Baby Care is a global and local year-round mission of Our Saviour’s that serves under-resourced babies and mothers. Since 2008 our congregation has made over 8,000 baby care kits for distribution by Lutheran World Relief. Baby care kits are used for relief and to promote prenatal health initiatives, for more information about LWR and kits click here.

Locally, Baby Care partners with agencies such as Edward Hospital, District 203, Sharing Connections, and Second Chance Resale and Family Services Shelter to provide essentials for babies ages 0-2.

Ways to get involved now during the pandemic:

• LWR continues to accept baby care kits during the pandemic and there is an ongoing challenge for 75,000 face masks.
• We are adapting to the pandemic by finding ways to participate at home. Baby Care team members are busy at home sewing baby blankets and altering onesies into t-shirts. We also have a non-sewing option of folding cloth diapers. If you are interested in participating at home in any of these activities click here. We’d love to help you learn, no experience necessary!

Future Volunteer Opportunities:

• All ages (children welcome)
• Recycle gently loved baby clothing (sizes 0-2T)
• Shop resale, cut flannel sheets into diapers, wash baby clothing
• Assemble Baby Care Kits at our Baby Care Assembly Party
• If you are cleaning out your baby clothing while at home, we hope you consider saving it for Baby Care! We will resume the collection of used clothing at a future date when we have clear CDC guidelines regarding how to do this safely. Stay tuned for future announcements regarding the timing of our next Baby Care Kit Assembly Party.

To learn more  email babycare@oursaviours.com

Interested in getting involved in the Baby Care Ministry? Click here.

Loaves and Fishes is a benevolent partner of Our Saviour’s Church and a wonderful opportunity for members to volunteers, donate, and support a local food pantry.

Loaves & Fishes has served our community since 1984. The vision of Loaves & Fishes is to end hunger and transform lives in Naperville and DuPage County. It’s mission is to provide food and leadership in the community by uniting and mobilizing resources to empower people to be self-sufficient.

Community, compassion, dignity, hope, and service are the core values of Loaves & Fishes, and are incorporated into all aspects of the organization. Client-families have access to healthy food options, as well as resources designed to encourage them toward independence. Services include Car Donation, Computer Training, Drop-in Health Clinic, English Language Acquisition Class, Emergency Financial Assistance, Emotional Support, Job Search Assistance, Legal Support, Money Education, Moving Up, Public Benefit Assistance, Resource Meetings, and Volunteer Income Tax Assistance.

Our Saviour’s Church is one of the Cornerstone Partners of Loaves & Fishes, and has provided support for many years in the form of volunteers, financial donations, Packs4Kids Summer Nutrition, paper drives, and cleaning product drives, Volunteer opportunities typically include help in donating and collecting products during OSLC drives, and assisting at the Loaves & Fishes facility with distribution, sorting, stocking, food recovery, home delivery, and CARES services.

You can donate to Loaves & Fishes by clicking here. 

Interested in getting involved with the Loaves & Fishes Mission with Our Saviour’s Church? Click here. 

Our Saviour’s partners with Bridge Communities to sponsor a family at risk of becoming homeless by providing weekly mentorship and economic support, for two years, to help guide them to becoming self-sufficient and financially stable.

Volunteer Opportunities include:

• Become a mentor
• Participate in Sleep Out Saturday
• Provide pro bono legal advice
• Car maintenance
• Tutoring
• Move-in help
• Offers of an apartment or condo for the Extended Pathways Program.

Opportunities to volunteer are available year round at Our Saviour’s Campus and Client locations. High School Students and Adults are welcome to volunteer.

Interested in getting involved with the Bridge Communities Mission with Our Saviour’s Church? Click here. 

COVID-19 Update: Due to the pandemic the MEGA Garage Sale has been postponed until 2022. Thank you for your continued support!

The MEGA Garage Sale is a church-wide outreach mission to serve the under-resourced, and offers the community the chance to reuse, re purpose and recycle thousands of items. 

Execution of the garage sale builds friendships across the entire Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church membership and other volunteers from the community.

Donated goods benefit the under-served in our community and is consistently considered one of the BEST garage sales around for the quality and organization of the goods and the friendliness of the workers.

Typically a wide variety of volunteers are needed including setup crews, closet cleaners to show up with car loads of treasures to donate, people to organize donated goods into appropriate departments, pricing crews, hospitality crews, cashiers, traffic control, food preparation, and clean-up crews.

Setup traditionally begins the day after Memorial Day, with the actual sale days typically on the second Friday and Saturday after Memorial Day (in June). We look forward to seeing you at the MEGA Garage Sale in 2021, Please save your items for us!

Interested in getting involved with the MEGA Garage Sale at Our Saviour’s Church? Click here.

Our Saviour’s has partnered with Vida Humana, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Mozambique, and the ELCA Global Missions to assist with hunger, education, and healthcare initiatives in Mozambique. The three major initiatives of this important ministry are: Healthcare, Hunger, and Education.

