Outreach at St. Paul’s provides opportunities for members to reach out to our local and international neighbors in different ways: by giving (donating items, contributing to collection ‘drives’ which reach out to different members of the community) and by doing (hands-on activities working directly with people on-site). Watch for updates on outreach projects in the bulletin, parish updates, and website. St. Paul’s also contributes financially and materially to a number of local and global outreach ministries. Look for various ways to get involved below.
The Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista
Associate Rector
javier@stpaulscary.org
919-467-1477, ext. 12
Outreach Ministries
Appalachia Service Project (ASP)
ASP is a home repair ministry to needy families of Central Appalachia. Youth and adult participants grow spiritually, gain self confidence, and build and bridge communities. Real, honest work and relationship building are part of the experience.
Volunteers must prepare lunches and water coolers for the day, they spend several hours a day at their work site with their team, and then they have chores to do to maintain the center or help with dinner when they return from their work site. The hours spent at the site provide needed time for repairs, as well as necessary time to build relationships with their family and with each other.
Evenings are spent in fellowship and learning about the Appalachian culture. ASP can truly be a life-changing experience. Adult chaperons have not only been blown away by the experience of helping the families of Appalachia, but by the incredible dedication of the young people who participate.
Contact: Kevin Swann, 919-607-5913, swann.kev@gmail.com
ASP website: www.asphome.org.
Dorcas Ministries
Donate & Volunteer: There are several opportunities for individuals to become involved with Dorcas Ministries by volunteering in the Thrift Shop, Warehouse, Food Pantry, Training Center, or Crisis Ministry. Thrift Shop proceeds and donations support the efforts of Crisis Ministries which provides crisis relief to area residents who seek stability and self-sufficiency through food and financial assistance, scholarships, training programs, referrals and an affordable thrift shop.
To understand the Ministry, watch this video from the 2019 Thanksgiving Breakfast: Click HERE.
Dorcas Shop: The Dorcas Shop offers a wide variety of merchandise at affordable prices for the whole family including clothing, shoes, coats, small appliances, books, toys, furniture and more.
Contact: Dorcas Ministries is located at 187 High House Road, near the intersection of High House and Old Apex Roads in Cary.
Crisis Ministry: The Dorcas Crisis Ministry exists to serve local residents who find themselves in a temporary financial crisis, using proceeds from the Dorcas Thrift Shop
Food Pantry: The Dorcas Food Pantry is run by volunteers who spend their time sorting, organizing, and assisting clients as they shop for their groceries. To volunteer to help staff the Food Pantry on the 2nd or 4th Saturday of the month sign up HERE.
St. Paul’s has adopted the “Toilet Paper” shelf in the food pantry. This is one of the many items that can’t be purchased with food stamps. Our goal is to collect 200 rolls a month. Please let Gail Cowper know if you drop off toilet paper at Dorcas or at the church for delivery to Dorcas. Her email is gcowper@bellsouth.net
Medical Clinic: In partnership with Advance Community Health, a medical clinic opened January 3, 2017, and now provides services to the community. Payment for services is on a sliding scale to accommodate all income levels. The clinic is located next to the Dorcas facility at 173 High House Road in Cary. Click HERE for more.
Dorcas Training Center: For information on Dorcas Job Training Center, including Training Center Calendar, click HERE.
Contact: Nancy Fierke, 919-467-8807, nancy.fierke@gmail.com
Episcopal Campus Ministry
Once a month during the school year, St. Paul’s provides a home cooked meal for the Episcopal Campus Ministry (ECM) at NC State, a little bit of home for students who are missing that “Sunday dinner.”
Students from NC State, Meredith, Shaw, and Wake Tech gather at the home of ECM, the Cheshire House, near the heart of NC State’s campus. ECM offers a Eucharist on Sundays with a hot, home-cooked meal following the service. There is also a gathering for discussion on Wednesday evenings as well as a place to hang out during exams. The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and St. Paul’s have supported campus ministry at ECM throughout its history, providing financial support as well as volunteering on the Board of Directors of ECM. Our current board representative (through 2024) is Andy Kintz.
Learn more about the work of this ministry at ecm-raleigh.org. If you would like to join the wonderful team of St. Paul’s cooks who prepare a hot Sunday supper for the students once each month during the school year, please contact Stephanie Hirschy at shirschy@yahoo.com. The meals do not have to be complex, and the impact is tremendous!
Family Promise of Wake County (formerly Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network), Ministry to the Homeless
You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat… Isaiah 25:4
Family Promise of Wake County began in 1994 as Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network (WIHN), a 501(c)(3) providing church-based emergency shelter and meals to Wake County families experiencing temporary homelessness. Since then, they have expanded the services they offer to include prevention, post-shelter stabilization, on-site emergency shelter, rapid rehousing, transitional housing, and a partnership with the Triangle Apartment Association called New Lease on Life.
