FOCUS NORTH AMERICA - Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to Serve

ON THE ROAD

FOCUS North America is on the road sharing the great work the ministry is doing

VIDEOS

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LATEST

	FOCUS North America Serves the Poor on Skid Row This past weekend, the FOCUS North America program Youth Equipped to Serve (YES) came to LA to More...
	Troy and Theodora Polamalu on Come Recieve the Light! Troy & Theodora (FOCUS North America Board Member) are interviewed on Come More...
	Troy and Theodora Polamalu on Ancient Faith Presents! Troy & Theodora (FOCUS North America Board Member) are interviewed on Ancient Faith Presents about More...
	ReEngage Sheds Light on the Effects of Absentee Fathers ReEngage, located in Kansas City, is one of the newest partner ministries of FOCUS North America. More...

Tackle Poverty with Troy & Theodora Polamalu

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Troy and I are asking if you will help us tackle poverty this Lent by joining the Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to Serve (FOCUS) North America. By joining with us, you will help those in need-the poor, the sick and the suffering. Join us also in prayer this Lent for those who have no one to turn to and no one to pray for them.

Won’t you join us in tackling poverty today through FOCUS North America?

Thank you for your generosity.

In Christ,

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Troy & Theodora Polamalu

Troy (Two-time Super Bowl Champion) and Theodora (Member of the FOCUS North America Board of Directors) are tackling poverty with FOCUS North America

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Listen to the Polamalu Interview on
Come Recieve the Light		Ancient Faith Presents
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Printable Posters for your Parish or Office

‘I Was in Need and You Helped Me’

By Fr. Justin Mathews

focus-image God calls us to share in His love, a love which expresses itself in acts of compassion for all who are broken-hearted and in need. In doing this, we become God’s own hands. Such practical service changes lives and transforms our world, one person at a time.

Participation in God’s compassion is more than a human rights issue. In taking up this task we work out our own salvation and affirm the “very good” that God has already spoken over each human being.

This awareness resulted in the founding in 2009 of a new Orthodox organi zation intended to help parishes better express Christ’s love for the hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, sick and imprisoned. Called FOCUS (Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to Serve), we link like-minded Christians who are working out their salvation by sharing with others, just as Christ shared of Himself without holding back “for the life of the world,” becoming poor to make the poor rich.

‘Why now is a providential time to launch FOCUS North America’

By: Fr. Michael Laffoon
Is a time of high unemployment and deep recession really a good time to start a new charitable organization? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until the economy improves and people have more money to give? Of course, there some logic in this reasoning, but for more than one reason, I believe now is the best time to start this kind of effort.

In this time and this place, because of the recession we all have an opportunity to repent of the isolation and insulation that comes with affluence. When things are going well, it is very easy and tempting to ignore the plight of the needy poor. If we are well off and our family and friends are well off, it seems to us that poverty and need are distant and not urgent.

Now, however, there are very, very few of us who can be unaffected by the numbers of our family members and neighbors who have lost jobs and/or lost their homes. Our hearts are pierced by this sorrow and our compassion grows. We see how great the needs are and even if we have less “disposable income” than we did two years ago, we realize that entertaining ourselves or buying the next “new thing” must take a back seat to ministering to those who do not have the basics. We hear with new ears the words of our Lord, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to the least of these, my brethren, you did it to me.”

Orthodox Christian Social Action, Abp. Iakovos & Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Charles Ajalat

life-magazine-cover Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be commemorated, January 18, the day of our first FOCUS North America Board of Directors meeting for 2010. It is a good time to remember the role the Orthodox Church has played in society from the beginning, including American society through today. It is a role that must increase dramatically as we act out the mission of Christ’s Church.

The Orthodox Church, in imitation of its Lord, has been involved in social action from the very beginning, helping the poor, the sick and those in need and trying to bring justice to those who suffered injustice. Our Lord taught us: “A new commandment I give unto you: that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35; cf. James 4:11). This command has always been followed by faithful Christians, whether in the first, third, fourth or twentieth or twenty-first centuries. In the third century, for example, Christians earned respect and admiration as they, at the risk of their own lives, consoled the dying and buried the dead from the pestilences that struck Carthage and Alexandria even while the pagans abandoned their friends to their terrible fate. In the fourth century, St. Basil the Great created charitable institutions while following the commands of our Lord and teaching his faithful how critical it is to love all our neighbors, particularly those in need.

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