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Starting Grace House transitional homes for orphanage graduates in Vladimir: providing medical and psychiatric care for Russian orphans adopted here: support for an orphanage Dental Clinic, medical supplies and educational materials. A Note from Norm Manzer, Leader of the Russia Ministry: April 30, 2008 was the official date of Norm’s retirement from State Farm and service to the more than 1000 local families that were as much friends as they were clients. Mind you, this was only two weeks prior to our annual Rummage/Estate Sales, so there was not much change in the pace of things as everyone ramped up for the sales. Even though we had 97 church members volunteer to work the sales and another 34 non-church members working on this project, at the end of everything Norm told James Forbes that “I did it all myself”. James readily agreed and said, “I know, the rest of us were only window dressing.” Something as HUGE as our Russia Ministry might appear to be the produce of a one-man-band, but our ministry has a wealth of team support within our parish family. Each member of our Russia Ministry team has been to Russia at least once on our mission trips. Instead of waiting until October of 2009 for our return, we are talking about a return trip in June instead. While the annual budget for the Russia Ministry exceeds $50,000 a year, none of this comes out of the 10% tithe that our Vestry designates for our Grace Outreach budget. The Russia Ministry is self-supporting under the GO Committee’s umbrella responsibilities. So, in reality, our outreach budget is almost 20% of our church’s annual income rather than just the 10% we talk about. Talk about getting the biggest bang for the buck. That is what we do at Grace Church. Our greatest dilemma at the moment is the lack of a storage space for items donated prior to the May 2009 sales. We need at least the equivalent of a two-car garage, but something smaller will do in the interim. Please let us know if you know of such a space in the St Helena area. Call Uncle Norm at 963-4005. Besides the normal donations of items for the two sales in May, we have also received donations of cars and coin collections that have added even more support to our funding needs. Anytime that you have something of value that you need to get rid of but don’t want to throw away, keep us in mind. As Mother Teresa is noted for saying, “We cannot do great things in this life, we can only do small things with great love.” Please join us in this service of “small things with great love.” Bless you, Norm Manzer Please contact Norm Manzer at manzer103@sbcglobal.net for more information. |