St. Matthew 25 Care & Share Soup Kitchen

FOR I WAS HUNGRY AND GAVE ME FOOD. I WAS THIRSTY AND YOU GAVE ME DRINK. Matthew 25:35

Monthly serving counts: Family Individuals February 2018 2,417 9,668(serving 20 days)

March 2018 2,221 8,884(serving 21 days)

April 2018 2,407 9,628 (serving 20 days) May 2018 2,800 11,200 serving 22 days…..

TOTALS COUNTS: 9,845 family ct.

39,380 individual ct.

Fact: Each sack feeds a

family of 4.

New look & New button on website

for the soup kitchen

We have a new website for St. Ann/Matthew 25 Care & Share Soup Kitchen which went live on June 25th, 2018. Our website address is the same: stannlafayette.org, however the look is new, refreshed and easier to navigate through. Typi-cally, I wouldn’t mention this but because this is a new button on the website, I believe it is important and well worth men-tioning to our readers.

On the website front page, just under the calendar, you will find an Amazonsmile logo button. Why would a church website advertise this ad? It’s quite simple….:

“You shop. Amazon gives.” We are in hopes people will utilize this option. Each time you order something from Amazonsmile, Amazon will make a donation to your favorite charity. Of course, I sug-gest using Matthew 25 Care & Share Soup Kitchen.

What is Amazonsmile?

Amazonsmile is a simple and automatic way for you to sup-port your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at amazonsmile.com, you’ll find the same, exact low prices, vast selection and con-venient shopping experience as on Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the pur-chase price to your favorite charitable organization.

How do I shop at Amazonsmile?

To shop at Amazonsmile simply go to www.amazonsmile.com from your web browser on your computer or mobile device. You may also want to add a bookmark to amazonsmile.com to make it easier to return and start your shopping at Amazon.

Issue #27 June 2018

What cookin’ in Peggy’s corner? 2

Quote from Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Tuesday faces in the soup kitchen 2-3

7

2 College Student Volunteers

Vandelism, again!

6-7

Gifts come in all shapes and sizes

Things I have learned over time….

Wallowing in mud...Yuck!

3

4 4

5

St. Ann Church & Shrine Catholic Church

What’s cookin’ in Peg’s Corner

6 T. Butter 2/3 c. flour

1/4 c. chopped onions

4 c. broccoli—florets, chopped

6 c. chicken broth

3/4 c half & half

Salt & pepper to taste

On the stove melt 6 T. butter than add flour, cook & stirring for 3 minutes. DO NOT BROWN. Add the chicken broth and stir. Add onions & broccoli to pot, stir. Cook on low heat until the broccoli is tender. Add salt & pepper to taste. Must refrigerate any left-overs.

Makes 1/2 gallon of soup cook time: 35-40 minutes

~ Page 2 ~

Forgiveness pardons the offender and frees the offended.

Cream of Broccoli

(continue from front page)

Can I use my existing Am-azon.com account for Ama-zonsmile?

Yes, you use the same account on Amazon.com and amazonsmile.com. Your shopping cart, Wish List, wedding or baby registry, and other account settings are also the same return and start your shopping at Amazonsmile.

Check it out, all donations are welcome for the soup kitchen. As I have said before, no donation is too small. Every penny counts.

Thank you

Tuesday faces in the soup kitchen It has been a little while since I went through and introduced our regular volunteers who show up every week throughout the year. The name and pictures are in no particular order.

Bob McMahon

Bob is a new face to the soup kitchen. Bob works on Tues, T h u r s . a nd sometimes on Friday. He isn’t in any particu-lar spot and

seems to fit in where ever he is sta-tioned. You may see him dipping soup with Peg, or helping clients at the win-dow, he also restocks shelves and has even been seen chopping a few vege-tables from time to time. Bob has been married to Sandy for 47 years, Sandy is a regular volunteer on Monday’s.

We appreciate everything Bob does.

Marie Weinhoft:

Marie is one of the h a p p y faces who is always seem to be smiling. Marie has been vol-unteering in the

soup kitchen for 6 years. Marie works at the bagging table where donuts and breads are sorted and bagged. She likes doing this job. Some days when she comes in you can’t even see her because of the piles of bread and donuts that are waiting for her attention. Thank you Marie.

