February Food Barrel:
The following individual sized items are needed to support Inter-Faith Food Shuttle: pop-top canned fruit and vegetables, canned meat and fish, meat based soups and stews, shelf-stable milk or soy milk, cereal, grits and oatmeal. Also, healthy snacks, such as Goldfish, dried fruit and granola bars, 100% juice (in individual cans, boxes or plastic bottles), noodles ( such as EasyMac, Spaghettios, Ramen).
Questions? Contact Sandy Willey, 518-0784; sfwilley@mindspring.com. Please notice the large red soup can in the Narthex. This is where your donations should go. Let's fill the Food Barrel until it overflows!
Community Donation Centers
A great way for us to be good stewards of those possessions we no longer need is to donate all that is useable to local community agencies. Use the agency list GSLC has assembled as a donation guide. It can help you understand what agencies are willing to receive and how they will distribute what is given. Also, some of these agencies are eager for volunteer help. Please use their contact information to learn more. As we seek to believe, belong and serve, may our donations reflect our desire to be Christ to our neighbor.
Click here for the agency list..
Outreach Ministry Opportunities
Contact Kate Greengrove kate.a.greengrove@gsk.com if you are interested.
CENTER FOR VOLUNTEER CAREGIVING
The Center for Volunteer Caregiving is a private, nonprofit, interfaith organization whose mission is to provide volunteer support to elderly and disabled adults of Wake County to help maintain dignity, independence, and quality of life. We recruit, train, and support volunteers from the faith community and the community at large, matching them with elderly and disabled adults. There are no fees for our services. Additional information may be found here and here
Call Bruce Wehrle at 614-0432 anytime for more information.
CAMPO VERANO
In 1994 Good Shepherd launched a free summer camp for Hispanic children in our community. This week long camp serves up to 35 children in partnership with Lutheridge/Lutherock Ministries. Children are encouraged to practice their English and each day brings different activities including bowling, a movie, a visit from area service providers. Volunteers are needed to help with snacks, driving to/from, companionship. Campo Verano is usually held in mid-July.
Contact Kathy Hrivnak to lend your support. This camp is totally funded through our offerings given during Advent and Lent.
COFFEE HOUSE
Coffee House began in 1998 as a way to provide community support for adult with developmental delays. A typical Coffee House evening, 7-9pm, includes food and entertainment. Entertainment varies from music to bingo. We serve 15-200 persons monthly. Volunteers are always needed.
Contact Cindy Davis or Alice Boyce if you would like to help. Coffee House meets the last Friday of each month, January through October, and on the second Friday in December. Click here for more information.
FAIR TRADE COFFEE, CHOCOLATE, and HANDCRAFT PROJECTS
Description: Equal Exchange, founded in 1986, is the oldest and largest for-profit fair trade company in the US. Their mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, and to foster mutually beneficial relationships between farmers and consumers. Equal Exchange has partnered with Lutheran World Relief (LWR) to provide aid to those in need in an innovative way. Farmers earn a fairer share of income and congregations learn more about the world, its economy, and our part in it by learning about and purchasing fair trade items.
Good Shepherd makes Fair Trade products available in the Narthex (our entrance room) on the second Sunday of the month. All proceeds are passed along through Fair Trade Coffee.
Responsibilities: Order coffee, chocolate and educational materials through Lutheran World relief. Sell coffee and chocolate the second Sunday of each month. Communicate updates to the congregation via the newsletter, pewsletter, and/or e-mail alerts.
Timeframe: Monthly
FOOD BARREL
You’ll find a large barrel in our Narthex marked Food Barrel. On a monthly basis we fill that barrel with requested household/food products needed by local service agencies. A list of needs is provided each Sunday in our weekly pewsletter as well as our monthly newsletter. Consider making the Food Barrel part of your households monthly giving. You will extend our care and love in so doing!
HELEN WRIGHT CENTER MEALS
The Helen Wright Center provides housing in downtown Raleigh for homeless women. The evening meal is provided each night for residents of the Center. On the fifth Friday of the month Good Shepherd has a long standing tradition of providing a hot meal for clients of the shelter. This is a great household project—cooking and delivering the meal.
Sign up in the Narthex at the Wittenberg Information Center.
INTERACT SHELTER MOTHER'S DAY PROJECT
Sometime before Mother’s Day each year our Narthex is adorned with requested supplies which are needed to build up the lives of women who are living in safety at the Interact Shelter. Find the beautiful display and prayerfully consider how you can undergird a person seeking shelter and safety. We encourage households with children to make purchases as a family explaining as best you can to your children whom you are helping.
KAIROS TORCH PRISON MINISTRY
Youthful offenders at the C A Dillon Center in Butner come together for a weekend with trained Christians who share the good news. Serving on a Kairos Torch Team can have a transformational impact on those who serve as well as the youth being served. After the weekend team members can serve as mentor to a youth visiting up to twice a month. Look for information in our newsletter and pewsletter about upcoming Kairos Torch weekends.
