What is an Outreach Ministry? It is a ministry that reaches out to the community, to those in need. It is a ministry that helps and cares for others. If you would like to be a part of this important ministry, please contact Barbara Drewes through the church office at 631-588-9509.

 

Outreach Ministries Calendar

 

OUTREACH & EVANGELISM MEETING SCHEDULE - Available online by clicking here.

 

EVERY SUNDAY, Red Wagon Food Collections - Please remember to bring in your food items. They go to help feed people in our community who are in need. We have distributed a large amount of food to many families in the last several months. Help fill the red wagon in the Narthex (lobby) and thereby fill the need. Examples of items needed: peanut butter, boxed cereal, tuna, pasta, tomato sauce, mac and cheese, canned vegetables and fruits, soup, instant mashed potatoes, juice, coffee. Supermarket gift cards are always welcome, too. Thank you and God’s blessings on you!

 

RIGHT NOW - Confirmation Coat Collection.. We are collecting warm coats, sweat shirts and sweaters. The Confirmation kids will be bringing them into NYC to distribute along with PB & J sandwiches. Details to come. Just get them ready and we will give you a date in October to begin bringing them in.

 

NOVEMBER 16th - Harvest Home Sunday.. On Sunday, November 16th, we will celebrate our boutiful blessings by returning a small measure of our plentiful food to share with our neighbors. Please give generously to the grocery drive to replenish our Food Pantry for the Thanksgiving Food Baskets which will be assembled and delivered during the week of November 16th.

 

Items Needed: Canned vegetables: peas, corn, green beans, carrots, yams, baked beans. Canned fruit: peaches, fruit cocktail, cranberry sauce. Pasta: spaghetti, ziti, elbows. Pasta sauce: in jars or cans. Soup: chicken, beef, tomato. Desserts: Jello, pudding, canned pumpkin, canned pie filling, pie crust mix, cake mixes and frosting. Miscellaneous: instant mashed potatoes, canned gravy, stuffing mix, tuna fish, peanut butter, cereal, juice, hot chocolate, boxed mac & cheese, cornbread mix, coffee. Also: Grocery store gift cards and turkey certificates.

 

NOVEMBER 23rd  - Operation Christmas Child...

 

 

It is once again time for Operation Christmas Child. Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian outreach organization, distributes millions of shoeboxes worldwide – filled to overflowing with gifts from generous people like you to children in 95 countries. Using a simple gift-filled shoebox and the Good News of God’s love, Operation Christmas Child brings joy and hope to children in desperate situations around the world and introduces them to the story of God’s greatest gift, Jesus Christ. During distributions, children are offered colorful storybooks that present the Good News of Christ in over 70 languages. Once again, our Sunday School children are preparing these shoebox gifts to share and we invite the congregation to join in. Please bring your filled shoeboxes to church no later than Sunday morning, November 23rd.

 

We will be collecting shoeboxes on Sunday, November 23rd during morning Worship services.

 

(Shoeboxes may be dropped off at an earlier date downstairs in the Sunday School office.)

 

Outreach Ministries News

 

MAKING STRIDES AGAINST BREAST CANCER WALK... Thank you to all who walked, and raised funds and awareness on a cold and windy Sunday, October 19th. As is our tradition, we walked early and returned for worship at 11:00 am. A free T-shirt, donated by Diana Losi was given away to the first 30 people who signed up. Thank you to Carole Gorton for the 20 hand-knitted pink scarves she donated to our walkers. This was our 9th year participating. We have many woman who are struggling with this cancer. We all know someone who has dealt with it or is currently dealing with it. We’ve lost loved one’s to this disease. We also have seen great strides in caring for and curing this disease. We are proud and pleased and humbled to participate in this walk. God bless you all.

 

LIGHT THE NIGHT WALK... Thanks to all who walked to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk on October 4th. We raised over $1000 for this worthy cause. Thank you also to all our parent drivers who helped get us there and back. Well done!

 

VALENTINE’S COOKIE & CANDY LOVE GIFTS... were given out to family, neighbors, friends and our Homebound. Your donations allowed the Outreach and Evangelism Ministry, together with God Squad 5, 6, 7 to give away 116 loving greetings.

 

THANK YOU... to the Confirmation students and members of our Troop 1225 who came and helped rake my yard. All your hard work and efforts are truly appreciated. Thank you, Laurel Parker.

