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Friday, December 19, 2008
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Hello, friends!
I hope everyone had a delightful Thanksgiving weekend and is now looking forward to a blessed Christmas season. It is certainly a busy one.
Sunday Plans
This Sunday, Dec. 7, Christian Walk church will be with us to help shepherd the children. Most of the kids will practice for the pageant, and following the rehearsal, we’ll have a Christmas ornament project for them to do. We’ll take pictures of all the kids for the ornament they will make on the 14th. The ornaments we make on the 7th will be sent to Enon UMC as a way of saying thanks for buying pizza once a month for the kids this year.
Sunday, Dec. 14, Morningstar UMC will be with us as shepherds. They are also bringing stuff for breakfast. (A real one, like pancakes and stuff!) Teachers, please note that some of the youth coming will have spent the night in a lock-in. Most of those will be in the youth room doing a program with Rachael, while the more mature kids and adults will be shepherding with us. We’ll have to manage all the kids in the Sunday school area without the youth room that day. Santa will be coming to the fellowship hall at 12:45. The children will sit with Santa for a free picture, get a gift from a child from Morningstar, and then get on the van to go home. Church families can get a free picture with Santa, but they will have to stay at the church until 12:45. The pictures will be ready on the 21st.
Sunday, Dec. 21. The children will perform their pageant, we’ll be handing out Christmas bags, and Bluff Park UMC will be with us as shepherds.
Sunday, Dec. 28. We will not be picking up any children for Sunday school, as we won’t have shepherds on this day and we are likely to be short teachers as well. We may have a couple of kids who are either dropped off or who come with a parent, so we’ll have a simple project for those kids to work on.
Other Dates to Note:This Wednesday, Dec. 3, we’ll have our regular prayer service.
Wednesday Dec. 10 and 17th are work nights, and we’ll be packing Christmas bags. Come one, come all.
Also on Dec. 17th, our parish nurse, Elaine Marshall, is giving a Christmas party for the homeless women during the day program.
The church will be open on Wednesday, Dec. 24 until noon, then closed on Thursday and Friday the 25th and 26th.The church will open until noon on Dec. 31, then be closed on Jan. 1 and 2.
The church will be open on Monday, Jan. 19 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We’ll have breakfast, and William Boyd will be this year’s speaker.
On Saturday, January 24th, David Korten will be here. He will also preach on Sunday, Jan. 25, and lead an afternoon session. On January 26, we’ll have a morning session at the church to discuss Korten’s presentation, and he will return to meet with us in the afternoon.
Sunday, February 1st will be Stewardship Sunday.
Mark your calendars now for Saturday, February 21, Leadership day. We’ll be asking all members to come to the church for a day-long planning conference that will include break-out sessions for various committees. We need you there.
Thanks to each of you for all you do to make our ministry a reality! Have a great rest of the week.
Marti
I hope everyone had a delightful Thanksgiving weekend and is now looking forward to a blessed Christmas season. It is certainly a busy one.
Sunday Plans
This Sunday, Dec. 7, Christian Walk church will be with us to help shepherd the children. Most of the kids will practice for the pageant, and following the rehearsal, we’ll have a Christmas ornament project for them to do. We’ll take pictures of all the kids for the ornament they will make on the 14th. The ornaments we make on the 7th will be sent to Enon UMC as a way of saying thanks for buying pizza once a month for the kids this year.
Sunday, Dec. 14, Morningstar UMC will be with us as shepherds. They are also bringing stuff for breakfast. (A real one, like pancakes and stuff!) Teachers, please note that some of the youth coming will have spent the night in a lock-in. Most of those will be in the youth room doing a program with Rachael, while the more mature kids and adults will be shepherding with us. We’ll have to manage all the kids in the Sunday school area without the youth room that day. Santa will be coming to the fellowship hall at 12:45. The children will sit with Santa for a free picture, get a gift from a child from Morningstar, and then get on the van to go home. Church families can get a free picture with Santa, but they will have to stay at the church until 12:45. The pictures will be ready on the 21st.
