support to each other as leaders.  Our task is to make Mission opportunities available to the congregation which will help them experience Christ in the world.  We also acknowledge that this process of discernment is fluid and ever-changing and so what you read about below are the Missions for 2008.  Next year could be different.  We move where the Holy Spirit takes us and offer to the congregation these opportunities.

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Exploratory Ministries 2008

Exploratory Ministries are ministries which the Missions Coordinating Committee have designated for special discernment through the course of the year to determine whether St. Barnabas is called to participate in them at this time.  Exploratory Ministries could be brand new ministries, current ministries with low involvement or former ministries seeking a renewal. 

If you would like to know more about the opportunties in these Exploratory Missions, please contact the leadership listed below!

Angel Tree

The Basics: Angel Tree is a national program that gives support and encouragement to the children of incarcerated parents and their caregivers.  This effort is coordinated through Angel Tree and through Prison Fellowship International.

As many as 400 parishioners of St. Barnabas’ help in these three ways:

Angel Tree Christmas:

  Between October and mid-December, St. B’s parishioners collect up to $14,000 in gifts and clothing for around 300 children of imprisoned parents.  Volunteers also wrap the gifts, contact the families and donors, coordinate the delivery system and deliver the gifts to the children about 10 days before Christmas. 

Angel Tree Easter:

Bred of a desire to appreciate the caregivers of our Angel Tree children, St. B’s developed a new Angel Tree offering in the form of an Easter dinner for some 50-60 families.  Donations are collected, baskets compiled, contacts are made again with families and donors and the dinner fixings are delivered just before Easter.

Angel Tree Summer Camp:

What better than a good and faithful friend?  St. B’s makes it possible for XX Angel Tree children to attend Chapel Rock Summer Camp in Prescott, AZ and develop friendships with lots of other children.  St. B’s also provides sleeping bags if necessary, money for a camp t-shirt and a small amount to be used at the camp Canteen Store.  We provide transportation to and from camp as well!

www.angeltree.org
www.pfi.org

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Bridging Arizona Furniture Bank

“No child within our reach sleeping directly on the floor.”

The Basics:  Bridging Arizona is an outreach mission created by 2 parishioners of St. Barnabas, Jim and Donna Piscopo.  The purpose of the full-time non-profit is to help people who are transitioning from homelessness to new housing.  Often there is not enough money for people to furnish their new homes and so the Piscopo’s have created a warehouse of donated furniture and household goods to assist those getting back on their feet.  Over the course of one year, Bridging Arizona distributed over 5,000 items to 200 families with continued growth expected. 

This is a full-time and year-round endeavor.  Volunteers are needed for a variety of tasks from answering phones to sorting donated items to moving furniture.  Additionally, people are needed to organize furniture drives at their workplaces, churches or other venues. 

There is also a system for monetary donations to really see how things are being used:

$15—   Lamp

$25—   Bed & a Blanket
$50—   Sofa or Loveseat
$100— Kitchen Table & Cookware
$250— Furnish a home for a family of FOUR
$500— Maintenance and upkeep of delivery trucks
$1000—Help to plan for the future

www.bridgingaz.org

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East Valley Men’s Center

The Basics:  EVMC is a Transition and Training Center for men working their way from homelessness back to more stable home and work lives.  Housed in a former billiards hall in Mesa, the center holds about 85 men who take classes, look for work and develop life skills with trained volunteers. 

Though the men reside at the EVMC, there are no cooking facilities, so they rely on faithful volunteers who make bag lunches for 7 days at a time.  St. B’s has been involved for six weeks a year for over 5 years.  That means we’ve prepared over 3,500 lunches for these men! 

With donations from St. Mary’s Food Bank and purchases from a couple other local retailers, St. B’s gathers some 40-50 volunteers every six weeks to make lunches.  You can volunteer for an hour or all week.  It’s up to you and every bit helps. 

www.mesaCAN.org/programs/mencenter.htm

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El Hogar School/Orphanage for Boys & Girls

The Basics:  For 15 years, parishioners at St. Barnabas have been sponsoring boys who study and live at El Hogar School in Honduras.  El Hogar (“The Home”) has been a home and school for orphaned, abandoned and very poor boys.  They provide a Christian environment in which the children grow into productive and faithful adults who contribute to the betterment of Honduras.    After 27 years of being solely a boys school, El Hogar took on its very first class of girls in 2006 and they are thriving in this new, loving environment. 

About 10 years ago, we started traveling every other year to the school to provide medical support and other services for all the boys and staff. Our 2006 trip strengthened us physically: we helped build a new classroom building for the Technical School for 7th-9th graders!

Anyone who is interested in going to Honduras should get in touch with us so we can make sure that proper preparation can occur.  Each person who participates fundraises approximately $1,000 to cover the expenses of travel and living for the week, so planning in advance is crucial!

http://www.elhogar.org/wkteams.htm

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Family Promise

The Basics: Four times a year St. Barnabas is host to a group of families who reside in our Learning Center building for a week at a time.  This ministry is a year-round national organization in which St. B’s participates through the work of volunteers.  We provide evening meals each night of the week, rooms for each family, supplies and entertainment for the children, cooks to make dinner, chaperones who spend the night, and a great organizational team who pulls it all together.  Everything about the week is given by St. B’s parishioners from the food to new blankets & pillows to washcloths and sheets. 

