Bundles of warmth and goodwill
More than 100 hats, mittens, and gloves donated to shelter residents
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the hat and mitten drive for the Acton Shelter. We donated over 100 hats, mittens, and gloves, including many hand-knitted ones and some purchased with $300 in contributions. Every item included a personalized card!!!
Special thanks to the Bates, Magee and Jackson families for coordinating this ministryto help local families stay warm this winter. Thank you to the Mission Outreach Committee for championing and planning this community service.
Resettlement news
It has been ten months since our Rohingya family arrived in Massachusetts
It has been ten months since our Rohingya family arrived in Massachusetts. Their transition to American life has been difficult after many years, and in some cases a lifetime, in a refugee camp. They have needed a lot of support from both the International Institute of New England (IINE) and the Interfaith Partnership group.
Although our specific responsibility has been to support the cohort of seven which included two adult siblings, their spouses and three children, the family is actually twelve people including a brother and his family who arrived in the spring, plus the matriarch of the family and a teenage brother. They all live in two apartments in Lowell.
At this point the oldest brother, who speaks fairly good English, is fully employed working the overnight shift. His job involves sterilizing medical supplies. He works overtime whenever it’s available and, along with his brother, is paying the full rent and utilities at one apartment. A member of IPRR has been meeting with him to teach him how to understand his paycheck, how to pay bills, use a credit card to build a credit history, and to start a savings account. This is all very new for him since his previous experience was earning $3/day and living in a cash economy. His next goal is to learn to drive and to have his own apartment with his wife and child.
His sister and her husband have had a more difficult time. They have struggled to learn English and have had some bumps in the road to overcome. He is now attending English classes 3 days a week at IINE and is eager to be employed. She is gradually coming to terms with the need to work to pay the bills in spite of the cultural norms around women working outside the home.
Getting a job is difficult when you can’t yet independently navigate the complicated process of submitting applications and taking phone calls from prospective employers. IINE has a philosophy of tough love with their clients. Our financial support will end soon. Both IINE employment specialists and the creative problem solvers in the Interfaith Partnership are working hard to find placements that will get them started.
In the meantime, the Partnership has provided Cultural Orientation classes to the whole family, weekly English instruction to the women, and bike riding lessons to the children, taken the families on picnics and to Halloween events in Lowell, and accompanied their mother to medical appointments.
The happy smiles on their daughters’ faces when they get off the school bus make us optimistic that they will all find their way.
A Meeting with Noah Bullock
Excecutive Director of Cristosal meets with parishioners to discuss human rights in El Salvador
In November about twenty devoted supporters of El Ocotillo had the opportunity to meet with Noah Bullock, the Executive Director of Cristosal, to learn about the current reality for human rights in El Salvador. Cristosal has for more than 20 years defended human rights and been the catalyst for long lasting positive social change in northern Central America. During his time in Boston, Noah met with the Governor’s staff, Bishop Julia Whitworth, and graduate students at Tufts and also conducted a workshop in Norfolk. We felt honored to have time with him.
The current authoritarian government of President Bukele has dismantled legitimate democratic processes and incarcerated more than 80000 people without due process. We discussed the effects we see in El Ocotillo where people, including alumnae of the scholarship program, are being dismissed from government jobs because they are not aligned with the incumbent political powers.
To learn more about the important work of Cristosal, check out their website.
The Maile Moore Fund
Honoring Maile’s legacy by making a difference in the lives of our immigrant friends and neighbors
In honor of their daughter, Maile Moore, Ed and Delia Moore have made a generous donation from her estate to the Mission Outreach Refuge Family Support fund. Maile, who died suddenly in the fall of 2023, was proficient in Arabic, having studied the language and lived in Cairo Egypt. During her years in Boston, she used her language skills volunteering with immigrants and refugees, helping them acclimate to and navigate through life in Boston.
These are some stories of how this fund has been used thus far to further the efforts of our immigrant friends and neighbors in becoming more fully integrated and successful in American life.
Members of the Interfaith Partnership for Refugee Resettlement came to know of a family in need shortly after their arrival from Afghanistan in the fall of 2021. We did not yet have a sponsor family. The Afghan family was living in Maynard and the International Institute of New England (IINE) asked if we could help them with transportation to their Lowell office and various appointments. As we got to know this wonderful family, members of IPRR helped one daughter find employment at Acton Medical, obtained a car for them, and continued to stay in touch.
Last spring members of the Afghan family reached out to Reverend Ellie to inquire about using the kitchen to start a business. Their brand-new business could not afford the rental rate for the kitchen so Maile’s Fund is supplementing the difference between what the family can pay and the rental rate. The Fund has also covered the expense of essential kitchen items and a course, both required by the Board of Health. As their business improves, they will pay a greater share of the rent. As all who attended the November dinner that they catered can attest, they are wonderful cooks and their business, Afghan Food, has a bright future. To see for yourself, visit Afghan Food’s Facebook page to place an order.
The Fund was also used to buy 40 small value gift cards to Dunkin Donuts and Market Basket that (IINE) is giving to their English Language Students as rewards for perfect attendance. Students attend 6-9 hours of classes a week depending on the class level. It is an important commitment. There is the option of either in-person or online classes. Learning English is the single most effective route to improving employment opportunities. In October, ten students received prizes for 100% attendance!
We expect to tap Maile’s Fund in the near future to pay a portion of the cost of a driver’s education course for the eldest son in our Rohingya family.
We hope Maile is watching with approval all of the ways that her generosity is helping our refugees to improve their lives.
