Report from the Field: An Energizing First Week of Calling

Daily we track things such as: completed calls, when we connect and speak to an actual person; how many of the people we speak to already go to church or not; would they like to visit; and would they like us to pray for them. 

For the two-hour commitment each night, these are the results so far (averaged numbers):

·         220 calls made nightly by the 4-5 callers who are calling

·         70 completed calls per night

·         20 prayer requests received per night

·         4 to 9 prayer team volunteers each night, praying in the church  

Keep an eye on your email for the full update from Anne. In the meantime, a glimpse into the first night...

 

All the first night volunteers. After this, they warmed up their dialing fingers and did some practice prayers.

Callers hard at work. Someone get those boys some file folders.

 Working hard, having fun... what's the difference?

 My favorite part of this is the Cookie Monster hat that matches Charlie's shirt (and smile!).

 Prayer request delivery.

 Prayer requests go to one of these people, the Sunday night prayer team.

Go Team!

Stay tuned for more excitement from the Harvest. Until then, this is your Field Reporter, signing off.

Fantastic Harvest Start!

It is with such pleasure that I write this Harvest update. St. Luke’s parish family can be so proud of itself! The diligence, enthusiasm and dedication to task that is being demonstrated by each person as they embrace their role in this Harvest outreach is a pure delight to witness and be included. As of this writing, we have had three most excellent evenings of Harvest calling and praying. Daily we track things such as completed calls – when we connect and speak to an actual person; how many of the people we speak to already go to church or not; would they like to visit; and would they like us to pray for them. For the two hour commitment each night, these are the results so far (averaged numbers): · 220 calls made nightly by the 4-5 callers who are calling 70 completed calls per night 20 prayer requests received per night 4 to 9 prayer team volunteers each night, praying in the church And like these numbers, which are true to the statistics provided by Harvest, about 60% of the people we speak to say they already go to church – which is good news for the Kingdom! The really exciting piece is: whether or not our neighbors already go to church, they are requesting our prayers and we are in dialogue with them about shared daily activities. One woman’s son is taking organ lessons, so she was very interested in our beautiful Aeolian Skinner organ; her interest was piqued by our music program. We made sure that she was invited to the next Michaelsen Arts Series concert on Sunday evening April 3. Another person knew the parishioner who called her! They had a good chat about Harvest and what St. Luke’s is doing. Another caller discovered that a family’s son went to a local school and knew one of our parishioners - his teacher! These things are such positive examples of bridge building out from our hearts to the near-by community. From the conversations I have had with those working each evening and many in the parish, there seems to be large agreement that Harvest is providing us the framework by which we are taking action to answer many of our own fervent prayers about how to share the Good News of the saving power and love of Jesus Christ and to build up His Kingdom, and St. Luke’s. I invite you to speak with any of the Harvest call and prayer team volunteers - they will tell you, it is a very moving, humbling and thrilling experience to be involved! Everything our parish has done together to this point is making this such a positive experience. Thank you all for your contributions to this fantastic start! Please keep Harvest at the top of your prayer list! God Bless! Anne Lucas/ Harvest Coordinator

Prayer is Powerful - our Harvest Prayer

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we pray that You will bless our efforts to reach out to our neighbors in this Harvest experience, that many lives will be touched with the truth of Your Gospel and the power of Your Holy Spirit. We pray for our leaders that all our efforts will be centered on You, Lord, as we strive to make Your truth known to the people we contact. Open the hearts of those we will call, that they will hear and respond to Your love for them. Open our hearts that we may welcome our neighbors in Your name. May all that we do be led by Your Holy Spirit, and may You draw us and our neighbors closer to You, that Your church and Your kingdom may be built up to the glory of Your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I Spy with My Little Eye

I Spy with My Little Eye.........something that begins with ........."D"!

