Thank you Jay & Erma Macht for stuffing backpacks at Liberty the busy month of December. Joy Abel and Carole & Dick Jenkins will be our wonderful volunteers for January.

Did you know that Shiloh has been asked to stuff backpacks for Goshen Elementary too? Starting in January, two extra bags will be packed with love and food and headed to Goshen each week. What a blessing for Shiloh to have the opportunity to reach out to more families in need.

Want to join in & stuff backpacks? Let Pauline Moore know. April and May are available.

Thanks to Joe Taylor for stuffing backpacks all November at Liberty. Erma and Jay Macht will be stuffing backpacks for December. If you are interested in stuffing backpacks for April or May (Jan –Mar are already taken), please see Pauline Moore.

Did you know that Great Harvest does not provide food the week of Thanksgiving to our special friends at Liberty? Well Shiloh would not let them go without so we shopped and assembled special Thanksgiving backpacks for each sponsored child.

Special thank you to Dick Jenkins who created 36 Christmas stockings for each Blessings child. With money donated by Shiloh, our youth shopped to stuff the stockings. The week of December 12th, the stockings will be added to the backpacks for a special surprise.

Please check out this article in the Oldham Era:

http://www.oldhamera.com/content/era-readers-support-blessings-backpack

Starting in September, Shiloh will be sponsoring 36 children at Liberty Elementary by supplying food for the weekend through Blessings in a Backpack. Volunteers will stuff backpacks. If you are able to volunteer for one month (or more), please let Pauline Moore know at pmoore2904@gmail.com.

If you are not able to serve with your time, there are several other ways to help with this mission. You can sponsor a child for one school year for $80 per child. There will be a box available each week where you can donate items that will be used to supplement the backpacks like soup, canned fruit or vegetables, beef jerky, peanut butter, crackers, and Easy Mac.

How to Fundraise. We know that there are people outside our congregation that want to participate with us. These include companies with matching programs, scout troops, neighbors and friends. What to do. We have drafted an example letter that you can use to make it easier for people outside our congregation to join in this wonderful ministry. The letter is on our website in a downloadable form and is also in the narthex. If you would like a copy emailed, just let Pastor Susan know. What else to do. Take a backpack off our Blessings Tree in the sanctuary and fund a child for a year for $80. Make it a family project or a group effort or a gift honoring someone who once helped

Our mission offering at Conference this year will go to plant a new church in Thailand and to support the education and development of new church planters in the country of Venezuela. Both of these nations have young, emerging Methodist churches. Our efforts in Thailand are through Kentucky Conference leaders, Mike and Sherri Morrissey. The work in Venezuela is in cooperation with the United Methodist Church of Venezuela and their Bishop, Juvenal Perez. In Thailand we will be actually providing support for the development of a specific congregation, helping to fund the pastor’s salary. Please prayerfully consider supporting this gospel-spreading mission during service on Sunday. You may also get your offering to Joe Taylor or Pastor Susan.

TIME TO FUNDRAISE FOR 2011 SCHOOL YEAR

It’s time to begin fundraising for the Liberty BB program which, as always, is funded up-front for the entire school year. We know that there are people outside our congregation that want to participate with us. These include companies with matching programs, scout troops, neighbors and friends. Funding a child for a year lasts longer than flowers and makes a great gift!

With that in mind, we have drafted an example letter that you can use to make it easier for people outside our congregation to join in this wonderful ministry. The letter is on our website in a downloadable form (click here->blessings-in-a-backpack-fundraising and then click on the form icon to down load the form) and is also in the narthex. If you would like a copy emailed, just let Pastor Susan know.