News & Notes 7/8/2010
Greetings to you, My Friends,
I hope you have been able to spend as much time as possible in cool surroundings over the last few days. This has been oppressive, hasn’t it? I hope you’re looking out for the young folks and older folks in your life, and in your neighborhood - to make sure they’re doing okay in this heat. If you haven’t done so already, why not make a call or two to check up on someone you know?
The Red Cross Blood Drive that was supposed to have taken place tomorrow has been canceled due to the heat. The “home office” has told the local Red Cross organization not to hold the event. So if you were planning to work, or if you were planning to bring some food for this event, please hold off - but thank you VERY much for your willingness. A small contingent of the Red Cross will, however, go to the Elks Lodge, on Route 108, to draw blood from those who had made appointments. Apparently their facility is air conditioned.
A member of the congregation who has been relying on the Care Team for frequent rides to appointments is wondering if anyone might have a used inspectable car that they might be willing to donate or sell (would need to arrange small payments with owner to afford to buy). If so please let me know. I’ll pass the word along to them. Thank You.
Last evening some of our Garden Committee members came to “harvest” some of the lettuce that has grown. They prepared 32 “heads” of various kinds of lettuce, which were taken to the Dover Cooperative Ministries Food Pantry this morning! We will be known by our fruits . . . . or vegetables, as the case may be!!
Dick Johnson sent this note, and gave permission to share it:
“Pastor Mark – I’m very happy to report that all of Nancy’s tests the past 2 days have been negative, meaning there are no cancer cells in her body right now. To be sure of it, she’ll be having 5 weeks of radiation on her right leg in August. The medical team at Dana Farber is confident that they can keep this cancer at bay. When they’ve done that for 3 years, then they can declare that she is truly cancer free. Thank you, again, for your thoughts and prayers for Nancy, and all the people who are treating her. Dick”
Last week I mentioned the need that Kim Willett has for a kidney transplant. The detail of the information that I didn’t have is that the donor must have type “A” blood. It doesn’t matter whether it’s positive (”+”) or negative (”-”). If you have the correct blood type, then you would need to go through a series of screenings/tests to see if you would be a compatible donor. I have been blessed - and can only imagine how Kim feels - with the number of folks who have spoken to me about their willingness to donate. The issue, so far, has been the blood type.
Last Friday, our trusty arborists/landscape person, Jay Whitehouse, came and spent a number of hours trimming some of the shrubbery around the church!! It’s lookin’ great. Thanks Jay!! He plans to come back and do more in the near future. I don’t know if you’ve ever looked that closely, but we have allot of decorative shrubbery to maintain!!
We are looking for families that would like to take part in a multi-family yard/tag sale that is being arranged to help raise money for St John’s. It will be held on church grounds on Saturday July 31. Approximately twenty fifteen square foot areas are available for $20 each. One table per family may be available from Hartford Hall for an additional $5. Quantities are limited and will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. Participants will be responsible for their own setup and cleanup. Please contact Jim Korth at 4korths@metrocast.net or 603-664-8063 for details and to reserve your space.
Sandy received our check from the recent Friendly’s Ice Cream fund raiser. Drumroll, please . . . $243.15. That’s very nice - especially in light of the fact that we thought our turnout was a bit low! It’s not a huge amount, but every little bit helps. Many thanks to all the folks who came out!
Here’s a repeat from last week’s issue of “News & Notes.” I’m repeating it because I don’t see any names signed up on the bulletin board in Hartford Hall: During the summer months, our Nursery Coordinator, Sandy Shepard, is expanding the nursery to cover not just the “birth through 3 y.o.” crowd, but to cover children up through the age of 6 y.o. She needs help, though. She needs one or two folks - high school age or above - who could come downstairs during worship to supervise the older children in the room next to the nursery. The children color, or do simply crafts, or sing along with recorded music. It’s not a terribly structured time. Hopefully it would be different folks each week - so no one would have to give up their summer of worship. Would you help out? Please speak to Sandy this Sunday - or just sign-up, on the bulletin board in Hartford Hall!!
Here’s another repeat from last week:
”Interfaith Prayers for the Gulf” - July 14, 7:00 PM
Union Congregational UCC in Madbury
20 Town Hall Road, Madbury, NH
Join us for worship and song as we pray for all that is affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico - fish, marine mammals, birds, marshes and wetlands, people whose livelihood is totally dependent on fishing and shell-fishing, the tourist industry and for God’s tender comfort for those who grieve the loss of those who died. We will gather to pray and sing, listen to testimony and express repentance for the ways in which our life-style and dependence on fossil fuels shapes the economy. If you have information on ways to respond - letters or petitions or information on particular organizations — they are welcome on a table that will be set up in the entrance, but there is no political agenda to this gathering and this event is not connected to any organization.
I’m copying this next item from the July issue of the “Bell-Wether,” which you received last week:
Our response to a need was rescheduled
We usually observe Human Relations Day - including receiving the special offering - on the Sunday before Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday. But this year the earthquake occurred in Haiti, and St. John’s Church joined countless people all over the world in responding the urgent need for help in that devastated country.
So we will receive our gifts to the Human Relations Day offering on July 11th. Special envelopes will be included in the bulletin on that day for all those who wish to contribute.
Human Relations Day was established by the 1972 General Conference to promote support for the Community Developers, United Methodist Voluntary Service, and Police-Community Relations programs. In 1989 the Youth Offender Rehabilitation Program replaced the Police-Community Relations Program to respond to the growing population of youth offenders and their need for creative redirection.
Programs supported through the receipts of the Human Relations Day offering include but are not limited to:
* HIV/AIDS
* Affordable Housing
* Youth Empowerment/Initiatives
* Mental & Physical Health
* Youth Leadership
* Senior Citizen Assistance
* Restorative Justice
* Prison Ministries
* After-School & Summer Initiatives
Please give generously!
As a senior citizen was driving down the freeway, his car phone rang. Answering, he heard his wife’s voice urgently warning him, ‘Herman, I just heard on the news that there’s a car going the wrong way on Interstate 95. Please be careful!’ ‘Heck,’ said Herman, ‘It’s not just one car. It’s hundreds of them!’
That’s all the news that’s fit to print . . . and some that isn’t! I would love to see you in church this Sunday - heat or not! Be sure to watch for God’s presence in your life today - in things great and small! And give thanks for each one. Peace, Mark