“This is my commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.” John 15:12
We are Bill and Debbie Bancroft, and with our four daughters would like to share with you what stewardship here at St. Patrick Church means to our family. God has richly blessed us in many ways; thus we have made stewardship a core to our family’s values, faith, and everyday living. Through being involved in various parish ministries and trying to help and assist in any way that we are able; it is apparent to us, that it is in giving that we have received the gifts of love, friendship, hope, generosity and peace.
To put it very simply, stewardship has made us closer as a family, in our marriage and closer to God. According to Pope Francis, it is “in the family we learn how to love, to forgive, to be generous and open, not closed and selfish. We learn to move beyond our own needs, to encounter others and share our lives with them.”
We were blessed to have attended the Christ Renews His Parish/ Welcome weekends here at our parish, and our daughters have attended the Junior- Senior Celebrate weekends. These weekends were a turning point in our faith and our participation in parish life, beginning a beautiful, ongoing journey led by the Holy Spirit.
Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta has said about service to others:
“ The fruit of silence is prayer,
The fruit of prayer is faith,
The fruit of faith is love,
The fruit of love is service,
The fruit of service is peace.”
God bless you and our St. Patrick Church family,
The Bancroft family- Bill, Debbie, Elizabeth, Alexandra, Victoria and Isabella