Help send a kid to camp
Over the years the Walton congregation has supported the Kerr Street Mission in sending children from low-income families to summer day camp.
To ensure that all eligible children are able to be a part of camp this summer we need your support. It costs $32 per day to allow a child to participate.
Please sponsor a day or two (or more!) and make a difference in a child’s life. This can be done online at the Walton website or through the church office
Your Outreach Committee would like to offer a different way to recognize the season of Lent. Starting Ash Wednesday we have prayer themes for each week taking us to Easter Sunday. Please join us in praying for these areas of concern. Each week there is a short scripture and prayer, please add your own as you feel guided to.
We pray for our young people who are our future and have experienced the loss of community, social supports and face to face interaction in schooling during the pandemic.
Jeremiah 29:11
‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’
Prayer
Loving Father, We thank you for young people, the energy, enthusiasm and potential that they have. We pray that the obstacles that can hold them back such as poverty, ill-health, and discrimination, will be removed. We ask that, inspired by your Spirit, young people will have courage to speak out for justice, find solutions to poverty and love their neighbours with word and action. May you strengthen them with joyful hearts, give them a vision of your Kingdom here on earth, and embolden them to act. Amen.
A prayer for young people – Our Coins for Care jar is located on the table at the back of the Sanctuary and coin donations received there are sent to Food for Kids (Let’s Feed Our Future – Food4Kids Ontario) which is a wonderful local charity supporting children in need.
Your Outreach Committee would like to offer a different way to recognize the season of Lent. Starting Ash Wednesday we have prayer themes for each week taking us to Easter Sunday. Please join us in praying for these areas of concern. Each week there is a short scripture and prayer, please add your own as you feel guided to.
Ukraine and Haiti were top of mind when we started this project and now the Earthquake in Turkey and Syria have joined them in our concerns.
John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Let us pray for Ukraine, Haiti and all the places in the world where there is no peace and people live in fear with the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (Prayer for Peace)
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Walton is accepting donations for Disaster Relief through the church office and online if you are able to help.
Your Outreach Committee would like to offer a different way to recognize the season of Lent. Starting Ash Wednesday we have prayer themes for each week taking us to Easter Sunday. Please join us in praying for these areas of concern. Each week there is a short scripture and prayer, please add your own as you feel guided to.
Mankind has always damaged the environment through living but in the beginning, there was more nature than people and there was a better balance. After the Industrial Revolution populations grew and the use of coal and later oil increased the output of Carbon Dioxide. This has led to the warming of the planet which will affect our climate and food production and extreme weather events. Pollution of all kinds threatens our future. There are still steps that can be taken but it is up to us whether that will be done. We need God’s help to achieve this goal. Over 2,000 years ago, the prophet Jeremiah, made known what man could do to God’s earth:
Jeremiah 2:7
And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.
Prayer
Lord, help us to take the steps that will be necessary for us to reduce the warming of the climate and the resulting changes on earth. Guide us to model the changes that need to be made.
This week we can observe Earth Hour: On 25th March 2023 at 8.30pm, as landmarks and homes across the world switch off their lights, we are asking everyone to spend 60 minutes doing something positive for our planet. It may not seem like much, but the magic happens when you, and those like you in Asia and Africa, North and South America, Oceania and Europe – supporters in over 190 countries and territories – all give an hour for our one home. Together, we can create a rare moment of unity that brings the world together, shines a spotlight on nature loss and the climate crisis on a global scale, and inspires others to act and advocate for urgent change. Take this hour to turn off as many lights as are safe and think of ways we can help here, to reduce usage and waste in our daily lives and also ways to respect and protect our green spaces. 9 things you can do about climate change
Your Outreach Committee would like to offer a different way to recognize the season of Lent. Starting Ash Wednesday we have prayer themes for each week taking us to Easter Sunday. Please join us in praying for these areas of concern. Each week there is a short scripture and prayer, please add your own as you feel guided to.
Week 3: Sunday, March 12
Health: Physical, Mental and Emotional Well-being for us and for our world.
Matthew 11:28
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Prayer
Most gracious and loving Father, I want to thank You for all the blessings You’ve given me, my family and friends, and all those I hold dear. Many people are suffering from physical, mental and emotional illness and pain. Please strengthen them and provide the help needed to restore them to health. Amen.
If you feel called to help we can send donations to Health Partners International of Canada (HPIC) through the church office and online to help provide much-needed medicine to over 130 countries around the world. After their presentation on Outreach Sunday, we were overwhelmed by your generous support.