Sunday, Dec. 21. The children will perform their pageant, we’ll be handing out Christmas bags, and Bluff Park UMC will be with us as shepherds.
Sunday, Dec. 28. We will not be picking up any children for Sunday school, as we won’t have shepherds on this day and we are likely to be short teachers as well. We may have a couple of kids who are either dropped off or who come with a parent, so we’ll have a simple project for those kids to work on.
Other Dates to Note:This Wednesday, Dec. 3, we’ll have our regular prayer service.
Wednesday Dec. 10 and 17th are work nights, and we’ll be packing Christmas bags. Come one, come all.
Also on Dec. 17th, our parish nurse, Elaine Marshall, is giving a Christmas party for the homeless women during the day program.
The church will be open on Wednesday, Dec. 24 until noon, then closed on Thursday and Friday the 25th and 26th.The church will open until noon on Dec. 31, then be closed on Jan. 1 and 2.
The church will be open on Monday, Jan. 19 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We’ll have breakfast, and William Boyd will be this year’s speaker.
On Saturday, January 24th, David Korten will be here. He will also preach on Sunday, Jan. 25, and lead an afternoon session. On January 26, we’ll have a morning session at the church to discuss Korten’s presentation, and he will return to meet with us in the afternoon.
Sunday, February 1st will be Stewardship Sunday.
Mark your calendars now for Saturday, February 21, Leadership day. We’ll be asking all members to come to the church for a day-long planning conference that will include break-out sessions for various committees. We need you there.
Thanks to each of you for all you do to make our ministry a reality! Have a great rest of the week.
Marti
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Hope from tumult is in another's eyes
Hope from tumult is in another's eyes
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Rev. Rachel Martin had her eye on commodities last week.
Coffee.
Sugar.
You can't run her business without them. And demand, in the last few weeks, put a dent in supply.
"Do you have any idea how much coffee and sugar it takes if you're trying to feed 300 people?" she asked.
Three hundred people?
That's the number coming regularly for breakfast to the Church of the Reconciler in downtown Birmingham, where Martin serves as associate pastor.
Three hundred hungry people.
Once upon a time that would have been high even at the end of a month, when the money is spent. This month, it was just a start.
It's as if volunteers at the Reconciler, who prepare and serve breakfast each Tuesday through Friday, are sloshing in a leaky lifeboat. They bail as fast as they can, but still the water rushes in.
This perfect storm of hopelessness should serve as warning to us all. The economic meltdown - illustrated nationally with a daily shot of a chagrined stockbroker - has real implications on the alleyways that split off Main Street.
There's the price of gas and tightening credit. Here we have poor mass transit and fear in the banking and health care industries. Carraway hospital is in trouble, along with the county itself. And Alabama Power picks this time to jack up rates.
The victims, sometimes, look just like us.
Last week Martin scrambled to find shelter for a pregnant woman with two young children who lost her job at Waffle House and was evicted from her apartment.
"She was not the type of person we're used to dealing with," Martin said. "DHR would take her children if we didn't get her off the street."
Just one lady. Just one situation. Just one story out of, oh, 300 a day.
And counting.
Through August of this year, the Jefferson County sheriff's department physically evicted 3,023 people - about 378 a month - from their homes or apartments.
That's a brutal event, kicking folks out of their homes and setting their possession on the curb. It is, as sheriff's Lt. Randy Christian says, "the saddest detail we work."
And it happens about 60 times a month more this year than last.
To 60 more families.
Samford University nursing professor Elaine Marshall brings nursing students to Reconciler, among other places, to offer services for the homeless. They check blood pressures, and offer advice. Recently they gave HIV tests.
It is a good service, and a dose of real-life education for students. But talk to Marshall and you find it is something more.
"It keeps me focused on what life is about," she said.
What's that?
