Serving our Community
New Milford Food Bank
We’re in front of the church to collect your donations of non-perishable foods and personal-care items on the first and third Wednesdays of each month from 10am to noon. The items collected are then delivered to the New Milford Food Bank.
Please remember that you can always bring in food on Sunday mornings and place your offerings in the donation baskets next to the last pew. Especially needed are personal care items – toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, shampoo, soaps, toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, disposable razors, and shaving cream. These items are not covered by food stamps and are needed desperately.
Each month, we bring forward the donations to be blessed with our offering as part of our worship. Please be generous, and next time you are in the grocery store, pick up something for someone who can’t shop for themselves.
Literacy Volunteers on The Green
Literacy Volunteers on the Green provides free English literacy instruction to adults in Litchfield and northern Fairfield Counties so they can participate fully in the communities we share. Our vision is for every adult to fulfill his or her life goals through English literacy.
Learn more at lvg-ct.org.
Tall Paul’s Closet
Opened in 2012 and named in honor of our friend Paul Rake, Tall Paul’s Closet helped provide warm clothes to the local homeless community before closing during the COVID 19 pandemic. It is currently being repurposed to better meet the needs of the New Milford community. Please check back soon for more information.
Change for Change
We are truly grateful to all who participate in the “Change for Change” program and please remember to bring in your jars of change to remind everyone about this program.
The contributions made by St. John’s members will change people’s lives, not only in the United States, but throughout the world. The Change for Change Committee would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all those who have donated their change to help these great causes.
The Santa Fund
Each holiday season, St John’s “adopts” a selection of children from our community in order to purchase gifts for them. Details about these children are furnished by New Milford Social Services, so that members of our church can buy them appropriate gifts while still preserving the anonymity of the families who will receive the gifts.
Serving the World
New Milford Refugee Resettlement
The New Milford Refugee Resettlement and Washington Refugee Resettlement Project groups are each expecting to receive families soon. Both families will be settled in houses near our church.
Although we will not know for sure until each family arrives, we anticipate two families from the Turquoise Mountain area in Afghanistan. A group of 12 families from this area were evacuated to Qatar; we think that the NMRR family is being moved to a military base now.
We won’t have much advance notice before the families arrive, but both of the houses are fully furnished, pantries are stocked, literacy volunteers are ready and the local school systems are aware. Tall Paul’s Closet is being prepared and stocked.
We also learned at the vestry meeting (thanks to Donna Sullivan) that there is a difference between the words Afghan and Afghani. Afghani actually refers to a form of currency in Afghanistan, so these refugee families are Afghan, not Afghani.
If you have an interest in helping out with refugee resettlement, please reach out to Lisa or Sharlene.
Kiva
With an initial investment of about $3,000 and by re lending loans as they are repaid, the St. John’s Kiva lending group has lent over $14,000 to over 500 deserving women entrepreneurs in 50 different countries. These figures are as of Dec 2017. The initial investment was funded through the cooperative fundraising efforts of Women’s Global Mission Group, Change for Change, and the Victorian Tea. As the money is repaid it is lent out again resulting in perpetual mission giving without further investment from St. John’s. The deserving women who receive our loans repay at a 98% repayment rate and are able to enhance the lives of their families and communities primarily through small business start ups.
Visit kiva.org to learn more.