Community Newburgh Ministry A Tale of 4 Cities
September 11th changed the lives of many in N.Y.S., the Congregation of Redeemer Ev. Lutheran Church of New Paltz being one of them. Just 90 miles from NYC, Redeemer helped with clean-up of 9/11 by making sandwiches for the Ground Zero volunteers.
When this was completed, Chris Dubois, who was Redeemer's Congregation President at that time, wanted to continue a ministry helping those in need outside the boundaries of New Paltz - an opportunity arose in a most unlikely event.
Also during this time, Chris was a nurse at a hospital in Poughkeepsie. She had many patients assigned to her, but one patient turned out to be Jim McElhinney, director of the Newburgh Ministry.
Jim and Chris struck up a conversation, and Jim presented to Chris his need for volunteers at the center; Redeemer’s Social Ministry was born.
Every year since that chance encounter in 2001, Redeemer has provided volunteers to the Newburgh Ministry Thanksgiving basket outreach program. Each year, the Newburgh Ministry has provided Thanksgiving dinners to over 1000 families in the Newburgh area, and 2009 was no exception.
For more information about the Newburgh Ministry, please visit their website http://www.newburghministry.org/.
