Things that Share The Faith Ministries has helped with.
Although I work twenty hours a week or more for our mission, at this stage in our mission’s life, I am not comfortable taking a salary. My wife homeschools our daughter and thus does not work outside the home, so our financial needs are acutely felt at times. From the beginning our financial situation was made tighter by our heavy financial support of St. Jacob’s. But now the entire support we generously receive from Share the Faith goes to the mission, and we count this as our tithe and offering, so we can breathe a little easier at home while still supporting God’s work financially.
Money from Share the Faith allowed us to easily make the final payment on our first permanent Altar Table. This Altar Table was built for us by a professional woodworker, Subdeacon Dionysius Delong of St. Ambrose Mission in St. Ignace. His work is stunning and the price he charged us for this custom work was truly sacrificial on his part.
Funds from Share the Faith allowed us to entirely revamp and expand our parish library. I feel that access to good Orthodox books–including Church Fathers, young adult novels, saint stories, scholarly studies, catechetical materials, and more–is essential for optimal Christian formation. But often these titles do not come cheaply. Funds from Share the Faith have allowed us to deepen our collection, and our library is popular among our parishioners.
Funds from Share the Faith have allowed us to afford the materials we need for Adult Religious Education classes. Right now we’re in the midst of a class on the Apostolic Fathers, going through the writings of Sts. Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp; we might end this 8-week session with the Didache. Reader George is preparing to teach a class on St. Ephraim the Syrian in November.
Share the Faith has enabled our mission to grant one gifted lady parishioner full scholarship including travel funds, to a Prosopon Icon Workshop in Cincinnati. Her education there was so successful, and she has now been granted a full scholarship to a second Prosopon workshop, this time by the Prosopon organization itself; she leaves for their Minneapolis workshop this Saturday.
Funds from Share the Faith have also helped us pay the application fee for one of our members to enroll in the catechist training program at the Pastoral School of Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America (ROCOR); he was granted a full scholarship there and he is enjoying his program of study.
Funds from Share the Faith have allowed us to set up our newly-opened Mother Olga Food Pantry. We welcome individuals from our community to come in and pick out the foods they wish to take, with no income verification or other potentially off-putting restrictions or measures. Besides soliciting food donations, we have a very productive relationship with Feeding America West Michigan that helps us do this. While items from that food bank are very inexpensive, we do stil cover hundreds of dollars of food shipping costs, and we would be unlikely to be able to afford this without Share the Faith.
Things that Share The Ministries grant could be helping with in the future or moving forward.
1. The area in front of our glass front doors serves as a city bus stop. Unofficially, but certainly. Every day our neighbors wait there to take the bus to work or to go shopping, and there is a portico that
shelters them from the rain and snow, but no benches or seats; and we do have issues with trash and cigarette butts in this area. We would love to have two heavy duty park benches and a garbage can with cigarette disposal tray. We want to be hospitable to these neighbors, most of whom are who are in need. We would also love to have a weather-proof literature box (I have in mind roughly the same kind of thing they used to put free newspapers in). Estimated cost is $1,000-$1,500.
2. We need to have professional signage put on those same glass front doors so our neighbors stay cognizant of us. Estimated cost is $300-$500.
3. In our Church room we have florescent lights and no windows; we already have replaced the florescent bulbs with warm florescent bulbs, but this only helps so much. These lights make the Church feel too much like an office. It would cost an enormous amount to have the lights replaced by an electrician, the ceiling refinished, etc. However, light boxes to filter and soften the light would be an excellent option, and I have already discussed this with the professional Orthodox woodworker who built our Altar Table. We have eight florescent lights, so toal estimated cost is $800-$1,200.
4. Finally, we are working on saving toward a building of our own. This is obviously a long-term savings project, but we must start in earnest. There are many church buildings that are likely to come up for sale in our area in the next decade, and we want to be ready.
