17th
Annual Community Thanksgiving Celebration
Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 27, 2003
12:00—2:00pm
Central
Presbyterian Church
31 N. 7th Street in downtown
Lafayette
Red brick education building
(at 7th & South Street near the library)
Who's
invited?
EVERYBODY! Bring yourself, a friend, a
neighbor, the whole family!
What
happens at the Community Thanksgiving Celebration?
Turkey dinner with all the trimmings, plus fellowship,
fun, and music!
Want
to help?
Donate cash! Drop off food! Be a volunteer! For more information
contact LUM at 423-2691 or visit the LUM website at www.lafayetteurbanministry.org/thanksgiving.html.
Cash
donations especially needed!
With
your help, we hope to serve about 800 people at this year’s
Thanksgiving event. Please consider making a cash gift of
$30, $50, $100, $250, or more. You may send your gift in
the enclosed envelope. Or, if you attend, you may place
your contribution in a free will offering box.
Jubilee
and Beyond
by
Joe Micon, Executive Director
I
love Jubilee Christmas. It's one of my favorite LUM programs. I love the toys. I love the excitement. I love the way Jubilee preserves the dignity
of parents who participate.
I love the way we bring so many Christmas morning
smiles to the faces of needy children.
For parents who've had a difficult year, Jubilee
Christmas is a special blessing they'll remember for the
rest of their lives.
On
Saturday, December 13, LUM will sponsor Greater Lafayette's
21st annual Jubilee Christmas Celebration.
Parents from 600 low-income families will choose
gifts of new toys and clothing for their children at one
of 22 LUM sponsored Jubilee toyshops. Christmas morning
will be a lot brighter for 1,500 children in our community
because of Jubilee.
You
love Jubilee Christmas too.
I've visited a lot of Jubilee Christmas church sites
through the years and not one of them has ever lacked for
toys! Church members and others in our community are always generous
when it comes to donating to Jubilee Christmas. On Jubilee Saturday after the excess toys
have been brought back to LUM from our Jubilee Christmas
sites, the office is always filled from floor to ceiling.
We
find appropriate homes for the toys to be sure, but I wonder
if we couldn't be doing something greater with the extra
goodwill and enthusiasm generated because of Jubilee Christmas.
By
now you know that this has been an especially difficult
year at LUM. A slow economy and cutbacks at the Salvation
Army have meant a 15% increase in the numbers of families
coming to LUM for help.
Our Centralized Emergency Fund is strapped.
Our shelter doesn't have enough room for all who
come. Our Food Pantry is serving more families. Our youth programs have waiting lists.
This
year as you prepare to shop for Jubilee Christmas, please
remember the needs of our clients during the rest of the
year as well. In other words don't forget the cash!
With
cash we can fill the gaps if Jubilee Christmas doesn't receive
enough gifts of a certain type—say for infant boys. With cash we can purchase extra gift-wrap or additional canned
hams. Most
important of all, cash not spent for direct Jubilee Christmas
needs goes to LUM's Centralized Emergency Fund to assist
needy children and families—year round.
Here's
how you can help this year with Jubilee Christmas and beyond:
1.
Send a generous cash donation of $30, $50, $100,
$250 or more, to LUM. Designate it to Jubilee Christmas.
2.
Instead of your usual office gift exchange this year,
ask your co-workers to contribute $10 each to LUM's Jubilee
Christmas program.
3.
Make a generous cash gift to LUM's Jubilee Christmas
Program in lieu of a gift to that special someone in your
life who actually does have everything.
LUM
is unique because our help to the needy doesn't stop on
Christmas day. Please,
this year won't you consider a gift of new toys for the
children served by Jubilee Christmas and a generous cash
gift for the needs of those we serve everyday beyond December
25?
Thank
you!
The
Work of Christmas
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 and sisters
To
make music in the heart
-- Howard Thurman
Afterschool
fun!
LUM's
Afterschool Program cares for children in a safe and stimulating
environment while their parents are finishing up their work
days. Our program
includes an active schedule of field trips to a variety
of fun and educational places. Recently the group enjoyed
a visit to the Purdue University Airport where they learned
about flight and got to sit in a real cockpit!
