Four members of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Fairfield Glade were among 381 participants at a Stephen Series Leadership Training Course held recently in Pittsburgh.
Deacon Keith Farber, Patty Johnson, Deacon Mark White, and Eileen White attended the one-week training event hosted by the St. Louis–based Stephen Ministries organization. Participants came from across the United States and Canada to learn how to implement and direct Stephen Ministry, a system of Christian care-giving in their congregations.
Stephen Ministry gives St. Francis of Assisi an effective way to train and organize parishioners to provide one-to-one Christian care to individuals struggling with a crisis such as grief, divorce, loneliness, relocation, hospitalization, a terminal illness, or unemployment. The need for this type of care greatly exceeds what a pastor alone can provide.