Cliff and Kathy Cox

Cliff and Kathy Cox moved to Indiana from California. They were only in the Lafayette area two months when they started volunteering to work at the Soup Kitchen about 4 years ago. They work with a lot of different items because they sort foods into con-tainers before the food goes out the window. Thanks to you both.

God is everywhere...even at your wit’s end. ~Page 3~

...more Tuesday faces Alice Hession

Alice started volunteering at the soup kitchen in Sept. 2018. Al-ice is a hometown girl, and a graduate of Central Catholic ’67. After graduating from Pur-due, she had a variety of inter-esting jobs. She was a principle, teacher & director of Catholic schools in Huntsville, Alabama & Baltimore, Maryland. She has worked at other soup kitchens where they had individuals come in and sit down to eat. She likes the way St. Matthew 25 does it because she said our clients share the resources so others may also have food available, too. She also stated that people come to the window and the vol-unteer knows them and are friendly making that personal connection. We appreciate Al-ice’s volunteering and her atti-tude. Thank you Alice!

Anne Sukits & Kathy Gambs

Anne has volunteered at the soup kitch-en for 3 1/2 years. Kathy is a newer face and has been volunteering just shy of one year’s time. Anne & Kathy are our Tag Team for our Tuesday front window. They both work the window when both windows are open, otherwise Kathy will pack the bags that go through the win-dow for Anne. Kathy & Anne have been friends for many years. They work well together.

On some days it is easy to hear the voic-es exchanged from the service window. There are times when working the win-dow can be rewarding and challenging depending on the clients moods. Anne and Kathy are both personable people and have a good attitudes working with the clients who come to the window. Thank you both for all you do.

A quote from Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great

things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry, and you gave me to eat. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.”

Will Erekson

We have volunteers of all ages, many are retired people who now have the time to give back. We also have college students trying to do their work service hours in fulfillment for their classes.

Will was raised in northern Indiana, Bristol. He is 22 years old, he is single and grew up with three sisters, and he is #3 out of 4 sib-lings. He has a twin sister who is only 5 minutes older than him.

Will graduated from Pur-due in Spring of 2018, he is continuing his education in the upcoming Fall in Notre Dame, IN as he pursues fur-ther education and hopes to finish with a degree in law. Also, Will is studying in the RCIA program to become a Catholic.

He is a passionate reader. He loves to play golf and plays racquetball and is also a licensed pilot. He is a Cub fan, love those Cubs.

Finders, but their needed schedule was not working for her schedule. Andrea found us on our online website, called the manager, asked to volunteer. She came in and filled out the forms and she was with us for the rest of the time; we will miss An-drea-she was a good work-er and so pleasant to be around.

Andrea is graduating in June 2018 from Notre Dame with a master’s degree in Theolo-gy. After graduation, she will move to Pittsburg, Penn-sylvanian to work with immi-grant’s students. She is tak-ing more Spanish classes. Andrea said, “being with the people, I will pick the lan-guage very quickly”.

Andrea grew up in Sanborn, NY and has two older broth-ers. Living in her family she learned how to give. That is why she wanted to volunteer, to give back. Working in the soup kitchen is an exer-cise in humility. She likes looking into the smiles of people as they come to the window. From that angle, you see the best of people and the saddest of people. Andrea has worked in all areas. She said that the soup kitchen is a happy place to work at. The volun-teers are good people gath-ered together for a common cause. She always found laughter in the soup kitchen. It was a pleasure to work & get to know you.

Page # 4

Graffiti is a form of destruction which takes time and ex-pense to repair. Graffiti can take the form of art, draw-ings or words. When done without a prop-erty owner’s permis-sion it is considered vandalism.

Our box truck fell victim to the pathetic and destructive form of sad art. In the past we have had the windshield bro-ken out of the box truck and this is the second time we have been graffitied. An-yone with infor-mation about who our want-to-be art-ists might be….we would be greatly appreciated. Thank-you.