We are always looking for various kinds of help with this ministry. Our 2008 Give From the Heart campaign at Hearts & Hands raised $16,000 as a special gift for the Family Promise of Greater Phoenix. Thank you to everyone who donated!!

http://www.nihn.org/

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Habitat for Humanity

The Basics:  St. B’s has been participating in Habitat since 1998 and have helped build over 18 homes during that time!  It costs some $60,000 to build a home, so we are joined with 17 other churches in the Valley who make up the Episcopal Habitat Coalition to fund our part in the build.   

Habitat is not only seeking people to help with the actual home building (no experience necessary, by the way.  You’ll be trained on site!), but people to make lunches for the builders and people to donate money, old cabinets/carpets/appliances and even cars! 

http://www.habitat.org/

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Lillian Vallely School

The Basics:  St. B’s has been volunteering at the Lillian Vallely School in Blackfoot, Idaho for several years.  In 2005, the program exploded with the addition of 25 youth volunteers who brought Vacation Bible School to LVS.  The school itself is in its infancy having been opened in 1998 due to the work of The Rt. Rev. John Thornton, Retired Bishop of Idaho and his wife Jan.  The school is for Native American youth grades K-5 to help them grow both academically and spiritually.  Their intelligence and their hearts are nurtured at LVS. 

The school is dependent on donations to survive and thrive. We are currently planning an adult mission trip to LVS for August 10-15. Would you like to share your gifts, skills, talents and passions with a group of wonderful children? Contact Rev. Erika today!

Idaho Mission 2007 online Journal

Idaho Mission 2006 online Journal

http://www.lillianvallelyschool.com/

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St. Luke’s Christmas Party

The Basics:  St. B’s established a relationship with St. Luke’s at the Mountain Mission Church in 2003 through the Angel Tree Program.  In the spirit of parish relationship-building, St. B’s provides a Christmas party for the children of St. Luke’s each year.  The number of children we help has grown from 50 to 200 in just a few short years!  St. B's bakers make over 100 dozen cookies to bring to the party, we provide gift certificates to Target for each child as well as a craft project, clowns and entertainment.  If you'd like to put on your chef's hat to help out with this fun event each December, give us a call.

http://www.episcopal-az.org/lukephx.html

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Mexico Medical Mission

The Basics:  In 1995, a group of 6 doctors, nurses and translators headed south loaded up with various medicines and high hopes of helping people in need.  They succeeded.  For the past decade, a dedicated group of both medical professionals and lay people have been traveling to Ensenada, Mexico where they set up four clinics in four days and treat over 1,100 patients. 

Those who are not doctors and nurses help load and unload the supplies, do the driving, entertain the children and act as translators for the team as a whole.  Those who don’t know Spanish just yet work in the commissary, handing out shoes, toothpaste & brushes, beans, hats, sunscreen & more. In 2007, 55 people went on this life-changing trip--would you like to join us?

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Team St. Barnabas

The Basics:  Team St. Barnabas is a 150-mile biking fundraiser for the Multiple Sclerosis Society which celebrates fellowship amongst the St. B’s riders and raises awareness of St. B’s amongst the community.  Each rider raises $250 for MS.  St. B’s consistently raises more than $12,000 for the MS Society with only a handful of riders! In the past, the trip was only for those who could ride the full 150 miles. In 2008, that was changed so that there are now multiple lengthrides enabling all of us to finally get involved!

All riders get 2 St. B's jerseys, a beautiful ride and the fellowship of great people out for a great cause.  Contact Tom Baker for more information!

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UTO

(United Thank Offering)

In 2007, the [National] United Thank Offering Committee approved 104 grants totaling $2,439,342.46 !

The Basics:  The blue boxes are available all year round at St. B's.  Take one home and each time you're grateful for something, drop a coin in the box! St. Barnabas does two annual UTO In-gatherings and the money is sent to the national UTO body.  Our monies go straight to people who are doing great Mission work around our Anglican Communion.  If you would like your own “Blue Box” to keep in your home or office to help remind you of all your thanksgivings, contact the church office today!!

The History:   At the Women's Auxiliary meeting during the General Convention of 1886, about five hundred women were present for the worship service. And yet, when Mrs. Ida Soule, then serving as a delegate from Pittsburgh, helped to count the offering, she found the women had only given a total of eighty-seven dollars. Dismayed at the meager amount, she suggested that perhaps if the women knew where their money was going, they might be inspired to contribute more generously.

In the early years the Women's Auxiliary collected the money at the General Convention and their focus was on expanding the mission of the church. Grants supported training women in the church, supporting and sending women missionaries domestically and overseas and funding the building of schools, hospitals and church buildings all over the USA.

 http://www.episcopalchurch.org/uto_8674_ENG_HTM.htm?menupage=8672)

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/uto/

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