Contact Ken and Mary Anthony for more information
LUTHERAN FAMILY SERVICES IN THE CAROLINAS MAGI GIVING TREE
Included in Lutheran Family Services work is the important support for children/youth in foster care as well as adults with developmental delays. Each year in December as part of our Advent observance a tree is placed in our Narthex with ornaments. It’s called the Magi Giving Tree. Each ornament provides a requested gift (usually a gift card) for either a youth in foster care, an adult resident of the Whittecar Home or an adult resident of the Serving Cup Green Level Homes. Approximately 50 persons are given Christmas through our efforts each year. The Magi Giving Tree is another great way for whole households to engage in reaching out to our neighbor in need.
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
Lutheran World Relief (LWR) has a long history of successful relief work around the world. A regular congregational based ministry that extends our care around the world is LWR’s health and school kits. These simple kits provide basis supplies to people in crisis. Periodically we will make up these kits and send them to LWR. Watch for announcements in our pewsletter and newsletter.
MEALS ON WHEELS DRIVER
Description: Wake County’s Homebound Residents receive a warm, home cooked meal daily thanks to the efforts of Meals on Wheels. Meals on Wheels is a non-profit volunteer program which delivers 1000 hot, nutritious meals a day to homebound Wake County citizens 60 and over.
Responsibilities: Drivers are always needed; several Good Shepherd members drive a route for Meals on Wheels. With your partner, deliver in your vehicle, from 12 to 18 meals to the homebound on one of thirty routes in Raleigh and northern Wake County.
Time Frame: Once a week at 11:30 am for approximately 45 minutes.
To participate contact Meals on Wheels directly: www.wakemow.org
MISSION TRIPS FOR ADULTS/COLLEGE STUDENTS
We are currently partnering with ASP (Appalachian Service Project) for our mission trips. ASP has a long history of providing meaningful, substantial service opportunities for congregational members in the Appalachian region. Typically Good Shepherd adults travel for mission work with ASP in the spring and fall. These trips are usually Thursday through Sunday.
Ann and Frank Kuhar are our Adult Mission Team coordinators. Learn more about ASP: www.asphome.org
MISSION TRIPS FOR YOUTH
Each summer our youth travel for a mission service experience. These experiences are life and faith shaping. We are currently partnering with ASP (Appalachian Service Project ) for our Senior High Mission Trip and with Bland Area Ministries in southern Virginia for our Middle School Mission Trip. Each experience is week long.
MNENE PARISH ORPHAN MINISTRY
Since 2000 Good Shepherd has partnered with the Mnene Lutheran Parish in Zimbabwe to provide school assistance to orphans identified by community leaders there. Over the years we have supported up to 50 orphans. The Zimbabwean school system provides both day school and boarding school. Good Shepherd provides day school fees, uniforms, food and school supplies. We also support designated youth to attend boarding school.
In 2009 we began an Adopt an Orphan program wherein Good Shepherd households correspond with Mnene orphans. Typically we request letters monthly. They should be brought to a mailbox in the Narthex. This is a great ministry for the whole family. To learn more contact Cathie Strawbridge.
We are in the process of developing a not-for-profit called Bridges for Partnership which will allow us to extend our work with Mnene beyond Good Shepherd.
To learn more contact Peggy Ruopp.
PLM FAMILIES TOGETHER
Started in 1980 PLM Families Together is a network of churches, primarily Lutheran, devoted to housing homeless families. Currently PLM Families Together has two locations where up to 33 families are served. Good Shepherd supports PLM financially and through Pak N Snack (school snacks for children) and through painting/upfitting vacated apartments.
Three members of Good Shepherd serve on the PLM Board: Lynn Kern, Marcia Lieber and Colleen Vitek. Learn more about PLM: www.plmft.org
RED CROSS BLOOD DRIVE
Give the gift of life! We are fortunate to have just up Creedmoor Road a Blood Cross Donor Center. Twice a year together with our sisters and brothers at Greystone Baptist Church we host drives at the Blood Center on Creedmoor Road. Eligible donors may donate every 8 weeks.
SERVING CUP'S GREEN LEVEL HOMES
In 2000 Good Shepherd formed the Serving Cup, a not-for-profit, devoted to serving adults with developmental needs. The Serving Cup grew out of the Coffee House some of whose participants were in need of alternative housing. In 2010 through a grant from HUD (Housing and Urban Development) and other community partnerships the Serving Cup opened Green Level Homes. Green Level Homes houses 12 adults in independent living in six apartments. Good Shepherd members are encouraged to provide organized activities coordinated through the home director. Such experiences as cooking class, art class, walking club are ways to engage and support these residents.
To learn more about these opportunities contact Gail Vaughn.
WORLD HUNGER APPEAL
Description: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA) commitment to supporting people who live with chronic hunger and poverty around the world is carried out by ELCA World Hunger through relief, development, education and advocacy. ELCA offers many educational resources to congregations.
Responsibilities: Order educational resources and distribute them to the congregation. Communicate updates to the congregation via the newsletter, pewsletter, and/or e-mail alerts.
Timeframe: 5th Sunday months