2 COLLEGE STUDENT VOLUNTEERS Vandelism AGAIN!

With everything Will does, I asked him why he took time out of his active, busy col-lege schedule to volunteer at the soup kitchen? He replied, “In my sophomore year of college, I wanted to do something about giving back. I have been blessed and I recognize that I am lucky to have what I have in my life. So many times, it is easy to lose your way in college and I knew I need-ed to stay grounded. The soup kitchen was a perfect fit for me.”

I asked Will if he had a favorite job, he looked at me and smiled. He said, “I don’t have a favorite job, he was willing to do what-ever he was asked to do. However, he really didn’t like working with the bag-ging of the donuts...it was all that stickiness.

We wish Will the best in his future. He will be missed.

Andrea Waclawek

Andrea came into the soup kitchen while working at St. Thomas Aquinas in W. Lafa-yette for campus ministry. She had previously had volunteered at Food

~Page 5~

2018 St. Matthew 25 Staff Tom Glover, Steve Schilling & John Glover (standing)

Kevin Cavanaugh & Peg Marvin (sitting)

Stupidity is also a gift of God, but one

mustn't misuse it.

St. Pope John Paul ll

Paul reminds the skeptics— then and now: God can be found all over the world, in the beauty of the earth. All we must do is open our eyes and receive the gift.

So many shape and sizes of items come through the back-dock door of the soup kitchen. Each item being a gift. Each morning as the staff walks in, it is a new day; if you like surprises, many a day we

have them. For the most part, nobody knows what’s going to be donated that day.

When boxes, upon boxes of cere-al were dropped off, the thinking caps went on. How do we hand out the cereal, so nobody is inun-dated but everyone will be able to take home their share of the donations. Nobody can carry that amount of cereal home and be able to eat in a timely man-ner.

Gifts come in all shapes and sizes

Rice Krispies, Bran and Cheerios were among the varieties. Some days we even have milk to give with the cereal. That always brings a smile to the people’s faces.

Page # 6

WALLOWING IN THE MUD ….. YUCK!

Do you remember playing in the mud and mud puddles when you were a child? It was great fun. You just couldn’t seem to get muddy enough. Little kids are almost instinctively drawn to the mud. If you have children, when they were small and want-ed to play outside, how many times did you say these words: “Stay out of the mud?” As adults, we also seem to be drawn to the mud. What mud puddles are you wallowing in?

Pigs love to be filthy. They love to wallow in the mud. Do you know why? They do not possess sweat glands; therefore, they wallow in the mud to cool them-selves off. In other words, the mud brings them temporary pleasure and relief.

Similarly, sin is attractive be-cause it promises pleasure or temporary pleasure gain. Like

mud, sin also leaves us filthy. Ac-cording to Hebrew 11:25 sin brings us “fleeting pleasure.” If sin were-n’t attractive or fun we wouldn’t sin. Sin has an allure we just can’t seem to resist. So, like a pig to the mud, we return to our same habit-ual sins over and over again. In 2 Peter2:22 it is written: “The dog returns to its vomit, so a fool re-turns to his folly,” and “A bathed sow returns to wallowing in the mire.”

We are all familiar with the story of the Prodigal Son. The emphasis always seems to be on the ending of the story, however I want to look more to the beginning of the parable. Luke 15:13 tells us: “After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inher-itance on a life of dissipation.” Synonyms for dissipation include words like: debauchery, overindul-gence and intemperance. In other words, the son was heading out for the allure of sinful living. He was seeking among other things the licentious desires of the flesh. Said differently, he went to wallow in the mud. The story focuses on the famous return home, however, we

must ask ourselves: “Why did he go back home?” He only went back because the fun ran out. According to Luke’s Gos-pel, 15:13-14, it was only after daddy’s money ran out and a famine struck the area that he found himself in dire need. Only then, did he con-template returning home. If he had more money and if there hadn’t been a famine, I am sure his motto would have been: “Let the good times roll.”

