Lenten blessings to you all.
First a quick reminder: PLEASE be sure to
post your Holy Week worship schedules everyplace
possible----on your yard signs, on your phone messages,
on your websites! People who are considering
returning to or visiting a church often decide to do so
during the 'big' Holy seasons such as Advent, Christmas,
Holy Week. And not all are drawn to only the
Easter celebration---some hunger for the deep
accompaniment of suffering and penitence that Maundy
Thursday and Good Friday offer. So please offer an
extravagant welcome by making your service information
clearly available in many forms.
Second, a few questions have arisen about school
kits! I am so excited that from some responses it
appears we may go well over our goal of
500---hurrah! Let's make it 1000!
Anyhow, here some clarifications (I hope):
- If you need reminders about kit contents, shipping
forms, etc. please go to http://www.churchworldservice.
It's all there, including a pdf about a 'coupon' to be
completed and sent with the kits and a form to send
with the shipping check.
- It is perfectly fine not to utilize the Retirement
Housing Foundation bags. Some are taking
advantage of that great offer, some not. One
church is helping their junior highs learn to sew by
making the bags! Terrific!
The CWS recommended
$2/bag should be gathered into one check made out to
and sent to Church World Service separately from the
shipping of the bags. That amount helps offset
the CWS cost of shipping the bags to the countries
where they are needed. (That $2 does NOT help us
send the bags from S Cal to Arkansas or Maryland, see
below about that...). If you bring that check
with your kits to Annual Gathering, we will be sure it
gets to CWS but don't box it with the bags!
- You may box and ship the bags yourselves, from
your church to either of the shipping locations.
If you do that, please simply notify the Conference
office how many bags were actually shipped and your
church's name. (And if a specific group did the
project, identify them, please).
- OR you may bring the bags to the Annual Gathering
in Claremont. The Executive Director of Church
World Service will be speaking on Saturday (June 6)
and we will 'present' them to him along with a report
of any pre-shipped that day). We will
welcome volunteers to work a while after the close of
the meeting to box the bags and prepare them for
shipping to the gathering center. To be
honest, at the moment we have no plan about covering
that shipping cost but I hope that one of the
offerings during Annual Gathering will be designated
to help cover that cost with any excess to go to
Church World Service. If your church can
help with that extra expense, you may bring checks for
that offering.
I am so delighted that so many are excited about
this project. One of my colleagues, the Conference
Minister from the South Central Conference, reads our
news and wrote me that their Conference (with 80
churches to our 132) has done a school kit/Annual
Meeting project for two years and achieved 520
kits! Hurrah! And when they needed extra
dollars to help with the shipping, several churches
stepped up. I love it!
Now, of COURSE, I'm not wanting to be competitive
BUT---if our friends with hurricane challenges can do
520 kits, surely we can go well over our goal!! I can
hardly wait to see our final results. And if you
want to know more about where the kits go, our local CWS
representative, Julie Brumana, will lead a workshop at
Annual Gathering with more info.
Sometimes being church is such fun! Thank you
for joining the joy of sharing with the world!
Blessings,
Jane
