On Sunday, March 7, you’re invited to an interactive prayer afternoon at Grace. The church is open from 3-5 pm, and you may come and go during that time. There are different prayer centers throughout the building where you can engage in prayer at your own pace.
This Lent you’re invited to a three-week Bible Study focused on Matthew 25. In the fall of 2020, the Grace Session signed on to the PCUSA Matthew 25 initiative. For three weeks in Lent, Pastor Catherine Neelly Burton leads a Bible study on Matthew 25 and an intro to the PCUSA initiative.
The class is on Wednesdays, February 24, March 3, March 10 at 6:30 pm. Please let Catherine know if you have a strong preference for in person or Zoom.
In December our Director of Food Ministries, Melaina Phares, had knee surgery. During her recovery period an incredible group of volunteers have prepared lunch each day for Jacob’s Learning Ladder. We give thanks for these volunteers: Chris Alexander, Trish Gealy, Lib Hooper, and Edith Tice.
We are in good financial shape as we move into 2021. Our expenses for 2020 (represented by the Red Bar on the graph) were on budget. Our pledged giving in 2020 was in keeping with the amount pledged; however, the total giving we anticipated was down for last year. Non pledged income was off by a substantial amount. The accompanying graph shows that the Blue Bar (Regular income: donations, other giving, and Jacob’s income) did not meet the expenses for the year.
The 2020 budget anticipated some of this, and at the end of February, we moved the $62,000 in endowment and maintenance monies approved in the budget into the Operating account. In March we received a Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan in the amount of $174,800. This allowed us to keep all of our staff on payroll during the spring and move in to 2021 in good shape. The Green Bar on the graph shows the total income for the year, including the endowment and maintenance money and the PPP loan. You can see that we ended the year with a strong cash presence. But that PPP loan, which became a grant because we used it for operating costs, is a one time boost. As we move through this new year we need everyone to continue to give to Grace. We cannot do what we are doing as a church without each of you. Your gifts of time, talent and financial support are crucial to us as we move forward through the year. Thank you for your commitment to the ministries of Grace.
Each month we designate a community partner and give you the opportunity to donate items for them. In January we partnered with the Covenant Presbyterian Food Pantry. In February our Refugee Team leads the initiative, and we partner with the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
We are helping IRC put together “Go-Bags.” The go bags are specifically for survivors of human trafficking. The human trafficking and refugee communities experience cross-over, and IRC is partnering with the Lighthouse Project for this initiative. Our contributions will provide IRC with a supply of bags that they can hand off to someone ‘on the go,’ someone escaping trafficking. A survivor leaving trafficking is unlikely to have anything more than the clothes on their back.
Each bag has items that help get them started in a new life. A donation was made to cover the cost of 50 duffle bags, and now we get to help fill them. There are a few ways to contribute:
If you want to learn more about Wichita IRC go here: https://www.rescue.org/united-states/wichita-ks