Won’t you sign up today to be part of the LifeJourney Team? Your participation can make a difference to many people right here in Indiana. The walk is Saturday October 8 at University Park.

Sign up to be part of the LifeJourney Church Team at church on Sunday, or sign up directly online. Click “walker registration” then choose “LifeJourney Church” as your team. You can download the pledge form with instructions.

If you can’t walk, you can still participate by gathering pledges or sponsoring someone else. If you’d like to make a general team donation, please see Gina Walker or email the church office.

Life Journey Church tries to respond with the love of Christ when emergency situations such as this occur. Because of your generous giving, we have been able to provide $2,000 in desperately-needed assistance. $1,000 is going to CARE, a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE’s efforts include emergency aid to individuals, especially children, who are suffering from malnutrition and other medical problems. Families are given food and other essentials including tents, kitchen sets, firewood, fuel-efficient stoves and access to general food distributions in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya.

Another $1,000 is going to Oxfam, which is providing water and sanitation for displaced people and giving life-saving equipment to Somalia’s only children’s hospital. In Kenya and Ethiopia, Oxfam is giving people money through cash-for-work projects to build water tanks and reservoirs and is trucking in water supplies and treating water for drinking, cooking, and washing.

And here at home…

We’re also responding to hunger and poverty here at home. Next Sunday (August 7) we will collect donations for the food pantry at the Damien Center, which assists people affected by HIV/AIDS. They especially need:

• meats, including canned chicken or Spam (but not tuna)
• canned entrees (beef stew, chunky soup, chicken/dumplings)
• canned fruit (peaches, pears, fruit cocktail, applesauce)
• toiletries (razors and shaving cream, bath soap, shampoo)
• toilet paper, and
• laundry detergent.

You can bring these items to the collection point in the social hall on Sunday, August 7.

The Team worked diligently over the last three months to find a new service opportunity that respected both our commitment to service as well as our cultural diversity. We are pleased to announce a new affiliation with The Dayspring Center, located at 16th Street and Central Avenue. The Dayspring Center is a 24-hour shelter providing temporary lodging for families with children under the age of 18.

We will be able to serve in many ways at the Dayspring Center in addition to our traditional kitchen duties, with opportunities to serve at the front desk, playroom, donation receiving and sorting, cleaning, and in the summer in their garden and with the summer camp. Our initial focus will continue to be with the kitchen assistance, but we hope to expand our ministry into other areas as the Spirit leads team members into those paths.

Our team members have committed to cooking and serving breakfast on the third Saturday of each month, and we expect to add another Saturday breakfast or lunch in the very near future, as more of the current team is brought up to speed.

All of our Homeless Ministry volunteers who work with The Dayspring Center begin by attending one of the Center’s orientation sessions. At the end of orientation, you will be invited to consider making a commitment to serving the center on a specific day and time.

If you’re interested in being part of this new phase of Homeless Ministry, please contact either April Kerulis or Greg McMullen via the church office.

We will continue to support Horizon House by collecting:

• deodorant, razors, tooth brushes, toothpaste, and lotion,
• new men’s socks and underwear, and
• new or gently used men’s pants (sizes 32-36) and men’s tennis shoes (size 9 and up)

Donations can be left in the closet next to Room 2 in the tote marked Homeless Ministry. Please do not bring items other than what’s listed. Thanks!

• 110 cans and pouches of meat (chicken, beef, luncheon meat, tuna)
• 58 jars of peanut butter
• 91 cans of fruit
• 93 cans of vegetables
• 34 cans of soup
• 10 bottles of laundry detergent
• 50 bars of soap, 20 tubes of toothpaste, 52 rolls of toilet paper, and 80 other toiletry items.

Many thanks also to the Fellowship Galactica Oasis for coordinating this food drive. So say we all!

The Damien Center provides services and resources for those who are affected by HIV/AIDS. Over 70% of the Center’s clients live below the poverty level, and the Food Pantry is an essential resource for them. The Pantry relies on the generosity of people like you to keep it running.

The pantry is especially in need of:

• canned protein goods: beef, chicken, spam, peanut butter,
• canned fruit (fruit cocktail, peaches, pears) and
• laundry detergent.

They also welcome canned vegetables, soup, pasta and rice, spaghetti sauce, and toilet paper and other toiletries. The don’t need snack foods, like popcorn or candy.

