The Order of St Luke: Healing Prayer and Presence

Posted on September 9, 2013 by News From Nick

On Friday night, September 6, the Order of St. Luke the Physician gathered in Holy Innocents Hall of St. Nicholas Church. All were welcome to come, share and join in the conversation.

The topic for the evening’s gathering was “The Healing Miracles of Jesus.” In October and early November the Order will be gathering at St. Nicholas, for three consecutive Saturdays. More details will be posted in an upcoming News From Nick edition.

Previously, we had offered congratulations and many blessings to the new members of the Order of St. Luke the Physician who were “invested” and “received” into the Order in mid August.

Shown are:
Thelma and Ray Malecek
Penny and Hank Mandziara
Jennifer Brundige, who was received several months ago
Kent Farbelow, a member of a Lutheran community in Crystal Lake, Illinois

May your ministry flourish and the blessings you share come back to you ten-fold.

God bless. We are all so very proud of you.

PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) Volunteer Training Ongoing

Posted on September 9, 2013 by News From Nick

The PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) program, providing overnight shelter for the homeless in NW suburban Cook County from 10/1/2013 to 4/30/2014, will be conducting training and orientation for the 2013-2014 season starting the week of September 2. The training/orientation lasts for 2 hours, and it is held at the Journey’s the Road Home (the parent organization of the PADS Program) office at 1140 E. Northwest Highway in Palatine. There are quite a few training and orientation sessions available during both daytime and weeknight hours from September through February. There are approximately 23 churches in NW suburban Cook County that participate in providing overnight shelter through the PADS program.

For more information about PADS, the web site is www.journeystheroadhome.org and the phone number is 847-963-9163, Hope Center, Ext. 17.

If anyone has questions about being a PADS volunteer, talk to Laura Lampe at church, send her an e-mail, or call her (check at the church for the latest directory). She has been a PADS volunteer since 1992, and would be glad to speak about her experiences.

Criminalizing Christ: The Love Wins Incident

Posted on August 31, 2013 by ginny

This thought-provoking post from The God Article blog touches on issues we at St Nicholas address through our food pantry. As many of us may remember from when our Holy Innocents Hall was constructed, we were stopped from accepting the donation of commercial-grade appliances for the kitchen by the village. It was thought that the reason for this was to prevent us from offering our space as a homeless shelter or soup kitchen. So this issue also applies to our humble efforts to serve Christ in others.

As a Christian, I know Jesus teaches us that we are to offer food to the hungry, to welcome the stranger, to give water to the thirsty — the least of these on the margins of society. But he goes much farther than that. He identifies with the least of these so much so that he says any time there is a hungry, thirsty or ostracized person, that person is Christ himself.

And if we don’t share our food, our water, or our welcome, then we are rejecting the Incarnation of God in this world.

That’s why the incident with Love Wins isn’t only about sharing food with the hungry and homeless. It isn’t just about the larger war on the hungry and the poor being waged in city councils, state houses, and in the federal government.

It isn’t even about the criminalization of homeless people, their advocates, and friends.

It is about the criminalization of Christ.

via Criminalizing Christ: The Love Wins Incident and the Nationwide Targeting of Homeless – The God Article.