A
t saint benedict’s table, we are constantly trying to challenge ourselves to see the connections between being a people who gather at the communion table and being a people responsive to the hungers and needs of the world. As our community moves forward into the future which God holds for us, we want to keep reminding ourselves that anything we are and have and do is by grace, and as a part of this we are seeking to make real ministry connections locally, nationally and internationally.
At the June 2009 meeting of our “Kitchen Table” (our version of a church board), we approved in principle the idea of setting aside 5% of our offerings for missional work outside of the walls of our church… and people seemed to think that the 5% was just a start.
Here is what we’ve done in 2010:
- $1000 to support the work of Agape Table, which offers a hot meal 5 days a week in our church parish hall. Actually, it was a little more that a $1000, as we offered to buy them a piece of equipment necessary for their ministry… you can check out the story of the toaster by clicking here.
- $1000 was set aside to support work with Haitian refugees coming to Canada as a result of the 2010 earthquake.
- Over $2000 to the annual medical ministry program held in Haiti under the auspices of EMAS
- $1000 to HOME/OMUKA in Uganda, a ministry close to the hearts of many in our community.
Lola Eidse and her husband Roger have been on the ground and working to build HOME for close to a year now, and are managing to give at least a few orphaned adolescent boys a secure footing so that they can complete their education.
We do see all of this as just a start for us, but it does mark a good start.