"When you look into someone's eyes and develop a trust between you, then you see how precious life is."
It is about people. People helping other people.
Yes, times are hard. But it's not all about Wall Street or your 401(k). When just one human looks into the eyes of another - that's where we will find hope.
John Archibald's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Write him at jarchibald@bhamnews.com.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Rev. Rachel Martin had her eye on commodities last week.
Coffee.
Sugar.
You can't run her business without them. And demand, in the last few weeks, put a dent in supply.
"Do you have any idea how much coffee and sugar it takes if you're trying to feed 300 people?" she asked.
Three hundred people?
That's the number coming regularly for breakfast to the Church of the Reconciler in downtown Birmingham, where Martin serves as associate pastor.
Three hundred hungry people.
Once upon a time that would have been high even at the end of a month, when the money is spent. This month, it was just a start.
It's as if volunteers at the Reconciler, who prepare and serve breakfast each Tuesday through Friday, are sloshing in a leaky lifeboat. They bail as fast as they can, but still the water rushes in.
This perfect storm of hopelessness should serve as warning to us all. The economic meltdown - illustrated nationally with a daily shot of a chagrined stockbroker - has real implications on the alleyways that split off Main Street.
There's the price of gas and tightening credit. Here we have poor mass transit and fear in the banking and health care industries. Carraway hospital is in trouble, along with the county itself. And Alabama Power picks this time to jack up rates.
The victims, sometimes, look just like us.
Last week Martin scrambled to find shelter for a pregnant woman with two young children who lost her job at Waffle House and was evicted from her apartment.
"She was not the type of person we're used to dealing with," Martin said. "DHR would take her children if we didn't get her off the street."
Just one lady. Just one situation. Just one story out of, oh, 300 a day.
And counting.
Through August of this year, the Jefferson County sheriff's department physically evicted 3,023 people - about 378 a month - from their homes or apartments.
That's a brutal event, kicking folks out of their homes and setting their possession on the curb. It is, as sheriff's Lt. Randy Christian says, "the saddest detail we work."
And it happens about 60 times a month more this year than last.
To 60 more families.
Samford University nursing professor Elaine Marshall brings nursing students to Reconciler, among other places, to offer services for the homeless. They check blood pressures, and offer advice. Recently they gave HIV tests.
It is a good service, and a dose of real-life education for students. But talk to Marshall and you find it is something more.
"It keeps me focused on what life is about," she said.
What's that?
"When you look into someone's eyes and develop a trust between you, then you see how precious life is."
It is about people. People helping other people.
Yes, times are hard. But it's not all about Wall Street or your 401(k). When just one human looks into the eyes of another - that's where we will find hope.
John Archibald's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Write him at jarchibald@bhamnews.com.
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Update, October 8, 2008
Hello friends!
Here’s a few dates to put on your calendar:
Tonight at 5 pm, Staff/parish relations (personnel) ministry team
Friday, Oct. 10 at noon. Finance ministry team
Monday, Oct. 13, Charge conference at Enon UMC
Wednesday, October 22, Banquet committee meeting, 6:30 pm at Vestavia Hills UMC. We will not have our usual prayer meeting at Reconciler that evening. All friends of Reconciler are encouraged and invited to meet at Vestavia as we make plans for our 2009 banquet. Thanks to Tom Bole of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church for agreeing to be our banquet chair. Tom supported last year’s banquet and silent auction in significant ways, and we’re deeply appreciative of his help.
Other news: Elaine Marshall, a professor at Samford University has agreed to be our parish nurse. We are grateful for her commitment to the health of our community.
The Youth Y in Birmingham will make their facilities available to our children! We plan to schedule a tutoring session or two there and perhaps our recreation time for VBS as well. The gym include a climbing wall and track and other facilities that our children will enjoy.
