Esperanza Academy Head of School joins us

Jadi Taveras, Head of Esperanza Academy, joined us for worship on February 6th. For 14 years Good Shepherd has supported this tuition-free school for middle school girls in Lawrence.

Hear Jadi address our community:

The pupusa truck is coming January 29th!

Support the El Salvador Scholarship Fund and bring your family the experience of delicious Salvadoran pupusas!!

Place your order by Monday, January 24. Come to pick up your order at the entrance of the church Saturday, January 29 between 5:00 and 6:00 pm. Pupusas are coming from Fuente de Vida, an authentic Salvadoran restaurant in Worcester.

Pupusa varieties include cheese, cheese and beans, cheese and chicken, cheese and jalapeño, cheese and pork, cheese and loroco (similar to summer squash). A typical adult serving is two or three pupusas (though people have been known to happily eat more!). Dinner comes with red sauce, slaw, and fried plantains.

Send your order— how many of each variety you want — to Kevin Gross by Monday Jan. 24.. Any questions? Call Kathleen Zawicki. See the recent eblast for contact information.

No set cost but free will offerings for the El Salvador Scholarship Fund to support our 8 students are gratefully accepted! (Please write ‘El Salvador’ in the memo on your check.)

The work of an immigration resettlement agency

On December 12th Christine Hellman from the International Institute of New England described to us the important work of resettling the many families that have fled to the United States from Afghanistan in the last few months. If you missed her talk, you can find it here.

Learn about the ways Good Shepherd is Supporting Afghan Refugees.

Supporting Afghan evacuees

During the month of December there are several ways that you can provide support to Afghan evacuees settling in the Lowell area:

 Contribute gift cards for stores easily accessed in the Lowell area (Target, Market Basket, Walgreens) or to online vendors. Send your gift card to the office with a note earmarking it for Afghan refugees or bring it to church and put it in the designated basket.

 Join a cooking team. We are hoping to prepare a meal for a group of families temporarily housed in hotels on a Saturday or Sunday in December. You can join a team at the church or add to the meal from your own kitchen. If you like to grocery shop or cook or have experience in the church kitchen contact Barb Magee.

 Contribute a winter coat or outer wear in excellent condition for an adult or child. These families are arriving with very little. There is a big box in the narthex. We will bring them to Lowell each week.

Celebrating our 20th anniversary with El Ocotillo

It's hard to believe that the first delegation from Good Shepherd to El Ocotillo was twenty years ago in 2001!! Some of today's scholarship students weren't born yet.

On Sunday, October 24th, during the morning services, we will celebrate our relationship with this beautiful village in the mountains with music, a video montage, poetry, and prayers. We hope that you can join us in person or via zoom.

Learn more about our relationship with El Ocotillo, El Salvador in this Boston Globe article.

Hear directly from some of our past scholarship recipients.

Support our El Ocotillo Scholarship Students

We presently have 8 scholarship students in grade 8 through university. Scholarships typically provide 1/2 the cost of school expenses and the families provide the other half. We have also created one full university scholarship to insure educational opportunity for all students. An 8th grade scholarship is $275/year; high school is $495/year; university is $1440/year; university full scholarship is $2880/year.

We hope that you will support the continued education of our scholarship students. Please write "El Salvador" in the memo line of your check to the church.

Here are two ways that you can share in the experience of El Ocotillo without traveling 5800 kilometers:

Enjoy a cooking lesson from El Ocotillo: Great chefs in action. You can almost smell the melting cheese!

Meet the Scholarship Students: Translated videos of each student

The Good Shepherd Pupusa Truck is doing take-out!

Support the El Salvador Scholarship Fund and bring your family the experience of delicious Salvadoran pupusas!!

Place your order by Tuesday, March 9th and pick up in the church parking lot Saturday, March 13th at 5:00 – 6:00 pm. Details available in an attachment to the eblast.

(Deliveries available to those who are housebound.)

Pupusa choices are cheese, cheese and beans, cheese and jalepeño, cheese and chicken, cheese and port, and cheese and loroco (similar to summer squash).A typical adult serving is two pupusas. Dinner comes with red sauce, slaw and fried plantains. Send your order choices to Kevin Gross. Please include your phone number.  Any questions? Contact Kathleen Zawicki.

No set cost but a free will offering for the El Salvador Scholarship Fund is greatly appreciated.

BONUS TREAT: A video of our friends in El Ocotillo making pupusas!

The chefs in El Ocotillo teach us how to make pupusas

The scholarship students produced this video to show us how pupusas are made. Pupusas are the favorite Salvadoran food of delegations. They are served piping hot with cheese oozing out of them!

8 students from El Ocotillo introduce themselves

Our eight scholarship students introduce themselves and answer questions about their studies.

Lenten Food Pantry Challenges

NBC News reported this week that 6 million more people have applied for food assistance during the pandemic. Please consider one of Good Shepherd's Lenten Challenges to support the Acton Food Pantry.

 In the past it was customary to “give up” something for Lent, but now many also “take on” something. We have two Lenten Challenges you can choose between (or you can do both if you want). Each has its own Calendar:

The Daily Lenten Challenge Calendar offers a chance to take on a daily contribution to the Acton Food Pantry. Your offerings may be put in the large box outside the church front door. Ed Stockbridge, who has been delivering donations to the Food Pantry for years, will see that all the donations get to the Food Pantry on a regular basis.

The Weekly Lenten Kids Oriented Challenge Calendar invites children and families to collect items for donation to the Acton Food Pantry.  The items recommended for this kid focused collection are different than the usual Food Drive suggestions in that they are theme based.  We encourage kids to have fun thinking about what another child or family would want or need.  

To make donations by check, please make them payable to "Acton Community Supper and Food Pantry, Inc" and mail to them at P.O. Box 2098, Acton, MA 01720.