Briefly
Noted
- The Endowment for Lafayette Urban Ministry Programs
supports
needy children and their families both now and in
the
future. Gifts
made to the Endowment are held in perpetuity
while interest income is disbursed to LUM programs.
During estate planning, please consider making a
gift
to theEndowment for LUM Programs.
For more information
contact Mike Rowe at 742-9085.
- Seven St.
John's/LUM Food Pantry volunteers have been placed
on the injured reserve list (not related to their
volunteer
service!). We
need your help—specifically, volunteers
who have a pick up truck to deliver food from the Food
Bank to the Food Pantry, or volunteers to distribute
food. For details call LUM and leave a message
for Jane Vanable.
- September
was a record month at the St. John's/LUM Food Pantry. Nearly 2,000 individuals from 636 families
wereserved. We have special need for the following
canned
foods: tomato products, corn, peas, pork &
beans,
carrots, spinach, and
potatoes.
Cereal and
toilet paper are also needed.
We're not able to
purchase these items in sufficient quantity from
Food Finders at this time. Please deliver
your food donations to the Food Pantry
at St. John's Church at the corner of 6th
and Ferry Streets. The Pantry is open Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, and Friday mornings from 9am-noon.
- LUM's
Afterschool Program has the following needs: cheese
and crackers, milk, fruit juice or drink mixes, fresh
fruit,
trail mix, granola bars, and fruit snacks. Donations
may be
dropped off at LUM, (525 N. 4th St.) Monday through
Friday,
from 8:15am to 4:30pm.
Thank you!
- LUM needs
two or three volunteer receptionists to work one
afternoon
each week from 1:00pm to 4:30pm.
If you are good
with the public and enjoy answering phones, this is
your
big break! Contact Kaye McSpadden 423-2691 ext. 16
or
e-mail kmcspadden@lafayetteurbanministry.org.
- Please
remember to bring your empty inkjet printer cartridges
to LUM (525 N. 4th).
We recycle them and receive
$2 for each one!
We accept every brand but EPSON.
- Thanks
to Dorothy Lounsbury and Joe Wippel for parting
with
their Hunger Hike T-shirts.
Our collection is complete except
for 1994 and 1997 editions.
If you have one of these t-shirts,
LUM would love to have it for future Hunger Hike
promotions. Call Joe Micon 423-2691 ext. 20 or e-mail
lum@lafayetteurbanminisrty.org.
- Steinmart
of Lafayette is looking for volunteers to wrap
Christmas
gifts during the holiday season.
Proceeds from the giftwrap
will be donated to LUM's new Dignity-U-Wear Program. Contact Joe Micon 423-2691 or e-mail at
lum@lafayetteurbanministry.org.
Lafayette
Urban Ministry's Jubilee Christmas
December
13, 2003
Almost
600 families will participate this year—over 1,400
children! Parents will be able to select gifts for their
children, wrap them and take them home—along with a
ham, food certificate and other goodies for their own family
celebration on Christmas.
How
you can help:
- Give a cash gift that we will use for toys, hams,
gift certificates and to help these families throughout
the year!
- Donate
a new toy (newborn–age12) or contribute new children’s
clothing!
- Provide
gift wrap, ribbon, bows, tape!
A
new Jubilee banner, designed and donated by Sundance Sign,
will grace the front of the LUM building during
the holiday season.
Reminder:
Gifts
may be delivered to participating churches or to the LUM
Office, 525
N. 4th Street, before Thursday, December 11, 2003.
For
more information, call Mary Anderson, 423-2691 or e-mail
manderson @lafayetteurbanministry.org.
"Come
You Thankful People"
Interfaith
Thanksgiving
Service
Wednesday,
Nov. 26
7:00-8:00pm
Trinity
United Methodist Church
6th
and North Streets
Music,
readings, and slides of many faiths helping in our community.
A
free will offering will go to local food pantries.
Reception
follows.
The SEED, NOVEMBER 2003