re: fund raisers, Shelly on 5-30-04
            QUESTION from Charles on June 4, 2004

Bro Ignatius This is not a question but just to make a few comments regarding Church picnics. Our parish started about 20 years ago with a small group of 18 people (not families) coming to the Holy Mother Church from the Anglican Church. Our priest does not believe in bingos, huge fundraisers etc. He believes in trusting in our Lord to provide us with what we need. As a matter of fact I know that some parishes once a year instead of having a homily will talk about all the financial needs and how desperately they need money and bore people with statistics about how much money is spent and how few contributions it receives. Our priest will only mention briefly when announcements are made that it is a Sunday to evaluate how much money each family tithes, pray, search our hearts, and a tithing plan is inserted in each bulletin. That’s a far as our fundraising goes. We have church picnics but are held on Saturdays after morning mass. (And heaven forbid that we have a folk or polka mass. Never guitars; only organ music with old traditional hymns). We sell tickets at a very small price to offset some of the expenses because the Church will provide all the meat and soft drinks. People can sign up to bring dishes (vegetables, desserts and their own drinks if they prefer but not mandatory in able to attend). We simply trust that the Lord will provide with what we need. The Church picnic is for families to gather together and having a day of fun with games for the kids, volleyball for the teens; just plain fun for the whole family. I firmly believe that by putting ALL our trust in God, He always provides. Our parish has grown from 18 people, to over 450 families, from two masses each Sunday to four and all full. We now have an elementary school with grades from Pre-k to 8th and started construction on expanding the size of our church to more than double (from 200 seating to over 500), a large gym, an administration building with two floors AND a High School, with area for playing fields. All of this done WITHOUT any fundraisers other than asking people to search their hearts and give what Our Lord wants them to give. From the moment the thought about having an elementary school built to the time the school opened, trusting only in God, and coming up with the necessary funds requested by the diocese was only eight months. So yes, we need to stop with the bingos and start putting our trust in God. He will NOT fail us. We must take the example of Mother Theresa who never allowed fundraisers. Her whole trust was in God to provide.