Because of the remote location of this ministry, material support needed is primarily financial. Donations can be directed through the website or as designated gifts through the church. Vida Humana also holds a dinner once per year. There are various fundraising opportunities throughout the year such as Santa Claus for a Cause, the Mother Son Hot Wheel Event, and the Daddy Daughter Dance. Approximately every 2 to 3 years, a team from Our Saviour’s visits Mozambique to provide support to the volunteers on the ground. 

Interested in getting involved with the Vida Humana Mission with Our Saviour’s Church? Click here. 

Interested in donating to the Mozambique Ministry? Click here.

Associated with the Naperville wide Feed My Starving Children, Feed The Need! -This is a (Presidents Day) weekend long event to pack nutritious meals for starving children around the world. An initiative started by Our Saviour’s in 2012, the Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) event has grown to include over 10 area churches and over 2,100 volunteers packing over 800,000 meals and more each year! Just as an example – past efforts have fed 1,242 children in Haiti, Lesotho, the Philippines and North Korea for 1 year!

The event happens annually in February. Check back here for details on how to get involved and volunteer closer to the event. 

Interested in getting involved with the Feed My Starving Children Mission at Our Saviour’s Church? Click here.

Interested in donating to Feed My Starving Children? Click here.

Bright Stars of Bethlehem promotes and spreads the word about the many outreach ministries of Christian Lutheran Church in Bethlehem to build hope and a bright future for the people of Palestine. These ministries equip local community members to assume a proactive role in shaping a bright future. Bright Stars of Bethlehem sponsors authentic tours of the Holy Land throughout the year. 

Volunteers are needed throughout the year to host, promote and attend events . Events in the past have included an Art Exhibit, Culinary Benefit, Jazz Concert and a book tour. 

Interested in getting involved in the Bright Stars of Bethlehem Mission at Our Saviour’s Church? Click here. 

SamaraCare Counseling is a benevolent partner of Our Saviour’s Church. SamaraCare was founded as the Interfaith Family Life Center in 1971 by three local Naperville congregations (Knox Presbyterian Church, Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church and St. Raphael Catholic Church) to address the unmet mental health needs of the community.

The center provided preventative and therapeutic counseling in family living and related concerns for all, regardless of religious affiliation or financial resources. Since then, SamaraCare has evolved to become one of the largest counseling organizations in Chicago’s west and southwest suburbs serving nearly 1,600 clients annually.

SamaraCare Counseling is unique in providing the option of spiritually-integrated counseling to those individuals seeking this approach.

SamaraCare also believes everyone should have affordable access to the mental health care they need and deserve. SamaraCare’s  Mental Health Access Program (MHAP) provides fee discounted mental health services on a sliding scale basis to eligible clients with financial limitations or hardships. SamaraCare provides, on average, over $478,000 in fee subsidy assistance to approximately 400 primary clients per year.

Riverwalk Adult Day Services, formerly Ecumenical Adult Care, was founded in 1983 by Our Saviour’s Church and a group of 14 other religious institutions who recognized the desire and benefits for adults to age in place at home, but who could not be left at home alone. Riverwalk Adult Day Services has provided over 700,000 hours of service to participants, allowing their caregivers the peace of mind knowing that their loved ones are being cared for in a safe and nurturing environment.

The mission of Riverwalk Adult Day Services is to provide a Safe, Social, Stimulating Environment for Adults in need of daytime care is driven by the following 6 objectives. Let us help in “Sharing in the Caring”.

• Provide stimulating, life-enriching experiences
• Provide a cooperative, loving, and caring ministry
• Provide respite, support and education for caregivers
• Provide community education, health monitoring to preserve family units
• Provide engagement with other social services and healthcare providers
• Facilitate client and family transition to other service providers when necessary

Interested in getting involved with the Riverwalk Adult Day Services Mission with Our Saviour’s Church? Click here.

DuPage Pads is the largest provider of Permanent Supportive Housing in DuPage County committed to end and prevent homelessness in DuPage County.

• 365 Night per year Overnight Housing
• 42,953 Nights of Shelter
• 378 Meals Served Each Day for a total of 137,809 meals for people who would otherwise go hungry.

Every Friday from the second week in July thru August, Our Saviour’s Church traditionally hosts PADS at the Celebration Campus. Volunteers Ages 16 (with Parental Consent) and older Volunteers are needed to:

• Prepare Meals/Serve Meals (First Shift and Morning Shift)
• Prepare Sleeping Arrangements 3:00PM to 6:00 pm (Scouts, Youth Groups, Small Groups, Elementary/Middle School Children)
• Hospitality & Check in guest (6:30pm -7:30pm)
• Clean Up
• Building Security Shifts: 6:30pm – 11:00pm/ 11:00pm – 3:00am/ 3:00am – 8:00am.

Interested in getting involved with the DuPage PADS Mission with Our Saviour’s Church? Click here. 

Interested in donating to the PADS Ministry? Click here.

Responding to the Gospel, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) brings healing, justice, and wholeness to people and communities.

