The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. ~ Matthew 20:21
We are called by the Spirit to use our gifts to serve our world.
Your gift does not have to be some high expectation or preconceived notion of what you think the world wants from you.
It is not how deep your pockets are or how creative you can be.
Your gift to this world isn't how many homeless people you've taken into your house or injustices you have physically stop.
Thinking that your gift should be able to fix all that and more is an ill conceived notion -- a lofty and depressing goal!
It is simpler than all that. Your gift to this world is you!
The smallest positive actions you can make will set in motion the grand wheels of service.
A smile, a card, a God bless you, a donation of a can of food are where your gifts begin.
Jesus came to serve but he didn't do it alone. He found a community -- he recognized their gifts -- he sent them in the world to serve and so on ...and on!
Staff Contact: Laura Veryser
GOT TIME?
If you want to get a little more involved, check out all the ways you can serve with us!
Christian Service Commission -- Meetings are the 2nd Monday of the Month at 7 pm
We gather report and plan out our communities outreach programs -- we also laugh a lot!
Feeding the Hungry
Salvation Army Soup Kitchen: The first Wednesday of each month we serve a meal at the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen, on Church St., in Mt. Clemens. Volunteers are always welcome to help prepare and serve. You would need to be available on that day from 9:30am to approx. 1pm.
Community Meals: Local Churches host community meals on Sundays. Anyone who needs a meal is welcome! To help support this endeavor, they ask other churches and groups to volunteer to prepare and serve a meal or two. Twice a year we volunteer to donate, prepare and serve a meal at United Methodist in Mt. Clemens and occasionally at Zion Church in Mt. Clemens. The number of guests could be anywhere from 30 to 60 or more. We could always use help prepping the meal on a Saturday morning or serving it on a Sunday afternoon.
St. Vincent de Paul Intake: Work one afternoon a week (2:30 pm to 3:30 pm) interviewing and assisting those who need our help in our area. Don’t worry — there is a training period. Interviews take place in the Resource room of the Parish Center. There are usually 3 to 4 interviewers working each day (Mon-Fri) so you will never be alone.
St. Vincent de Paul Pantry: Work one afternoon a week (2:30 –3:30 pm) preparing food packages as needed for the clients being interviewed by the above folks. A little lifting, stocking shelves, marking cans and cleaning up the inventory may be involved too. You would work with a team.
St. Vincent de Paul Computer Intake: Work one afternoon a week (2:30 –3:30 pm) Each group of intake volunteers needs one person who is computer savvy and able to look up clients names and addresses and so forth. If you wish to help with intake but are better with computers please consider this ministry.
St. Vincent de Paul Pick up and/or Unloading Food Bank Items: Every month, on the 2nd & 4th Wednesday morning. We pick up free food supplies to stock our SVDP Pantry. Sometimes there is a lot of lifting and unloading — sometimes we just need someone to pick up our order.
Assist the Grieving
Funeral Luncheons: Registered parishioners are offered a funeral luncheon directly after a funeral , if the Social Hall is available, for a small fee of $5 per person. Teams of volunteers shop, prepare, cook and serve the meal. As we now offer evening funerals, evening luncheons are also available to those of you who would like to volunteer but work during the day. There are many ways you can help this ministry.
Funeral Lunch Team Leader: Do you love to coordinate dinners? This is a job for you. Each funeral luncheon needs a leader to make sure everything is set-up and prepared in time for the family to enjoy the comfort of a meal together on the day of their loved ones resurrection liturgy. As team leader you would call your team of volunteers, plan the meal from our standard menu, order and purchase the items needed and oversee preparations on the day of and clean-up.
Funeral Lunch Shopper: Some of our Team Captains need assistance in shopping or picking up the items needed for the luncheon. If you’d like to do the shopping for supplies this is the ministry for you.
Bake or buy a Cake — just drop it off the morning of the funeral or the evening before.
Prepare a JELLO — same as above, but Jello.
Set-Up — Put tablecloths, centerpieces, salt and pepper on the tables, set up drink supplies etc.
Help prepare / cook food — Meals are standard and easy to prepare. You don’t need to be a chef.
Clean-Up — As always, dishes get dirty and the set-up needs to be taken down. If you are a
cleaner this could be the spot for you.
Caring for the Health of the Community
Parish Nurses (RN's): Nurses are invited to join this group to assist our parishioners stay healthy. They have monthly meetings the third Thursday of the month at 7 pm
Blood Pressure Screeners: Once a month after the weekend Liturgies the nurses offer free blood pressure checks. Anyone in the Medical field who is trained to take blood pressures is ask to join this ministry.
Health Fair: In October our nurses offer a Health Fair for the community. Flu shots and blood pressure checks are available, as well as, multiple booths filled with free health information and other cool stuff. The nurses would like to offer to anyone in the healthcare workforce to come and man/woman a booth. If you have a specialty please consider volunteering. Non-healthcare workers are also invited to volunteer to help at booths, face painters and people to assist them in set-up.
Helping the Homeless
Warming Center At the end of November, beginning of December we host the Warming Center in our Parish Center. There are plenty of opportunities for volunteering. Sign-up is at the end of October.
MCREST (details and sign up in Feb.)
Hospitality
Coffee & Donuts Workers: Join this delicious morning ministry. Volunteers are scheduled and most won’t be scheduled more than every other month.
Choose from picking up the Bagels before the 8:30 am Liturgy, setting-up and serving for the 8:30 am Liturgy or serving and clean-up for the 10:30 am Liturgy.
Pancake Breakfast Workers: Join us in January as we prepare and serve a free pancake breakfast for our parishioners. We need Flippers, Servers and Sausage Bakers
Golden Seniors Dinner Workers: Help us prepare and serve a turkey dinner in the beginning of November, to honor those over the age of 70. We will need help setting up, serving and playing BINGO.
Reaching Out to the Sick/Homebound
Red Cross Blood Drive Volunteers: Help out at one of our three blood drives. From signing people in, to handing out juice and cookies, to helping make a meal for the volunteers.
Transportation (to liturgy or a dr. appt): On occasion a parishioner might need a lift to a doctor appointment or would like to come to church for liturgy. If you have a car and a valid license consider signing up to help.
Eucharist to the Homebound: There are those of our community that can no longer leave their homes to join in worship with us. Consider making weekly visits to let them know they are still a part of our world — not forgotten. If you would like to do this but aren’t comfortable going alone, find a partner and go together. Just pick up a pix at church on the weekend and when Larry calls up those taking Eucharist to the homebound, you would pick up your hosts then.
Eucharist to Nursing Facilities: Volunteers are needed Tuesday mornings around 10am to distribute Eucharist to the residents of Lakepointe Villa on Harper.
Seasonal Events
St. Vincent dePaul Adopt a Family for Christmas: Every year St. Louis St. Vincent dePaul gets requests for Christmas help from local school families. We ask our parishioners to adopt a family, purchase and wrap the Christmas presents and drop them back off here on a specific date. This year we would like to offer to those of you who can’t afford to adopt a whole family the opportunity to share a family with other parishioners. Just sign up on the sheet—SVDP Adopt a Family/partial family.
Fair Trade Sale / Christmas Bazaar Crafter Donations (November): Our Christmas Bazaar is strictly a charity sale. We sell items that produce funds for different charities. So if you’re a crafter, who crafts for fun, and you have a supply of crafts stored in a bin, consider donating those items to our Christmas Bazaar to help us out.