Salem typically helps support two foreign missionary teams (currently one in Tanzania, in East Africa--Jim and Judy Bangsund--and one newly moved from Kenya, East Africa, to Minneapolis--Malcolm & Barbara Collins--where they are ministering to recent immigrants from East Africa who have settled in Minnesota). In recent years we have also supported missionary teams in Japan, West Africa, and Costa Rica. Salem Lutheran Church Women support overseas ministries with quilts that our members create for refugee families and with health and education kits that are gathered together to send overseas. We take part in Crop Walk, where members of churches in Glendale participate in a fund-raising walk to alleviate world hunger. Our Lutheran Day School sponsors three Compassion Children overseas and they participate in other drives to help others.

      Salem's youth have made mission trips to Mexico to help build and teach at an orphanage. In Los Angeles, they have also worked on skid row to help those who live there (and to learn about the lives that they lead and the blessings that some of the indigent -- and those who work with them from the outside--can be for good). Salem does other Los Angeles ministry assisting hospitals, supporting multicultural ministries in neighboring communities, and visiting inmates in prisons.

      Close-by in Glendale and environs, we have participated in Habitat for Humanity building homes for lower-income residents; Food for Body and Soul feeding the homeless on Sundays in July and December; The Lord's Kitchen where we help feed needy families daily in July; Project Achieve where our youth help feed needy families on Wednesdays; Adopt-A-Family where we purchase specific Christmas gifts for specific needy families (anonymous to us) at Christmas time; Lutheran Health Ministries of the Foothills where we help support a parish nurse program and other health ministry activities; Glendale's Cold Weather Shelter where we help prepare and serve meals for the homeless in the winter time at the Cold Weather Shelter while our congregation bakes cookies for the meals; Alcoholics Anonymous where we provide space for a women's group; Solheim Lutheran Home where we help support seniors in their golden years with both financial help and with volunteers--and we of Salem participate in many other social ministry activities, both as individuals and as a group. Social Ministry at Salem is under the care of the Evangelism Steward. Door of Hope is a program of restoration for homeless families in Pasadena that provides shelter, clothing and training in life-skills to help homeless families attain stability and a productive lifestyle. Glendale Association for the Retarded is dedicated to supporting independence in adults with developmental disabilities. Glendale Free Health Clinic provides free medical care for the homeless and those without medical insurance. Hillsides School is a residential treatment facility, Education Center, and Family Center in Pasadena that supports and cares for children and families in crisis due to neglect, abuse or emotional stress. The Mary Magdalene Project specifically targets women prostitutes and their families by creating a home and treatment program that brings healing and reversal of fortune from a lifetime of victimization.

     The Lord has blessed us at Salem with many opportunities to do ministry. See if there are some ways in your personal life or among Salem's public ministries that you can be a blessing to others. As you serve, the Lord will bless you with more opportunities to minister. Praise the Lord!