Serving Illinois since 1867, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois (LSSI) is a nonprofit social service organization of the three Illinois synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). LSSI is the largest statewide social service provider, serving almost 50,000 people across Illinois last year. 

The organization provides critical programs for the state’s most vulnerable residents including foster care, mental health services, alcohol and drug treatment, home care for seniors, affordable senior housing, residential programs for people with developmental disabilities, and programs that help formerly incarcerated individuals integrate back into society.

Interested in getting involved with the Lutheran Social Services of IL Mission with Our Saviour’s Church? Click here.

Interested in donating to the Lutheran Social Services of IL Mission? Click here. 

Our Saviour’s Church is one of the ELCA congregations working with ELCA World Hunger to reach communities in need. From health clinics to microloans, water wells to animal husbandry, community meals to advocacy, participation by churches like Our Saviour’s enables ELCA World Hunger to respond, supporting sustainable solutions that get at the root causes of hunger and poverty.

Interested in getting involved with the ELCA World Hunger Mission at Our Saviour’s Church? Click here.

Holy Family Ministries provides opportunities for children and adults from Chicago’s underserved neighborhoods to excel academically, grow spiritually, expand life experiences and become effective leaders.

Haiti Scholars is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization funded by donors whose mission is to provide educational assistance to students ages 3-11 years at Centre D’Etudes Lumiere in Mariani, Haiti. We currently support scholarships for the neediest children in the area. 

Our mission is to work in partnership with the teachers and staff to educate the “whole” child for all the students at the school by providing a solid education, emotional support, and proper nutrition. 

Striving to teach each child the fundamentals in math, reading, grammar, science, physical education, along with computer skills and English as a second language is critical in long term success. 

Our belief is that having the gift of education brings hope, self-esteem, and empowerment for a better future.

Interested in getting involved with the Haiti Scholars Mission with Our Saviour’s Church? Click here. 

Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Nitra Slovakia

The relationship between Holy Spirit Lutheran Church in Nitra Slovakia and Our Saviour’s Church in Naperville, IL began in 1998 with the goal of helping a small group of faithful Christians rebuild their church after the Communists confiscated the property and destroyed the church building. These faithful few were donating funds as they were available and building the church, literally “one brick at a time”. They estimated that it would take 12 years to complete. Our Saviour’s committed to help and through our donations and prayers, the church was completed in 2 years! Holy Spirit Lutheran Church was consecrated on Sunday June 11, 2000, with a huge ecumenical event. The church has grown to over 2000 members and now are delivering a diaconal ministry to the elderly people in their town. They will soon break ground for a live-in care facility for those people.

The Center for Christian Education (CCE) in Martin Slovakia

This relationship between The Center for Christian Education (CCE) in Martin Slovakia and Our Saviour’s Church in Naperville, IL began in 1998 As well. The CCE took an education approach to restoring Christianity. They have built a full Bi-Lingual Academy spanning from pre-school through high school. The Christian education component brings children to Christ and the students then minister to their families and bring parents and siblings to Christ. The CCE now has 800 students and had the first graduation of 36 students from high school in 2018. Future plans for the school include adding special programs including a music studio, an art studio, additional labs, outdoor facilities for learning and recreation.The CCE is a top rated school in Slovakia.

The Slovakia Ministry team hosts the Slovakia Ministry Dinner each year where guests can taste traditional dishes and raise money for this important ministry. The Slovakia Ministry Committee is currently looking for additional members. 

Interested in getting involved with the Slovakia Mission? Click here.

Check out the latest Progress Report from the Center for Christian Education HERE. 

Our Saviour’s has a long history of working with World Relief Chicagoland to resettle individuals with refugee status in DuPage and Kane counties. 

We solicit cash donations to help with immediate resettlement needs (food, bus pass etc.,) To donate, click HERE. 

We also encourage congregants to pursue one of the many different volunteer roles working with refugee families. This includes everything from pulling together home furnishings, to tutoring, to transportation to medical appointments. To volunteer, click HERE. 

Our Saviour’s helps resettle refugees from around the world but, at present, we are particularly concerned with helping to settle refugees from Afghanistan. If you can volunteer or donate, the need is especially great now.

Our Saviour’s groups (or a group of families) can make a particularly significant impact by gathering the materials for a Welcome Pack. These are the materials (aside from furniture) needed to furnish an apartment. Plates, towels, and other basic supplies are needed so an apartment is move-in-ready when a family arrives at O’Hare. Welcome Pack materials are gathered and delivered to the World Relief office in Carol Stream. A list of Welcome pack items can be found HERE. 

The Refugee ministry typically sponsors a ‘gently-used’ or new coat donation drive between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Gift cards (Jewel, Walmart, Uber, etc.) can be mailed directly to the Carol Stream office 191 South Gary Ave. 60188.

Finally, Our Saviour’s has historically accepted gifts of furniture and housewares which are used to furnish refugee apartments. Because of reduced storage capacity at World Relief’s new Carol Stream office, it may not be possible to accept every gift. If you have a potential gift, please fill out this online form and we will let you know if the gift can be accepted at the present time.