“Be open to grace, and lead with the heart” is the yoga mantra I learned years ago as a way to maintain proper posture and breathing while exercising.  Six ministries in Province VII are recipients of 2007 United Thank Offering grants, totaling $100,482.00, to help them continue being open to grace and leading with their hearts as they exercise mission and ministry across our province.

The UTO grant recipients are the diocese of Arkansas, Dallas, Kansas, Northwest Texas, West Missouri, and West Texas.  In West Texas, St Philip’s Episcopal Church will receive funds to purchase a former convenience store for use as the Uvalde Food Pantry.  The convenience store comes with the shelving and refrigeration units, essential equipment for food storage requirements.  It is located in the Uvalde neighborhood nearest those it will primarily be serving, and next door to a low income health clinic.  Already, UFP is gathering additional support among the community’s churches and businesses.  Commented the Rev. Mike Marsh, “Being able to purchase the building so quickly enables money now being spent on rent to be used purchasing more food and to be open more often.”

In Arkansas, Second Genesis, Inc., a transitional housing and services ministry for women leaving prison, will use the grant funds to purchase a 12 passenger van.  The old van has collapsed, and as they are not permitted to drive, being able to provide transportation to parole meetings, children’s’ visits, and work, is critical for the women residents being served.  Transitional services like Second Genesis are critical to reducing prison recidivism rates and enabling women to return to productive lives instead of behavior destructive to them and their families.  The diocese of Dallas has a “rural parish initiative”, and St Francis Episcopal Church in Winnsboro is hoping to capitalize on that program.  Having only a small house as their church, St Francis is attempting to purchase a pre-owned modular building, move it to Winnsboro, and rehab it as their Sunday School and Parish Hall.  The UTO grant will enable St Francis to install a kitchen and two restrooms in the modular building.

In the dioceses of Kansas and West Missouri, Episcopal Community Services Executive Director Jay Lehnertz was delighted by UTO’s help for St Paul’s, Kansas City, Kansas, and St Augustine’s, Kansas City, Missouri.  St Paul’s will use the UTO grant to purchase a PC and appropriate software to join in the food pantry inventory network and track clients, and will rehab their basement pantry area.  St Augustine’s is a historic building, part of the Santa Fe National Historic District, and will use the UTO grant to rehab their basement food pantry space to become food safety compliant, rehab several restrooms, and move the church office back into the building.  Both churches are the only food pantry distribution point in their larger neighborhoods, and as such the UTO grants will enable both to remain a viable part of the greater Kansas City anti-hunger network. 

The diocese of Northwest Texas has recently started a “parish nurse” training program utilizing the National Episcopal Health Ministries programs and training materials.  The “diocesan nurse” RN liaison is currently working as a volunteer, but hopes the diocese will be able to transition this to a staff position to ensure it’s future.  The UTO grant will provide a partial stipend during this transition year, and assist in providing parish nurse training materials.  Margaret Williams, RN, the NEHM diocesan nurse liaison, was with her Cursillo reunion group at a retreat when she found out about the UTO grant award by phone and literally burst into tears of joy.  Said Margaret, “Thanks be to God!  My cursillo reunion group has been praying for the UTO grant for a year!”  Her next thoughts were about the more than 20 attendees at the Northwest Texas NEHM workshop for training parish nurses held in April, when they thought only 5-6 might show up; and how quickly she can get another workshop and training session together!

Each spring UTO province representatives research each grant from our respective province.  Calls to the applicants help us understand the area, the ministry, and particularly the compelling human need the grant, if awarded, will address.  In addition to the six grants awarded, there were also UTO grant applications from ministries in Province VII that UTO was not able to fund.  Much time, hope, and faith goes into the applications, and there are broken hearts to be consoled in each of our diocese as these ministries continue to be open to grace and lead with their hearts.  Unfortunately, the UTO ingathering funds are finite, and can be stretched only so far.

The 2007 United Thank Offering grants responded to the call to “feed my sheep”, both physically and spiritually.  The two largest grants will build a hospital in Pakistan and a church in Homer, Alaska.  Other grants will help rebuild the Grace Day Care Center in New Orleans, severely damaged in Katrina; and purchase a mini bus for St. George’s, in Baghdad, Iraq, enabling children to safely attend school now being held at the church because of the war damage.  The smallest grant provides a small parish in Mississippi with Sunday school materials and patterns to make children’s altar furnishings.

Of the 202 applications, totaling $8,141,476.97 in funding requests, UTO was able to fund 104 grants of $2,439,342.46.  Episcopal dioceses in the United States received 48 percent; overseas and regional grants received 52 percent.  There were 71 grants to the United States; 2 to Jerusalem/Middle East; 9 to Africa; 7 to Asia/Pacific; 11 to Latin American/Caribbean; and 3 Regional Grants.