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Serving Others

Outreach is of great importance to Redeemer parihsioners.  Our mission is "to be a loving community of faith, to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ in word and action."  Many Redeemer members put their faith into loving actions offering time, talents and treasure to many outreach projects. Our aim is to:

(1) build on what Redeemer has already been doing so well for many years;
(2) increase awareness of different opportunities to serve others; and
(3) encourage wide spread involvement.

The Outreach Committee would like to offer a huge thank you to each project leader - all have led the outreach projects with great success in 2007. We welcome people of all ages in serving others in five different categories of service (Homeless, Local, International, Creative Outreach and Holiday Season).

An Outreach Prayer 

Loving God, help us to live out our vision to be “a loving community of faith in word and action,” by reaching out in service to those in need.  Help members of the Redeemer community to be loving, kind, and faithful instruments for social justice in the world.  Guide us to allocate our resources wisely as we gradually increase our outreach budget to comprise 10% of the total church operating budget.  Richly bless each of Redeemer’s 22 Outreach projects that fall within six categories:

• Homeless Outreach – The Tutoring Project partnered with Community Family Life Services, Street Church partnered with Church of the Epiphany, Samaritan Ministries, Transitional Housing Partner Arms annual furnishing of apartment, annual Mini-walk for the Homeless, monthly Bethesda Cares Lunches prepared by Redeemer youth, and Bethesda Cares bimonthly dinners.
• International Outreach – One Parish Status partnering with Episcopal Relief & Development Services and other agencies to work towards the Millennium Development Goals, All the girls at Our Little Roses Home in Honduras especially Rosita, and the Torture Abolition & Survivor Support Coalition and Washington Region Religious Coalition against Torture.
• Local Outreach – Manna Food Center ongoing food drives, Back to School annual supply Drive, Montgomery Hospice, and Mothers Fathers Day Toiletry collections.
• Creative Outreach – Summer Music Camp, Hispanic Music Ministry at St. Steven and the Incarnation, and bimonthly Mindful eating lunches.
• Holiday Outreach – Annual Toy Sunday, Mitten Tree, Heifer International alternative giving and Tutoring Project Christmas Party.
• Theological Outreach – support for often struggling Episcopalian Seminary students as they develop their ministries.

In your Holy Name we pray.  Amen.

Serving the Homeless

• Redeemer Tutoring: After a brief hiatus due to major changes at Community Family Life Services (CFLS) in early 2006, Redeemer recommenced tutoring disadvantaged youth through CFLS and 1st Trinity Lutheran Church in May 2006. As with the previous 20 years or so, the program included tutoring children and providing a healthy dinner on Monday evenings, hosting a Halloween party and Christmas party. Project Leaders: Chrissy De Fontenay & David Manning 
  
• Samaritan Ministry: Samaritan Ministry of Greater Washington began in 1986 when 11 Episcopal parishes in the Greater Washington area joined St. Stephen and the Incarnation to do more than just provide emergency assistance to the growing numbers of homeless people and others in need in the city. The Next Step program offers many practical and moral supports for homeless people to reintegrate into mainstream society. David Manning and Anne Southard work each week in Anacostia and N.W. D.C. offices. David also works as Liaison between Redeemer youth and the outreach committee. For example, David is organizing an Urban Experience through Samaritan MInistry where the youth can visit south east D.C. in order to appreciate the challenges many local homeless and poor people face. Project Liaison: David Manning 
  
• Transitional Housing Corporation/Partner Arms has a number of projects to help homeless families such as furnishing and renovating apartments and educational and enrichment activities for adults and children. In February, Redeemer will help furnish an apartment for a homeless mother of three children. Liaison: David Manning
  
• Street Church: The Church of the Epiphany organizes a worship service and lunch program to serve the homeless each Tuesday afternoon in downtown D.C.  A core group of volunteers from Redeemer join the Epiphany faithful to help make lunches and participate in the service. Our rector The Rev. Susan Burns sometimes presided over services that include a short sermon, singing, communion and fellowship. Project Leader: Frank Anderson
  
• Bethesda Cares Dinner Program: On the 4th Sunday of every second month, a Redeemer family or group prepared a hearty dinner with meat or chicken, vegetables and bread for 50-60 homeless men in Bethesda. Project Leader:  Ini Beckman
  
• Bethesda Cares Lunch Program/Sunday School Sandwich Program: Each month, on the 2nd Sunday, Redeemer children make 60+ sandwiches to feed the homeless. Project leader: Pooh Beightol
  
• Mini-Walk for the Homeless: On the last Sunday in October, Redeemer parishioners took a (sponsored) quick stroll to the Cabin John Bridge and back to raise money for Samaritan Ministry programs that help the homeless. In 2006, Jesse Smith from the Save Franklin Shelter Committee talked to us about how we can better understand and help the homeless. Project Leader: Debbie Budden (2006). New leader needed for 2007.
  