And this brings me to the point I want to make today. Just like all other people, Christians are sinners. Who among us, at some point, hasn’t had to deal with the sins of the flesh, and pride? These were the two big sins of the Prodigal son. I guess you could say, lucky for him that the money ran out and the famine struck. These two things brought him to his knees and brought him to his senses. It was only then that the jour-ney home began. (Luke 15:14)

The New Testament tells us not to love the things of this world. It warns us that we can be-comes slaves of our various de-sires and pleasures. Certainly

Page # 7

Things that I have learned

over time • When you clear your mind so you

can focus on what’s really im-portant (whatever that is).

• When you encourage your kids to do things for you that you don’t want to do anyway.

• You don’t really know the meaning of embarrassment is until your hip replacement sets off a metal detec-tor at the airport.

• When your joints are more accu-rate meteorologists than the nation-al weather service

• Aging: eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

• What you thought you heard is so much more entertaining than what was actually said.

• When your knees buckle, but your belt won’t.

• When you are very good at open-ing childproof caps...with a ham-mer!

• When we come to realize the life is like a cup of coffee: sometimes you have to go through the grind, but God fills it up with a special blend.

• God doesn't always choose to flat-ten mountains….but He has prom-ised to help me climb them.

• PLAN AHEAD! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when Noah started build-ing the ark.

WALLOWING IN THE MUD ….. YUCK! not everything in life that is pleasurable is a sin, but if we pursue the pleasure more than we pursue God it becomes sin-ful.

Some pleasures develop into addictions. 2 Peter 2:19 states “for a person is a slave of w h a t e v e r o v e r c o m e s him.” Pleasures like drugs, sex, alcohol, and pornography often lead to addictions. In fact, most people admit that they have one or two habitual sins that they struggle to break free of. A Christian with an ad-diction is no longer just wal-lowing in mud; he or she is ac-tually STUCK in the mud.

What should someone do if they become stuck in mud? They should yell for help of course. A sinner stuck in an ad-diction or a habitual sin, needs to do the same thing. They must admit that they have a problem and ask for help.

The Bible tells us in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. It also tells us that sin must not reign over our mortal bodies so that we obey their desires. Romans 6:11-14. Brian Pusateri

1. WHAT MUD ARE YOU WALLOWING IN?

2. WHAT ARE YOU

WILLING TO DO ABOUT

IT?

No sin, no matter how momen-tarily pleasurable, comforting, or habitual, is worth missing what God has for us.

Pride often gets in our way when it comes to admitting that we have habitual sin. It appears we are either lazy or just too comfortable wallowing in the mud to seek help.

I must admit that I have some mud puddles in my life. Do you? I will close today with two simple question:

Issue #27

St. Matthew 25 Care & Share Soup Kitchen

612 Wabash Ave.

Lafayette, IN

steve.skmanager@gmail.com

What you can do to help the St. Matthew 25 Soup Kitchen?

Volunteering your time-You can volunteer your time to help hand out food for those who come to our window. Help is nev-er turned away., volunteer forms are available in the soup kitchen. The soup kitchen’s operating hours are 7:00 am to 2:00 pm Monday through Friday. The window is open to the public from 8:30 to11:30 am-Monday through Friday.

Supplies- canned goods, canned green beans, macaroni & cheese, instant potatoes, dressing, bake beans, cranberry sauce, yams, hams & turkeys, fruits are always needed. NO #10 cans. We do have storage areas for your purchases. If you have any questions, please feel free to call & ask for Steve or Tom. Our phone number is 765-742-2704.

Monetary donations- checks or cash always accepted. If you write a check, it should be made out to the St. Matthew 25 Care & Share Soup Kitchen. Our mailing address is 612 Wabash Ave. Lafayette, IN 47905.

If you make your check out to the St. Ann’s, please make sure you note on the memo line that your donation is to go to the Soup Kitchen. No amount is considered too small, every little bit helps us be able to continue our mission work. Thank-you!

I want to thank my proofers, Rosemary, Jane & Letha, for helping me to getting this newsletter written and done. I couldn’t have done without all

of your collaboration, expertise and patience. Thank you! lds

Remember Moses started out as a basket case too, and God made something out of him anyway.

St. Ann Church & Shrine Catholic Church