Again this Lenten season, the people of St Luke's were asked to help our community by sharing from our own abundance. This year we collected items for our outreach missions in our community using a nautical theme of back to the sea. Our Sunday school children helping to name our ship built from the items we collected.
The first Sunday in Lent we collected toilet paper to donate to the food bank. The rolls of toilet paper were used to build the hull of our ship which would hold the bounty our parish will donate.
Our second Sunday in Lent, we asked people to donate yarn (specifically 4 ply worsted, washable) to help make our blankets which are donated to Margaret's House. The yarn is given to the residents of Melville Heights who make squares that are then turned into the blankets. The blankets formed the ocean and waves that our ship will sail on.
On the third Sunday of Lent we collected tuna and peanut butter to be donated to the food back as well. The cans of tuna and peanut butter became the masts of our ship, waiting for out sails.
The challenge for the fourth and fifth Sundays in Lent was to assist Halifax Humanities 101. Halifax Humanities 101 is a program that helps people to gain control over their lives through study of traditional Humanities disciplines. Halifax Humanities 101 asked us to help by providing bus tickets. The bus tickets are given to the students to help them get to classes.
On Easter Sunday we collected small gift cards ($5 denominations) from Tim Hortons and McDonalds for Margaret’s House (F.O.O.D.). The staff of Margaret’s house will sometimes go out into the community where the homeless tend to gather and distribute these gift cards during times when it is especially cold weather. These small gift cards are enough to allow the homeless into either of these two cooperative restaurants and give that person the ability to purchase something warm to eat or drink. They can then spend some time inside out of the cold to warm up. Together with the bus tickets, the gift cards helped fill our sales with hope for those in our community who are less fortunate.
