Outreach Ministry

OUTREACH MINISTRY Meeting: Your Outreach Ministry Team will meet on the 3rd Saturday of every month at 10:00 am in the Calvary Library. This meeting will directly follow the Men's Breakfast. We will replenish laundry kits, gather canned meat or any other task that might be needed to keep our various mission efforts running smoothly. If you would like to assist in this Ministry or you have ideas for a new outreach opportunity, please join us. Please contact Andy Lailhengue for more information at 832-309-9397.

St. John's Laundromat Ministry - Is up and running! We have started handing out bags filled with enough quarters, soap and dryer sheets to do a load of laundry. Ways for you to get involved:

Donate Quarters or Dollars

Assemble the bags

Hand out the bags

The bags are handed out at local Laundromats as a gift from St.John's UMC.

OUTREACH MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES:

MAINLAND MINISTRIES - In addition to feeding our neighbors on the first Saturday of each month, St. John’s is responsible for furnishing canned meat for the grocery bags that are handed out on the fourth Saturday of each month. The number of people who come to Mainland Ministries for assistance has increased and our canned meat collections have decreased so we need your help. Each month when you come to celebrate Holy Communion, please bring canned meat to support this ministry. We will have boxes at the front of the sanctuary on the front pew so that the cans can be stacked and everyone can participate. Items needed: Canned Meat, stews and soups that can serve as a meat source for a meal.

Sandwich Ministry - We make sandwiches to be distributed at UTMB to the families of patients who are critically ill. This outreach program provides theses sandwhiches free. Join us on the first Tuesday of each month to make sandwiches and bag cookies or chips.

Donations are always welcome. Items we can always use include: Sliced cheese, zippered sandwich bags, creamy peanut butter, grape jelly, homemade cookies, chips and of course we’ll take cash donations to purchase these items for this ministry.

UMCOR—HEALTH KITS FOR HAITI - We are making “Health Kits” to be distributed by UMCOR in Haiti. You can either make the health kits yourself and place them in the box located in the Narthex of the church or you can give a donation that will be sent to UMCOR for them to make the kits.

KIT ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS: All items included in the kits must be NEW items. DO NOT include any personal notes, money or additional materials in the kits. These things must be painstakingly removed and will delay the shipment. In addition to the $1 for toothpaste, $1 needs to be included for each kit for processing and shipping.

Health Kits include:

1 hand towels (15” x 25” up to 17” x 27”, No kitchen towels)

1 washcloth

1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)

1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)

1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz. and up)

1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original

wrapper, No child-size brushes)

6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages

$1.00 to purchase toothpaste

(NOTE: UMCOR Sager Brown is now purchasing toothpaste in bulk to be added to health kits before shipping to ensure that the product doesn’t expire before they are sent.)

FOOD BANK
St. John’s participates monthly in providing food for the local food bank.
Items for the food bank can be placed in the narthex in our newly constructed wooden cart.
Specific needs are outlined each month in the newsletter.

MAINLAND MINISTRIES

St. John’s participates with three other churches in Texas City to provide meals to the hungry in our community.
St. John’s prepares the meal on the first Saturday of every month.
We like to prepare something homemade and something that is “made with love”.

Our congregation also furnishes meat products to be added to the food bags that are
distributed by First Presbyterian Church on the fourth Saturday of each month.
Items needed for the food bags are: spam, tuna, canned soup, beef stew or Vienna sausages.

UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) MISSION TRIPS
St. John’s has been to East Texas on three different trips to help aid in
“Rita Recovery.”
There is still much to be done in the areas hit by the hurricane almost two years ago
Future trips will be necessary to help these folks recover from this disaster.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES
St. John’s collects school supplies every year right before school starts to help furnish
students who cannot otherwise afford to start school with all of the necessary supplies.

Also check out the Outreach Bulletin Board in the narthex!