Mark Your Calendar!

Come join us on May 18^th at 2:00p.m. for a return production of Voices, Voices of Economic Hardship from Generations Past and Present.  Lizann Basham at Front Porch Spirit wrote this amazing piece of reader’s theater in 2011 and it debuted that year.  Last year, she was gracious enough to allow Night Ministry to use the script for a fundraiser and supported the volunteers we had from our Open Cathedral congregation who performed it.  The show was well received and this year we’ll be performing it again as a thank you to the various congregations and organizations who so kindly provide the lunches we serve after Open Cathedral each week.  Once again, we’ll have parishioners from Open Cathedral as our performers.

In addition to the churches that support Open Cathedral, we’d like to invite you to join us.  Don’t miss your chance to hear  this amazing production.  We will take an offering at the end of the show, but there is no admission.    Come support our performers and allow yourself to be both moved and informed by this production.

St.Mark’s Lutheran has kindly donated the hall in their Urban Life Center at 1091 Franklin Street for the performance.   There is parking in the St. Mark’s parking lot at 1111 O’Farrell, with the entrance on Gough St.  A short reception will follow.  Please RSVP here so we know how many goodies to have.

It’s Time for Night Ministry’s Spring Concert!

It’s time for one of the best events of the year! All of Night Ministry’s fund raisers rock, but your loyal Minster of Volunteers looks forward to the Spring Concert the most.  It often is the best show I go to all year and I go to some really good shows.  Last year we had a wonderful assortment of performers that had the audience captivated. Gryphons Wild blessed us with an assortment of medieval tunes including one about a miracle involving Mother Mary and a lost pork chop.  Where else are you going to find that?  There were plenty of songs to laugh at but Joey McGuire also had the whole crowd in tears with one of his songs.  And there’s the campaign and chocolate intermission of course. 

Get your tickets now for this year’s concert so you won’t miss out on all the great acts we have this year.  As usual we are blessed with the talents of many fine performers you won’t want to miss.

The music is priceless, and the intermission alone is worth the ticket price of $20 ($10 for seniors and students).  You can get them at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/343347

Tickets will also be available for $25 at the door.

Don’t miss this wonderful event!

Project Everyday Connect Visits SF CARES

Project Everyday Connect is here at St. Paulus today doing free vision exams to folks with financial need  and no vision insurance.  They give their patients vouchers for glasses at Lens Crafters to get their prescriptions filled.  The PEC folks are so flexible and very helpful to our guests.  They even have transportation vouchers for people to get to the Lens Crafters where they can get their new glasses.  Some folks are able to get their glasses today.
 

Project Everyday Connect is an outgrowth of Project HomelessConnect.  Project Homeless Connect provides a periodic venue where folks can access a wide variety of services, including podiatry, optometry, medical, social services, legal, all in one place at one time.  SF CARES has provided foot washers and pastoral care there in the past.  These events are great on the days they operate, but of course people have needs 365 days a year, so Project Everyday Connect was born.  They are available by phone and email every day of the year and have appointments available Monday through Friday.  The PEC folks  work “directly with those seeking services, as well as with case managers & staff from other agencies, to make connections to those often hard-to-access resources, services & goods that can provide additional or necessary ingredients for a successful move out of homelessness, transition into housing, or avoidance of housing loss.”

All of SF CARES’ collaborators are able to refer folks for this event and the PEC folks will serve as many as ten to twenty people today.  This is only our second time hosting the Vision Van, but we are looking forward to another event until the needs of all of our folks are met.  Project Everyday Connect can connect people with vision care and other services year round.  They can be reached at 1-855-588-7968.  We're so glad to be partnering with Project Everyday Connect to provide this vital service for our folks.

Our Newest Project

Welcome has partnered with St. Francis Lutheran to help run their Sunday morning meal and the Senior Center on Wednesdays.

The Sunday Breakfast got its start fifteen years ago when St. Francis began serving coffee to their neighbors who live outside.  Soon doughnuts were added to the offering.  Over the years it became a full meal.  Most of the food is donated so St. Francis keeps its cost low.  The meal now feeds between 80 to 130 of their homeless and marginally housed neighbors, including families and children, each week. 

The Senior Center draws a dedicated group of seniors who enjoy visiting with each other, sharing lunch, and a game or other activity.  There is also a program that varies week by week, including such cool acts as a troupe of women in the 80’s who come and do dance routines, ballroom dancers, and a singer who gives pop quizzes on Judy Garland trivia.  The occasional motivational speaker visits as well.

We are delighted, as always, for another opportunity to feed people’s bodies and souls.  One of the things we’re trading to St. Francis for the opportunity to work with them is our promise to recruit some additional volunteers.

 We have quite a variety of tasks and shifts available:

 

Food to Sort

 On Saturday we need folks to:

• Receive food donations from 9:00am - 1:00pm
• Help do prep work for the Sunday morning meal, such as setting up, arranging flowers etc.
• Deliver food to other programs when we have more than we’ll need for Sunday.

On Sunday we need folks to:

• 5:00am - 7:00am: do morning kitchen support such as assisting the cook in preparing the meal for the day, and helping set up dessert trays
• 7:00am - 8:30am: serve coffee to our guests
• 7:00am - 8:30am: serve food to our guests
• 7:00am - 8:30am: do food pantry support such as help give away food pantry items and clothing to guests at the meal
• 8:00am -9:30am: help clean up such as help pick up trash around the neighborhood, do dishes, take out trash, clean toilets
• 9:00am -12:30pm: do guest support such as help support and de-escalate individuals with mental health, addiction, or hunger issues who are interested in attending Sunday morning services

For the Senior Center on Wednesdays we need folks to:

• 10am-2pm: do elder care and nursing support such as helping seniors in need of mobility assistance, answer questions about health questions and providing blood pressure readings for participants
• 10:00am -1:00pm: assist the cook in preparing the meal for the day
• 1:00pm -2:00pm: help pick up trash around the neighborhood, do dishes, take out trash, clean toilets

If any of these tasks sound like something you’re called to, let our Minister of Volunteers, Valerie, know either at 415-673-3572 or sfcares@welcomeministry.org and she’ll give you all the details and get you scheduled.

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.