God's Work. Our Hands. Sept 7

Looking for a chance to get involved and meet some people at St. Luke's? Want to serve your community at the same time? Well look no further than God’s Work our Hand’s Sunday! A one-time event that gets Lutheran churches across the country out into their neighborhoods.“God’s work. Our hands.’ Sunday reminds us that we are church together for the sake of the world...”ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth EatonWatch this Yellow Shirt VideoSunday, Sept. 7th. Lutheran churches across the country will be putting faith into action. To demonstrate our togetherness and bring awareness to service, groups will be wearing bright yellow t-shirts that say “God’s work. Our hands.” (the ELCA motto) In order to share it, we wear it.St. Luke's will join with other yellow t-shirts to serve in and with Logan Square. For this year’s ‘God’s Work. Our Hands’ we will be volunteering at Kimball Medill Corner Farm from 12pm-2pm. After church ends, we will eat a pack lunch in the garden, then get to work on the farm in a couple of different gardening and landscaping projects--including a new community labyrinth. This will help the Farm be an even more inviting place for people to stop, gather, learn and reflect on the goodness of God’s creation.A grassroots initiative begun in 2013, Corner Farm is what it sounds like--a farm at the corner of Kimball Ave. and Medill. But it is also “a place to meet our neighbors and develop community as we work shoulder to shoulder.” In its work oversees, the ELCA  seeks to work “shoulder to shoulder.” So we are excited to go shoulder to shoulder with our neighbors by digging into some projects in our own backyard.  Corner Farm partners with a variety of neighborhood and city groups, including Kimball Avenue Church, whose land it uses. They use a Grow One, Give One model where half of their harvest is donated to local food pantries and feeding programs.Of course, there is more than one way to engage in your community and tackle food justice issues. Or even if working with your hands in the garden just isn’t your thing,  don’t worry. There is another way you can be a part of the big day!While some help grow the food, others are needed to advocate for its just distribution.  ‘God’s Work. Our Hands’ has given us the opportunity to do just that through Lutheran Advocacy of Illinois.  Next year, Congress will vote on reauthorizing two pieces of legislation: The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act, and the Older Americans Act. The first helps fight childhood hunger and prevent nutrition-related health problems for low-income mothers and their children. The Older Americans Act provides funding to ensure older Americans remain healthy and independent. The ELCA has pre-made postcards that can be filled out and will be mailed to the appropriate senator, based on your address, in support of these two pieces of legislation.In addition to the postcards, the ELCA also has pre-written letters for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about clean air. The letters support the new proposal to reduce CO2 emissions from existing power plants. Simply sign and date the letter, add any personal comments, and you’re done! The ELCA will mail in our letters together with other signed letters gathered from other congregations. Together, we will tell the EPA loud and clear that as people of faith, we care about addressing Climate Change at the national level. These letters and postcards help give voice to food and air quality issues that impact our communities beyond Sept. 7th. Fellowship and service combine in less than two weeks! Whether we garden for the hungry, make a labyrinth for spiritual wanderings, or write to our politicians, we come together as a national church on Sept. 7th to do God’s good work.Enough said. St. Luke's, let’s get our hands dirty!If you would like to sign up to volunteer on God’s Work. Our Hands Sunday, please email  Erika at erika.dornfeld@gmail.comGod writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.Martin Luther