Social Ministry

Social Concerns Committee

The Social Concerns Committee is an important adjunct to our ministry for housing, feeding the poor and social justice. Here are some highlights of our work.

• The University District Food Bank. Our Spring and Fall food drives resulted in almost 4,000 pounds of food for our local food bank. Our food drives come at times of the year when the stocks in the food bank are particularly low. Our on-going effort to gain the participation of other NE Seattle Lutheran congregations is bearing fruit.
• Donations Center. Jenny Sinanan continues a largely independent effort to collect and distribute food, clothing and household items from our Donations Center. She provides a steady stream of important support to a number of organizations in our community such as the Compass Center and the Sharehouse.
• Lutheran Social Services. In 2010 our giving tree hosted almost 40 families, including a large number of Sudanese youth who are being resettled in the Seattle area. We also provided holiday dinner baskets for five families.
• Immanuel Lutheran Church. We provide an annual gift of flannel shirts for residents in Immanuel Lutheran's men's shelter and recovery program. We also raised over $800 to fund the men's winter shelter.
• Boxing Day. The day after Christmas we delivered a truck full of winter clothes, sleeping bags and tarps to the tent city wintering over at El Centro De la Raza on Beacon Hill.
• Cook for the Center Each month on the second Thursday at 1 p.m. a group of volunteers headed up by Nancy Estill prepares a dinner meal for the Adult and Family Service Center which Nancy delivers and serves to them.

Global Ministries Committee

Global Ministries Committee raises awareness in the congregation for many Christian individuals and organizations whose work it is to help others in need. These can be Lutheran or inter-denominational, local, national or international. The committee sifts through the mail that the church gets from these organizations asking for prayer, money or time and shares their findings with the congregation through articles in Notes of Faith, presentations to Adult Forum on Sunday mornings, and through sponsoring events which focus on global mission issues.

Faith Lutheran Church Women

Faith Lutheran Church Women (contact Estelle Morley) is affiliated with the Women of the ELCA (WELCA) through which women have opportunities to work, witness and learn. FLC women meet a variety of needs in the community buy supporting such organizations as the Compass Center Milk Fund, quilts to Seattle's needy. Catherine Booth Home for Abused Women and Children, Christmas Giving Tree, University Food Bank, Emergency Feeding Program and knitting hats, scarves and mittens for homeless people. For women at Compass Cascade Center we sent toilety items, laundry soap and coffee, and for Hamilton House street women, toiletry items. They continue to save Campbell's food product labels and canceled stamps which provide funds for mission outreach programs.

Along with the congregation, we help globally by sending soap, clothing, quilts and blankets, health and school kits to Lutheran World Relief. Many thanks to Andrine Baker, our LWR coordinator, for assembling the kits; to our Sunday School children for contributing soap, health and school kit items; and to Ruth Circle for packing and delivering the goods to the LWR boxcar twice a year. We very much appreciate Jenny Sinanan, Faith's Donation Center coordinator, who sorts and delivers all your other donations.

FLCW activities include:

• Altar Guild
• Knitting hats for homeless people is an activity promoted by the circles, but open to all. Knitting supplies and patterns are available in a bin near the Donation Center. During 2010, 76 hats were given through local ministries and charities, such as Denny Place Youth Shelter, Church Council of Greater Seattle Homelessness Project, Compass Cascade Women's Center, Pathways for Women of the YWCA, Catherine Booth Home and the Compass Center. Help with this project is greatly appreciated.
• Mary-Martha Circle meets monthly during the evening in the homes of members for coffee and a Bible Study using materials from Lutheran Woman Today. They do not meet in July or August.
• Quilting is sponsored by the circles twice a month in the Quilting Room. Quilt tops are assembled off site, while the quilt tying is accomplished during the gatherings. In 2011 we donated 150 quilts. Most of the quilts are sent to Lutheran World Relief. Some are also given out through local ministries and charities, such as Compass Cascade Women's Center and the Compass Housing Alliance. The quilts are usually blessed during a regular worship service the Sunday before Lutheran Box Car Days. Help with this project is greatly appreciated.
• Ruth Circle meets monthly during the day in the church library for lunch and a Bible study led by Pastor Ostrem. They do not meet in July or August. Ruth Circle takes the lead in preparing items for the LWR Boxcar shipment.