What do we have to offer each other?

Desserts for the Hospitality Hour at St. Francis

Have you checked out the ‘Get Involved’ tab lately?  It’s right up there, two tabs over from the ‘Home’ tab where you’re reading.  That was easy to find, wasn’t it?  If you click on it you will find a list of opportunities to develop a heart for service, a list of volunteer positions available, and what kind of donations we’re looking for. 

I’m going to highlight a couple of service opportunities below because that is where we are most looking for help right now, but what I want to write about is the kind of different model SF CARES and our collaborators use. 

If you clicked over to the Get Involved tab, you saw that the first things on the list are the things we would like to offer you: a variety of worship experiences, opportunities to meditate, opportunities for self-reflection and learning and fun.  Everybody who serves with us and everyone we serve has something to teach and something to learn.  Everybody who serves and everyone who is served needs nourishment.  So many of our volunteers tell us they get more out of serving than the feel they are giving.  That may be so.  Either way a little extra to replenish one’s soul can only make it more true, can only leave one more ready to serve and be served.  So even if you aren’t ready or able to help with the specific needs below, come get you spirit fed at one or more of our programs soon.

Every Saturday:

• 9:30am-1:00, Hospitality Hour Preparation, (152 Church St) Food sorting and some prep work.  Come help us sort donated food and do some of the prep work for Sunday's meal. 

Every Wednesday

• 10a.m - 2p.m.Senior Program, (152 Church St), activities, lunch and hospitality for seniors are provided at St. Francis Lutheran Church.  We are looking for people to help serve the meal, to sit and visit with our guests, and to assist them as needed.  We can use kitchen help from 10a.m. until 1p.m.and folks to help clean up from 1p.m. until 2p.m. 

You can see the details of these projects here.  http://sfcares.blogspot.com/2013/02/our-newest-project.html

Every Thursday

• 5:30p.m. - 6:30p.m. Bring Food for 70 to Open Cathedral Mission (Mission and 16th St. BART station).  This can be a very simple meal - a sandwich and drink to take away is fine.

Every Night:  

• Crisis Line Counselors, at Night Ministry.  Our next Inquirers Evening is June 14^th at 6p.m.  There is more about what’s involved in this older post.  Only the training dates are out of date, everything else is the same. http://sfcares.blogspot.com/2011/08/font-definitions-font-face-font-family.html

You can contact us at 415-673-3572 ext. 105 or sfcares@welcomeministry.org to learn more about any of our opportunities.  And come back regularly and click the Get Involved tab to see what’s available to you as well as for you to do.

Alternative Spring Break

Open Cathedral

It’s January and I know some of you working out there in colleges are already planning Alternative Spring Break for your group.  If you come to San Francisco, SF CARES can help you plan the whole week.  We can offer experiences your group won’t find with larger groups like St. Anthony’s and Glide, though visiting them is useful as well.  Would you like your group to be able to come along with the San Francisco Night Ministry and learn what is involved in doing night time street ministry?  We can offer you opportunities to serve at smaller venues like the Friendship Banquet and the Community Dinner where your group can see what it takes to feed a large group a sit down meal and have a chance to visit with our guests.  We have the option of an visiting OpenCathedral, an open air worship service as well.  Would your group enjoy urban gardening at a farm where all of the produce is given away?  What can your group learn on a day long Street Retreat with the Faithful Fools?

Friendship Banquet

Gardening in the city

If these opportunities sound good to you, if you’d like to give your group a broader experience than the usual alternative spring break and expose them to some truly innovative programs, give us a call at 415-673-3572 or drop us a line at sfcares@saintpaulus.org and we’ll get you all set up.  And there will even be time left in your week to visit some of the bigger programs as well.

The Work of Christmas

This blog post takes its title from the name of one of my favorite poems, The Work of Christmas, by Dr. Howard Thurman.

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

This has been a slow month for blog posts, but the SF CARES collaborators have been as busy as ever providing pastoral care, soul growth opportunities such as worship, Bible study, writing groups, meditation and street retreats; growing food; feeding people, and giving away all the hundreds of pairs of socks Crystal Springs Sangha, Presbyterian Church in Chinatown, and St. John’s United Church of Christ collected for us in December. 

We were blessed with an abundance of volunteers, as we are each year during the holidays.  Now we’re moving into the time of year when we usually have a bit of a lull. Not a lull of need as those we serve still need all that we have to offer, but a lull of volunteers.  Our regulars like the Congregational Church of San Mateo, the Congregational Church of Belmont, Old First Presbyterian and Saint Paulus Lutheran are all already scheduled for their usual shifts, but we need you to help us continue the work of Christmas.  We would welcome your help as:

• volunteers to serve at the Community Dinner any second or fourth Saturday from 5:00 - 7:00 from January 26^th onward
• hosts for the Friendship Banquet Tuesdays beginning on January 15^th  
• a group to provide simple lunches for 100 people for Open Cathedral Civic Center January 13^th or February 10^th or 17^th
• a group to bring simple food for Open Cathedral Mission for 60 on any Thursday evening except the fourth Thursdays of the month
• folks to come weed and plant and other gardening tasks at the Free Farm any Wednesday or Saturday anytime between 10:00 - 2:00 from January 12^th onward
• Crises Line Counselors for the Night Ministry willing to serve one night a month from 9:45p.m. until 2:15a.m.

You can click on the highlighted text above (or just scroll down in this blog) to get a more full description of any of these opportunities.  We hear from our volunteers all the time that they get more than they give as they serve with us and we are working on even more ways to nourish our volunteers to do all the wonderful things they do in the new year.  So come out to get your soul fed and to help us continue Christ’s work in the world.  You can contact us at sfcares@saintpaulus.org or 415-673-3572.

The Holidays Are Over But The Needs Are Still Here

Now that I’ve finally recovered from the holidays, it’s time to start blogging regularly again.

We has many eager volunteers for both Thanksgiving and for Christmas. It was such a blessing. It is rare that we have so many folks that we have to send people off to St. Anthony’s, Glide, and Tenderloin Tessie’s. But that is exactly what I found myself doing during the holidays.

The good news is that now we have plenty of service opportunities available. We can use help to provide lunches on the second or third Sunday of the month for Open Cathedral Civic Center; light meals for after Open Cathedral Mission on Thursday nights; and groups to donate food for the Open Cathedral Community Gatherings on Tuesday nights. We also have many slots open for the Friendship Banquet each Tuesday, to supply the food, to cook or to set up and serve.

We also don’t have a group to cover the fourth Saturday of this month, February 25^th at the Community Dinner that Welcome hosts at Old First Presbyterian. Ideally we’d get a group to provide the food, cook, and set up and serve, but we also welcome any individuals who would like to come that day as we can also piece a crew together that way.

So if you still have some gratitude left over from Thanksgiving or a little Christmas Spirit lingering in your heart, we’d love to hear from you at sfcare@saintpaulus.org (yes, it’s working again). An abundance of willing hands is as big a blessing in February as it is during the holidays.

Summary of needs:

Community Dinner:

-a group to provide food for 200 on February 25^th or funds to purchase the food

-a group (often the same folks who bring the food) or individuals to help cook, set up, serve, and clean up

Friendship Banquet:

-a group willing to provide food or funds to feedabout 50 people

-a group (often the same folks who bring the food) or individuals to help cook, set up, and serve

Open Cathedral:

-a group to provide a simple lunch for 100 the second or third Sunday afternoon of any month

-a group to provide a simple meal for 50 any Thursday evening

-a group to provide a simple dinner for 30 any Tuesday evening