Outreach Ministries

Second Offering

Each month, our Second Offering benefits groups we have built relationships with and who value the dignity of every human being. On the first Sunday each month, we collect a free-will offering at our breakfast, to benefit our partner for the month. Baggies in our bulletins each week help with the financial support of those groups. What we’ve found is that by tying all of these pieces together, we are seeing a marked increase in our outreach monies AND engagement with ministries that were previously known to only small groups of parishioners. You can donate to our designated beneficiary each month here.

Faith & Grace Garden

What started as a little plot of land with a few plants to a food pantry garden. Volunteers sow, plant, fertilize, weed and harvest a garden each year that has produced as much as 16,000 lbs. of food for local food pantries. Volunteers are from the church, the local community – including schools & neighbors – and Bhutanese neighbors that come through Lutheran Services in Iowa. Visit the Faith & Grace Garden website for more information.
Contact: Mark Marshall, wdmmarshall@msn.com
or Tim Goldman, timothyjgoldman@gmail.com

FreeStore

The FreeStore is an outreach begun at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church that provides household items and furniture free of charge to women who are referred by Iowa domestic violence services and to families in need from other social agencies for a nominal fee. It is entirely run by volunteers with no paid staff. Volunteers are always needed to pick up furniture, organize items in the warehouse, greet clients, help clients move furniture to their new locations, and raise funds. Visit the FreeStore’s website for more information.

Casserole Ministry

The casserole ministry has been part of St. Timothy’s efforts to feed the hungry from our very beginning.  Parishioners have continued to prepare casseroles for use by the Salvation Army’s local mobile canteen, local food pantries, the local domestic violence shelter and Hope Ministries.  From 2006-2021, 27,609 casseroles have been delivered to the hungry.

Prayerfully consider participating in this blessed ministry! For information about how this ministry works and how you can join us, please contact Scott Andrews at: scottandrews43@gmail.com

Joppa

Joppa collaborates with community partners, helps homeless people access existing resources, and mobilizes private donations from families, churches and organizations to serve unmet needs in homeless services, housing and education. As a congregation, we support Joppa with meal prep one weekend each month for our youth, recognize them as a 2^nd Offering partner during the year and share seasonal need suggestions for the homeless in our community. https://www.joppa.org/supply/

Youth Justice Initiative

The Youth Justice Initiative is a restorative justice program that helps reduce repeat juvenile offenses. St. Timothy’s hosts a study table and provides a meal for participants on Thursday nights. Learn more about YJI at http://www.wdm.iowa.gov/government/police/community-programs/youth-justice-initiative.

Grocery Ministry

This ministry began as part of our connection with the Youth Justice Initiative Study Table Program. YJI families identified as “food insecure” are supported by this ministry, typically receiving a large backpack filled with groceries and many times additional bags to supplement the need.

Women at the Well

This ministry hosts a worship service for the women inside the correctional facility at Mitchellville. Members of St. Timothy’s also serve on a Reentry Team, which helps women recently released from the prison navigate life outside. Read more about this ministry at http://www.womenatthewellumc.org/.

St. Timothy’s has received a grant from the United Thank Offering to help expand the work of Women at the Well. Well Time is the name of the faith-based reentry program Women at the Well currently offers at Fresh Start Women’s Center in Des Moines. The grant envisions expanding this program into the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area at the Women’s Center for Change, with the name “Well Time 2.0.” Both centers are run by the Department of Corrections and serve women recently released from ICIW or from county jails. 

The grant monies, in combination with some initial funding by St. Timothy’s, will enable Women at the Well to do two things: 

• First, provide faith-based reentry programming in the Women’s Center for Change; and 
• Second, establish reentry teams, drawn from United Methodist and Episcopal congregations in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area and trained by Women at the Well, to support individual women as they reenter society after incarceration.