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Outreach | Ann Davis, Parish Life Coordinator parish@stmatt-ky.org | 
| Opportunities for Service Outside the Parish Social Concerns coordinates much of the outreach at St. Matthew's. There are many opportunities for volunteering outside the parish. You may check the bulletin board and contact the person listed for more information or click here. Happy volunteering!
| Mission Statement The Mission of the Social Concerns Committee is: To bring the needs of God’s people throughout our community to the attention of this parish; To use our gifts and resources to meet immediate needs; and To address the underlying causes of those needs that we may better serve the world in Christ’s name. If you would like to serve as part of the Social Concerns ministry, please see the Rector, the Parish Coordinator or Jody Fletcher.
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Current Happenings |
Volunteer
Opportunities
Calvary / St. George’s
Food Collection Sunday
Sunday, May 4
Please bring in several
nonperishable items for
St. George’s and Calvary’s Food Pantry and place them in the basket in
the Narthex Coat closet or take them direclty to the first mission
office (marked Clothes Closet) above Saints Hall. There is a cart
outside of Saints Hall near the Library where food may also be
deposited. Your donations go a long way to help hungry people in our
community.
Cornerstone
Thursday, May 8
6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
To cook or send food, sign up on
the bulletin board, or call
Sharon Nesmith, 228-5918.
To volunteer to baby sit, call
Diane Clark, 245-5633.
We always need sitters for the large number of
children who are coming to Cornerstone! Please join us for dinner at
Whole Foods on Shelbyville Road at 5:15 p.m. then carpool to the
Cathedral at
6 p.m. and baby sit 6:30-7:45 p.m.
Habitat for Humanity
Saturday, May 10
9 a.m. to Noon for a half day or
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. for a full day.
Join our crew.
More hands are always needed!
(carpool from church, 8:25 a.m.)
Serve lunch at Wayside
Christian Mission
Sunday, May 11
11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
We leave right after communion at
the 10:00 a.m. service and meet in the Narthex to carpool.
For more information, please call
Sarah Weston, 426-6678,
or Greg Petrites, 895-6522.
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St. Matthew’s
Clothes Closet is Back! The Clothes Closet is a ministry of St. Matthew’s that collects gently used clothing and passes it on to community Clothes Closets such as The Kentucky Refugee Ministries’ Clothes Closet, Wayside Christian Mission, and The Schumann Center. Please bring clothes, cleaned, folded and in bags, to the first mission office in Saints Hall. Call Don Bell, 893-2096, if you would like to assist with this mission. Are you ready to relay? The American Cancer Society’s St. Matthews/Highlands Relay For Life 2008 is scheduled for June 20–21, at Waggener High School. Last year, The St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church team, the first ever, raised over $3,100 to help the American Cancer Society in its mission to eliminate cancer as a major health issue and provide support services to cancer patients and survivors here in our community. We dedicate our effort to those in our church who are currently fighting cancer, those who are cancer survivors and in memory of those who have died of cancer. Everyone has been affected by cancer in some way and it touches more lives every day. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Relay For Life, it is a non-athletic fundraising competition between teams representing various groups and organizations that culminates in a fun filled all night event celebrating the lives of cancer survivors and remembering those lives lost to cancer. To become a member of our team, we ask that you agree to personally raise at least $100 and participate in our team events. For that hard work, you get a t-shirt and the satisfaction of knowing you’ve made a difference in the fight against cancer. In the weeks to come, we’ll be asking you to join our team or make a donation to it. We’ll also be announcing upcoming events that will unite our Parish in the fight against cancer and show our support for our cancer survivors, for those currently fighting cancer, and in remembrance of loved ones lost to this disease. If you have questions or comments, please contact Marty Lawfer, team captain, at 327-6057 or malawfer@aol.com.
Volunteers Needed! You don’t need a fancy degree; you just need to be yourself.
It only takes 30 minutes once a week. We’ll even train you, it’s really that easy! Be an Every 1 Reads volunteer and share the experience so that Every 1 Reads! To find out how to become a JCPS Every 1 Reads volunteer, call 625-0004, or visit our website at: www.Every1Reads.com
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Second Food Collection
Site is added
Each month parishioners at St. Matthew’s are
asked to bring several nonperishable food items to support St. George’s
and Calvary’s food pantries, and leave them in the Narthex Coat Closet.
Now, another collection point has been added for your convenience. It is
located on the lower level, outside the new library, in the hall across
from Saints Hall.
Please feel free to bring food all through the month. The need is
great and St. George’s is often low on food before the end of the month.
Both parishes appreciate St. Matthew’s contributions. Please continue
your generous support. If you haven’t donated recently, perhaps you will
add some things to the basket this month.
