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Years ago, it was thought that the veil between life and death got thinner in the fall and that the spirit of those who had died could come closer to us.
When the Christian faith moved across Europe, it found a tradition which held that the dead were especially close at the first of November. The Christians adapted this celebration and called it All Saints Day or All Hallows’ Day to be celebrated on November 1. This made the night before All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween).
Then came those Protestants. They declared that anyone who loved God and loved others was a saint.
Never have I met more saints, more people who love God and others, than I did at the Global Ministries gathering in Indianapolis October 19-22. The goal for Global Ministries is to be able to offer immediate help in the areas of greatest need. It’s amazing what our church, the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, have been able to do together.
Global Ministries has established 200 partner organizations around the world. These are local nonprofit groups that have similar beliefs to ours. Global Ministries contacts a partner organization and makes arrangements to fill in the needs. And just as often, one of the global partners will contact and suggest what it is that they need and ask for a nurse, teacher, psychologist, carpenter, librarian, community organizer, farmer, and much more. It is in the setting of greatest need that our missionaries live out their faith. In many settings, this is terribly dangerous. I met a man from Columbia who is helping refugees from Colombia settle in Chile and Venezuela. He does this at the risk of his own life. As does a woman from the Philippines who is advocating for farmers. Still, many minister at a far smaller risk as Karen who is a teacher of English in China. She will visit us on Sunday, November 19.
Then we also have missionaries sent to us by some of our partners. I met Ruth from Angola. She told of the life of her people after 27 years of civil war. She told of the amazing power to keep on living in the face of devastation and destruction. She told of the spiritual and sociological struggle for people who have only known war. She showed us pictures of the effort to remove land mines the size of beverage coasters that make life dangerous and land impossible to farm. The removal of these mines is exceptionally demanding.
What I learned is that our church is making a significant difference in the lives of people in terrible need. We do this through our contributions to Our Church’s Wider Mission (OCWM) and we do it through special programs that come out in times of crisis. I learned that Global Ministries still has a volunteer program that encourages ministries of two weeks to two years. I learned about the saints that minister for us to people in our world who are of greatest need.
We really have made a difference in our support of Global Ministries.
Blessings,
Pastor Gen
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Our ‘liturgical artists’, Sue and Barton, have the sanctuary and display window decorated accordingly, and Ted Carlson, Bill Carpenter and Maxine Eggerth have shared their thoughts on stewardship with us these past Sundays - here they are in writing for you to contemplate.
Thank you! - Let our light shine...!
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by Ted Carlson
I want to address the TTT issue this morning. Being and Engineer I will probably be using a bit of an unusual basis for the subject at hand.
As a Toastmaster International I had on occasion used one of my favorite speeches titled Knotholes and Laughing Places. Only the first of the items is appropriate to what I want to address this morning.
I assume most of you are acquainted with the Funny Paper character Dennis the Menace. Picture with me the strip showing young Dennis walking out along the long Santa Monica Wharf in Southern California. This was Dennis's first exposure to the vast Pacific ocean. As he walked along with his
parents with the blue Pacific stretching out for miles in all directions, he suddenly stopped and looked down through a knothole in the platform of the wharf. He could see the power of the waves rushing in pounding the pilings and straightened up to exclaim to his parents, "Boy, the ocean is really big!!!
That knothole gave him a perspective, that the overall view had failed to impress on him. We are all a bit like Dennis at times, in what causes us to appreciate to the fullest the meaning of something.
Let me share with you a perspective that occurred to me in regard to the importance of the role of our church in the process of bringing the Light of the World, Christ Jesus, to the people of the world today.
I thought of our contributions to our church and to the work of Christianity worldwide in terms of the many pennies that it represents.
Then I likened those pennies to the tiny electrons that are the power of the immense National distribution systems of power in our modern world.
It is those tiny electrons that power the greatest electric motors and the brightest lights of our civilization. Those electrons bring light to the blackest and darkest areas. The driving force is
the generators of all sorts from Hydroelectric, Nuclear, Solar, Wind or Tidal.
From this comes my perspective of our role, here on this corner in Sunnyvale, with a not very large congregation. We are one more small generator of the vast complex of Christian Churches of all persuasions keeping the Light of the world lit.
It's a Matter of Perspective...!
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by Bill Carpenter
"Stewardship according to the dictionary indicates a mutual feeling of trust and faith between a property owner and the person who manages that property for the owner. All we have is given to us by God. Our stewardship begins when we return one tenth of our God-given benefit to God. By returning this tithe to God, we demonstrate our faith and trust in God's grace and guidance in our lives. With this commitment, God helps us learn to manage our lives and those who depend upon us as well, using the nine-tenths of our total gift from God as we would if we used the entire gift. After becoming good stewards, God's grace seems to not only continue, but increase our gift for even greater benefit to our lives.