DEAR PASTOR AND MY HOLY CROSS FAMILY... Just a few words to let you know how thankful I am for all the goodies you and my Holy Cross Family sent me! Thank you! Now I know I will have a very good Christmas. How are you, yours and my Holy Cross Family? I hope well and in good spirits! I am as well as can be expected. At least I get up in the morning to start a new day. May God Bless you, yours and all my Holy Cross Family. With love and prayers, as always, Martha Cusamano.
 

SKEINS OF YARN WANTED!... Holy Cross Outreach Ministries is collecting skeins of yarn so that we can have afghans made for the homeless and for the families at our local women’s and children’s Shelter. If you have full skeins that you would like to donate for this project, please leave them in the marked “Yarn” bin by the front doors. Warmest thanks for being a warm blessing to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD... was a big success! Wow - we are making a lot of children happy this year. We collected and sent 102 shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Thank you to all who brought in shoe boxes and contributed to the shoe boxes. A special thank to our packing and delivery team.

 

HALLOWEEN AT THE LAKE HOUSE SHELTER… Youth Ministries and Outreach Ministries hosted a small Halloween party recently for the children living at the Lake House Shelter, an area shelter providing a home for families in need. Thanks to your generosity, Holy Cross routinely aids the residents (especially the children) of this shelter throughout the year with donations of clothes, school supplies, Christmas gifts, and warm winter wear. Kate Georghiou, a youth in our congregation, recently completed book shelves as a Girl Scout project for the shelter’s common room - a place to store kid’s books and videos, a number of which Kate collected and donated herself. HCLC made sure each child living at the shelter started this school year off with a bulging new backpack of brand-new school supplies. Families come in and out of the shelter frequently as permanent housing becomes available for them, and along with the material items we are able to give they take with them the love and faith shared so strongly here at Holy Cross. Since there are always new families in need (and growing children, too) please watch for opportunities to assist us in this ministry. Christmas and colder weather will be here soon, and we will keep you posted as to what is needed. Watch for details. Thank you Kate, and thank you all again for what you've done to help these needy families. Your generosity is very much appreciated.

 

HUGE THANKS...  to Olympia Daube, Barbara Drewes, Bob Lewis, Betty McGill, Barbara Rizzo, Lorraine Stratman and Arlene Tramazzo for assisting at the Holy Cross Outreach Booth at the Ronkonkoma Street Fair. Thanks for setting up, welcoming all who came to our spot, taking down and buying raffle tickets. Congratulations Kathleen Miller of Lake Grove, the winner of the GPS. The proceeds from the raffle were $203 and will benefit the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund. You have all mad the difference!

 

HEARTFELT THANKS...  to all who brought in the school clothes for our two little girls. A giant bag was collected for each with many brand new things. Your generosity does not go unnoticed.

 

PACKING UP SCHOOL SUPPLIES... In August, Outreach Ministries packed up the school supplies and back-packs you generously donated to help out some of our congregation families and the youth in our local children’s shelter. We stuffed boy’s and girl’s back-packs with binders, folders, rulers, paper, notebooks, pens, pencils, glue, glue sticks, calculators, pencil cases, assignment pads, pencil sharpeners, markers, crayons, book covers, compasses, erasers, scissors, and more for elementary, middle-school and high school youth. Twenty-four filled back-packs were dropped off to the Lake House Shelter (the local homeless shelter here in Lake Ronkonkoma) along with small bags of appropriate supplies for the “too-young-for-school” kids - we didn’t want to leave anyone out!!! A number of filled back-packs were also set aside for distribution to our Outreach families, kids in need within our own congregation. Thank you to everyone who donated supplies. What a blessing! In addition, we packed up 150 “WELCOME” bags for our in-coming Noah’s Ark students and sorted out visors and stickers for our Rally Day Sunday School give-away. Thanks to those who helped pack up the goodies - Arlene Tramazzo, Joe Mayer, Lisa Krauth, Marilyn and Tom Moldovan, Dan Moldovan and our Outreach Chairperson Barbara Drewes.

 

Check out our photos! View the photos of us packing up supplies - the last pic is of Deacon Chris modeling our Sunday School visor!

 

“ANGELS WATCHING OVER YOU”... With God in their hearts and noise makers in hand, 15 volunteers came to serve the walkers, participating in the LI2Day Walk for Breast Cancer on June 9th at our “Angels Watching Over You” refresh station. Many thanks to these enthusiastic servants and all who donated items for the walkers, helped ready us for the event by assembling the handouts and preparing the decorations. Saturday morning we touched the lives of so many men, women and children - not only the walkers but all those who will benefit by funds which were raised. “You have all made The Difference!”