While the mission of transforming the lives of families experiencing temporary homelessness has
remained the same throughout the years, the changing nature of how we accomplish that mission led
our organization to change its name to Family Promise of Wake County on July 1, 2016. Our current
name better reflects the entire continuum of services we offer as we help families find support services
and, ultimately, locate safe, affordable, permanent housing in our community.
Family Promise remains one of only two emergency shelters in Wake County to allow families to stay
together, regardless of the ages and genders of children and parents. This spares parents the difficult
choice between keeping their families together and finding a safe place for their children to sleep. We
also offer a continuum of services and partnerships to move families all the way from homelessness to
safe, affordable, permanent housing.
For many years, St. Paul’s was one of the churches who supported the rotation of faith communities to house families during the evenings. To find out why we no longer use this model and how you can still participate in the work of Family Promise, check out this video.
St. Paul’s is in conversation with Family Promise to find out ways we can support their work as a community. To learn more about this work, contact Myrna Belingon, tmb.jersey@gmail.com
Food Security Action Group
St. Paul’s Food Security Action Group works in partnership with local municipalities and other Cary area churches to address food insecurity right here in our immediate community. Many at St. Paul’s became more aware of the local nature of food insecurity during the pandemic, when St. Paul’s helped distribute groceries in designated neighborhoods in Cary.
Heifer International
Every Sunday morning during worship services, St. Paul’s parishioners are invited to donate to Heifer International by placing money in a small ark in remembrance of important times, events, and people in their lives. Heifer International is a non-profit organization whose mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth. With donated funds, Heifer International sends farm animals to individuals and communities around the world, along with the necessary training and resources. Each family receiving an animal agrees to “pass on the gift” and donate the female offspring to another family, so that the cycle of hope, sustainability and enhanced self-esteem continues. Heifer International has helped over seven million families in over 125 countries since it began nearly seventy years ago.
St. Paul’s annual goal is to donate at least $5000, which purchases a “Gift Ark” comprised of many pairs of animals. Heifer International sends the animals wherever they are most needed in the world to fight hunger and poverty. During the month of December, St. Paul’s participates in an “Alternate Gift Giving” opportunity. Parishioners can give Christmas gifts to family members and friends in the form of Heifer donations, and inform their loved ones of their gift by sending them a Heifer greeting card. Through Heifer International, “we can change the world, one family, one community, at a time.”
Donate here:
https://fundraise.heifer.org/campaign/st-pauls-episcopal-church-virtual-living-gift-market/c453858
Contact: Alison Arnold, alisonearnold@gmail.com
Heifer International website: www.heifer.org
Hermano Day (Farmworker) Day
St. Paul’s participates in the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry, a joint ministry of our Diocese and the Diocese of East Carolina) through an annual ‘Hermano Day’ collection for migrant and seasonal farmworkers.
Each year during Lent, St. Paul’s assists the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry in Dunn, NC, by donating men’s clothes and bedding. These items are distributed to the farmworkers in 47 labor camps which are served by the ministry.
Migrant farmworkers typically come to North Carolina in the spring to work in the fields. The majority are from Mexico. They arrive in North Carolina with very few possessions. They live and work under the harshest of conditions in great isolation, far from their loved ones.
Through the work of the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry the workers receive clothing, food and emergency medical attention. They are given transportation to celebrate the Holy Eucharist at EFwM’s mission church, La Sagrada Familia. St. Paul’s assists EFwM by providing monetary donations along with donated work clothes, blankets, sheets and towels, which are distributed, as needed, to ‘Our Brothers in Christ, the farmworkers.
Contact: Katie Bricio, katiebricio13@gmail.com
Kairos Prison Ministry
Through this international prison ministry, trained volunteers from St. Paul’s build relationships with women and men incarcerated at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women (NCCIW) and Central Prison, Raleigh. St. Paul’s supports Kairos three-day retreats with prayer, encouraging notes and handmade greeting cards. Those from children are especially appreciated!
The purpose of Kairos is to build strong Christian communities inside prison walls. It is a Christian, lay-led, ecumenical continuing ministry to the incarcerated and their loved ones. Kairos has been called the best example of the early church in existence today.
Kairos Inside men’s and women’s ministries address the spiritual needs of prisoners. Kairos volunteers go into prisons in teams of 30 to 60 to pray, share the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, and share meals and fellowship with the incarcerated on a one-to-one basis. The first visit, an inmate’s introduction to Kairos, is a three-day event; the team teaches about God’s unconditional love and forgiveness and shows how to begin living a life in Christ. Subsequent visits are primarily weekly attendance at Prayer and Share sessions where the Kairos community examines an ongoing Christian life, one- or two-day retreats for all Kairos alumni, and monthly reunions led by the inside Kairos community.
Kairos Torch, a second facet of the Kairos Ministry, holds weekends for incarcerated youth, similar to those for adults, but tailored specifically to the needs and interests of young people ages 12-17.
Kairos Outside, the third facet, provides spiritual healing to female family members of the incarcerated, women who often feel that they, too, are “doing time”.
