Ministry to Others

Haiti

CURRENT NEED
Would you be willing to transport someone to church once a month?
The church office often receives requests from people who can no longer drive and would like to come to church. Currently we have someone who lives across the road who would like transport, and a couple at Wesley Woods. Would you be willing to bring someone on a monthly basis? We have a church bus in good condition … if there was enough interest we could move toward using the bus and picking up larger numbers. Please contact Beverley Elliott at the church office to discuss further, or email beverley@stbartsatlant.org

Ministries that currently in need of willing volunteers:

• Food Ministry As part of St. Bart’s Pastoral Care Program, the Food Ministry provides meals to parishioners who are in a state of need, such as serious illness, recovering from a stay in the hospital, receiving debilitating medical treatments, welcoming a new baby into the household, grieving the death of a family member, or other circumstances. Providing a meal or meals at these times is a meaningful expression of the love and concern the members of our parish family have for one another. If you would like to participate in this ministry by preparing a one-dish meal once or twice a year, or if you would be able occasionally to deliver a meal from the freezer during the day, please let me know. You help is needed and will be greatly appreciated. Carol Gearing
• Drivers - to take people to doctor's appointment, bring people to church, deliver meals to homebound, etc. Contact Jane Moser if you can help.
• Lay Pastoral Visitors - works with the Priests and Pastoral Care Committee to meet specific needs of parishioners. Contact Jane Moser if you are interested in assisting with this ministry, or for more information.
• Ushers - to greet and seat worshippers at all services. Contact Nelson Wright if you are interested.
• Transport Fellow Parishioners to Medical Appointments? - The Pastoral Care Committee is looking for more volunteers to be part of it's transport ministry. We are looking for people who would be willing to drive on an irregular basis, but no more than once a month. Your commitment will only be as it fits your available time. Please contact our transport coordinator Dan Hagen at 404-872-7703 or Email at dhgen1@bellsouth.net to discuss. We definitely have a need, so please consider seriously.
• Flower Delivery - to deliver flowers to the shut-in and homebound. Contact Carol Gearing to offer to help.
• Chase Down Bud Vases - The flower delivery ministers invite you to return any bud vases that have come your way over the years. Please return them to the church office

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We Invite Your Participation
In 2003, after a year long discernment process, with broad participation of parishioners, a consensus was reached that the parish would focus primarily on these areas of outreach ministry:
• Nicholas House
• Toco Hills Community Alliance.
• The Immigrant Community
• Global Missions

With priority placed on these, we will continue to provide support to programs with which we have been engaged for years:  Jerusalem House, Emory Wesley Woods, Meals on Wheels, Project Open Hand, Life Enrichment Services, and others. 

In addition, St. Bartholomew’s has provided housing for a family displaced from New Orleans.  Rico Lewis has returned to New Orleans to begin renovating their house. The boys continue to do well. Alma continues to struggle with back pain and leg problems. She misses staying busy taking care of her house and yard back home and her family thinks that getting back home will be great for her. They hope to move back after the school year is out. Amerson House and the Missions Committee are exploring the best way to support the family in their transition back to New Orleans.  Additionally, we have been sending goods and volunteers to a distribution center at Camp Coast Care in Mississippi as well as a help center at Long Beach since November 2005.  We are committed to supporting those recovering from the effect of hurricanes.  This commitment will probably last for 2-3 years.

We encourage your participation in these “hands-on” opportunities for mission.

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Who Is Our Neighbor?

On Sunday, September 28, 2004, parishioners met with members of the missions committee, Mac, Beverley, Nancy and Charlie for an afternoon forum on results from the outreach survey.

Jon Abercrombie presented an overview of the survey responses in order to define our neighbors. Four basic interest groups emerged based on those definitions. The interests groups are:

• Nicholas House

• The Toco Hills Community Ministry

• Nearby Immigrant and Refugee Communities and

• International Communities

Participants then gathered with the group about which they had the greatest interest. Each of the four groups developed a five-point plan of objectives to get to know the “neighbors” in the respective groups. In the coming weeks, these groups will act according to these objectives so that they may discern the need and concerns of the intended recipients of their attention.

Eleanor Pritchett is compiling a summary of this whole process, which will be forthcoming.  Upon completion of the report, the missions committee and key people from the four groups will meet to plan the next foray on this journey. The contact people for the groups are as follows:

Group 1 - Nicholas House
Sally Herrmann
Rhonda Wildman

Group 2 - Toco Hills Community Ministry
Ken Herrmann

Group 3 - Immigrant and Refugee Communities
Susan Dugan

Group 4 - International Communities
Charlie Gearing

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We Are A Missionary Church - Global Missions of St. Bartholomew's include:

Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD)
ERD is the Episcopal Church’s principal organization for providing emergency assistance in times of crisis and rebuilding communities after disasters. It also offers long-term solutions in the areas of food security and health care, including HIV/AIDS and malaria. St. Bart’s attempts to raise awareness of ERD and encourages financial and volunteer support of its global programs. Our coordinator is David Carter.

Hondurus Medical Mission
Lynn Alexander, a nurse practitioner, has participated in a medical mission in Honduras for a number of years. St. Bart’s supports her by collecting medicines and vitamins and re-packaging them for effective dispensing during her mission visits.

Kids4Peace
A program of the Diocese of Jerusalem, Kids4Peace brings together an interfaith group of young people from Israel and Palestine with a group of Episcopal youth from the Diocese of Atlanta to spend a week at Camp Mikell building cross-cultural and relationships and trusting friendships. St. Bart’s has had eight youth participants in this program for the past two years and will have another group again this year.

Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)
A grassroots effort is under way at St. Bart’s to raise awareness of and develop support for the (MDG’s). We are researching how each of us individually and our community can use the MDG’s to focus our efforts toward the ultimate goal of eliminating extreme poverty and preventable diseases. Bev Elliott and Charles Gearing are our leaders in this effort.

Makhasa High School, South Africa
The J2A youth and leaders of 2005 are leading the parish into a still emerging relationship. Makhasa High is in a remote rural area north of Durban, and has in their student body around 40 youth who are orphans due to the AIDS pandemic. Some of the youth are now the heads of their families, responsible for younger siblings, even as they seek to pay for their school fees and complete their schooling. During Advent our youth sold angels made from soda cans that had been crafted by the high school students. We are now seeking direction from the school for ways to continue to support the students with their projects, and be in partnership with the school in other ways.

Villa International
This is a residential facility adjacent to the Emory campus that offers hospitality to international visitors who are spending a period of time at Emory, CDC or other institutions in Atlanta.  It is operated and supported as an interdenominational program of Atlanta area churches.  St. Bartholomew’s has been an active supporter since its founding, and our liaison person, Ken Herrmann, serves on the Villa board.

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The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015 – form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.

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