 

Check out our photos! View the photos from our Refresh Station and feel free to cheer along. Whooo!!!

 

BABY OUTREACH UPDATE... A special thanks to everyone who gave clothing and baby care items for baby Arianna. What a tremendous outpouring of your love for this sweet little girl and what a wonderful surprise for this family, everything was greatly appreciated.

 

PENTECOST BBQ UPDATE... Caught up in the Fire of God’s Love is the only way to describe all of the volunteers who made the 2007 Pentecost Celebration a wonderful day. Heartfelt thanks to God Squad 567 for assembling the Sunday School Gift Packs; to Barbara Rizzo, Bob Lewis, Arlene Tramazzo and Barbara Drewes - the Sunday Morning helium crew; and to all who provided for a terrific 3rd Annual picnic. Special thanks to the many, many volunteers who set up, cooked and cleaned up, to those who acted as hosts and hostesses and to “Mission from God” for giving us the best Spirit filled music we could have had. Holy Cross is truly blessed by all of you.

 

MEMORIAL DAY PARADE UPDATE... Thank you to all who came and represented Holy Cross at the Memorial Day Parade. Thanks also to our enthusiastic youth and adults who distributed iced tea, lemonade and lifesavers to the marchers. We have touched the lives of many people who live in our community by our presence and kindness.

 

OUR SERVICE MEN & WOMEN - ADDRESSES WANTED... Holy Cross Outreach would like to start a letter writing campaign to the family members and friends of our congregation who are currently serving our country at home and abroad. If you have a Military Service relative or friend, we would love to have their address. Please stop by the Information Center in the Narthex and give us the information.

 

NESCONSET NURSING CENTER... is looking for volunteers with: extra help on Thursday mornings, someone to spend a couple of hours a week managing the Gift Shop, extra help on Sunday and Monday evening to help with BINGO or other games, a few people who could help share the responsibility of a weekly small men’s poker group (no money involved - just bonus bucks) on Thursday , Friday or Saturday evenings, and people to do one-on-one friendly visits Please call Rosa Inserra at 361-8800, ext. 289 Mon-Fri between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm for more information.

 

A WORD FROM STONY BROOK HOSPITAL…

 

(Regarding the snack bags assembled by our 30 Hour Famine youth.) “Dear Holy Cross Lutheran Church - Just want to thank you and your youth for the wonderful goody bags that they assembled and donated for the visitors in the waiting rooms at Stony Brook University Hospital. They were a huge success and delighted both staff and visitors alike. It was a thoughtful and meaningful gesture and much appreciated. Thanks to all who gave of their time and hearts.” Sincerely, Terese Netter, Director, Patient Guest Relations.

 

 

EASTER FOOD BASKETS... Thank you to all who have contributed groceries to our Red Wagon Food Pantry during the past months. We have been able to supply generous Easter Food Baskets to 30 families and will be providing groceries to the members of AA and NA who attend meetings on our campus. Many thanks to all our congregation members who faithfully donate groceries each week. Thank you to the youth and adults who participated in our 30 Hour Famine 2007, to Michele Colvin and the East Moriches Junior High School Honor Society, and to Joyce DeLeo and the members of Curves for the groceries they collected and gave to our pantry. Also, thank you to Susie Weed and Doug St. John at Eckerds for supplying grocery bags.

 

EASTER LOVE BASKETS... As in recent years, Outreach Ministries prepared 100 Easter Baskets for the families of Holy Cross to take on Easter Sunday. The Easter baskets were for friends, neighbors or family members who may not have been able to attend Easter services or may not know the Good News of Jesus Christ: : that He was indeed born, died and was raised to secure our personal salvation. The baskets were filled with a celebration gift, colored eggs and candies. Thank you to all who donated items and helped prepare these.

 

LAKE HOUSE SHELTER… Thanks to generous donations, on Easter Sunday morning the children of the Lake House Shelter awoke to yummy chocolate bunnies and goody bags of Easter candy especially for them. Sweet indeed!

“SOUPER BOWL” SUNDAY UPDATE...

           

A super thank you to all who donated soup to the “Souper Bowl.” Your generosity has given us 250 cans of soup which will be donated to our Red Wagon Food Pantry and the Lake House Shelter.