Serving Locally

• Mother/Father's Day Toiletry Collections benefit participants of the Next Step Program - a unique self-help program that promotes change, dignity & self-reliance in people who are in need.  Toiletries are collected year-round in a specially marked basket in the parish hall. Project Leader: Anne Southard
  
• Montgomery Hospice Volunteers work one-on-one with patients & families locally or at the Casey House inpatient facility. Upcoming includes a general volunteer training session in early February 2007, and a pastoral care workshop in April for responding to the needs of the dying within any organization, especially churches. TrainingProject Leader: Joanne Bowman
  
• Manna Food Center Based in Rockville, Manna provides free food to needy families in Montgomery County. Redeemer collects non-perishable food on a continual basis, and donates groceries to the center each month. Project Leader: Pooh Beightol
  
• Back-to-School Drive: Backpacks and school supplies needed by students at local public schools are collected for local low-income families. Project Leader: Debbie Babcock-Daley.

Serving Internationally

• Our Little Roses Ministries Born on January 16, 1999, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Rosita is our sponsored child.  At Little Roses Home, dozens of orphaned girls are given shelter, education and love. Redeemer donates to the Home annually to assist with the financial support of Rosita & in honor of her birthday.  A special package of pre approved clothing and modest gifts are sent to the Honduras. Project Leader: Meredith Griggs. In addition, younger Redeemer children have begun sending regular cards and letters to Rosita to deepen the relationship: Correspondence: Clarice Leslie (original sponsor of Rosita)
  
• Redeemer's Vestry voted to become a member of Washington Region Religious Coalition against Torture. Various parishioners support the local chapter of Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC), which is active in supporting torture survivors and expressing opposition to torture in a number of ways from offering safe friendship to supporting anti-torture vigils. On Oct. 17, a dozen parishioners (including a choir contingent) participated in a vigil outside the White House to protest the President's signing of the Military Commissions Act, which severely weakens legal protections against torture and abuse of detainees. This highlighted a series of anti-torture vigils and meetings, which will continue in 2007 with the goal of repealing the MCA. Project leaders: Steve & Marie France
  
• Used and gently-used eye glasses and/ or frames, are collected year round and given to organizations that donate them to poor countries. Project Leader: Lee Shipman

Serving Creatively

• Music program for the new Hispanic ministry at St. Stephen & the Incarnation: Redeemer pays for a professional Hispanic musician to lead the music at St Stephen's new Spanish Mass conducted by our former seminarian, The Rev. Sarabeth Goodwin. On Christmas Eve 2006, Redeemer Junior Warden John Vorhes directed a wonderful Nativity play "Las Posadas" with a Mexican theme inspired by the Hispanic Mass. The Hispanic services have attracted a solid turnout since the first service on March 5.  Project Liaison: John Vorhes
  
• Redeemer sponsored half a dozen kids from the Tutoring Project for Redeemer's Summer Music Camp. Four qualified music instructors helped the kids study rhythm through movement and motion, while Joelle Morris supervised creative fun games and crafts. The children performed an incredible world music concert at the end of the week for an impressed audience. The camp will be in the last week of June in 2007. Project Leader: Music Director Tom Smith
  

Holiday Season Outreach

• Heifer Project International: Alternative gift giving at Christmas that provides many income-generating livestock and plants to the poor in developing countries. Project Leaders: Melinda & Sarah Nelson
  
• Gift cards for homeless: Supermarket gift cards are donated to help the homeless enjoy the Holiday Season more.  Project Leader: David Manning
  
• Annual Tutoring Party:  Boisterous wonderful times are had by all, while parishioners and volunteers help homeless children to make hand made gifts and wrap them for their own families. Of course, the children are also given a special Christmas gift suited to their age and interests also. Project Leader Chrissy De Fontenay & David Manning
  
• Toy Sunday: On the Sunday closest to the visit from St. Nicholas, toys are collected, purchased & delivered to CFLS in downtown D.C. to help the children of  homeless families celebrate Christmas. In 2006, Redeemer gave over $1600 and many toys to help put smiles on homeless children's faces. Project Leaders: Jefferson Arrington and Cathy Ayers

- Outreach Committee: Gabrielle Herderschee-Hunter,

Chrissy de Fontenay, David Manning, and Anne Southard

Updated:January 31, 2008