Sunday, October 11, 2020 - Overflow the Courtyard @ Micah 6

Taking Action for Neighbors in Need!

This weekend is our monthly Persons in Need collection that funds our St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) and Thursday Outreach ministries. In both ministries are are receiving record numbers of people reaching out for help, and we are doing our best to help as many people as possible. Right now, most people can be protected from eviction throug the end of December if they fill out a form, but we have already started seeing eviction cases. We know we will only see more cases in the new year unless federal action is taken.
In this time of great need, we are asking the entire parish community to take action in 1 of 4 ways:

1. Donate to the Persons in Need Collection.

2. Call your Congressional representatives to pass the next COVID-19 relief package.

3. Consider volunteering for SVDP or Outreach, especially if you are fluent in Spanish. Learn more about the criteria and who to contact HERE.

4. Pray for our neighbors in need around the country who are struggling to make ends meet.

And a little good news in this time of need:

• After educating an Outreach family on water conservation, the family was able to reduce their utility bill by 60%! The savings are enough that the family should be able to pay the bill on their own in the future.

• SVDP helped a young single mom who lost her job of 13 years because of COVID. She had disability insurance, but it was accidentally canceled and she was left with nothing. SVDP was able to help her with rent, utilities, food cards, and not least of all, prayers! Her disability was recently reinstated. She is now getting her life back on track and is so grateful and appreciative.

• By working with caseworkers and counselors from other organizations, SVDP and Outreach have recently helped at least nine families that do not speak English or Spanish, both with our own funds and by connecting them with other resourses.

• A family of 5 contracted COVID over the summer and the father and adult daughter lost their jobs. They were several months behind in rent when we spoke with them, and they were disheartened about ever catching up. SVdP was able to pull together financial resources from a variety of sources, and they were able to pay off all of their back rent!

• Outreach was able to pay the entire monthly utility bill for 4 families last week. Since November, Outreach has provided hope and helped stablize housing for more than 80 families

Build a Hygiene Kit!

To help victims affected by hurricanes, our neighbors in Presbyterian Disaster Assistance are collecting pre-assembled hygiene kits  (use gallon-sized zip bags) containing the following:

1 hand towel, 16" X 28"
1 wash cloth
1 wide-tooth comb (please remove from package)
1 nail clipper (please remove from package)
1 bar of soap (bath size, in wrapper)
1 toothbrush (in original package)
10 Band-Aids or other adhesive bandage strips

Kits can only be accepted exactly as specified. They must include all of the items listed above and contain nothing extra. Kits should be dropped off with food donations at the drive-thru event on October 11th (see left for details).