The Winooski United Methodist Church
802-655-7371
Aligning with God's Will
For three years, Pastor Ellen has been a Member of the National Faith Advisory Board for Intercessors for America, a national organization dedicated to praying for our nation and its leaders. She also participates in Pray for Vermont, an Awakening Prayer Hub, and has been asked to lead prayer in Montpelier at the State Capitol.
Intercessory Prayer is the act of praying on behalf of others so that they may align themselves with God’s Will. Examples of intercessory prayer may be found throughout the Bible, most notably in I Timothy 2:1-8:
First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people, 2 even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, 4 since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s purpose at his appointed time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle—I am telling the truth; I am not lying—and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 So I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or dispute.
Praying to God on behalf of others, standing in the gap as a bridge between God and the person or situation, as believers are encouraged to pray for others. The Intercessory Prayers for Others asks the Lord to intervene in all areas of our lives, often moving from general blessings and guidance to specific needs, along the following lines:
1. Intercessory Prayer for Healing
2. Intercessory Prayer for Comfort
3. Intercessory Prayer for Strength
4. Intercessory Prayer for Guidance
5. Intercessory Prayer for Provision
6. Intercessory Prayer for Salvation
7. Intercessory Prayer for Family Restoration
8. Intercessory Prayer for Peace
9. Intercessory Prayer for Justice
10. Intercessory Prayer for Revival
The nightly Teleconnections close with intercessory prayer with the request to God to show us how we might love ourselves better, receive His love, and extend that love to others.
Pastor Ellen leading prayer at the Vermont State Capitol.
A Sense of Belonging
Although we may say otherwise, most of us need to feel a sense of belonging, of connection, of home. When the Pandemic hit us hard in 2020, our routines were suddenly disrupted. We felt ungrounded, broken, and adrift, not knowing what might happen next.
For some of us, this uncertainty revealed strengths we didn’t know we had. For others, it opened up old wounds we thought we had healed. Many of us sought solace in food or alcohol or anything that might fill the gnawing gap of loneliness, pain, or despair. Our sense of isolation grew as we stayed home and stayed in. And it brought to the surface many of the emotional, spiritual, and financial issues we may not have dealt with adequately in the past.
It was in this setting that Pastor Ellen expanded her teleconferencing ministry, which had previously been limited to Bible Study and prayer. Then, two aspects of her life—her role as a pastor and that of a wife—suddenly collided. While she needed to respond to the needs of the parish, she was now facing major issues affecting her family. Her husband of 49 years, a Vietnam veteran, recovering drug user, and casualty of Agent Orange, suddenly relapsed into addiction, which led to his death. While his health had been deteriorating for some years, this relapse hastened it. She sought guidance herself from another pastor who introduced her to two programs—Grief Share and Celebrate Recovery.
When she had finished counseling, this pastor suggested that she, after having experienced the power of these programs directly, might offer them to her parishioners as well. She was someone, as they say, who had walked the walk, having also grown up in a family that had also experienced the agonies of addition. She immediately knew that these Christ-centered support programs might benefit members of her parish as well as others in the communities of Winooski and Greater Burlington.
The WUMC parish and others in our community, responded overwhelmingly to this new Teleconnections Ministry, in ways that it hadn’t prior to the Pandemic. The ministry provides a means of sharing without feeling self-conscious, camaraderie within a Christian context, healing through honesty and commitment. Every night, except Sunday, from 6-7 pm, Pastor Ellen brings people together to find healing from loneliness, anxiety, grief, chronic pain, and addiction, with the focus Wednesdays on Grief and Saturdays on Recovery. To discover more and receive the telephone access number, please contact Pastor Ellen Ravelin at 802-655-7371. Leave a message and Pastor Ellen will get back to you.
Serving through Good Works
The Winooski United Methodist Church has been the home for the Winooski Food Shelf ever since 2009. Launched as The Little Green Pantry, the Winooski Food Shelf has grown, we are sad to say, from feed 12-15 families once a month to serving over 700 people each month.
The Pandemic disrupted the Food Shelf and required significant changes to how how guest were able to access for not to mention the large numbers of families now being served. We were no long able to bring guests into the Fellowship Hall to choose food for themselves and sit and chat with fellow guests and volunteers. We needed to pre-bag food and register guests at the door. Because of the amount of Food that now needs to be kept in inventory, the over 2000 square feet of the Fellowship Hall is now entirely devoted to shelving packed with supplies and to an industrial-sized refrigeration unit containing both fresh and frozen foods.
The need for a supplemental food program for Winooski residents was apparent over 15 years ago. Now it has become a critical service within the Community. Staffed entirely by volunteers, the Winooski Food Shelf operates under our 502(c)3 registration, which means that all food and cash donation are fully tax deductible.
Even though we view the Food Shelf as one of our most vital missions, we do not require church membership for recipients or volunteers. The Winooski Food Shelf does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, region (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations. For more about the Food Shelf, please call 802-655-7371 or email winooskifoodshelf@gmail.com.
For more about the Food Shelf, click here:
Intercessory Prayer
Support for Each Other, For Those Grieving & in Recovery
The Winooski Food Shelf
sharing food & giving help