I really loved that game when I was younger - in fact, still do - especially on those really LONG car trips, when the CDs have been played through (twice!) and the books on tape fail to hold the attention!
It's funny that when you look for something, you see a lot! In this case, LOTS OF DOTS!!
As we move ever closer to our Harvest start date, the leader team wanted to find an easy, simple way that all parishioners could be reminded to pray daily for St. Luke's and its outreach. DOTS became the answer! Small, unobtrusive little stickers, but something different, that we can put on our watches, phones, computers (refrigerators!) - anywhere we look many times during our daily activities! And when we spy these dots, we can offer up a prayer for our evangelism outreach and our neighbors we will be calling.
The beauty of the dots is that they will remind us to pray, but they might also prompt someone to ask why we are wearing them - giving us the opportunity to talk about St. Luke's - a little "mini-evangelism" if you will! So pull out and shine up that elevator speech about why you love St. Luke's and get ready to practise! DOT UP! and try the new Harvest prayer!

Catch the Spirit

On March 20 and March 22, 55+ callers and pray-ers attended the Harvest outreach training sessions that explained the caller and prayer center teams roles. As of this writing, Praise God, the caller and pray team calendars are filling up! Lots of intercessors are needed for this outreach, so if you feel this is something you can do from your home, please contact Deacon Rosemary or yours truly. Several people have said how exciting it is to finally be in the week when the invitational calling and praying starts. One person wrote me this week after the training; they said: "I just got home from training and I felt compelled to drop you a note. I feel so excited about the upcoming weeks and the opportunity to make calls and follow up with individuals and families. It is difficult to express in words the overwhelming sense that the Holy Spirit is moving through the parish. My husband said to me driving home that he would like us to pray the Harvest prayer together every night. That really shook me, since we are usually not on the same wave length when it comes to prayer! My prayers are with you and the team leaders!" You can imagine my encouragement for having received this email note. I shared it with the Harvest team leaders!

IT'S TIME. LET'S DO THIS THING!

WE HAVE A COMMON PURPOSE OF PRAYING AND MINISTERING TO OUR NEIGHBORS AND FOR REACHING THE UN-CHURCHED.

LET US CARRY THIS OUT WHOLEHEARTEDLY!

Don't Forget! Harvest Team Training March 20

Call Center Managers, Prayer Center Managers & Teams

Please join the Team Training THIS Sunday, March 20 from 3-5pm in Harman Hall! Come learn the details about your role in the Harvest - soup to nuts!

Only 11 more days until we start our evangelism outreach! If you haven't yet volunteered for a role, you are welcome to come Sunday to learn more.

Please continue to pray for our Harvest and for those to whom we will be reaching out in our Saviour's name, to share His Love.

See YOU there!

HARVEST OUTREACH POSTAGE COLLECTION – UNROLLED!

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” – that’s the inscription on the James Farley Post Office in NYC, referring to the courier service of the ancient Persian Empire! I wonder if they used stamps back then? Some clever person please let me know!

We are very happy to share with you that only a short time after Postage Sunday March 6, there is no lack of stamps for our Harvest evangelism mission! In its traditionally charitable and generous nature, St. Luke’s parish family is responding to the need for stamps and postage monies in a very positive way. With the donations being received, each hand written and hand addressed piece of mail sent to our neighbors as part of the outreach will be stamped, not metered!

THANK YOU for responding and contributing to the Harvest in this way – to make a gentle, gracious impression on those receiving St. Luke’s correspondence.

Anne Lucas - Harvest Coordinator
John Moore - Harvest Mail Coordinator

St. Luke's "Great Commission" Harvest Leader Team Training

Sundays are usually known for being the Clergy's "Big Day", but this past Sunday afternoon, the St. Luke's Harvest Leadership Team, as well as the Call Center and Prayer Center Managers, all attended their first training session for our evangelism outreach! The leader team has adopted it's new (internal) name of "St. Luke's Great Commission", because we feel we have been "Called By Name" to our roles & responsibilities! Very cool!

The team demonstrated great enthusiasm and dedication to anticipated tasks by spending the afternoon to learn more about the details of the outreach and each of their individual roles! The Harvest program representative provided us a detailed view to how all the pieces fit together between leaders and their teams; there are many moving parts to this outreach.

It is very exciting to think that at the end of this month we will start invitational calling to our neighbors! Please keep those whom we will be contacting in your daily prayers. Our prayers are to reach them when their hearts are open to receive our invitation to come experience the love and spirituality of the St. Luke's family; but most importantly, that many lives will be touched with the truth of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit through our efforts.

God's peace.......Anne Lucas