Health Ministry / COOL
A variety of offerings related to physical, emotional and spiritual health
COOL = Christian Offering Of Love
The prayer shawl ministry makes comforting blankets and prayer shawls from
fleece, has them
blessed and provides them to people who are ill,
facing surgery or serious challenges to their health. The
person then
has a physical, comforting reminder that people are out there are
praying for their health. The prayer shawl is also intended
to help
them to pray, relax and focus as they face their illness.
Please contact
Bev
Madsen if you know of someone in need of prayer who would be
helped by a prayer shawl.
The
COOL ministry purchased a freezer in the basement of Christ Church in
Ottawa. It's kept stocked with meals for the homebound and
people in
need.
Yes,
we have hungry people in LaSalle County!!! The
meals are supplied by church members who put them in disposable
packages, label, date them and place them in the freezer.
Maryfran
Crist is our parish nurse. She provides health consultations
upon
request. We've also occasionally offered free blood pressure
screenings at parish events across LCEM.
COOL also coordinates
our prayer chain and for the Ottawa congregation, is responsible for
prayer request cards allowing churchgoers to ask for prayers for their
family and friends in need. The prayer chain consists of LCEM
members
who are immediately contacted when someone needs prayer.
Contact
Buffy
Hoskins to request prayers, or to add yourself to the email
prayer chain.
We like to say there is such a thing as a free lunch!
You can find a free lunch at Christ Church, Streator on the last Saturday
of every month from 11:30 to 1:00. There's also a free
(usually spaghetti) dinner at Christ Church, Ottawa from noon to 1:00 on the
first Sunday of every month. These meals offer hospitality to
our communities and have proven to be popular with seniors and the
general community as well as people truly in need. It's not just the
meal, but a time to socialize and relax. Church members also enjoy
eating at these events, which have become one of our primary community outreach
efforts. Of course, we're always looking for volunteers...
United Thank Offering
Every few months in church, UTO reminds us that our own small
offerings can have a large impact when we put them together. United Thank
Offering is the Epicsopalian Church Women's outreach. They do an
enormous amount of good work with the coins we all put into our small UTO boxes
at home. It's a small way on a daily basis to offer our
gratitude for the blessings we have and to be a part of something much bigger than
ourselves.
Church Schools
Forming our Youth
Christian
formation for children is offered during the Sunday worship at Ottawa,
LaSalle and Streator. We are fairly informal, so visitors are
always
welcome! The Ottawa program is currently under the direction
of Julie
Dominis. Usually, the children stay in class until after the
Offertory
and then come upstairs to join their parents. At Christmas,
Ottawa has
the traditional Christmas pageant, complete with roles and costumes.
At all our churches, we want the children to be involved.
So there
are occasional children's Sundays, opportunities to acolyte (serve at
the altar) and sometimes read the lesson of the day. Ottawa
is also
planning a preschooler church school to start in the fall to
serve a
small baby boom we've experienced in the last few years. This
will
consist of a very short story time, a chance to draw a picture about
the story of the day and playtime in our nursery area.>
The basics
Our Sunday worship includes lessons from the Bible and over the
course of the 3 year cycle, we read most of the New Testament and quite
a bit of the Old Testament. Every Tuesday evening, a group
gathers at St. Paul's Church, LaSalle, to study the Scripture reading
we'll be hearing the next Sunday. Please join us at 7 pm.
Foyer
So, is a party really ministry??
All members of LCEM and their extended friends & family are welcome
at monthly pot luck meals, hosted by LCEM members. It's a time
for fellowship, good food and fun in a relaxed atmosphere.
Sometimes we include the kids, other events are times to enjoy an adults-only
atmosphere. Is it a ministry? Absolutely! But mostly, it's just fun.
Foyer Groups derive from the French word meaning "hearthside", implying
the warmth of a close, small group of friends or family members sharing
a common love and concern for each other. The idea originated
with the congregation of Coventry Cathedral in England, when their
church was destroyed by bombs in World War II. Some of the
old nails that fell among the ruins were twisted together to make a cross,
symbolizing peace, reconciliation and forgiveness. Small
groups of the church's members began meeting together in each other's homes to
strengthen the relationships that bound them together.
An
organization dedicated to exploring God's presence in creation,
teaching about the environment and promoting our role as stewards in
God's beautiful world. For more information, contact
Sr. Pastor, Father John
Crist, founder of MIES.
Many
of our parishioners are involved in these two county-wide programs
which combine fund raising and building awareness about cancer and
Alzheimer's disease. This year at the relay, LCEM's theme was "Gone With the Wind", complete with Rhett Butler. With a few more recent donations, our LCEM team has now contributed $1,547.50 to the American Cancer Society 2007 Relay for Life of La Salle County. Thanks again to everyone who helped.
Click on thumbnail images below to see a larger photo.