This demands a great sense of honesty and trustworthiness on the part of the steward, and when one has learned to practice the art of tithing with God, on a regular basis, these talents are easily transferred to the steward's dealing with family members, and work associates, as well as friends and acquaintances.
The Bible teaches us that there are multiple areas of our lives where stewardship becomes essential to successful Christian living. The management of our TIME as well as our TALENTS need to be carefully managed, too. These three areas of human endeavor are not usually found in balanced quantities in human beings, but there have been many outstanding examples where being a good steward in one of these fields leads to the further development and expansion of the others, making the practice of our stewardship nearly a full-time occupation, being in practice right along with one's other occupations.
I believe God richly loves and blesses all who earnestly attempt to practice good stewardship. I recently heard this example:
A grandfather was visiting in the home of his son's family of four youngsters. Upon arriving in their home, he was taken immediately to a display of eight bottles sitting upon a shelf. It was explained to him that the family was using this as a visual aid in learning to be good stewards of God's gifts. Each child had been given two bottles; one was for the child, the other was for God. As children were rewarded with money for work well done, they were paid with pennies. When a child earned ten pennies, he was taught to give the first penny to God, and it was dropped into God's bottle, while the other nine were deposited in his/her own bottle. Grandpa reluctantly accepted this explanation, and, upon returning to the same home some time later, was taken to the display and proudly shown the bottles on the shelf. "Well," he exclaimed, "there certainly are a lot more pennies in your bottles than in God’s!"
"But, Grandpa, that's all God asks for," came the reply.
Let us all take a few moments right now to examine our own habits in being Good Stewards in the tithing of our gifts of Time, and Talent as well as Treasure.
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by Maxine Eggerth
I would like to devote these few minutes to the consideration of our “treasure” - our church. Give thought to our feelings if we suddenly no longer had this physical manifestation of our church - the actual building we are in. What would be our feelings and reactions if our “treasure” disappeared?
Obviously, we would no longer have a place of worship. What are the many things we would no
longer have at our disposal. Let us enumerate.
- Gone would be our pastor who guides us and leads us, who exhorts us, who educates us, who admonishes us when needed, and who provides the compass to help us on our church journey.
- Gone would be our sanctuary and we would no longer have a choir to listen to and enjoy every Sunday morning - and gone would be the many musical events, lectures, our children’s Friday morning chapel, plays and gatherings.
- Gone would be our fellowship hall - our gathering place for countless coffee hours after church on Sunday, as well as luncheons, suppers, bake sales, fundraising events - the warp and woof of the fabric of the church body.
- Gone would be the meeting rooms, the spaces for the pastoral and clerical activity that is so vital to the conduct of a church.
- Gone would be the “hub” - the “office” - the lifeblood of any church - and the Pastor’s office - where people come and go with their problems and their pleas for help - where many community problems are presented and solution is found.
- Gone would be the Women’s Fellowship - a long time enduring group of the ladies of the church who have contributed to and largely improved the ongoing financial health of the church and community as well as developing lasting friendships and camaraderie that cannot be quantified.
- Gone would be the other committees and boards that have answered to the needs and operation of the church body over the years.
- Gone would be the babies and children - the reason why we are allowed to continue our brief span and to continue life’s pattern.
- Gone would be the congregation - the individuals who, over the years, have attended worship, liked what they saw and heard, have melded into a spiritual and practical body that is undeniably advancing the message of Jesus Christ - “Love thy neighbors” and “Do good, not evil” - and trying always to live as brothers and sisters in Christ.
Would we want to lose this treasure - the linchpin, so to speak, of our existence's - the center for many of us of our spiritual, social, educational and sometimes political daily lives - that upholds us in times of trouble and sorrow - that gives us comfort in our most abject times of stress and suffering - that makes us realize we do indeed have a “treasure” here at Remington and Bernardo in Sunnyvale - and is a force in the community?
No, I don’t think we would want to lose our treasure - so let us continue to preserve it, enjoy it, love it, and share our message to those around us!
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The 2006 Stewardship campaign concludes this Sunday, Nov. 5,
with HAL URBAN as our
guest speaker. He is the author of
“LIFE’S GREATEST LESSONS
- 20 THINGS THAT MATTER”,
and will stay with us after Worship
for lunch and discussion.
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Wednesday, November 22, 10 am
The Arctic Ice is melting at an alarming rate due to global warming. The Polar Bear is at risk.
Thus, our children have made drawings of sad polar bears to bring to city hall and meet with the Mayor.
This is a friendly meeting where the kids and their grown ups will have the chance to give the Mayor ideas of what we can do as citizens and as a city to improve the environment and the Mayor can tell us what is already being done.
Please, join us in Chambers
at Sunnyvale City Hall
at 10 am on Wednesday, November 22.