Nationally 30,000 Kairos volunteers annually donate 3 milliion hours in 472 institutions and communities in 36 states. Kairos is also active in 9 foreign countries. Please visit the Kairos website to learn more about the national and international aspects of this ministry.
There are a variety of Kairos ministries in North Carolina:
- Ministry in 12 men’s and 3 women’s prisons.
- Kairos Outside (East and West) for female family and loved ones of the incarcerated.
- Kairos Torch formerly at C.A. Dillon youth facility.
- Learn more about North Carolina Kairos.
Contact: Dave Moon, williamdmoon@gmail.com
Meals on Wheels
Volunteer teams or individuals deliver meals to elderly and home-bound local residents on a regular basis throughout the year. One hour of service each month is typical.
Meals On Wheels volunteers from St. Paul’s Church help deliver meals from Resurrection Lutheran Church on Kildaire Farm Road to the homes of elderly and shut-ins in the Cary area. The food is prepared in the kitchen of the Food Runners Collaborative Inc. Organization of Raleigh, of which Meals On Wheels of Wake County is a partner. About sixteen volunteers from St. Paul’s are actively involved in this ministry.
Wake Meals on Wheels website: www.wakemow.org
Contact: Bob Petersen, 919-552-9088, bpetersen@nc.rr.com
ONE Wake
ONE Wake is a non-partisan, multi-ethnic, multi-issue group of religious congregations, associations, and other non-profits in the Wake County area with aggregate membership totaling in excess of 50,000 households.
St. Paul’s has been part of ONE Wake from its origins as Wake County Sponsors in 2018. Our people have become known for consistently showing up at actions and assemblies, offering our voices and energy to move actions forward. ONE Wake helps form leaders from within St. Paul’s by offering guidance on organizing people through relationship building.
Learn more about this opportunity for community engagement on our ONE Wake at St. Paul’s webpage.
Refuge for Refugees
This ministry – affectionately called R4R – assists families who have been granted refugee status as they resettle in our community.
Every year, thousands of refugees find a home in the United States. In 2021, North Carolina was ranked 6th among states accepting the most refugees for resettlement. Currently working with the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants-North Carolina (USCRI-NC), St. Paul’s has provided support to more than nine refugee families since the ministry began in 2016 .
Helping these families find their way in a new country is no simple matter. R4R depends on the support of parishioners who directly volunteer with the families, donate material goods or money, and network with other agencies and nonprofits working on resettlement.
Rise Against Hunger
Rise Against Hunger (formerly Stop Hunger Now) is driven by the vision of a world without hunger. Their mission is to end hunger by 2030 by providing food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable and creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources. At just 34 cents per meal, Rise Against Hunger meals are distributed through global partners that administer school feeding programs, orphanages, health clinics, vocational training and a growing focus on the education and empowerment of women as a key in the pursuit of zero hunger.
Rise Against Hunger meals are nutritiously sound. Every dehydrated rice/soy meal is fortified with 23 essential vitamins and nutrients. Research has shown that one in three people in developing countries are adversely affected by vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
At each meal packaging event, St. Paul’s commits to packaging 10,000 meals. Volunteers from 4 years of age and up commit their time and money to both packaging the meals and paying for the food ingredients used in these meals. This is a wonderful ministry where people of all ages learn there is something impactful they can do to make this world a better place for all.
Questions? Contact: Brooke Mautz or Ramsey McIntire, riseagainsthunger@stpaulscary.org
Sign up for the next St. Paul’s Rise Against Hunger event here: http://events.stophungernow.org/StPaulsCary
St. Nicholas: Share in the Joy of Christmas Giving
Each December, parishioners reach out to families in need by contributing hundreds of Christmas gifts for distribution to families in need. St. Paul’s provides gifts to children served by a variety of ministries and organizations. Agencies include: CommWell Health, which supports the healthcare of seasonal farmworkers in Dunn, NC; West Haven, formerly under the Episcopal Housing Ministry which provided affordable housing in our diocese; The Healing Place, a non-profit recovery and rehabilitation facility for homeless people with alcohol and drug dependency in Raleigh; The refugee families of of St. Paul’s called R4R – assists families who have been granted refugee status as they resettle in our community; Coats, backpacks, and toiletries are provided to homeless downtown residents on Christmas Eve.
In late November, an “Advent Tree” is set up in the Narthex (Lobby) and decorated with tags containing information about these children. Parishioners select tags from the tree and, on St. Nicholas Sunday, bring presents for the child on their tag.
Help us share the love of Christ by providing gifts for these incredible children who endure many hardships. Your generosity in support of this ministry shows these children that they are loved in a very special way, by Christ and by his community here at St. Paul’s. We are looking forward to the day when the faces of our children light up with the love of Christ given and received. The members of the St. Nicholas Ministry really appreciate contributions of money to the ministry: Such donations allow us to look for after-Christmas bargains for next year’s gifts and to be prepared with gifts for any child whose tag may be lost. Checks should be made payable to St. Paul’s and designated “St. Nicholas Fund.”
Contact: Colette Hibberd (hibberdfamily@yahoo.com).