BLESSING BAGS The Blessing Bag Ministry is a part of St. Andrew’s Deacon’s ministries which assembles and offers bags of toiletries, snacks, drinks, Bible verses, and Resource Guides for distribution to people who are homeless or those in Tucson who are in need. Specific ministries supported with these bags include Gospel Echoes and Tucson Homeless Work Program. For this ministry, toiletries and other items for the bags are donated by the congregation. These items are sorted and assembled during our quarterly Service Worship Sundays or as needed. These bags are available for pickup at both the SW and NE campuses, available to anyone who wishes to distribute them. They may satisfy a physical hunger or thirst, may educate or lead someone to an agency that can help them, and may even lead someone to know Christ as their Savior through the love of a stranger. St. Andrew’s Contact: Carol Fiore caatucson@msn.com
CHRISTIAN CHURCH MINISTRY IN THE MIDDLE EAST For over ten years, St. Andrew’s has supported this witness starting by working with the Middle East Council of Churches and then with the Good Samaritan Ministry (GSM) of the Presbyterian Church of Yazedia Syria. The GSM was established in 1993 to look after the needs of the elderly, those who need urgent medications as well as other basic needs, refugees and displaced people and children; all demonstrating the love and care of God shown in Jesus Christ. St. Andrew’s provided funds to encourage Christians to stay in their homeland and share Christ through their life and action by caring for all people (John 3: 16) who are suffering persecution and daily threat. The funds that St. Andrew’s provided helped with their daily living needs such as food basket, needed medicine, and health care. It also helped people develop themselves, providing a small fund for children in preschool as they prepare for their basic education, empowering women, especially widows and single women, and sometimes temporary rent for the displaced and refugees. The ministry was not limited to the local village but reached out to many people in need, e.g. during the 2011 war in Syria it reached out to many displaced families in neighboring Lebanon. 6
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