ST. LUKE'S WESLEY PLAYERS PERFORM NEIL SIMON'S "GOD'S FAVORITE" - Proceeds
Benefit Local and International Missions
Highlands
Ranch -- St. Luke’s United Methodist
Church’s
drama ministry group, The Wesley Players, is performing Neil
Simon’s
“God’s Favorite” on March 16, 17 and 18,
2007. Proceeds raised
from the performances benefit two missions: a high-school youth
mission trip to Mississippi to help residents rebuild
Katrina-stricken homes; and an adult mission trip to help improve
child-oriented facilities in Santa Cruz del Quiché,
Guatemala.
Neil
Simon’s “God’s Favorite,” a
comedy, tells a contemporary
version of the Book of Job set in modern-day New York City.
Performances are Friday, March 16 and Saturday, March 17 at 7:00
p.m., and Sunday, March 18 at 3:00 p.m. The performances are free,
although freewill donations are accepted.
A
pre-performance, Saturday night dinner features a four-course
Southern style meal, including jambalaya, Southern fried chicken,
creamed corn and Bananas Foster. Proceeds from the dinner will be
used to purchase building materials for the youth mission trip.
Dinner tickets are $35.00 and can be purchased at St. Luke's after
Sunday morning services, or at the church office Monday through
Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
In 2006,
53 St. Luke’s teenagers and adult sponsors assisted
approximately
20 Hurricane Katrina-stricken Mississippi residents by digging out
beach-front properties, installing drywall in three homes, erecting a
fence, building storage sheds and painting and repairing porches at
ten different work sites. Forty-three youth and adults from St.
Luke’s UMC and Littleton UMC are making the trip this year,
including most of last year’s participants.
“The
reason we are headed back down to the Gulf Coast during this year's
spring break sprang from the intense emotional reactions our youth
experienced while serving last June,” says Chris Wilterdink,
St.
Luke’s director of youth ministries. “After seeing
the
destruction in the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, and in the
Gulfport/Biloxi/Ocean Springs area of Mississippi,” Chris
continues, “St. Luke’s youth wanted to help rebuild
more homes
and lives. Is there a better way to spend your spring break
week?”
While
the Saturday dinner proceeds will purchase Mississippi building
materials, freewill donations raised during the “God's
Favorite”
performances will benefit the adult mission trip to Guatemala, March
23 to April 1, 2007. A twenty-three person delegation from St. Luke's
and a ten-member Methodist group from Boulder will travel to Lemoa,
Guatemala. The mission team will receive its work assignments upon
arrival. Their jobs will include making improvements to either the
Hogar del Niño orphanage, the Methodist Retreat Center, or
the
John Wesley Methodist School.
“We do
this for the children,” says John Williams, St. Luke's
Guatemala
mission coordinator. “Our mission originally was to help the
Hogar
del Niño orphanage, and over the years it has expanded to
include more projects. But it's all for the children. They're in our
hearts, and their image is what stays with us after it's all
over,”
John continues.
St.
Luke’s is located at 8817 South Broadway in Highlands Ranch,
one-quarter mile south of C-470. Regular office hours are 8:00 a.m.
to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Sunday services, led by Rev.
Janet Forbes, are held at 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Sunday
school and free childcare are available during the 9:30 a.m. and
11:00 a.m. services. Contact St. Luke's at 303-791-0659, or at
www.stlukeshr.com.
Guided
by the spirit of God, St. Luke’s UMC is an inclusive
community of
faith, seeking to meet people where they are, growing together toward
full humanity, through living the teachings of Jesus: Love,
Acceptance, Justice, and Hope.
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| Members of St. Luke's 2006
Guatemala mission team spending time with the children of Santa Cruz del Quiché,
Guatemala |
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| Members of St. Luke's 2006 youth
mission team repairing some homes of Katrina-stricken residents of
Mississippi. |
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