Ministry & Hospitality Center Open House with Blessings, Ice Cream, FormingFaith.net

All are Welcome

Friday, September 5, 2014
2:00 pm to 8:00 pm
New Ministry Center
458 High Street, Medford 

• Blessing of the Back Packs
• School Kits for Kids Service Project
• Ice Cream Social
• Presenting FormingFaith.net

Spread the News!

Our Kick off event in the new Ministry and Hospitality Center at 458 High Street will combine our annual Blessing of the Back Packs; a Church World Service “School Kits for Kids” Service Project; an Ice Cream Social & the presentation of our new offering for families, a Faith Formation at Home website and curricula which you can find at www.FormingFaith.net

Here is the plan:  Families are invited to collect items for CWS School Kits and bring their donations to our ministry center over the course of the afternoon/evening open house where kids will have a chance to “build a kit”, craft a note to include in the kit (we will send them to CWS); have their own backpacks, laptops, tablets and school year blessed and share in an ‘Ice Cream Social’.

We will also use the opportunity to introduce, network and connect with families about our new “Faith Formation in the Home” ministry:  FormingFaith.Net combines face-to-face, interactive service projects with virtual, online curricula which will put faith in conversation with culture and your daily lives.

More about the School Kits: Church World Services is in need of School Kits for children around the world.  School Kits give children in impoverished schools, refugee camps, or other difficult settings some of the basic tools for learning.  For your planning, here are the instructions for the school kits: http://www.cwsglobal.org/get-involved/kits/school-kits.html  Check out more details about the School Kit packing and shipping.

To assemble a CWS School Kit you will need:

• One pair of blunt metal scissors (rounded tip)
• Three 70-count spiral notebooks or notebooks totaling 200-210 pages (no loose-leaf or filler paper)
• One 30-centimeter ruler (12″)
• One hand-held pencil sharpener
• One large eraser
• Six new pencils with erasers
• One box of 24 crayons (only 24)
• One 12″ x 14″ to 14″ x 17″ finished size cotton or lightweight canvas bag with cloth handles. (Please, no reusable shopping bags or backpacks.)
• Pack all items inside the cloth bag (pattern for bag is on website)

We will also need to raise the $ 2.00 per kit for shipping to send along to CWS!

Note this Urgent Appeal issued in June:  “With the latest shipment of CWS School Kits to our partner IOCC in response to the Syrian refugee crisis, CWS is now down to about 60 cartons of School Kits at the New Windsor Warehouse and 120 cartons at the warehouse in Ferncliff.  We need to replenish these supplies immediately.  In the case of Syria, IOCC supports one of the largest established networks to deliver life-saving humanitarian aid inside Syria, where more than 9.3 million people are currently in need of assistance.  In November 2013, some 3,000 CWS School Kits were shipped for distribution in Syria.  CWS School Kits include some of the basic necessities for learning, including notebooks, pencils and crayons.  These kits help children return to normalcy faster, helping them avoid the long-term effects of trauma.”