St. Joseph Church



We are a welcoming parish and encourage all members to become active in a ministry or volunteer in an area where your gifts and talents will best serve the church. 

The following is a list of ministries we currently have available for all to join. If you are interested in learning more about a specific ministry, please contact the parish office for further information.

Please click on the following links to find out more about:

Welcoming Committee
Elizabeth Ministries
Crafters
Prayer Shawl Ministry
Quilters
Giving Tree
Kitchen and Hospitality
Baptism Gowns
Pro-Life
Community Supper
Poverty Study Group
Rosary Makers
Recycled Christmas
Annual Rummage Sale



Welcoming Committee

When a new parishioner registers, contact is made with them for a home visit at their convenience. A beautiful gift bag is given to welcome them to St Joseph Church and Parish.  For more information please contact Darlyne Carson, 715-634-4733.

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Elizabeth Ministries – Mary Jane Moffet, 715-462-9060 or Darlyne Carson,  715-634-4733 (home) or 715-558-4145 (cell)

This is a ministry in which women help other women during times of pregnancy, birth, adoption, miscarriage, infant/child crises.  Women are volunteers who have experienced one of these areas and want to support those who are also experiencing the same now.  We are a faith based ministry that strives to bring celebration, healing, support, and affirmation to all with complete confidentiality. We need, want, and welcome new members. Please join us in this beautiful ministry. 

This is a ministry that is a part of the Elizabeth Ministry.  The purpose of Spiritual Adoption is threefold:

• Encourage everyone to pray for babies in danger of abortion.
• Educate all about the development of the pre-born baby. 
• Provide mothers in need with assistance of donated baby gifts, birthday celebration, etc.

This is done by encouraging people to “spiritually adopt” an unborn baby, name the baby and especially pray for them for nine months that their mothers will choose life for them.  This ministry has saved thousands of babies in the world from being aborted.  Please join us and save babies!

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Crafters - Sharon Rajkowski, 715-634-1342 and Karen Lawrence, 715-634-0050

Our mission is to provide fellowship, charitable contributions and community service.  We meet on Mondays from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM from September to June and then intermittently during the summer months. Most of our time is spent making items for the Elizabeth Ministry gift bags given to new moms and babies. These items include receiving blankets, newborn hats, bibs, etc.

We also spend time creating cards for the card ministry project. We have used our sewing skills to provide the local nursing homes with items they have needed and we have made dresses for young girls in need around the world. In November and December we focus our efforts on making items for our Christmas sale.

Our fund raising activities have included a bake sale and a Christmas craft sale. Our parish activities include working and baking for the social hour after mass on Sundays and in the spring of the year we host the Ladies Salad Luncheon.

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Prayer Shawl Ministry – Lennette Duh, 715-634-3279 or 715-699-3279

Lovers of knitting and crocheting are invited to join St. Joseph's Prayer Shawl Ministry.  Our mission is to comfort the sick and suffering by providing a shawl, a tangible sign of prayer and support. We have made and distributed over 75 prayer shawls so far.  We meet every third  Monday from September through June at 1:00 to 2:30 in St. Joseph Parish Center.

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Quilters – Mary Wallace,    715-462-4726    Betsywallace8@gmail.com

Our goal in life is to provide comfort for babies and those in need.  If someone asks for a quilt we provide one; for people who have lost everything due to a fire or to someone who could just use some extra comfort.  In the past year we have provided over 100 baby quilts in the gift bags given to the newborns at our local hospital.  We meet twice a month on Thursdays from 9:00 to whenever. We accept donations of sewing materials.

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The Giving Tree – Sandy Kruger, 715-634-2548 and Joanne Evans, 715-634-1726             Every Christmas the Giving Tree is decorated with names of children and families who are struggling, so that parishioners may assist in easing the strain that often comes with the holidays.  Many people are involved with this ministry, from selecting the recipients to wrapping the gifts for distribution. Please consider joining in the fun of making a happier Christmas for those in need.

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Kitchen/Hospitality -  Marge Molstad,  715-634-3130 marge.molstad@gmail.com

Funeral Luncheons - Marge Molstad/JoAnn Evans
This ministry offers the caring presences of our community by providing a meal for family and friends following the Funeral Liturgy of a loved one.  Join us in helping by being on our call list to help set up, serve luncheons, or bake a cake.

 Diocesan Meetings – Lynn Inhoff, 715-699-4007

 Sunday mass socials – Jerry and Pat Kaiser, 715-376-2732

 Special events/Birkie Spaghetti feed – Dawn Luethe,  715-296-1324

 Potlucks/socials – Need volunteers

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Baptism Gowns – Delores Peterson, 715-934-2344

As each child in the parish receives the sacrament of baptism, he/she is given a white garment that looks like a child’s bib.  The garment is cut out of white cotton, the edges are hemmed by machine and then the front is embroidered with symbols of baptism, a cross, water and a dove.  Pattern and materials are stored in the storage room behind the kitchen.  We generally make a dozen at a time and store them in the church office. I say “we” here, because usually there are two or more people who participate in this ministry.  Some like to embroider and others prefer to sew.  The secretary lets us know when we are running low and then we make plans to make more.

