Director of Outreach & Advocacy Julie Welborn
As I ease into my new role as Director of Outreach and Advocacy, I am embracing the various opportunities that lie ahead. My role is chiefly to assist in helping the church embody its commitment to local and global service and advocacy, activity that happens seven days a week and through various partnerships and ministries that have always shaped LaSalle’s mission, call, and identity.
The service that occurs every Wednesday at Breaking Bread is an example of such outreach and advocacy. Each week we provide a robust table of fresh produce and non-perishable groceries for those in our community. When we open our doors at 2pm, there is a line of lovely seniors waiting to shop. For many, what we provide allows them to not have to shop at Aldi or Jewel for certain items. Our tables are depleted within the hour of its start. In the meantime, volunteers are in the kitchen preparing the evening meal, while another group is in Leslie Hall setting the tables and creating an atmosphere to receive our guests for dinner, fellowship and toiletry distribution. Each week we serve roughly 180 people meals, either on site or through our delivery, and we train and gather 30 volunteers, many of whom are young working professionals who live nearby. This community of volunteers and guests is a fruitful, rewarding, and bustling space every week.
Last week we were able to provide a full Thanksgiving Dinner to our guests and you church were a big part of making that happen. On Serve Sunday, you picked the greens, peeled the sweet potatoes, scooped the cranberry sauce and peach cobbler. Thank you! Once our guests were seated for the meal, we asked them to share something of which they were thankful. An overwhelming amount of responses were that they were thankful for having a place to come on Wednesdays to enjoy a good meal, feel safe, and be seen. That’s Outreach and Advocacy. We reached out to each individual to make sure that their felt needs were seen and loved. We advocated for their humanity and agency. And that’s just one example of the work LaSalle does each week.
There are so many other things we are working on to reach others. During the month of Advent, you again get an opportunity to participate in our efforts as we promote our Breaking Bread Coat Giving Tree. The Christmas Tree in Leslie Hall has ornaments with the names and sizes of our Breaking Bread guests who have requested a new coat. We are inviting you to take an ornament and purchase a coat for one guest. You can wrap it, include their name, and bring it back by December 17, where it will be placed under the tree for distribution on Wednesday, December 20. Our kids helped create this tree, make the ornaments, and will be helping solicit coats as well! You can also visit the Amazon Wish list in our weekly E-News and purchase items that our guests so desperately anticipate receiving – items we might take for granted such as socks, soap, body wash, toothpaste, deodorant, hats, scarves, and gloves, just to name a few.
I also invite you to join me in prayer seeking God’s wisdom as I create a new Outreach and Advocacy Advisory Team. I will be meeting with lay leaders and planning how to best reflect our mission of having an expansive faith, being a generous community, and investing in God’s justice moving forward in our community. We want to respond to the many requests for support, including our senior, unhoused guests, and the newly arrived migrant families. We are also developing partnerships with other organizations that are assisting our migrant population, and you can look forward to hearing more about ways you can assist.
There is much to be done, and we cannot do it alone. Thank you for all of your support thus far. I encourage you to buckle up and prepare, because God is at work in our local neighborhood and when we engage in compassion, and in justice, we welcome in the very feet of Jesus to our midst.