Kenya News
The Hearts4Kenya group will leave for Oyugis, Kenya on June 14
through June 29. The group will be small, only six this year, including
Jim Trimble, because of the problems stemming from Kenya’s
disputed election.
Life in Kenya has gotten back to normal and travel advisories have
been reduced. We are expecting a rewarding trip.
The Hearts4Kenya group will be working on an irrigation system to
help our farmers; we will visit our farmers and schools to see how their
agricultural projects are going; we will give out glasses to the
students of the highs schools that we work with in the area; and we will
work on tables and chairs for the 114 orphans Hearts4Kenya supports at
Amani. At the present time there are only enough for 74 orphans.
We will visit the orphans in Rongo that St. Matthew’s supports, to
see what is going on with them. We will take many pictures and report
back when we return.
Please put the Hearts4Kenya group on your prayer list as we travel
and work with the people of Oyugis.
–John Willingham
Recycle a cell phone. Save a Gorilla! Sounds strange to me, I don’t know about you! The Green Team would like to help the Louisville Zoo in its campaign to protect the environment and provide money to assist the zoo’s conservation programs. Since 2000, Eco-Cell has given the Louisville Zoo close to $13,000 in exchange for collected cell phones. Here is what this is all about: "Cell phones contain a metallic ore called Coltan, a mineral that is refined into a heat-resistant powder that holds an electrical charge. The powder, which regulates voltage and stores energy, is essential for coating components of cell phones and other modern devices such as laptops, pagers and PDAs. Coltan is found in the Congo of central Africa, home to endangered lowland gorillas. Forest habitats are being cleared and gorillas, along with other rare animals, are being killed for bushmeat—a negative side industry of ore mining. The United Nations has reported that in the past five years, the eastern lowland gorilla population in the Congo has declined 90 percent because of these destructive activities. By reducing the demand for Coltan, gorillas and their habitats will be saved." From the Zoo’s Media Advisory of 01/17/08. This is what you can do to help: · Disconnect your old cell phone’s service.· Clear all data from your phone.· Rubber band or bag your cell phone with its batteries, and accessories.· Bring your packet to St. Matthew’s Church.· Place your old cell phone in the Eco-Cell cellular phone collection box.· Collect cell phones from friends, neighbors, school chums and deposit them.
Thanks for getting harmful chemicals out of the environment and supporting Zoo conservation goals.
| From the Committee…. The Social Concerns Committee is very interested in hearing about the organizations/charities that you support financially or with your time and talent. Please let us hear about worthy organizations or agencies with which St. Matthew’s is not currently involved that you would like Social Concerns to consider supporting. You may contact Jody Fletcher.
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Other Opportunities | Alzheimer Association The Alzheimer’s Association is a voluntary organization dedicated to research for the causes, cure, and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and to providing education and support services to Alzheimer’s patients, their families and caregivers. Volunteers are needed to answer the phone and do light clerical filing.
| American Red Cross Bloodmobile
 Giving blood is giving the gift of life. St. Matthew’s participates in the St. Matthew’s Area Ministry Bloodmobile. Once a year the Bloodmobile comes to St. Matthew’s. At other designated times the Bloodmobile will be at one of the other participating churches.
| Cornerstone Cornerstone is a Christ Church Cathedral Outreach Program involving Home of
The Innocents Teen Parenting. The group meets every Thursday evening from
5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for a shared meal, counseling services and skill building sessions.
Christ Church Cathedral provides meeting space, a dining area for dinner and a child care area for participants’ children. On a rotating basis, volunteers from several local churches prepare dinner and provide child care. St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church provides meals and child care on the first Thursday of each month. This volunteer service is essential to the success of Cornerstone Project.
Seven graduates were honored at the semi-annual Cornerstone Recognition Ceremony this past May. Nine graduates were honored in January 2005. Graduates maintained their own housing, completed their GED high school diploma, and were employed full time. Currently there are thirty-five participants in the Cornerstone program. The Spring Retreat for the participants was held June 2-3, 2005 at All Saints’ Retreat Center in Leitchfield, Kentucky. The Spring Retreat was a great success and helped to build individual confidence using team building exercises. St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church has contributed many hours of child care and prepared meals for Cornerstone. Your support, dedication and interest, is deeply appreciated and has contributed to the success of many single parents in the Louisville community.
| Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) 
http://www.nationalcasa.org/
Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) are volunteers trained by the Jefferson County Courts to act as independent advocates for abused, dependent, or neglected children. During the holidays, there are also opportunities to adopt a family and provide gifts for the children and adults in that family.
| Episcopal Church Home 
http://www.echky.org/
The Episcopal Church Home offers volunteer opportunities for enriching the lives of residents through visits, craft and/or game assistance and the like and opportunities to serve on the Women’s Board of the Home.