Maile Moore
Stewardship Reflections
Three reflections on Outreach opportunities at Church of the Good Shepherd
Three reflections on Outreach experiences at Church of the Good Shepherd
Mitten, glove and hat drive for the Acton Shelter
MITTEN, GLOVE AND HAT DRIVE FOR MINUTEMAN INN SHELTER
During the month of November, we will be collecting brand new hats, gloves, and mittens for the residents in the shelter at the Minuteman Inn. For anyone who would prefer to make a monetary donation, the middle school children will take on the task of shopping. Many of the residents are Haitians who are here legally with parolee immigration status. We are all aware of how they have been victimized by the nasty rhetoric on the campaign trail. We will be setting up a card making station to write messages of welcome and caring that we will tuck in the clothing. Our aim is to bring this bundle of love to the shelter the week of Thanksgiving.
October blanket and lamp drive for household goods
Good Shepherd is sponsoring a blanket and lamp drive for Household Goods October 1-31. Please bring lamps with shades and clean blankets with no rips or stains. Twin and full/queen size blankets are especially needed.
Household Goods provides a full range of donated household items, free of charge, to help people in need make a home.
Creation Care: Pray, learn, act, advocate
The Creation Care team offers The Path as a way to take action in support of environmental concerns
Our Diocesan Creation Care Justice Network has developed The Path, a framework of “pray, learn, act, advocate” to guide churches to meet the challenge of the 6th baptismal covenant:
“Cherish the wondrous works of God, and protect and restore the beauty and integrity of all creation.”
Good Shepherd’s Creation Care Team used this framework during our Creation Care focus last fall.
We offer The Path as a way to address:
the threat of private jet expansion at Hanscom Field
the fact that the MA legislature is running out of time to pass several environmental bills
Stop private jet expansion at hanscom field
Pray:
May we be even more aware of the wondrous works of God in this world, so that we make decisions that protect and restore, rather than damage, our God-given creation. Amen
Learn:
A coalition of over 80 partners has come together to stop a massive 50-acre hanger expansion by Massport* to house private luxury jets at Hanscom Field, located in Concord, Lexington, Bedford and Lincoln. However, this is more than a local issue for just the surrounding towns. These private, luxury jets are the worst per capita emitters of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) in the world. This project would cancel 70% of the positive climate impact of all solar installations in Massachusetts to date.
If you are interested in learning more, go to spje.org. This site incudes lots of information including how the expansion will affect nearby National Historic Parks and a National Wildlife Refuge. Visiting the site is worth your time.
FYI: “MassPort was created by the Mass. State Legislature in 1956 to oversee and operate key transportation facilities in the state. They do not answer to either the Governor or the MA legislature. It is governed by a seven-member Board and is an independent public authority.”
Act:
Please sign the petition for support from Governor Healey to stop private jet expansion at Hanscom.
Advocate:
Good Shepherd Creation Care Team has joined the Coalition to stop private luxury jets at Hanscom Field.
Yet-to-pass environmental bills: Time is running out!
Pray:
For the forward movement and passage of these bills.
Learn:
There are a number of Environmental Bills still in our MA Legislature Committees that need to be brought to the floor for discussion and a vote. If they are not voted on before the end of the legislative session this July, they will have to wait for another two years before they can be brought up again. We encourage you to learn about these bills.
Act:
Act by writing or calling your senator and representative to put pressure on the leadership to bring these bills to the floor for a vote. To contact your senator and your representative go to https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator. Even if your legislators are for these bills, emails or phone calls are good data for them to put pressure on their peers.
Here is a sample letter or phone call script to your senator and representative which you can use.
I am concerned that there are important environmental bills that have not been advanced during this legislative session. They include among others:
clean air (S.1382/H.2131),
environmental justice for vulnerable communities (S.2113/H.3187),
transitioning away from gas (S.2135/H.3237),
equitable building decarbonization (S.2365/H.3232)
I urge you to put pressure on the leadership to bring these bills out of committee to the floor for a vote. The climate emergency cannot wait two years.
Thank you
Name
Address
Advocate:
On May 21st, a group of concerned environmentalists, including members of CGS, assembled on the lawn in front of First Parish Church on Lexington Road in Concord for a rally to let people know that Time is Running Out!
Church of the Good Shepherd packages 10,000 meals to help fight hunger
Watch a video of our parishioners packaging 10,000 meals!
On Sunday, May 5, 64 volunteers, ages 2 to 90, donned red hair nets. To the beat of energetic music, they went to work measuring, weighing, sealing and packaging 10,000 meals. The boxes were loaded onto the Rise Against Hunger truck to begin their journey to a food insecure country somewhere in the world.
The Good Shepherd Pupusa Truck Will Arrive March 9th!
Come and Enjoy Pupusas!
Support the El Salvador Scholarship Fund and bring your family the experience of delicious Salvadoran pupusas!
On Saturday, March 9 from 6:00-8:00PM, we will be serving chips, salsa, Salvadoran pupusas, slaw, plantains, desserts, and soft drinks in the parish hall.
We will be highlighting current successes and challenges in our sister community of El Ocotillo and the important role of our scholarship program. All ages are invited. Dinner is free and you are welcome to make a donation to the scholarship fund.
Please RSVP to Kevin Gross with the number in your party. We will have a variety of pupusa types and no need to order ahead of time.
Anyone who is interested in helping decorate the parish hall for this event or in helping to serve the food should text Rafael Pupo.