Group+F

=Group F=

Please keep in mind that only one person can edit this page at a time. It is recommended that each of you choose a colour of font and use the same one throughout.

As you work on your social action project (committed to 12 hours of dedicated time to giving service to others) plus responding in a Wiki format with your group of three, you will answer the following question: In light of your understanding of ministry, what does it mean to minister to others through your project? You will share your thoughts and observations and actions of setting up to kinds of things you did to what you observed or saw to the final pieces of your project. At the end of your project (Dec. 2 or what you have completed thus far), your group will come up with a group response to what is ministry based on your social action journey.

Let's start answering this question    tonight.

//What does it mean to you to minister to others? What is ministry?

    Jacquie and I (from FX O'Reilly School in Tottenham), have chosen to organize our Thanksgiving food Drive as our Ministy to others project. We have been overwhelmed with the response of the students. After just one day of collecting donations (180 cans/boxes) we had to find a different space to store the food. My original plan was to keep it in the Grade 8 classroom, but his was just too much. We have now set up a huge display in our front hall at the altar. Hey Pat, I am not sure if I am just suppose to type directly underneath your stuff or not. Let me know if I am doing this wrong. Anyway, your Thanksgiving food drive sounds great. Sometimes if you really get the kids excited about something like this they can really overwhelm you with the response!! It sounds like it went really well. Did you drop the food off at the food bank yet? It will be interesting to hear about their response when you bring in all that food!! I have decided to volunteer at the Humane Society shelter. I have contacted them and they only allow dog walking between 4 and 5 pm on weekday evenings. I get home from work at about 4:20 at the earliest so they said one dog walked would be better than nothing so I am able to go at 4:20 - 5pm. Right now I am in the process of getting a police check (can you believe you need that to work with dogs - althought it is probably a good thing). Let me know how the drop off went. Cara

A police check for working with dogs. Wow! Anyway - tonight I will talk about our school food drive that I helped coordinate. It was a great first social justice effort that I have participatied in at my new school. I transferred to a school that runs itself - that is the people there are so committed to ensuring things get done - that they help one another -completely a blessing. We have a canoe in our school foyer and the kids were asked to "fill the canoe" as they are every year. We started the project late - in only three days they filled it. It was fantastic. All my fellow teachers were so supportive of the effort. What I found different from this foood drive experience was that I wasn't alone in trying to get it done - but I felt that wasn't doing enough. It was a success. The next sj project is the Christmas shoe box campaign. Now I need to get that organized. Glad your food drive was a success Pat! Cheers til next time, Corinna

Oct.24-We raised a total of 981 non-perishable items for the FX Food-drive. Awesome!!! A FX School record for sure! Our principal awarded the top 3 classes with a Pizza Lunch party. Whoo!! I called the Tottenham Food Bank and they preferred to come pick-up the food at the school. "John" showed up at 9:30 Thursday morning before Thanksgiving and I chose 3 grade 8s to help us load the food into his van. The students really enjoyed the physical labour (realizing the significance of their positive actions). Earlier that morning I was watching the"A" Morning Show out of Barrie and they were broadcasting live out of Barrie's Food Bank on George St. Empty shelves were displayed and a plea for food donations were made. We decided to hold back about 1/4 of the Tottenham's Drive and donate to the needed Barrie Foodbank. The need everywhere throughout Simcoe County is so great. Till next time Pat G Hey everyone -first of all I changed some of the font colours - sorry and I don't know how to switch them..can somebody help. ALso I am a late starter on the Wiki site, so this is my firts entry. You may be wondering what Ihave bee n up to..well I have been helping with the Good food program in Bradford. Every month Holy Martyrs of Japan delivers a "good food bag" to people in the communityand I have been responsible for coordinating the pick up and in Aliston and the dropoff in Bradford. The bags consist of local farm products and go to those who need it in Bradford. I'll update you more next time! Andrea Hi guys! Hope that your sj projects are going well. My new one is the Samaritans Purse - Operation Christmas child, where we send boxes to Africa and S. America. The boxes have small items, such as socks and toothbrushes. It is going alright yet I find it hard to get people to join-in the effort, when you are new at a school. I guess these things take time. Thanks for listening, Corinna

