ECHO news for December

Click HERE to see a compilation of ECHO’s current needs … and CLICK HERE FOR ECHO’S AMAZING DISTRIBUTIONS FROM 2024!!!

Special announcement:

Helping A Family Have a Holiday Meal

Once again, ECHO will be connecting local donors with our clients who would welcome the gift of groceries for a December holiday meal. A donor may ask for a specific size of family to assist, and ECHO will match the donor with a local household in need. ECHO will offer a list of foods for the donor to deliver directly to the family or suggest an appropriate amount of grocery store gift cards that can be delivered or mailed to them. Groceries should be delivered by December 15, and gift cards should be mailed to arrive at the recipient’s home by that date. If you would like to help one or more families have a happy holiday, contact Linda Vretos.

Donations that cost ZERO … click HERE for info …

Click HERE to see how Target shoppers can help raise funds for ECHO …

Click HERE to find out what to do for a “Food Donation Option When You Can’t Come to ECHO”

ECHO desperately needs your help to help fill the shelves of their Food Pantry … Need info on donating? Call 703-569-7972 or go to https://www.echo-inc.org/needed-right-now for their current needs.

Need help? Call 703-569-9160 … To find out what ECHO has to offer its clients, click HERE for English and HERE for Spanish.

Donation Hours
M, Tu, W, Th, F - 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Tu, W, Th - 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Funerals and Memorials Info

St. Mark’s website now have a separate informational webpage for upcoming funerals and memorials. See it at https://www.stmarks-elca.org/funerals-memorials-info.

Don’t Let Your Giant Reward Points Expire!

Do you know you can use your points for other products besides gas? Right now you can get a dozen eggs for 200 points. If you don’t need them, or only need a half dozen, please consider donating them to Food For Others. Just mark the container as FFO and leave in the kitchen refrigerator. Thank you!

Pull POP tabs from Soda Cans!

… and place them in the narthex in the container shown at the left! Cindy Hausch-Booth is collecting pop tabs for Ronald McDonald House Charities, Greater Washington, DC! It's just so simple! Pop tabs are easy to collect and store and are less messy than collecting entire cans, and there is more concentrated aluminum in these tabs than in the cans, so we can get more money for something a lot smaller! 100% of the money we earn is used to offset the cost between the amount families are able to donate for their stay and our actual operating costs—a difference of about $197 a night. You can easily see that the little pull tab you used to throw away is very valuable to the guest families at our Houses.

Thank you for helping RMHCDC by “Pulling for the House!” Your pop tabs make a difference!

Fourth Quarter Benevolence:
The LAMB CENTER AND FACETS

Contributions from you to St. Mark’s benevolence fund for the 4th quarter of 2024 will be divided evenly between The Lamb Center and FACETS.

See also “the latest info” on our Q4 benevolence on our Quarterly Benevolence webpage.

As a reminder, our quarterly benevolences are not covered through the regular offerings to the St. Mark’s operating budget. If you donate online, there is a Quarterly Benevolence button on our Vanco e-giving portal. If you make your donation at the offering plate or mail in a check, please make out the check to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and annotate the check with "Quarterly Benevolence."

ESOL Classes at St. Mark's

Classes in the fall began Tuesday, September 12, 2023. Classes are Tuesdays and Thursdays, 7:00 PM-8:30 PM; cost of books is $45. There is a need for ESOL teachers as well as volunteers to provide childcare (perhaps high school students who need community service hours).

For more information, contact Yvette Moy at at ymoy@stmarks-elca.org.

YOU ARE INVITED …

** The Prayer Ministry invites anyone who is interested in committing to a renewed prayer life at St. Mark's to join us on Sundays after the service at 11:00 AM in the Fellowship Hall. Learn more HERE!!!

** Also, the "Watch and Pray" Lunch Bunch is scheduled for Tuesdays at NOON in the Fellowship Hall. Bring a bag lunch and come to share in prayer, food, and fellowship. All are welcome. Contact Ken Anderson for information.

** Everyone is invited to join the on-going Wednesday morning (10:00) “Watch and Pray” meeting via Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/894781064 (password 5800) 

For questions or more information contact Raelene Long (llong41@verizon.net) or Cherry Moser (clmoser@cox.net).

Hypothermia 2025

Hypothermia 2025

Hypothermia week at St. Mark’s is
Sunday, January 26, 2025 through
Sunday, February 2, 2025

Signups for volunteers will be available soon… STAY TUNED!

Community Meals Are Back!

We have resumed our Community Meals, only on the first Sunday of the month at 1:30 PM, immediately following the Spanish service. 

What do we need? To start, (1) we need volunteers; and (2) we need prayers that God will (a) give us strength and wisdom as we recommence this effort, and (b) bless our efforts to satisfy not only physical hunger but real spiritual need.

Military Care Packages Collection: December 1 (or Anytime)

Our recipients for the end-of November/early December are an Air Force group; our contact person is Grace Martin. She says this about our project and about her fellow Airmen: 

We appreciate the love and support from you all. You remind us why we love to serve our country. In my 22 years of service, I don’t think I’ve worked with such young individuals who demonstrate so much pride and happiness in what they do! It’s reassuring to see they understand what they’ve signed up for and enjoy the profession. 

We do not know much about them yet, but Grace will be sending information that we hope to have for next week's Messenger. We do know they are in serious military situations. They have not sent a wish list yet—but you are so adept at choosing items and baking treats that they love. You have already furnished some of your Halloween candy (thank you!!), which we are putting into festive Christmas-y treat bags so they will be cheered when they open the boxes and see signs of Christmas staring up at them—these are the boxes that will in effect be their Christmas holiday boxes. 

A huge thank you to all of you for your continuing support of this project—and that thank you comes from us as well as from the troops who receive your special packages, letting them know we are thinking of them.

Flower Committee

The Flower Committee needs new members. If you are interested in joining the flower committee to help “dress” the altar on Sundays, please contact Trudy Stellar. We will be happy to train you. Click HERE for more information!

2024 Flower Deditations: Click HERE for the form to dedicate flowers or one or more Sundays in 2024!

Flower Ministry

On Mondays and Tuesdays the Flower Ministry team delivers small arrangements made from the altar flowers to St. Mark's members who are sick or housebound. We are in need of more volunteers to deliver. Please contact Lance Quesenberry lques48@gmail.com or call 703-401-1500 if you would like to volunteer or would like to ask questions.

Food For Others is in need of extra food—and extra people on Tuesday evenings. Please bring non-parishable food to the Narthex.
Thank you!

The last several weeks, we have been seeing a big surge in demand for our FFO food distribution on Tuesdays. Our FFO pantry helps to provide protein in our food distribution and to provide food when all the fresh food runs out. The goods donated by the supermarkets are primarily fruits, vegetables, and carbohydrates, not protein. Your monetary contributions will help us purchase many identical canned goods so they can be efficiently stored.

The increase in demand for our FFO distribution is taxing on the teams who receive, organize, and distribute the items. If you can spare a few hours on a Tuesday afternoon at 5:00 PM-6:30 PM, please consider helping one of our four FFO teams. No experience necessary. If you can help, even just one week, it will help us navigate this surge we are experiencing in demand. For further questions, please contact Debbie Brown, Nan Ackerman, or anybody you know who participates in our FFO teams. 

We are again running low on our empty egg carton supply. If you have empty egg cartons, please bring them to church again!

Please place your donations in the box in the narthex.