Learn about New Journey’s Social Ministry.
Food for Kidz – March 21, 2019 (5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.)
New Journey Lutheran, Church of the Ascension (Catholic), and Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran co-sponsor Food for Kidz, bringing together hundreds of volunteers from across the community to pack over 80,000 fortified meals each year. This will be the ninth year that volunteers in Fountain Hills have participated in the project with a total of 400,000 meals packed in the past eight years.
Meals are distributed by various groups that feed the hungry, including the Extended Hands Food Bank in Fountain Hills; the Navajo Lutheran Mission in Rock Point, Ariz.; Grace in the City outreach in Phoenix; Native American Urban Connection, Phoenix; and AZ Brainfood.
Native American Urban Ministry (NAUM)
New Journey Lutheran supports NAUM by worshiping together, engaging in youth activities, and providing clothing and furniture for individuals transitioning from homelessness into housing. In addition, meals packed during the annual Food for Kidz event are distributed by NAUM.
Navajo Evangelical Lutheran Mission (NELM)
New Journey supports NELM at Rock Point, Arizona, by donating funds for school supplies and for families. New Journey is a sponsor of the NELM basketball team, donating money for the purchase of uniforms and shoes for the team. NELM receives meals assembled by the Food For Kidz food pack.
Make A Difference Day
New Journey Lutheran participates in the Fountain Hills Make a Difference Day, serving neighbors in need. Volunteers from the faith community and other organizations assist residents by weeding and raking yards, cleaning and organizing garages, and building wheelchair ramps for home-bound residents.
Heat Respite – Grace Lutheran Church, Phoenix
During the hot summer months, New Journey members and friends make, deliver, and serve sack lunches for homeless individuals who come for heat respite at Grace Lutheran Church in central Phoenix.
Native American Connections (NAC)
New Journey provides quilts and toiletries to Native American Connections. NAC’s mission is improving the lives of individuals and families through Native American culturally appropriate behavioral health, affordable housing, and community development services. NAC owns and operates 18 sites throughout Central Phoenix offering a continuum of affordable housing and behavioral health services which touch the lives of over 6,000 individuals and families each year.
ELCA Good Gifts
As members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), we believe that God is calling us into the world – together. And with generous, loving hands, we can make a difference. ELCA Good Gifts is our opportunity to provide critical support to the ministries and programs that mean the most to us and the people we love. Throughout the year, New Journey donates to ELCA Good Gifts. This Christmas, we are collecting donations for a Community Vegetable Garden, Gardening Tools, goats, pigs, and honey bees.
Extended Hands Food Bank
New Journey is deepening its relationship with the Fountain Hills’ Extended Hands Food Bank (EHFB) by having a bin for the food bank in the back of the church. Each month the food bank lets us know what they are in need of so that we can target our food collection to fit their needs. We will be organizing a volunteer team to help stock the shelves at the food bank.
For the first two Sundays in September, New Journey collected food for the 9/11 Food Drive. This Food Drive came into being as an attempt to bring something positive out of our remembering the events of 9/11. It is an interfaith effort that includes The Fountains United Methodist Church, the Islamic Speakers Bureau Temple Soleil and numerous others. New Journey is currently the only Lutheran congregation to participate. The food collected was divided between Extended Hands Food Bank in Fountain Hills and the Cultural Cup Food Bank in Phoenix.
Angel Tree
Members and friends of New Journey purchased Christmas gifts for two very needy families from Imagine School in East Mesa. Imagine School is a charter school that is a publicly funded non-profit.