Hi Guys, Me again. I belong to the Haiti project at our church. Just recently,my class wrote letters the the children of the St. Paul's parish (in Haiti0 It was an eye opener of just how much our dear students have been sheltetred yet more importatntly how much they wanted to know about the plight people face in Haiti. I showed them a slide show, then they did some research on Haiti. They were amazed that Haiti doesn't get snow (perhaps I need to dig into some climatology studies in term two). Anyway, the letters are off. One thing I asked the kids not to expect was anything in return - not even a letter. They were awesome about it. I thought I would have heard some grumblings, but I didnt't. Anyway, see you Tuesday to discuss final thoughts about our sj service, for part III. Corinna Hey everyone - well I changed the font colours again by accident, not sure how this happened. Anyways I just wanted to give a final explanation of what I have been doing for my volunteer hours. As I mentioned before I taxied food for the Church in Bradford from Innisfil for the the good food program. I really didn't come into contact with the people for whom I was delivering the food, but as Xmas approaches I know that this food is probably more important than ever. Also in my class we have adopted a family with a single mother and two daughters and Have raised 5 to 10 dollars per student in order to buy Xmas presents. I was blown away by the response of my students, they were really into in and we had to draw names to see who would go out to buy the presents. I thought that I would have to pull teeth to make sure that the family got enough gifts, but so far the only one still owing money is me!! Andrea

As a group we are supposed to answer the question of what is ministry? In doing my volunteer projects I have found that the biggest thing for me is giving of my time even when I don't feel I have the time to give. Ministry is helping when it is not always convenient for you. In other words ministering to others is NOT about you, its about giving of yourself and who you are helping in their time of need. That is my two cents, pls. add yours for our definition! Andrea

Hi guys, It sounds like you have all been doing great work. Well I was suppose to do some dog walking at the Humane Society in Barrie but since my police check took until December to arrive I think I have missed the boat. I spoke to them last week and they told me they would be doing interviews in January. Because my police check was taking so long I decided to check into some other options. The Christmas cheer program only operates on weekday afternoons until next week, the foodbank in Barrie doesn't need any more volunteers right now, the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen has not called me after I have filled out the volunteer application. Wow, I can't even give my time away!! I went to the Soup Kitchen to fill out the application and that was an eye opening experience. I had to walk around the back of the building to the men's shelter area at night. I was definitely feeling a little uncomfortable. Then when I entered they asked me if I needed food. While I was filling out the forms I met some of the men who were staying at the shelter. If I had seen many of the men on the street I would not have guessed they were staying in a shelter! I can't imagine having to show up there for the first time and ask for help! I am lucky to have the life that I have. Anyway, enough about my failures at Ministry. I have been using my lunch hours at school to provide a homework club to students who need extra help with their work, or for those who don't have the home support or structure to get their work completed. I am overwhelmed everyday by the participation of the students. On average, about 30 students in Grades 4-8 show up Monday-Thursday. It seems these kids actually want to do well in school and are willing to put in the extra effort. Cara Hi Guys, My experience with the social justice projects that I worked on were successful because the students answered the call. I think that a large part of leading active ministry, for me. was to be organized and prepared to educate the kids first about the cause. I feel that kids need a spirtual hook in order to become actively involved, and participate in the experience. I think if that if they are not made aware intellectually and spiritually of the need for social justice then they are unable to connect with the cause. Presenting information, for example, about the purpose of a food drive allows them to process the need for action. There is plenty of statistical data for example to support the cause for food drives in Simcoe County, why not share this with the students? I think all human beings have a thirst for knowledge and genuinely want to help out their fellow sisters and brothers. I found that presenting the actual need for active social justice with links to scripture was highy effective in helping the kids become motivated to participate. I also found that the kids needed to see images of what poor is - not just in places like Africa, but in our own towns and cities. This really helped them relinquish their ignorance and replace it with Truth. Overall, I guess what I am trying to say in that ministry requires active leadership, a leadership that allows the students an opportunity to think and feel for what really matters. I also felt that my learners needed different ways to think and feel for social justice concepts. I learned that ministry requires the leader to be every aware of what the student's need to keep their hearts open to hear the Truth. I found that sometimes they needed quiet reflection and somethimes they needed me, their leader", to have a stronger voice about our calling to be active Catholics. I agree with your final ideas, Cara - our Catholic students are willing. They want to be part of Jesus ministry, and I feel my role was to be the voice in calling them to Jesus' Truth. Corinna

Hello again everyone, I understand that we are to come up with a definition for what we think Ministry actually is. I was listening to CBC radio the other day and they were talking about environmental activism. They mentioned a quote, but I don't remember who it was by. As soon as I heard it I said to myself "That is what Ministry means to me". I will share the quote with you and you can tell me what you think tonight. " Wise people (or insert caring people) plant the seeds of trees in whose shade they will never sit" To me this quote means that we do things to benefit others, to enhance the growth and life of others, even though it may not directly benefit ourselves. For example, when I am spending my lunch hour helping in homework club, yes I am sometimes helping my own students but often I am helping the Grade 8's which is of no benefit to me, I will never teach these students but still it is the right thing to do. When we help in a soup kitchen we are not helping to better our own lives directly but we are helping for the greater good! Cara  //