St. Stephen's Outreach

Below is a brief review of all the activities of this very active committee:
We continued to support some ongoing ministries such as:
•    Clearfork’s Summer Camp, as well as a Christmas dinner for the children and their families;
•    Haiti’s Medical Clinic, which provides medication and the sole medical care to residents of Petit Harpon and its surrounding areas; 
•    Walk Over Wednesday (WOW), which provides meals to about 40 high school students each week during the school year;
•    Ecumenical Storehouse – volunteers from St. Stephen’s helped during the month of September, in addition to our continued financial support;
•    Episcopal Development and Relief fund – provided relief for victims of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria;
•    Family Resource Center, which provides food and clothing to students as well as case management and financial assistance with rent, gas, and rent to their families; 
•    ADFAC School Supplies Program which provides School supplies to over 4000 children in Anderson and surrounding counties. A combined group of volunteers form St. Stephen’s and First United Methodist helped pack and deliver backpacks. 
•    AKA Scholarship, which is awarded at the Martin Luther King Program, and which helps minority students achieve their dreams of pursuing a college education; 
•    Blankets+ Campaign, which provides blankets to families and individuals suffering from disaster and displacement in the U.S. and around the world;
•    Morgan Scott Project, providing volunteer drivers to help load and drive a truck full of food to Morgan County;
•    A Christmas Compassion Tree, which provided toys, gift cards, necessary items such as diapers, clothing and $600 in monetary donations for foster children who are removed from their home at Christmas time.
Outreach also supported some ministries for the first time, including:
•    Brysonn’s Closet Food Pantry- this unadvertised Food Pantry serves some of the poorest in both Anderson and surrounding counties;
•    TORCH – ministry of providing support and transitional housing to the homeless;
•    Compassion Closet, which provides clothing, toys, baby items, etc. for local foster children who are often put into a foster home with nothing of their own;
•    Rio Grande Borderline Ministries – through the mite box donations (a joint effort with Christian Education);
•    Also, in a joint effort with Parish Life – a parish Tex-Mex Dinner was given with a Zoom presentation with Fr. Mike Wallen, Director of Rio Grande Borderline Ministries, and a presentation by Emily Doane and Olivia Cox about local efforts to assist the Hispanic Community,
And last, but not least, an exciting new ministry was begun:
•    Blessing Box which provides 24/7 food and cleaning and hygiene items to those in need. The Blessing Box is meeting a genuine need, as items are taken from our Blessing Box on a daily basis. 
We thank the parish for your generous contributions, your ongoing involvement, and your support.  If you have any questions, or would like to join the Outreach Committee, please contact Liz Herbes at 865-228-2537.