Our newly revised Mission Outreach group held their first local event here in Springfield.  Blessed Sacrament sponsored a community cookout for residents of the Edgewood Trailer Park.  Parish volunteers helped grill burgers/hot dogs, set up tables/chairs, transport equipment, tear down and provide items for the cookout. Volunteers stayed and mingled with the residents and met other people in our community. 

This was a great opportunity for our parish community to put into action our Lord's command to "love your neighbor" in a spirit of generosity, caring, and fun. 
 

For our 2023 Lenten Service Project, we chose to partner with The James Project. This local charity supports Sangamon County foster families by providing houses, parents support, anc children's provisions.  Blessed Sacrament provided MANY loads of children's pajamas, sweats and socks for children entering foster care.  We also adopted two rooms at a foster home in our neighborhood - painting, repairing and decorating those rooms through the physical and financial efforts of our parishioners.  The generous financial support from the parish allowed us to donate gift cards to The James Project to be used for children's apparel as well as immediate needs of the foster families.

Blessed Sacrament has a very special relationship with St. Theresa's Youth Development Center in Wa, Ghana.  St. Theresa's Center is a fully staffed school founded by Father Paul Kala.  Each day 280 students come to the center for tutoring, reading, computer skills and faith formation. Additionally, they have begun a weekly RCIA program for adults.

Our parish has supported St. Theresa's in multiple ways.  In 2013, Father Jeff and Deacon Tom Burns traveled to Ghana to visit the school.  Since then, we have contributed school uniforms and sent school supplies through parish donations and an Eagle Scout project.  In 2015, we collected new and gently used bikes and shipped them to Ghana since many children come to the center from a great distance.  

Most recently, the Blessed Sacrament School students raised funds to purchase gardening tools to help the St. Theresa's students become more self-sufficient. We are currently raising funds to help St. Theresa's purchase a tractor to be used in farming their 80-acre area.  Another major goal is to help them establish Internet service in hopes that our students could communicate more freely with them on a regular basis.

If you are interested in planning for future projects, please contact Deacon Tom Burns.