Moms' Play Group every Friday,10-11:30 a.m.  It's a chance for moms to chat over a cup of coffee while the children are well monitored in the nursery.  This group is open to the entire community.

BEDS - "Building Ecumenical Discipleship through Sheltering"

BEDS assists the West Suburban Cook County homeless by providing overnight shelter, meals and linkage to community resources. BEDS unites faith communities and caring people in a spirit of compassion, hospitality, and dignity.

Meals and shelter are provided at area churches every night of the week from mid-October through April and on Monday nights during the summer.  People of Ascension help with BEDS by preparing meals and delivering them to the host church monthly and volunteering to staff for several of the shelter sites. For more information call the BEDS. office at 708/354-0858, or e-mail them at beds@cyberlink.com

PeopleCare

PeopleCare is a visiting and caring agency serving Riverside, Brookfield, LaGrange Park, Lyons, and North Riverside.  Its mission is to assist and support the involuntarily homebound by providing socialization, emotional support and access to service providers.  In addition to giving financial support, people of Ascension join with members of the other congregations of the Riverside/North Riverside Covenant of Churches to serve as volunteers and Advisory Board members for PeopleCare.

Appalachian Service Project (ASP)

Each summer, members of our Youth Group and their advisors participate in ASP, traveling to some part of Appalachia (Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia) to help residents there build or remodel their homes.

Monthly Mission Projects

Every month Ascension selects a special mission project.  Information is shared about the project during the month, and then a special offering is collected on the final Sunday of the month.  Projects cover a wide range of needs from domestic to international hunger, from local to foreign mission projects.  Monthly Mission Projects for 2005.

Riverside/North Riverside Blood Drive

Each year we help organize and participate in the blood drive, sponsored by our community's Covenant of Churches.

Individual Mission Projects

We support members who participate in mission projects.  We have provided support and encouragement for one of our members who participated in a medical mission trip to Ecuador. Another member journeyed to South Africa to help with "Project Build," a cooperative effort between our synod and a companion synod in South Africa to build twenty Habitat for Humanity homes.

Stephen Ministries

"Receptivity to Care"

Most people are much more open to giving care than to receiving it.   When a person is giving care, he or she is in a position of strength, stability, and authority.  When a person is receiving care, he or she is acknowledging weakness and vulnerability.

As a result, there are countless people today who, though they really could benefit from a Christian friend who would listen and care for them, instead tough it out on their own.  They remain the strong silent type, or wear a smile across a face that is holding back a flood of tears.  Society encourages this (particularly for men).  To ask for help is to admit weakness. To show weakness is to admit inferiority.

But God did not create us to be independent.  We were created to be interdependent.  God's Word is clear on this all the way back to Genesis: "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him" (Genesis 2:18).  The New Testament underscores this theme with more than 50 verses that contain the words "one another."   These verses include admonitions such as "love one another," "encourage one another," "build up one another," and "pray for one another."

What these verses don't say is that only we are to love, encourage, and pray for other people.  The "one another" wording gives them a reciprocal meaning.  It also tells us that we are to allow other people to love, encourage, build up, and pray for us!

It is most difficult for people to ask for help.  Whether it is because of guilt, shame, inadequacy, or fear of rejection, many would much prefer to suffer alone than ask for help.

But suffering alone is not God's intent for us.  Jesus promises, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest"   (Matthew 11:28).  We can receive this promised rest when we turn to one another for comfort and help.

Our Stephen Ministers know all about receiving care.  Many of them have been on the receiving end of care - something that has motivated them to give care now.  They know how difficult it is to ask for help, but they also know the great personal and spiritual growth and healing that follows.  They know how to respond in a caring and nonjudgmental manner.  They are equipped, ready, and waiting to provide the care God very much desires you to have.

If you find yourself now or in the future facing difficulties in life, don't succumb to society's norm of remaining strong and suffering alone.   Take the courageous step of seeking help.  Open your heart to receiving God's love and grace through another person.  Our Stephen Ministry offers the opportunity of a very confidential relationship with someone who will listen to you and provide you with the care and encouragement you need, while Christ works inside to bring rest to your weary, burdened heart.

Ascension's Stephen Ministry is available to members of the community as well as the congregation.  For contact information, please call the church office.