Adopt A Family Christmas Project

We furnish Christmas for 25 to 35 families each year which include our Angel Food Families and Forever Families, a local women's shelter.  
Beginning the first of December we begin shopping for clothes for each child in the family. The children also receive toys and/or games, or other age-appropriate items. Each family receives boxes of food, plus fruit, onions, potatoes, a roasting hen, turkey and/or ham. In addition to the families, we also furnish food boxes to several senior citizens.  www.foreverfamiliesprogram.org

Angel Food

Angel Food is an in-house food ministry providing boxes of meat, vegetable and other staple foods to local families who need assistance.  Each month the food is purchased with outreach funds and designated donations of parishioners and boxed by congregation members. Special financial donations from congregation members and other area residents through St. James provide additional food boxes at Thanksgiving and at Christmas. The church’s annual golf tournament provides most of the funds. The names of families that receive assistance are provided to us by our parishioners, the Family Resource Center, or other reliable sources in evaluating need. These families are currently having a difficult time financially and need assistance in providing food for the family.  Some families are supported on a regular basis and others on an emergency basis. Members go to the staging area one Saturday a month, pack the boxes and families come to pick them up at which time they have an opportunity to offer prayer and encouragement and show God’s love and the concern of the members of the church.

Helping Hands Program for Mabank Schools

​Through a grant program awarded to us from the Diocese of Dallas St. James provides food items for students in Mabank ISD in grades kindergarten through Intermediate grades. Students are provided a backpack to take home on weekends stuffed with easily prepared food items. The counselors in each school select those students that would benefit from the program. These students are also provided toys and clothes at Christmastime.

Backpack Program

St. James provides backpacks and school supplies to Angel Food families as well as children at Forever Families.  Parishioners select a name  and purchase a backpack for each child. Then shoppers go to work getting all of the necessary items to fill the backpacks. Families pick up the filled backpacks prior to the start of school each year.

Kairos Prison Ministry

Kairos is a Greek work meaning a special time, one that cannot be defined by a watch or calendar. Kairos Prison Ministry works primarily in maximum security units in an effort to help create and maintain a Christian environment within the unit and spread the Good News of Jesus to those who may have never heard it. St. James has been involved with the Kairos program for over 20 years. Members of St. James have served on teams both as clergy and lay members at the Beto Unit near Palestine since the program was introduced there in 1988. Kairos offers a long-term commitment both to the offenders and the team who continues to visit with the men on a monthly basis. Over a four-day weekend a team of about 60 people from various churches work inside and outside the prison to minister to the offenders. The men go into the unit and work directly with the incarcerated while the outside team of women prays and prepares meals that are delivered and served during the course of the weekend. 
 https://www.kairostexas.org/

One Man's Treasure Clothes Closet

The mission of this faith based organization is to assist indigent men recently released from prison who come to the Dallas area, including Henderson and Kaufman counties, by providing them with clothing for their daily needs and that is also appropriate for job interviews and employment.  The ministry was founded in 2005 to follow Christ’s call in Matthew 25:36-40. A unique aspect of the program is that the set of clothing is delivered to the client by a male volunteer (called “a shepherd”) who visits with him, provides him with resources for his other needs, and encourages him with prayer at this critical time in his reentry into society.  As many as several thousand men will receive clothing. The 13% recidivism rate for those being helped by this program is 52% lower than the norm. The clothes closet is supported by donations of gently used or new clothes, cash, and fundraisers throughout the year. www.onemanstreasure.org

Prayer Blanket Ministry

We receive prayer requests from our parishioners, and from members of the community, for people whom they know are facing a serious, and sometimes fatal, illness. Fleece fabric is cut into a square and strips are cut around the edges.  The blanket is placed in the back of the nave.  As people enter, they stop at the blanket, say a prayer for that person, and tie a knot in the fringe.  When all the knots have been tied, a label is placed on the blanket with the person’s name stating they were lifted up in prayer by members of St. James.  The blanket is placed on the altar, blessed, and delivered to the recipient.