What: Annual St Joe spring picnic
Where :St Joe's north property at 9709 N. Clinton Road, Fort Wayne, IN 46825.
When: Saturday, May 15, 2021, 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Details: Each person/family bring own picnic, blanket or chairs to sit on. Church will provide water, desserts, and Smokes. Come celebrate our last get together on this property! 
Contact: Cathy Koogler if any questions. (260) 403-4479, pumpkin42koogs@yahoo.com.

As of Sunday, April 18, 2021, St Joe Community Church resumes weekly Kids Connection. Classes for Infants through 5th Graders are now offered weekly during the 10:30 AM worship time. We will continue to follow safety and health guidelines adapted from public schools. Bible story videos will continue to be posted each week on at the St Joe Kids Connection website page. We are still trusting God for the provision of more volunteers to minister to these children.  Please contact Bonita Byman to learn how to get involved!

​​St Joe will host VBS 2021 from Monday, June 6 through Wednesday, June 9, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm. More information is coming, but the first thing we need to do is sign up volunteers. So, please complete the below form and we'll get back to you asap. We need to have a head count by April 11, 2021, so please let us know asap. 

Contact: Amy Minick: minick.family@frontier.com

​For Such a Time as This...Esther4:14
A Hope Center banquet

Join us for a drive-in style banquet in the most unique way. We will hear from nationally known speaker Abby Johnson from the safety of our cars!  A box lunch will be delivered to your car.

• Tuesday, April 27th
• 6:30 PM to 8:15 PM
• Memorial Coliseum
• Parking lot opens at 5
• parking is free

Registration required by April 13. Visit AHopeCenter.org or call 260-422-3544

St Joe contact: Contact Becky Jones for more information

Starting March 15th, there will be two groups of women meeting simultaneously., one at the church and one on Zoom. Both start at 7pm and will be studying the book of Philippians. Contact Charlotte Evard for the Zoom link. charlotte.evard@comcast.net. 

What: Free Food boxes for families
When: Saturday, March 20, 2021 at or around 9:00 am
Contact Person:
Pastor Greg Byman
260-403-5255
gregbyman@gmail.com

St Joe Community Church will again receive a semi-truck load of Food Boxes from the Farmers To Families USDA program,  to distribute food to families in the greater Fort Wayne region. St Joe will distribute the food boxes on Saturday, March 20, 2021 at or around 9:00 a.m. 

St Joe is inviting volunteers from around the community to help with this massive distribution challenge in the following ways:
​

• Pray before, during and after for every family who receives food.
• 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.: Unload the food truck (Needed: strong backs and muscles).
• 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.:  Food Box Distribution volunteers,  Sidewalk volunteers to distribute informational literature; and learn if/how St Joe can continue to serve families beyond the food box program.
• Food, water bottles and fresh coffee offered for volunteers inside the church in room 101.
• 12:00 p.m. + Volunteers help clean up.

Volunteers need to wear masks and gloves. Safety vests will be available but bring your own if you have one.  We will distribute food regardless of the weather so be prepared!

Thanks in advance for showing God's love to our community in a practical way.

Note to media

The Food Truck is a semi-tractor trailer which will be unpacked between 7 am – 9 am. Ample parking should be available on the west side of  North Anthony Blvd. and Kenwood Ave.

About St Joe Community Church

St Joe is located at 2900 North Anthony Blvd., just a few blocks south of the campus of Purdue University at Fort Wayne. Pastor Greg Byman serves as the senior pastor and the entire St Joe church family welcomes you to join us for worship service each Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. (masks currently required for both services.) For more information visit www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org or call (260) 471-4704.

Handgun Seminar for the Private Citizen
We are hosting a handgun safety class in our sanctuary on Saturday, February 27 from 9 am to 1 pm.  This class will provide the necessary knowledge, skill sets and wisdom to safely carry, conceal and properly empty the pistol.  Practical hands-on exercises in safely loading and unloading revolvers and pistols and the use of laser indicating training pistols will be part of the class.  Please contact Conservation Officer (retired) Kevin Pensinger to learn how to enroll and pay the $50 per person fee at kevin@safedefenseconsulting.com or 360-302-2536

​Hundreds receive free food
Farmers to Families hands out 1,000 boxes
DAVE GONG | The Journal Gazette
Nine-year-old Trae Marquart hustled back and forth in the blistering cold outside St. Joe Community Church on Saturday morning, carrying box after box of food to a large line of cars that stretched for blocks from the parking lot down North Anthony Boulevard. 

“He likes to help – he'll do all of the boxes, the whole time,” Trae's mother, Denise Marquart, said as her son lugged a set of boxes to a nearby sedan. She added that Saturday was the second time her family had volunteered to help distribute food. 

The Marquarts, who have been part of the congregation since 2015, were part of a group of nearly 50 volunteers who answered the church's call for help distributing food boxes provided by the Farmers to Families Program, funded by the CARES Act passed by Congress last year. Volunteers included area families, students, as well as members of the church congregation. 

It was the church's second giveaway; the first happened in October. Fort Wayne Police Department officers also donated their time to help manage traffic, Senior Pastor Greg Byman said. 

In all, volunteers handed out about 1,000 boxes of food. Byman estimated that the church served about 700 vehicles, roughly the same as the October distribution. The church also sent some boxes to other groups, including Lifehouse Church and Waynedale Baptist Church, and worked with the local VA to ensure some of the supplies made it to veterans in need, Byman added.

St. Joe Community Church moved into the church at 2900 North Anthony Blvd. in 2015, Byman said. 

“We believe in the '05. We love the '05,” he said of the neighborhood ZIP code, 46805. “This our corridor. We just want to love people in Jesus' name.”

The past year has made neighborhood churches more important than ever, and Byman said St. Joe Community Church went to great lengths to continue its ministry amid the pandemic. The church ramped up its contact with congregants virtually, started an online worship service and added a second service, while following pandemic protocols, including limiting building capacity. 

Byman said it was heartwarming to see so much of the community gather to help families in need. Some of the volunteers, he said, were asked to just wave and say hello. It was worth braving the cold, he said, to see people smile and to let others know “there are people that care about you, in Jesus' name.”

“We are just one more in the network of so many people that are really there to support,” Byman said. 

dgong@jg.net