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Water for our
Gathering of the Waters Ceremony
on Recovenanting Sunday
came from these places
(in no particular order):
Monterey Bay
Santa Rosa
Englesfield Bay, Canada
New York
San Francisco
Mendocino
Piedmont
Lake Tahoe
Bodega Bay
Russian River
Marin City
Kootenay Lake
Pacifica
Pismo Beach
Big Bear Lake
Alaska Glacier
Sulfur Springs
Mississippi
Lake Michigan (Chicago)
Sunnyvale
Manhattan Beach
Santa Cruz
Feather River
Upper Jamieson Creek
San Lorenzo
McCloud River
Penobscot Bay
Lisbon Falls
Atlantic Ocean
Mt. Rainier
Colorado
Los Angeles
Pasadena
Long Beach
The waters have been blessed and purified and will be used as baptismal water
throughout the year.
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FALL FESTIVAL -
DARRYL INVITED US TO
“A TASTE OF NEW ORLEANS”
Thank you, Darryl and Mary Ruth!!
making Mardi gras masks
enjoying delicious food and
beautiful decorations
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Rummage Sale
Fund Raiser
May 20, 2007
(tentative date)
Do you have things you no longer need - want to get out of your house?
How about donating them to our
Church rummage sale on May 20th? Over the next few months be thinking about all those little and big treasures you want to part with.
More details will be available by the end of January, after the Worship and Community Board has had a chance to do the planning.
In the mean time please address any questions to Marilyn.
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Time for Prayer
Please join Pastor Gen
in prayers for our church
every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:00 - 9:30 am.
Come to church and
pray in the sanctuary if you can
or take a few minutes for prayer wherever you are!
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Come join our little choir!
Choir practice is now
every Sunday from 9:30 to 10:15 am
and again after Worship
from noon to 1:30 pm.
All abilities welcome - just drop in!
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Scary and fun
costumes,
nicely decorated trunks
and lots of treats...!
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The Halloween Tailgate Party was great fun. It is important to give children a safe environment to go trick or treating.
Community Preschool has many activities happening in November.
We will be participating in the Sunnyvale Community Services food collection. The food drive will be from November 2nd to the 14th. The Sunnyvale Library will be sending out a storyteller to share books, songs and finger plays with the children.
Also the Kid Kard ID child identification program will be coming to Community Pre-School November 16th. This is a service that will provide parents a child identity card with important information if their child is ever missing.
On November 20th the staff will have a speaker come to talk about how to best communicate with parents.
The children are learning how important it is to share and help others who are not as fortunate. They will be able to donate canned foods for our food collection drive. The children will be preparing different foods to share with another class. This is a concrete way to show how the Pilgrims and Native Americans shared during The First Thanksgiving.
We wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!
Barbara Steinmetz (Director of Community Pre-School)
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Mei has started a
church life scrapbook,
which you can find in Shepherd Hall after Worship Service.
Please bring photos and other material and add them to what is already there! Thank you!
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from the United Church of Christ
Justice and Witness Ministries
In the Darfur region of Sudan, government-backed militias continue to bomb and burn villages, destroy water and food stores, and target civilian and ethnic populations in acts of genocide, including mass killings, rape, torture and ethnic cleansing. Over 400,000 civilians have lost their lives and over 2.5 million civilians have been displaced in the genocide. The situation for humanitarian aid workers continues to worsen as well, as restricted areas expand and attacks become more frequent. It is also increasingly difficult for food and medical supplies to reach the 3.5 million civilians who are completely dependent upon international aid for survival. The victims of this violence have suffered under very limited protection through ill-equipped African Union forces since 2003.
It has been almost two months since the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1706 authorizing the deployment of 20,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops to take over for the African Union troops. However, the resolution “invites the consent” of the Sudanese government before troops are deployed – and the government has not consented.
It is time for President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to increase U.S. pressure on Sudan through the United
Nations Security Council; the Sudanese government must allow U.N. peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers in Darfur. If the government does not take actions to protect its people, tough consequences should include:
- financial and travel sanctions on Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir and other leaders responsible for the atrocities in Darfur,
- multi-lateral economic sanctions on Sudan’s international finances and oil industries,
- and preparation for possible “non-consensual” deployment of UN troops into Sudan.
Click to send a message to President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telling them to put pressure on the Sudanese government to allow U.N. peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers into Darfur.
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by Mary Ruth Green
Sept. 2006 YTD
Income $19,620.10 $85,132.86
Expenses $19,674.84 $79,763.84
Gain/(Loss) ($54.74) $5,369.02
I expect that we will be back on the positive side next month when we begin receiving rental income for the office space across from Pastor Gen's office.
The major expense in September was $1,050 for subterranean termite eradication.
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Click to see our calendar.
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