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MISSION: “Tabitha
Circle” participants meet monthly to share time and
information with each other in the process of creating items
for charitable giving in the community outside St Joseph
Antiochian Orthodox Church.
This group is open to any
member of St Joseph Church who wants to participate, for the
purpose stated above. The level of experience required to
complete a project is immaterial. This is an ideal
opportunity to learn the skills needed, and to give your time
and resources for a worthy cause. Guests are welcome.
WHEN WE MEET: Currently, our very informal
meetings take place in the Parish Hall of St. Joseph Church at
3:30 p.m., usually the first or second Saturday of the month,
(depending on when the St. Philip Prayer Group, who meets at
5:00 p.m., has their study meeting scheduled).
GROUP HISTORY:
2006
The Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC)
located in Fort Bend county, offers a pair of booties to
anyone who goes to the Center for counseling regarding a
crisis pregnancy. Gayle Born (Mrs. Bob Born) is a counselor
there, and notified Isabel Stone (knitter) of the need for
handcrafted baby booties. During Great Lent 2006, a notice
was placed in the church bulletin, and the generous response
has been providing baby booties by the dozens for the PRC/FBC,
from the newly formed “Baby Booties for Life” group.
Since this had been going so well, we expanded
our content to include baby sweaters, which Gayle suggested
might be useful at the Protection of the Theotokos Family
Center in Cluj-Napoca , Romania. Ancuta Frantz is the manager
of that OCMC sponsored mission effort.
In
response to a request for more information, Ancuta mentioned
that the children, age six months to two and a half years,
need clothing, shoes and toys. There is an opportunity here
for those who cannot (or don’t want to) knit or crochet, to
participate.
In January, six boxes of items donated by
parishioners and friends were shipped. We plan to do this
again in the Spring and late Summer each year,
about the time we commemorate the great feasts of Annunciation
and Dormition, as God provides resources.
Through an article in the St
Ignatius newsletter, it has come to our attention that there
is a pregnancy resource center in Wichita, Kansas, called The
Treehouse. This is sponsored by our Archdiocese. This
organization, among other things, provides a “get started”
layette for the new mother and baby. We choose to promote the
gathering of a complete layette once a year in May, as a
donation, and also want to contribute handcrafted items for
this purpose.
2007
Because the interest and effort
of the group has expanded beyond the hand crafted baby
booties, it was agreed by consensus to change the name of the
group from “Baby Booties for Life”, to “Tabitha Circle”.
St Tabitha (feast day October
25) was raised from the dead by the grace of God, through the
prayers of St. Peter, as a testimony to the power of God, and
the great blessing of eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
Lord. See the New Testament book: Acts of the Apostles chapter
9, for the story. (Tabitha, an Aramaic name meaning “gazelle”
is also “Dorcas”, in Greek.)
The townspeople of Joppa,
lamenting her passing, had told Peter of her works of
charity, making clothing for the poor and needy. We hope this
example will inspire our efforts to make, with love, some
needed items for children, in Texas, in Romania, and in
Wichita KS. May God grant us grace to persevere.
St Tabitha (feast day October
25) was raised from the dead by the grace of God, through the
prayers of St. Peter, as a testimony to the power of God, and
the great blessing of eternal life through Jesus Christ, our
Lord. See the New Testament book: Acts of the Apostles chapter
9, for the story. (Tabitha, an Aramaic name meaning “gazelle”
is also “Dorcas”, in Greek.)
The townspeople of Joppa,
lamenting her passing, had told Peter of her works of
charity, making clothing for the poor and needy. We hope this
example will inspire our efforts to make, with love, some
needed items for children, in Texas, in Romania, and in
Wichita KS. May God grant us grace to persevere.
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©2006 St. Joseph Orthodox Church
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