| Food Pantry Food is collected at St. Matthew’s and distributed by St. George’s and Calvary Episcopal churches. This cooperative ministry enables St. Matthew’s to play a vital role in feeding the hungry in our community. To participate in this ministry, you may bring non-perishable food items and place them in the St. Matthew’s “food basket.” Though you can bring items at any time, we place the basket in a more prominent place on the first Sunday of the Month—a gentle reminder to take part in this important ministry.
| Habitat for Humanity 
http://www.habitat.org/
September of 1998, as we celebrated our 50th anniversary, we made a commitment to help the homeless. As part of our celebration, we took on the challenge of working with Habitat for Humanity to build a house. We raised $19,000, spent a weekend in March of 1999 raising the walls, and continued with workdays throughout the spring and summer. The house was dedicated on Saturday, September 18 – a very appropriate date, since it is the day before St. Matthew’s Day, and so completes the year perfectly. Habitat for Humanity volunteers from St. Matthew’s work on the first Saturday of each month at a local Habitat building site.
| The Norton Hospital 
http://www.nortonhealthcare.com/careers/volunteering/index.aspx
The Norton Hospital volunteer opportunities vary from delivering mail to patients to working in the Gift Shop.
| Prison Ministry 
http://www.pfm.org
“ ...I was in prison and you visited me” Matthew 25:36The Prison Ministry provides an opportunity for couples or women to visit and work with women at the Kentucky Correctional Institute in Pewee Valley. Opportunities include Bible Study, tutoring, Girl Scouts, one-on-one visiting, craft classes and more. One-on-one volunteers are paired with a particular resident who has requested visitors.
| Saint George's Community Center St. George’s provides tutoring and has computer resource stations to aid in the tutoring task. Volunteers help students with homework weekly. The sponsor a boys basketball team busy and a martial arts program. It also sponsors teen pregnancy workshops. Music lessons are provided. Senior citizens from St. George’s Church and the neighborhood meet weekly in writing and poetry groups. The Seniors are also raising funds to purchase a new van for the center. Volunteer help is important to the vitality of these programs. If you can help, please contact St. George’s Community Center (775-6232).
| St. Johns Day Center for the Homeless St. John’s Day Center for the Homeless uses volunteers to greet visitors, hand out supplies and just visit with the homeless who come to the center.
| St. Matthews Area Ministries St. Matthews Area Ministries utilizes community resources to provide meaningful, innovative responses to the needs of families and individuals. The organization is governed by a board composed of representatives from 13 member churches in the St. Matthew’s community. To participate on the board or to volunteer, contact the Parish Coordinator.
| Seamen's Ministry 
http://www.seamenschurch.org/
The Seamen’s Church Institute, which has ministered to merchant seamen since 1834, began a new ministry on the Ohio River in 1998, serving inland mariners. The Rev. Jim Wilkinson, an Episcopal priest, is serving as chaplain. The Rev. Mr. Wilkinson’s office is in the Diocesan House at Christ Church Cathedral. Mariners, who work on the river, work six hours on, six hours off, continually, for twenty-eight days at a stretch. The towboat stops only to negotiate a lock, to configure a tow of barges or to allow safe passage of another vessel. The noise of the engines is virtually ever present. Unless fog-bound, dry land is always in sight, yet crewmembers may go weeks at a time without touching shore. Many of us have watched the river barges with interest over the years. Now we have a chance to help.
| Survivors of Suicide
 http://www.thewebpager.com/sos/ In 1985, the Social Concerns Committee approved the formation of a new support group for the family and friends of persons who have committed suicide. SOS provides support to persons whose lives have been touched by suicide and a safe place for survivors to work through their grief by sharing with others who have also lost a loved one.
| University of Louisville Interfaith Center Lunch Program The University of Louisville Interfaith Center Lunch Program provides free lunches to students at U of L every Monday. St. Matthew’s prepares and serves lunch once each semester. To help cook or serve lunch, contact the Parish Coordinator.
| Wayside Christian Ministry 
http://www.waysidechristianmission.org
The purpose of the Wayside Christian Ministry is to respond to human needs of the poor and homeless: (1) by providing temporary housing/shelter, food, clothing, nurturing, and spiritual enrichment, encouragement and referral; and (2) provide support, services and skills that would permit and encourage the return to a state of self-sufficiency so that human dignity can be restored and the love of God can be shared. Dedicated parishioners and clergy of St. Matthew’s have served in the Wayside Christian Soup Ministry each second Sunday of the month. This date was chosen at the request of Wayside. Bulletin board sign-ups at the church average between 14 and 22 each month. Don’t let numbers discourage you from signing up because often several people have to cancel for various reasons. Click here to see some pictures of our work at Wayside Christian Mission.
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