06/01/2008
Latest News from the Parish
By Reverend David W. Wettstein
Here you will find the latest news from the parish.
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06/01/2008
Serving Beyond the Walls
By Deacon Scott
Serving at the Rescue Mission has been an ongoing outreach of St. Stephen’s for over 12 years. The Mission Committee would like to thank our congregation for their generous donations of time and money to help feed the homeless in our community. St. Stephen’s will again be serving meals at the Rescue Mission/River of Life on Sunday August 31st and Sunday November 30th. With your help we will continue to be the body of Christ in this important outreach.
At our last Mission Committee meeting held on June 10th Greg Morris stopped by to give us a presentation about the CATCH program. CATCH stands for Charitable Assistance to Community’s Homeless and was launched in November 2006. The program is sponsored by community partners, including the United Way, local businesses, local communities of faith, and the City of Boise. CATCH helps families with children living in our area homeless shelters to get back on their feet. While the city pays all administrative costs, the faith community is asked to help sponsor families by paying the rent on an apartment for a family. These families are referred by homeless shelters and must meet strict requirements to qualify for this program. Each congregation is matched with an appropriate family to suit that church’s financial outreach. The congregation’s support of this family can be as minimal as sending a check for rent each month to a more involved relationship between the congregation and the family. In their second year CATCH has helped approximately 40 families with 100 children and has a success rate of 82%. The Mission Committee hopes to have Greg come and speak with our congregation about the CATCH program sometime this fall and to explore whether this would be an outreach that St. Stephen’s would be interested in participating in. For additional information please check out their website at www.cityofboise.org/catch.
The Mission Committee would like to extend our appreciation to our congregation in their continuing support of St. Stephens’s commitment to existing and new opportunities to serve others beyond our walls. The Mission Committee will be meeting again on Tuesday, August 12th at 7pm in the Davis Common Room. If you are interested in helping with the direction of the outreach programs of St. Stephen’s, please feel free to join us. Please see Deacon Scott or any other member of the Mission Committee with any comments or questions.
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