We’ll have a collection table in the social hall on October 17, and we’ll finish the collection the following week. Questions? Please see Fellowship Galactica leader Dave Wene, or contact him via the church office.

Please bag any gently used clothes and shoes that you can spare and bring them to Church. We’ll place our donations in the coat room. Your donations will be distributed to two groups working hard to help people get back on their feet:

• Local Family Stores operated by the Adult Rehabilitation Center of the Salvation Army;
• The Indianapolis Re-Entry Education Facility, which provides assistance to adult male prisoners being released from jail.

We need clean, gently-used clothes and shoes in good condition — for both men and women, as well as children of all ages. Start cleaning out those closets and drawers!

Donna Hays (who is on the Missions Board and helped to plan that trip) and her father (before he passed away) felt a special burden to respond to the request of the Toposa woman. Together, they raised $10,000. Our challenge, as a congregation, was to come up with the balance. We have now done so in the following ways:

• 20% of last Sunday’s offering was designated for the well, adding $1,986 to the total.
• Donations made by our children during Vacation Bible School added another $200.
• Tuesday the Board of Directors voted to take $814 from church reserves to complete the project.

Drilling will begin soon in the Toposa tribal area. Thank you for your wonderful generosity!

Don Hays, father of Jesus MCC Missions Board member Donna Hays, asked his daughter near the end of his life if she would help raise the funds for a well somewhere where folks need clean water.

When Don passed away earlier this year, Donna began raising funds to make her dad’s dream a reality for the Toposa tribe. Each well in this area of Sudan costs a staggering $13,000. Donna and her family have raised $10,000 but need another $3,000 to reach the goal.

This is where we can help. On Sunday, July 11, 20% of whatever you put in the offering will go toward the Sudan Well Fund. Together we can give a gift of water to the people we met almost two years ago.

There is no need to designate your giving. We will automatically set aside 20% of every dollar donated that day. This method has worked well when we donated to other global needs. The 80/20 formula allows us to make a very sizable donation to relief efforts without falling too far short in funding the ongoing ministries of the church.

So, we encourage all who can to give a little extra next Sunday, as an expression of God’s love for Sudan. Many thanks!

Specifically, $1,250 was sent to a sister congregation, Chapel Hill United Methodist Church (Indianapolis), to purchase medical supplies for their medical missions trip to Haiti. They left Friday, February 5 and expect to treat 5,000 patients at a clinic near Port-au-Prince this week. Another $2,162 was sent to Partners In Health to be used exclusively to provide medical and health services for the poor in Haiti. Thank you so much for your overflowing generosity!

If you’d like to make additional, individual contributions to help in Haiti, you can find more information here:

• Partners in Health
• Doctors Without Borders
• American Red Cross or text “Haiti” to 90999

Next Sunday, January 31, 20% of everything you put in the offering plate will automatically go to relief efforts in Haiti.

Chapel Hill Medical Missions Trip
The first $1,250 of our relief funds will go to support a medical missions trip being coordinated by a sister congregation here in Indianapolis, Chapel Hill United Methodist Church. They will be sending 17 medical missionaries to Haiti from February 5-13. They have made similar trips to Haiti for years. These medical missionaries will be stationed at a clinic about an hour north of Port-au-Prince, where refuges from Port-au-Prince are fleeing to seek medical assistance.

The Chapel Hill team expects to treat about 5,000 Haitians during their two week stay! Our funds will be used exclusively to purchase medical supplies for this trip, including antibiotics, bandages, suture kits, braces, splints, and medications. If you would like to help prepare handwritten notes of encouragement for these medical missionaries, join us at the church this Tuesday, January 26 at 7:00 pm in Room 6.

Partners In Health
Amounts collected in excess of $1,250 will go to Partners In Health. Our Missions Board is very impressed with the work PIH is doing. For the past 20 years, PIH has employed a number of native Haitians to provide medical and health services for the poor in their local communities — as well as water, food, and shelter. All of the funds we donate to PIH will go directly to their relief work in Haiti.

When you give next Sunday, there is no need to designate your giving for Haiti. We will automatically set aside 20% of every dollar donated next Sunday. This approach has worked well for us in the past when we responded to the tsunami in Asia and starvation in Africa. Our 80/20 formula allows us to make a very sizeable donation to relief efforts without falling too far short in funding the ongoing ministries of our Church.

So, we encourage all who can to plan to give a little extra next Sunday, as an expression of God’s love for Haiti. Thanks!