Outreach

Outreach at St. John’s is totally a “community” event. Not only do we serve the community but the parish family of St. John’s acts as a whole community to support our outreach projects. St. John’s has some long standing affiliations that we support every year. We of course through our allotment support many diocesan outreach projects and also the Faithworks Program. A few years ago we began sponsoring a child through World Vision. An ENORMOUS ceramic bullfrog, named Jeremiah, sits on the table by the front door and waits patiently for folks to drop in their weekly quarters. Once a month the “frog money” is collected and sent to World Vision in Peru. Each year we have been able to exceed the basic monthly requirements to assist in supporting this little boy and his family, so at the end of the year we send a “fifty/fifty” cheque – whatever the excess is for the year we give fifty percent to the family and fifty percent to the village where they live. We receive photographs and letters from our sponsored child and we get to see and read how just a few quarters each month is helping him and his family and even his village with the necessities of life and emergency preparedness for the village.
We are also challenged by our Monthly Outreach Projects to dig just a little bit deeper and help out someone not as fortunate as ourselves. Each month these projects encompass some amazingly creative ideas – and guess what – we meet the challenge every time!!! We have collected paper products, tinned goods, ladies toiletries, men’s toiletries, eyeglasses, school supplies, funds for Canadian Foodgrain Bank, cookies and chocolates for Christmas and a variety of other goodies to be shared with folks who may be in need. Now we’re collecting pennies in jam jars for the summer towards the Archbishop’s Challenge. What will be doing next??? Isn’t it wonderful, to be able to help so much with just so little.