The Sanctuary Church Advent Offering is a special opportunity to target our giving towards four initiatives for the new year.

We aim to raise $50,000 above and beyond our regular offering to contribute to four strategic areas outlined below by January 31st.

We believe God calls us to be givers – generous sharers of His abundance. In our giving, we participate in God’s work in the world, and we participate in the transforming work God wants to do in each of us.

LOCAL / Feed The Frontlines

Over the course of 2020 we delivered hundreds of meals to frontline works. With the unpresednent surge currently happening in our state we are creating a fund to allow us to continue to bless frontline workers with gifts, meals, and mental health support.

CONGO / Paul Carlson Partnership

Through the Advent Offering, we have continued to support a village medical clinic in the Konga Ingwa village through the Congo Clinic Initiative. This Past year we were able to help training medical professionals, provide medicines and supplies, improve their infrastructure, and contribute to quality patient care.

Additionally we were able to send 20 local, Congolese nursing students to medical school!

This year we will send a grant through the Paul Carlson Partnership to assist the CEUM Medical Staff in their frontline battle with COVID-19 in their hospitals and clinics.

 

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Love Providence is the city renewal project of Sanctuary Church that works to provide hands-on ways of loving the city of Providence. It’s under this banner that all three of our congregations engage in mercy and justice. This looks like everything from investing in our neighborhood public schools, which are chronically underfunded and underperforming, to providing support and care to RI foster families via our Wrap Around outpost, to responding tangibly to specific needs in the community as they arise.

LOVE PVD SCHOOLS

We want to take the work we’ve started farther. Making sure more schools are sponsored, immediate needs are met, teachers are properly resourced, and families are reached.

REFUGEE STOCKING DRIVE

This Christmas season, we have the opportunity to partner with the Refugee Dream Center to love and bless our neighbors in a simple and practical way. Below are some common household items that RDC routinely provides to refugee families in need. These items, along with additional donations of children’s toys, will be delivered to refugee families on December 21st. Once you sign up to fill a bag, you will be contacted with a drop off location for the items. Click here to sign up for filling a bag for local refugee families.

ITEMS FOR BAG:
Toothpaste
Body wash or bar soap
Hand sanitizer
Dish detergent
Laundry detergent
All purpose cleaner
Disinfectant wipes

WRAP AROUND

  1. In partnership with Bags of Hope, Sanctuary is helping to provide a bag of gifts to every child in foster care in the state alongside a special thank you lunch for 400 DCYF social workers at their central offices.
  2. In partnership with The Village we are putting on a Christmas Event for close to a hundred Foster families.

WRAP AROUND IS A MISSION OUTPOST OF OUR CHURCH
WE, THE CHURCH, HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO WRAP AROUND BIRTH PARENTS, FOSTER FAMILIES, WAITING FAMILIES, AND ADOPTIVE FAMILIES ON THEIR JOURNEY. BY PARTNERING WITH EXISTING COMMUNITY RESOURCES, CONTINUING EDUCATION FOR FAMILIES AND LEADERS, AND SUPPORTING OUR CHURCH AND COMMUNITY BY MEETING THE TANGIBLE NEEDS THIS ISSUE PRESENTS, WE CAN ALL CHOOSE TO SAY “YES.” “YES” TO PERMANENCE AND BELONGING FOR CHILDREN; “YES” TO WRAPPING AROUND THESE COURAGEOUS KIDS AND FAMILIES; “YES” TO FULFILLING THE VERY ROLE GOD INTENDED FOR THE CHURCH.

  1. One of the clearest ways we are able to be the church in Providence is to provide tangible help in times of need. Each year, our needs ministry helps us show the love of Jesus whenever and wherever the need arises– whether providing meals, paying rent checks, providing access to professional counselors, or caring for an array of spiritual and tangible needs. Each year our needs ministry provides over $10,000 worth of care.
  2. Mental Health: Even before the chaos of 2020, our culture was already filled with an overwhelming number of troubling statistics about the state of mental health. Now, with the stress of a pandemic and a year of cultural tension, mental health struggles are a reality for even more people. This year we are adding to this fund in order to respond well to those in need of counseling, coaching, support and spiritual direction.