St. Mary's Outreach is collecting food items for two of our outreach partners: the Goochland YMCA needs snacks for their afterschool programs and the Woodman West food pantry needs food basics for their clients. Please drop off any items in the cart in the church office by Friday, Feb. 9.  

For the Goochland YMCA 

• Bagged single-serving chips 
• Non-refrigerated cheese & pepperoni sticks
• Extra-cheddar Goldfish
• Individual fruit snacks
• Fruit roll-ups
• Granola bars (with and without nuts)
• Cereal (individual boxes/bags) 

For Woodman West (please no Costco-sized items, which are hard to distribute)

• Flour: 4-5 lb. bags 
• Sugar: 4-5 lb. bags
• Vegetable oil (32-48 oz.)
• Garbanzo beans
• Tomato paste
• White rice
• Pasta of any kind

Thanks to the success of BBQ and Brews in late October the Outreach Committee was able to provide year-end monetary gifts to each of our outreach partners. These funds in addition to our annual grants were greatly appreciated. 

Soon a committee will begin planning the 2024 fundraising event, which is a blessing both for money raised and our time together in fellowship! 

St. Mary's missioners Wayne Dementi, John Hyslop, and Linda Rose spent 17 days with Education Equals Hope (E=H) and a vision team of 10 others in East Africa in October. 

Join them at the Adult Forum on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 10 a.m. in the parish hall for an overview of the people they met and experiences they had. Come and learn more about E=H in Africa and the water-filter project H2O (Hope 2 Others). 

Also, we are planning to welcome Celeste Bundy, E=H executive director and leader of the Africa trip, to St. Mary's in April. Be on the lookout for those dates soon.

Reverse Advent Boxes

Spearheaded by Amelia McDaniel, the children of St. Mary's gave specific gifts to all our Outreach Partners. From books to mittens to paper towels, this beautiful project was a daily reminder that Advent is the season of giving. Thank you, Amelia!