Pastoral Care Commission
WANT MORE $$$ IN YOUR POCKET?
If you are over 55 you may be entitled to some of the estimated $31 million of Federal, State and local benefits unclaimed by Lehigh Valley older adults. If your monthly income is less than $4,500 and your assets (excluding your home and car) are less than $100,000, we'd like to help you. A trained team of Mediator parishioners can confidentially examine your benefits eligibility using the National Council on Aging's Benefits CheckUp program. Marty and Carol C, Pat G, Bernie H and Marlene Y are available to help you identify the benefits for which you may be eligible. If you prefer, a trained screener from outside the parish could assist you. We will quickly identify the benefits you are entitled to and, if you wish, can help you apply for the benefits you choose.
If you would like more information, or wish to arrange for a free Benefits CheckUp review, contact the Church office (Jo Trepagnier) or The Rev. Maria Tjeltveit. Brochures which provide more information are also available in the Narthex and church office. We hope to hear from you.
Marty C.
P.S. If you are 18 or older, have limited income and/or personal disabilities, you too may be entitled to some benefits.
A comprehensive Web site has been developed by the United Way and sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Alliance on Aging (LVAA). LV AgingMatters (www.lvagingmatters.org) has been active for over a year and will continue to be developed at least for the next several years. Its planned life is, hopefully, decades. There is no charge for use by individuals or organizations. Currently it includes these major Web pages:
Where To Turn For Help:
The Directory of Local Services includes 46 pages of Lehigh Valley (Lehigh and Northampton Counties) older adult support resources categorized and searchable alphabetically and by type. The majority of these references have telephone numbers and direct links to the resource organizations (including the Lehigh County and Northampton County Agencies on Aging). Other areas on this Web page include: Rights and Benefits of Older Adults; Staying Healthy at 50+; Legal and Other Affairs; Legal Services; Glossary of Common Terms.
Your Benefits Checkup:
Includes Benefits Checkup and BenefitsCheckupRx. The United Way has a regional site license for this package and is planning to incorporate local benefits in addition to the NCOA Pennsylvania and Federal benefits.
Life Planning: Live, Learn and Serve:
A new section addressing education, employment and volunteer opportunities - will be expanded as times goes on.
About Us - LV Alliance on Aging:
Describes the structure and ongoing work of the Alliance.
Professional Community Connection:
A dedicated portion of this Web site for professionals only - a place to discuss issues, obtain information on training and development opportunities, search for data and link to valuable research in the field of aging, and centralize the Lehigh Valley Alliance on Aging calendar of meetings and events for members.
Good Morning Lehigh Valley:
A frequently updated community calendar of events and activities of interest to Lehigh Valley older adults and links to various media and other current resources.
For specific questions on the Web site you may contact Angela Velasquezm angelav@unitedwayglv.org.
Questions about the work of the LV Alliance on Aging contact Arlene Lund, arlenel@unitedwayglv.org.
Marty C. is our contact with United Way and he can be reached at martycottr@verizon.net.
For more than a year, the Pastoral Care Commission has been sending a one-page weekly devotional letter to members of the congregation who are unable to attend Church services. The mailings have been appreciated and have made these folks feel a connection to the rest of their Church family. These devotions are centered on the Scripture for the following Sunday. They tell a brief story relating the Scripture to contemporary life and end with a short prayer.
We feel that a communication of this type would be suitable to send to the individuals in the armed forces for whom you have asked the congregation to pray. We have communicated with the company from which we purchase them and have been assured that we can receive these in a form by which we can e-mail them to the service personnel.
We have received most of the addresses for the service people and will send the first letter by snail-mail. In a cover letter, we'll ask if they would like to continue to receive this devotion.
If you would like to be added to this list, please contact Jo, who can pass the information on to the commission.
THE GIFT OF LIFE ITSELF
A parishioner (Martha F) has recently gone to the Miller Blood Center to give a unit of blood. She had Emma credited with the donation and can't think of a better way for members of our parish to reach out to Sandra and George and their granddaughter, Emma, than to give blood.
Martha says, "Naturally, blood given locally will help someone in our area, but we can designate that the credit go to replace blood and platelets used by Emma during her hospitalization for treatment of leukemia and her recent bone marrow transplant. Along with giving blood, let us all continue to pray for Emma and her entire family in 2007."