Women’s J.O.Y. Fellowship
The St. John Women’s J.O.Y. Fellowship regularly collects items for Uni-Pres Kindercottage in East St. Louis. These items range from snacks and food to cleaning materials which we deliver on a monthly basis to Kindercottage. An ongoing event we host is an Ash Wednesday program and breakfast for other churches in the area. We also help out with congregational events and have monthly meetings on the first Tuesday at 1:00 PM September through May.
BROWN BAG LUNCH: The J.O.Y. participates in the Brown Bag Lunch program by supplying meat, cheese and bread and assembling sandwiches every Tuesday during the summer after school ends and before school starts. Members of St. John also donated snacks or drinks like fruit, chips and juice boxes along with extra goodies like small toys.
The J.O.Y. Society (which joined with the Women’s Fellowship group) was founded in 1926 and has the motto of “Jesus first, Others next and Yourself last.” The aim is to bring joy to the lives of others. So for over 90 years, the women of this church have had a focus to help and support others, including St. John UCC and all its activities, Eden Seminary, Hoyleton Children’s Home, Hitz Home, Emmaus House, Neighborhood House and currently Kindercottage and the Brown Bag Lunch Program. We are including a poem that was written by Mildred Goeden in May of 2001 as a tribute to the J.O.Y. for their 75th anniversary.
One Sunday morning a class of young ladies with their teacher decided on this,
we’ll be a Society and work for the church. An approving nod came from each miss.
We’ll call the Society the J.O.Y. we’ll make a charter with motto and aim,
twill meet once a month on a Thursday perhaps. So that’s how this Society became.
We met at the homes of each member in turn, with a wiener roast once every year.
We had Halloween parties and Christmas exchange with games of fun and good cheer.
Oh! the trips that we took on Roy’s cattle truck and Harvel’s too I believe.
We went to parks, to Springfield and such, the oldest church in old St. Genevieve.
We held bake sales to buy things for the church too numerous to mention all here.
We painted eggs, 12 dozen or more, but decided to quit that one year.
There were Japanese Teas and mums that we grew, and sold at the Fall Market Sale.
A lunch stand at auctions with the Church Brotherhood, when the men were still hearty and hale.
As members got older and some passed away; Through the years we’ve had 93,
but it’s dwindled down to a precious few. We need more young joiners you see.
We’re glad you all made it to help celebrate our 75th year – thanks a lot. We’ll continue to serve and do what we can in the service of our neighbor and God.
You can visit this website at http://www.unipreskindercottage.org/ to learn more about Kindercottage.