Join the Social Ministry Committee!  Current members include:

Kathy Behrens
Nancy Belzer
Rita & David Loos
Jo Monson
Jane Nelson
Karen Seaver
Jeannie Setnes
Amy Zahalan

Social Ministry | Mission News | Additional Programs We Support

Many activities at Family of God are sponsored and organized by the Social Ministry Committee.  Below are just some of the activities that will be coming up throughout the rest of this year.  Newest updates are indented under each heading description.

New Outreach Projects - The Youth and Social Ministry Committees have joined forces to help stock The Shelf at Champlin Park High School and the “no hassles” food shelf at Brooklyn United Methodist Church for Park Center students. We combined money we received from a Thrivent grant and additional money out of our budgets to buy much needed personal care items, food and paper products. The Shelf is an in-school resource to help CPHS students and their families who are in economic distress. Similarly, the program at the Methodist Church works with CEAP and the YMCA Point Northwest program to help Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center students having trouble getting basic items. Our FOG youth helped do the shopping and delivery of two truckloads of items to each program.

CEAP - The special Thanksgiving Food drive for CEAP was 45 pounds. Thanks to all who brought in food.

Sponsor a Family - Social Ministry coordinates this project through Catholic Charities.  Church members sponsor a whole family, a few recipients, or select single items to purchase from the Sunday School Christmas tree.  Social Ministry contributes financially to this project by purchasing larger items and all coats that are requested on our recipient list. 

A truck and two vans delivered Sponsor-A-Family gifts. We were able to help 8 families totaling 55 people with gifts and food certificates to make their holiday season a little brighter. We were also able to donate 25 teen gifts to CEAP for their holiday food/gift distribution. We had 10 volunteers help with the food/gift distribution on Tuesday, December 20. Thank you to all who gave money for the coats and food certificates, shopped, wrapped and helped to deliver gifts. We truly are a generous congregation!

Feed My Starving Children – Feed My Starving Children is a Christian non-profit agency providing meals to malnourished children in 70 countries.  Watch for a sign-up on the narthex bulletin board. Contact person is LeAnn Moe, 566-8381. All are welcome.

Lutheran World Relief School Bags - specific items are collected as requested by LWR and school kits are assembled at church.  One of our members mothers, Leona Gimler, graciously sews the fabric schoolbags throughout the year for us.  Members are asked to donate school items in the fall, when all of the back-to-school sales start, for this project.  Specific items will be listed here.  Social Ministry also contributes financially to this project. 

Lutheran World Relief Baby Layettes - specific items are collected as requested by LWR and layettes are assembled at church.  Some items are donated by members; others purchased by Social Ministry.  Specific items will be listed here.  Last year we collected for/assembled 81 baby layettes for LWR.

Are you in need of or can help with transportation? There are often members of our congregation who are not able to get to church, doctor appointments, the grocery store or other places for a lack of transportation. The Evangelism committee has established a list of volunteer drivers who would be happy to provide rides. Persons wishing to request a ride should contact Nancy Rhinhart, 763-428-7334 who will arrange for a driver, 36-48 hour advance notice, if possible. If you would like to volunteer as a driver, please notify Nancy.

Metro Paint-a-Thon - See Photo Gallery page for pictures from this years 2011 Metro Paint-a-Thon.

Vacation Bible School outreach project - this year the VBS kids will be collecting money for mosquito nets for Africa to combat malaria in that country.  Social Ministry will match the total amount raised by the VBS kids/families!

Vacation Bible School in June had 45 children participated. Outreach project, the ELCA’s Malaria Campaign totalling $359 Many thanks to Allison Peterson, and the more than 30 other leaders and members who supported VBS with their gifts of time and skills.

Annual Garage Sale - The 2011 Garage sale is over—it was a year of records.  We had 128 volunteers, which is an all time high for us.  We also worked in record-breaking heat and humidity.  Our total sales were just shy of $11,000--$10,932.  Thank you to all who donated merchandise, organized it, priced it, displayed it and shopped at the sale.  The cleanup was also a big job done in record time due to the great volunteers’ hard work.  Thank you to the cochairs:  Karla Kitoski, Nancy Rhinhard, Nancy Bixler, Jane Nelson and Jeanne Setnes.  The remaining merchandise was donated to Salvation Army and CEAP. 

Home Free Shelter - Thank you to all who have donated used cell phones for Home Free. They continue to accept used cell phones as a source of income, and Kari Hitchcock of the staff conveys thanks to Family of God. The collection box is located in the reception area near the office. Home Free is a shelter for battered women and their children in northwest Hennepin County. Their domestic assault intervention program covers four suburbs including Brooklyn Park. The mission of Home Free is to provide safety, support, and information with services that include a 24-hour crisis line and community advocacy. Our Social Ministry Committee is arranging for a Home Free representative to speak here on a Sunday this fall. More information and a monthly wish list of other donations is at www.homefreeprograms.org.

Minneapolis Crisis Nursery – We have signed up to provide supper at the Minneapolis Crisis Nursery located in Golden Valley on six Thursdays. Volunteers report to the nursery at 4:00, prepare the food, serve it to the kids and staff, eat, share the meal with the kids, clean up and leave by 6:00 pm. We need 3-4 volunteers per time. Volunteers must be 12 years or older.

Our last evening meal was prepared for the Minneapolis Crisis Nursery on November 3rd. Thanks to all the volunteers who cooked the meals, ate with the kids, handled cleanup and read stories to the kids.

Operation Christmas Child shoebox project - Social Ministry shops for items to put in these shoeboxes which are sent to international countries.  The Sunday School children then spend a morning packing the boxes and older teens travel to the warehouse where they are checked and prepared for shipping.

Ten youth and adults from FOG went to the Distribution Center to help get the boxes ready for shipping. We worked a two-hour shift and it was quite impressive seeing the hundreds of shoeboxes packed with good things to brighten a child’s Christmas in a faraway land. We have received notice that the boxes our Sunday school kids packed are on their way to India. We have a great photo display of the kids who packed our boxes and some Indian children who had gotten boxes last year. We also have a map to show the kids how far MN is from India. Check it out back in the Sunday school area.

Mission News:  We have a two-year covenant with Rev. James and Carol Sack in Tokyo, Japan, to help support their pastoral and teaching work with the Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church.  This ELCA Global Mission site is a worshiping community and hosts the Joint Refugee Ministry. More information is at www.elca.org. Members may sign up to give a week’s support of $35 on the 2012 Mission Support Chart.  Click here to view recent messages from the Sacks family.

Additional Programs We Support:

E.L.C.A. World Hunger Appeal and Int'l. & Domestic Disaster Response

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, Sponsor a Family

Mitten Tree donations to Division of Indian Work

Minnesota Council of Churches, Minnesota Foodshare

Liberian relief shipments

Equal Exchange
Fair Trade Coffee product sales

Immigration & Refugee, Homeless Youth