Dear Friends in Christ,
I am very pleased to tell you, if you were not at our Congregational Meeting on Sunday that we have elected three VERY qualified persons to serve the next three years on our Vestry. They are John "Red" Redling, Jennifer Parr, and Joe Shearin.
We also give thanks for those who have given their time and talent in the last three years, now rotating off the Vestry; Becky Redling, Phillip Melesky, and Joe Concodora. Special thanks to Phillip serving as Sr. Warden and Joe serving as Jr. Warden. Their contributions to this church are priceless!
One of the things that I left out of our meeting was a report about our outreach projects. Carol Hopkins has served as our Outreach and Mission Chair for a number of years now and has done just an outstanding job keeping the Vestry and me informed about what we are doing and how our projects have been going and getting into the nitty-gritty of projects herself. Carol gave me the outreach report prior to the service, but it must have gotten mixed up in my sermon on the pulpit lectern as I was giving my report. I apologize for this, but want to include and summarize it here.
Lenten Outreach - Sent $692.50 to Episcopal Relief and Development for Global Need to help fight poverty, hunger, disease, and disasters around the world.
Special Easter Offering Envelopes - brought in $445.00 which was split equally between the Hopewell Food Pantry and the Prince George Food Bank.
Thanksgiving Food Boxes - donating to six client families of the Hopewell/Prince George Healthy Families network, boxes included canned and dried foods as well as turkeys, butter, milk, eggs, sugar, and dried pinto and navy beans. With an excess of food donations for the food boxes, the excess was split evenly between the Hopewell Food Pantry and the Prince George Food Bank.
Christmas Special Offering Envelopes - money received this year will be split between Jackson-Feild Home in Jarrett, VA and Boys Home of Virginia in Covington, VA.
Beans and Rice Ministry - Now in its 7th year of once a month sharing food in need on the third Saturday of every month (unless otherwise announced) has given out approximately 180 lbs. of beans (pinto and other), and approximately 360 lbs. of rice during 2021.
Thank you Carol for all the work you have done!
If you have not gotten your pledge card and filled it in for the coming year please do so ASAP so we can correct our budget where it needs to be corrected. If you haven't done this, don't feel bad, I haven't done it yet either. But I will get it done immediately while I am thinking about it. We thank each and every one of you for hanging in there and your continuing support during the Pandemic. With my continued blessings as usual, I am,
Faithfully and sincerely yours,
Fr. Bill+