Packing lunches, touching lives

On the second Sunday of every month, teens and parents gather at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church, Keller, to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and put together a complete lunch (water bottle, sandwich, chips, protein bar, and dessert) for the homeless people being served by the Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County.

Union Gospel Mission’s goal is to end homelessness.The goal of the Episcopal Youth Community (EYC) of St. Martin’s is to make 70-100 sack lunches to help feed them.The first Service Sunday resulted in 86 sack lunches, the second in 91.

This ministry got its start with the Episcopal Youth Community, which is made up of 6th-12th graders. Other ministries of the congregation are asked to pick a month and partner with the EYC on a Service Sunday.

St. Martin’s is inviting every church in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth to join them at noon for the next service Sunday on September 14, 2014, in the Education Building.  People with peanut allergies need to be aware that peanut products are used.

This is the call to action: For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in…Matthew 25:35

This is what Children and Youth Minister/School Chaplain Corrie Cabes calls “The Blessing of a Peanut Butter Sandwich.”

• If you make a peanut butter sandwich…you’ll see parents and teens laughing, spending time together and smiling.
• If you give that sandwich to someone who is hungry…you reclaim that child of God, who was forgotten by many.
• If you write a prayer card for someone at Union Gospel Mission…you’ll connect with someone you may never see, but whose life will be changed forever.
• If you drive to Fort Worth to deliver lunches…you’ll realize that there are people in need very close to you.
• If you design and decorate a lunch sack…you’ll see that anyone can be an artist and create something quite beautiful.
• If you donate supplies for sack lunches…you provide nourishment that feeds more than the body.
• If the Episcopal Youth Community invites everyone to help make lunches for the homeless ….they share God’s love and the call to be servant leaders.

Everyone, young and old and in between, is welcome to help or to donate items needed for the luncheon. Children are welcome to come with their families to make lunches.There are jobs even for three-year-olds. For nursery care for children under the age of three, see contact information below.

Money donations also are welcome – write a check with “EYC Service Sunday” in the memo and take or send it to St. Martin’s.They also are open to donations of time and supplies needed to make the lunches.

People wanting to help deliver meals packed at St. Martin’s to the Union Gospel Mission of Tarrant County, please see contact information below.

For more information, contact Corrie Cabes, Children and Youth Minister/School Chaplain at corrie.cabes@stmartininthefields.org or 817-431-2396.

See more photos of Service Sunday at the diocesan Flickr page..