EASTER FOOD DRIVE
At this time of year we ask you to especially remember the FARESHARE FOOD BANK in Oakville as the EASTER FOOD DRIVE approaches. If you could add a few items to your weekly shopping list for the food bank it would be very helpful.
The most needed items are:
CANNED ITEMS
Meat (Ham, Chicken, Corned Beef, Luncheon)
Fruit
Peas
Baked Beans
Tomatoes
Pasta Sauce
Salmon, Sardines, Tuna
Chunky Soup
DRY GOODS
Rice (700gm to 950gm)
Instant Coffee (Regular and Decaf)
Pasta/Rice Side Dish
Crackers
Jam
Oatmeal
Tea (Regular, Green, Herbal)
Toiletries
KIDS SNACKS
Nut free cereal bars
Pudding/Fruit cups
BABY
Baby Cereal
Pull-ups 4T, 5T
Diapers Sizes 2-7
NOT NEEDED AT THIS TIME
Peanut Butter
Dry Pasta of Any Kind (including Spaghetti)
If you prefer to make a monetary donation, do so through your church envelope or online, clearly noting, “Fareshare Food Bank Donation”.
Until Easter we will have decorated boxes by all church entrances for your convenience.
Thank you for anything you can share.
“Out of our abundance, O Lord, Let us provide for others.”
Your Outreach Committee would like to offer a different way to recognize the season of Lent. Starting Ash Wednesday we have prayer themes for each week taking us to Easter Sunday. Please join us in praying for these areas of concern. Each week there is a short scripture and prayer, please add your own as you feel guided to.
Affordable housing and homelessness. So many are struggling.
Proverbs 31:8-9
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Prayer
Dear God, we pray for our neighbours in need of safe and affordable housing, and for the many families in danger of losing their homes. May we work to build communities that create space for all people to live with dignity and peace.
Our support for Wesley Mission and Kerr Street Mission through Sockfest, the Mitten Tree and White Gift Sunday helps to provide some hope and necessities to underserved people in our communities.
Your Outreach Committee would like to offer a different way to recognize the season of Lent. Starting Ash Wednesday we have prayer themes for each week taking us to Easter Sunday. Please join us in praying for these areas of concern. Each week there is a short scripture and prayer, please add your own as you feel guided to.
Matthew 25: 35-36, 40 – For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me…The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”.
Prayer: We pray for those among us in our wealthy country who do not have enough to eat. We ask our leaders to work towards a way for people to be able to provide for themselves or receive the help they need to meet their basic needs. Please guide us to help our neighbours where we are able. Bless all those who prepare meals and share food with those in need.
If you feel called to help we have Food Bank donation bins at each entrance and monetary donations are also accepted online or through the office.
Support for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine.
If you would like to make a donation for relief for the people of Ukraine, you can do it through your Givings Account at Walton. No amount will be too small in such dire circumstances and we will be sure to direct your donation carefully through the Canadian Red Cross.
Any donation for Ukraine will be added to your annual givings and will be included in your end of 2022 official tax receipt from Walton.
You can click on this Walton link — https://waltonmemorial.churchcenter.com/giving/to/disaster-relief-outreach-ukraine
You can also text a donation, by sending a text to 84321 with a dollar amount followed by “ukraine” e.g. “$25 ukraine”
You can also drop a cheque made out to Walton Untied Church with “Ukraine” in the memo line, through the mailbox slot at Walton Church, or sent by Canada Post, Walton Memorial United Church, 2489 Lakeshore Road West, Oakville L6L 1H9.
Thank you in advance for anything you would like to donate.
The Walton Outreach Committee
For over 10 years, Walton’s Outreach Committee has been collecting items to make personal care kits.
Many volunteers have sewn the bags that the personal care items are collected in. The bags are taken by people to fill as they do their weekly shopping and then return them to the church. Some parents have used them as a teaching tool for their young people; who seem to love filling the bags.
One of the Outreach Committee members looks after all the Personal Care Kits that come in and all the other personal hygiene items which arrive in our collection box. They check all the contents and when a certain number of Kits have been collected, the bags are delivered to places like Kerr Street Mission for distribution.
Items for personal care kits are still needed. Please contact the church office to arrange to drop them off.
SUGGESTED ITEMS FOR PERSONAL CARE KITS
☐ Brush / Comb
☐ Deodorant
☐ Disposable Razors
☐ Hygiene Items
☐ Shampoo / Conditioner
☐ Shaving Cream
☐ Soap
☐ Socks
☐ Toothbrush
☐ Toothpaste
☐ Towel – Bath or Hand
☐ Underwear
☐ Washcloth
