MINISTRIES IN ACTION
Care and Invitation Worship and Spiritual Life Education
Social
Action Building and
Grounds Stewardship &
Fundraising Sudanese Lost Boys
MINISTRIES WITHIN THE SPIRIT OF PEACE COMMUNITY
Caring for one another is at the heart of Spirit of Peace. As a gathered
community, most of our caring happens spontaneously and informally. But,
we also organize into Ministries as a way to channel members' time, talents and
interests towards larger community issues. We have five
Ministries: Care & Invitation; Worship & Spirituality; Education;
Social Action; Building and Grounds.
Just
as each person is on an individual spiritual journey, each person lives out
their Christian call to peace, justice and reconciliation in individual
ways. At Spirit of Peace UCC, we attempt to be a place of support as you
live out your ministry in action. As a congregation, we reach out through
the global church by participating in 5 special offerings: Strengthen the
Church; Neighbors in Need; The Christmas Fund; One Great Hour of Sharing; and
Our Church's Wider Mission.
As a congregation, we reach out in a variety of ways locally. Some of the
activities we have participated in during the past year or two include:
Community Church Outreach Organization; Habitat for Humanity, The Banquet;
purchase of books and scholarships for our Sudanese young men; hurricane
relief; Darfur relief; Sudanese computer training assistance; Sharing the Dream
Guatemala Project; Fair Trade coffee sales; AIDS walk lunch; seminary support;
Senior Companion Program; and Heifer International. Every year brings new
ministry opportunities.
CARE AND
INVITATION MINISTRY
This Ministry focuses on attracting and welcoming new members and on
facilitating relationships between all members of the congregation. This
Ministry team offers opportunities for members of the congregation to spend
time together outside of 
worship in various fellowship activities.
WORSHIP AND SPIRITUAL LIFE MINISTRY
The
worship life of the congregation is central to the existence, both shaping and
nurturing the congregation's understanding of itself. The Worship and Spiritual
Life Ministry works with the pastors to help people experience a deeper
relationship with God through worship. They work to provide a rich
worship life of the highest quality, including administration of the sacraments
of baptism and communion.
EDUCATION MINISTRY
Members
of the Education Ministry design and guide a total education program that meets
church members' needs and fits with the church's educational and theological
principles. Christian Education emphasizes spiritual growth, at the same time
asserting that the spiritual is not separate from the intellectual, emotional,
ethical, and social compnents of life.
SOCIAL ACTION MINISTRY
This ministry provides leadership to the congregation to support members in
serving the world outside our walls. Through their education efforts, the
congregation is encouraged to engage the contemporary world to promote human
rights, justice and peace. They coordinate mission projects, educational
opportunities and the raising of funds for special endeavors.
BUILDING
& GROUNDS MINISTRY
The church is, most of all, its members attempting to live
their faith and its members gathering as a community to worship. Although
the church is not a building, the church's building provides a place for many
activities of the church. The Building and Grounds Ministry lovingly
maintains the church building and its grounds.
The Stewardship &Fundraising Committee leads our annual stewardship drive and capital campaigns. They plan creative fundraisers for a wide range of projects, they promote stewardship education and they assist members with long-range giving plans.
SUDANESE LOST BOYS
Chol Andria and Jacob Lual are Sudanese young men who
are members of Spirit of Peace. They arrived in Sioux Falls in 2001 as
part of a group of boys known as the “Lost Boys of Sudan.” Thousands of
children lost their families, their homes, and sometimes their entire villages
when conflicts in Sudan swept over their land in 1987. Often without
adults to guide them, children walked across the savannahs to refugee camps in
Ethiopia . Many starved along the way; others were killed by wild
animals, or drowned in crocodile-infested rivers.
Chol was 5 or 6 years old when he was separated
from his family in a raid. Jacob was 2 years old when his villa ge was
attacked, and a 12-year-old cousin managed to get him and 5 other young
children to Ethiopia . Four years later, soldiers forced the refugees
from the camp at gunpoint after a coup in Ethiopia . They fled on foot
again, toward Kenya , and again survived the lack of food and water, as well as
bombings from the air.
Of
the 40,000 children driven out of Ethiopia , only about 26,000 survived the
trek to Kakuma Refugee Camp in the Kenyan desert. Here they lived for
nine years. They were taught that their new family would be education,
but their hopes for education were as thin as they were, until they were
resettled in the United States .
Chol Andria (pictured top) and Jacob Lual (pictured bottom) are two of the “Lost Boys” who have