You can do the cutting at the church and take the sewing to do at home or at church (the church has two sewing machines) and the embroidery has been done by people who like to have a project to work on in their free time.  Sometimes this work has been done by shut-ins and the materials are delivered and picked up.

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Pro-Life

In the wake of staggering abortion rates and the importance of promoting the sanctity of life, our pro-life group, Queen of Peace, Protector of Life, set up the “Cemetery of the Innocents” display (300 crosses) at 41 locations since 2009.  They also provided a beautiful fetal models display which is still available.  It has become difficult to continue these programs, but hopefully someone or some group out there will come to the rescue.  Annually we have the “Night of Prayer for Life” in December, joining with many other parishes in the country, and the Bishop’s Conference provides special material for use during the Roe V Wade week every January.  The Knights of Columbus Council 6587 are very involved in pro-life activities, as well as the Elizabeth Ministry with their “Spiritual Adoption” program every year.  We pray that these activities will be maintained and that there will be an increase in pro-life.

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Community Supper – Steve and Karen Menke, 630-964-5122 (cell)   ksmenke@gmail.com

Hunger and loneliness are prevalent in the world and in our very own community. Every Wednesday evening at 5:00 PM a community meal is served in the fellowship hall at First Lutheran Church. The meal is free of charge and take out plates may be brought home to those who are unable to physically make it to the dinner. Guests come for great cooking and to have fellowship with their community. No questions are asked.

The Community Supper is serving 70 to 80 meals each week, every week, even Christmas. First Lutheran has been serving meals since 1998, 18 years. St. Joseph’s Catholic Church serves supper four times a year, joining with other groups such as the Lions Club, United Methodist, Ascension Episcopal, and People’s Bank to support the mission of First Lutheran. Our volunteers prepare, serve and clean up after these meals.

You can help us by volunteering. It doesn’t take a huge time commitment to be there for your neighbors – a couple of hours four times a year. Age doesn’t matter – anyone can help.

• Bake a dessert
• Prepare a side dish
• Donate a bouquet of flowers for us to put in bud vases on the tables
• Kids can decorate place mats or cards for special occasions (St. Patrick’s Day , Easter, Fall, etc)
• Make some table decorations (we have 10 tables)
• Prepare a little treat bag for guests to take home
• Entertain our guests with some music (open mic night?)

Come up with your own ideas to bring a little happiness into the community.

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Poverty Study Group – Iris Sanford  iris.sandford@gmail.com

The Poverty Group is a loosely formed group of parishioners who have studied poverty in our area and are looking at ways of alleviating it. They bring information and ideas back to ministries within the parish to which they belong.  This fall we are looking at formalizing the group, developing a mission statement, and working on projects to better serve those in poverty, particularly making our parish more inviting for them.

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Rosary Makers – Sue Armsbury, 715-634-0500 and Delores Peterson, 715-934-2344

For approximately 20 years members of St Joseph have been making cord rosaries to give to anyone who wants one.  These rosaries are on display on a table next to the Blessed Mother statue on the east side of the church. The church provides the cord and medals and there are people who will give instructions to anyone wishing to learn how the rosaries are made.  It takes
about 30 to 45 minutes to learn how to make the knots.  We are always in need of more people willing to make rosaries.  Once you know how, you can make a rosary in about a half hour and do it while you watch your favorite TV show or while riding in a car or while visiting with friends. 

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Recycled Christmas – Jo Mazik, 715-462-3709      hello.jomazik@gmail.com

Recycled Christmas is a fund raising event for our youth program.  It is a rummage sale for used and unwanted Christmas/winter decorations that parish members donate.  It is held the third Saturday in November which is also the opening day of deer season!  Volunteers are needed to sort the donations, to donate baked goods for a bake sale and to cook a simple lunch for the sale on Saturday.  This is different from the usual rummage sale because everything sparkles!  Fun to volunteer! Fun to shop!

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Rummage Sale
Sandy Kruger,  715-634-2548, skkruger@hotmail.com
Rosalie Bender, 715-634-4331, rbobhill48@gmail.com
 
The Annual Youth Rummage Sale is held the second weekend of May. The proceeds are used for youth activities such as Totus Tuus, Extreme Faith Camp, youth rallies, etc.  Parishioners of all ages help make it a big success by donating; baked goods, wonderful items to sell, their energy in setting up, organizing, selling and cleaning up at the end of the sale. (Please save your "rummage" for the sale. Clothing also accepted).

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