Dearly Beloved,
When Mr. Courtney Shanken, a World War II veteran who flew 50 missions, saw all of our Troop Support Ministry care packages at the Highland Park Post Office, he praised the Ministry as a "very worthy endeavor." Last week he sent us a check for $100 from the Jewish War Veterans.
Come Join the St. Gregory's Team! As part of our summer sabbatical activities we're kicking off the season with a team event. Come join fellow parishioners on Saturday, June 20, at 1:00 p.m. at the Ft. Sheridan Forest Preserve, and participate in the 8th Annual Walk to End Homelessness. Signup Sheets are available outside the parish office. You can walk, donate, or do both.
All ages are welcome. The full course is 4 miles with a 1 mile version available which takes you back to the starting point/parking lot. We'll have a St. Gregory "camp" and gather for food and fellowship at the end of the walk. PADS staff will be available to provide more information about their services and how we might provide ongoing support.
If you have questions please contact Nancy Nichols at 847-913-5836.
Additional information about PADS (last in a series):
Apart from providing emergency housing, PADS has other programs and facilities to help the homeless. Last week we looked at The Family Center and the Veteran House. The last program in our series, Safe Haven, is a housing program for 15 adult participants who are chronically homeless and who have a serious mental illness, usually schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. In addition to these programs and facilities, there are people who make crucial direct contacts. The PADS outreach worker, along with a PADS volunteer, drives a van around Lake County twice a week, making connections with chronically homeless persons living on the streets, under bridges, in abandoned buildings, and in other places where it is known that persons experiencing homelessness congregate. They hand-out sack lunches, toiletries, hats and gloves, foot salve, and anything else they might have to make life on the streets more comfortable.
Does this ministry call to you? You can make a difference in our community. Here are just a few of the volunteer opportunities: **We need lunches every day for clients and outreach. **We are looking for literacy and GED tutors. **Gardening volunteers to weed and plant. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Lynn (lflynn@lakecountypads.org) at 847-689-4357 ext. 121.
The Seal of the Diocese of Chicago
The inverted Y at the center represents Chicago, divided in three parts by the river. The fleur-de-lis denotes the voyages of the French discoverers, LaSalle and Marquette. The phoenix commemorates the great Chicago fire. The mitre at the top represents the bishop, and behind the mitre, crossing from left to right, is the sword of St. Paul (the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, Hebrews 4:12); and, crossing from right to left, the Keys of the Kingdom, which symbolize St. Peter (I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 16:19). On the bands around the sword and keys is the motto of the first Bishop of Illinois, Philander Chase: "Jehova Jireh" (the Lord will provide); and around the border of the shield is the motto of the second Bishop of Illinois, Henry John Whitehouse: "Fide Parta, Fide Aucta" (Conceived in Faith, by Faith Achieved). Designed by Ralph Adams Cram, the shield was adopted by the Diocese of Chicago in 1904.
This will be my last Newsletter until I return in September, so I'd like to conclude by telling you a little bit about our final destination, Madagascar, where we will establish a companion relationship with a new mission church in Ft. Dauphin. This comes from a book entitled Eccentric Islands, by Bill Holm © 2000, pp. 261-2, 278: Madagascar "is an enormous, California-sized island, 1,000 miles long, 350 miles wide, sitting in the Indian Ocean, 250 miles east of Mozambique. It remained uninhabited longer than any other large habitable landmass, until maybe fifteen hundred years ago when immigrants from Borneo, Malaysia, Indonesia crossed the Indian Ocean in small boats. . . . They spoke Malagasy, a Malayo-Polynesian language related to Hawaiian but not to any neighboring African language. Madagascar is still home to most of the world's lemurs, chameleons, and orchids. . . . Because of its ancient separation from other land masses and island isolation far enough from a continent to make species exchange almost impossible, evolution proceeded strangely throughout Madagascar. Its largest snake is the tree boa, cousin to South American snakes but not to any African species. Lemurs . . . have almost disappeared from Africa or elsewhere, but here, without serious predators or competitors, they branched out grandly. Over one thousand orchids, found nowhere else on earth, bloom here. Even now scientists continue to discover new species, new plants, new delights in the remaining forests of Madagascar.
Madagascar is also the 20th poorest country on earth, with an annual Gross Domestic Product of $1,100. You can find more about the McGregors' work in Madagascar and Eastern Africa at www.peoplereaching.org.
Faithfully yours,
"We are ambassadors for Christ, God appealing to the world through us." 2 Corinthians 5:20
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