Fr. Justin Mathews Blog

August 18, 2010, on the eve of the feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, His Eminence +Christopher, Metropolitan of Libertyville-Chicago, fell asleep in the Lord.

Funeral arrangements are forthcoming.

May His memory be eternal! 

Fr. Justin was in Victoria, British Columbia July 27-30 to speak at the Orthodox Church in America Canadian Assembly. Fr. Justin got to talk about the mission and vision of FOCUS North America. Click on the link to listen now.

http://ancientfaith.com/specials/canadian_assembly_2010/f

He also teamed up with Fr. Jon-Stephen Hedge and clinical social worker Jennifer Ferraez from our partner ministry St. Brigid’s Fellowship in Isla Vista, CA to present a lecture entitled “The Practical Side of Reaching Out”. Click on the link to listen now.

http://ancientfaith.com/specials/canadian_assembly_2010/the_practical_side_of_reaching_out

FOCUS Minnesota will launch its ministry by hosting a free meal from 6:00 – 8:30 pm at St. Paul Fellowship Church on Wednesday, June 30.

“All FOCUS ministries are about serving others, plain and simple,” said FOCUS Minnesota director Vera Proctor. “The meal is representative of what we will continue to do as our ministry develops: give to anyone in need out of love.”

Proctor added that this meal will be the first of many in the area. She hopes to develop more partnerships with other Christian organizations like St. Paul Fellowship Church and to eventually find a location to transform into a permanent home for FOCUS Minnesota.

Proctor stressed that the meal is a “pan-Orthodox” effort, meaning that Eastern Orthodox Christians from all the Orthodox jurisdictions in the Twin Cities – Greek, Romanian, Russian, and others – are assisting in the effort.

St. Paul Fellowship Church is located at 868 Sherburne Ave., St. Paul, MN, 55104.

FOCUS North America is happy to announce the birth of Owen Michael Lee. Owen is the son of Jacob (Communications Director)and Calee Lee.

Owen was born on Monday May 31. He was 5.11 lbs and 18 inches long. May God grant him many years!

This Mother’s day we celebrate our mothers and remember that being a mother is a hard job. A mother often works tirelessly to take care of her children and will do anything to be assured of their well being.

But at FOCUS North America we also remember the many working poor mothers who struggle alone;  The mothers and their children living in abusive environments; the homeless mothers and their children; the mothers who come to our ministries daily who want to be able to feed and nourish their children but can’t seem to make ends meet in this difficult economy.

I often encounter guests to our food pantry who tell me that the supplemental food they receive each monday or the hot nutritious meal that they and their children receive is how they survive.  More than just the food, the time we spend serving them helps them have hope for a better tomorrow.

This Mother’s day we also stop to consider that according to the Census Bureau survey, most of the families that are at greatest risk of going hungry are headed by single mothers.

As unbelievable as it is in the midst of our abundance in North America there are countless hungry and hopeless families. 

According to the Food Research and Action Center, almost 23% of all children and over 14% of all adults in America live in households with insecure food.  This means that regularly some of our neighbors (even some of the people we may attend church with)find themselves going without meals or eating cheaper, less nutritious food to stretch every dollar.  Seniors often are in the terrifying predicament of having to choose between the medicines they need or food.

But together we can provide help and hope to those who are most in need. Through our own sacrificial giving, our local church ministries and through coordinated pan-Orthodox national ministries like FOCUS North America we can, and are, providing hope for the hopeless and food for the hungry. 

This weekend as you stop to remember your mother on Mothers Day please also pray for the lonely and desperate mothers who are in need and whose tireless hard work to survive often goes unnoticed.  Your gifts to FOCUS North America give hope to mothers in need.  Thank you!

For Those We Serve,

Fr. Justin

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!

Al-Masi-H Qam! Hakan Qam!

Christos Voskrese! Voistinu Voskrese!

Le Christ Est Resucitee! Vraiment Est Resucitee!

Cristo E Risorto! Verito E Risorto!

Khris-tusax agla-gikux! Agangu-lakan agla-gikux!

Ua Ala Hou ‘o Kristo! Ua Ala ‘I ‘o No ‘oia!

Cristos vaskres! Vaistinu vaskres!

Xris-tusaq Ung-uixtug! Iluumun Ung-uixtug!

May the Light of our Lord’s Resurrection be in your hearts and with those you love, today and forever.

Wishing you a most blessed, bright, and glorious Pascha! Love and Prayers –

Always, In Christ,

Board of Directors and FOCUS NA Ministry Team

In past times, if we wanted to avoid the reality of what was going on us in America, many of us could. We could change the channel, turn off the radio, or avoid the poorer neighborhoods. However, the need in America is so great now that almost everyone knows someone who has been affected by job loss, home foreclosure, disconnected utilities or food shortage.

According to a recent article in USA Today, 1 out of 8 Americans had to get assistance from food banks last year. In just three years, that number has increased 46%. People are having to choose between necessities. Should they heat their homes, or should they eat? Should they buy medicine, or should they pay their rent? These are questions that people shouldn’t have to debate.

You also might be surprised by the demographics of the people seeking assistance from soup kitchens and food banks. They are not all homeless, as one would suspect. Many of the people acquiring assistance have jobs and are already on government assistance such as food stamps. However, according to USA Today, the average monthly income of those seeking help at food banks is an average of $940 a month. Often times, governmental assistance is not enough.

St. Paul tells us in 2^nd Corinthians 3-5,

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God
of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted
by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds
through Christ."

If we have been blessed with comfort, it is our spiritual responsibility to comfort others. Let us not show our love by word alone but by deed as well. Now is the time to reach out to those suffering around us. This love by deeds can be manifested in many ways: giving money, serving a meal, being a sturdy shoulder to cry on, or many other numerous actions. The point is to reach out to others and share the comfort God has given us. And the time to do that is now.

While I was driving to the meeting, our good friend, Ron Moore, told me two stories that even with my years of experience on the hard streets of Nashville working in homeless ministry made me pause.

Ron told the story of our first two “guests” in January that received care from one of our first outreaches of our budding FOCUS Center in Appalachia. He drove the guests down the mountain to receive dental care from a faithful dentist who offered his services free to us.

Ron told me that the first guest was a taxidermist who recently lost his job after a tragic accident. He developed an abscessed tooth that needed to be pulled. Unable to pay $200 to pay for treatment, this man tried to use a rusty metal file from his workshop to file the tooth away. The second guest was in such great pain from a cavity that he tried to use a Dremel tool to relieve the pain.

Thank God through the FOCUS Center in formation here these men were able to get their teeth pulled for free and use their very limited resources for other basic necessities. These sad stories can unfortunately be multiplied over and over again. They give us an all too tangible sense of the extreme poverty even here in North America. They reinforce the real need for us to unite in ministry through FOCUS North America to serve.

In Romans 12:4 St. Paul says, “So we being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having gifts differing according to the grace given to us, let us use them…”

St. Paul’s words to us in Romans speak of being “members of one another,” connected in an intimate way by our humanity as living icons of God that transcends our normal understanding of family and responsibility for one another. We should rejoice when others are rejoicing but also ache when others are aching. In reality, the desperately aching teeth of the poor in Yancy County should cause me to ache as well.

Based on these words of St. Paul and the two stories I heard, I am convinced that a FOCUS Appalachia Center is not only possible, it is essential. Thank you for your generous gifts to FOCUS North America that are already helping to build FOCUS Centers to help the least of these here at home.

- Fr. Justin