This Sunday: We expect shepherds for Sunday school from Morningstar UMC. Enon UMC will be bringing lunch. From now on, we will no longer be asking the groups that shepherd to bring lunch for the children. The logistics of doing both are difficult. For now we will feed the children the adult meals. If you know of any groups that may want to bring the children’s lunch on occasional Sundays, please let Rachael know. We can usually purchase pizza or McDonald’s for about $50.
Please remember that the children are singing in worship this Sunday! If you help transport the kids, remind them that it’s a special Sunday to make an effort to attend. They are to wear khaki pants (or jeans) and white shirts. They’ll be singing after the passing of the peace and before the creed, so we’ll need to do our best to get them to church on time and get them breakfast in a timely manner.
And finally, our deepest condolences to Jo Dobbins, who lost her husband Ellis this week. The funeral was this morning. I know we’ll keep Jo in our thoughts and prayers.
Peace,Marti
Here’s a few dates to put on your calendar:
Tonight at 5 pm, Staff/parish relations (personnel) ministry team
Friday, Oct. 10 at noon. Finance ministry team
Monday, Oct. 13, Charge conference at Enon UMC
Wednesday, October 22, Banquet committee meeting, 6:30 pm at Vestavia Hills UMC. We will not have our usual prayer meeting at Reconciler that evening. All friends of Reconciler are encouraged and invited to meet at Vestavia as we make plans for our 2009 banquet. Thanks to Tom Bole of Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church for agreeing to be our banquet chair. Tom supported last year’s banquet and silent auction in significant ways, and we’re deeply appreciative of his help.
Other news: Elaine Marshall, a professor at Samford University has agreed to be our parish nurse. We are grateful for her commitment to the health of our community.
The Youth Y in Birmingham will make their facilities available to our children! We plan to schedule a tutoring session or two there and perhaps our recreation time for VBS as well. The gym include a climbing wall and track and other facilities that our children will enjoy.
This Sunday: We expect shepherds for Sunday school from Morningstar UMC. Enon UMC will be bringing lunch. From now on, we will no longer be asking the groups that shepherd to bring lunch for the children. The logistics of doing both are difficult. For now we will feed the children the adult meals. If you know of any groups that may want to bring the children’s lunch on occasional Sundays, please let Rachael know. We can usually purchase pizza or McDonald’s for about $50.
Please remember that the children are singing in worship this Sunday! If you help transport the kids, remind them that it’s a special Sunday to make an effort to attend. They are to wear khaki pants (or jeans) and white shirts. They’ll be singing after the passing of the peace and before the creed, so we’ll need to do our best to get them to church on time and get them breakfast in a timely manner.
And finally, our deepest condolences to Jo Dobbins, who lost her husband Ellis this week. The funeral was this morning. I know we’ll keep Jo in our thoughts and prayers.
Peace,Marti
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Supplies you can donate to help our ministry!
Thank you so very much for your concern and support for our ministry to the poor and homeless in downtown Birmingham, AL. Church of the Reconciler is very much an embodiment of the Connectional Ministry of the United Methodist Church. Through your prayerful gifts and
support, we are in ministry, offering the The Bread of Life to the hungry, both physically and
spiritually.
Here is what we regularly need during the course of each week at the church:
Garbage Bags: 39 gallon or greater
Coffee
Sugar
Creamer
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Large Deep Steam Table Pans
Toilet Paper
Sanitary Gloves
Foam Cups: 8 oz.
Foam Plates: 11 inch
Napkins
Spoons/Forks
Thanks so much for your generosity in our ministry with the poor.
God Bless Us All,
Kevin Higgs
Pastor
Church of the Reconciler
205-324-6402
support, we are in ministry, offering the The Bread of Life to the hungry, both physically and
spiritually.
Here is what we regularly need during the course of each week at the church:
Garbage Bags: 39 gallon or greater
Coffee
Sugar
Creamer
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Large Deep Steam Table Pans
Toilet Paper
Sanitary Gloves
Foam Cups: 8 oz.
Foam Plates: 11 inch
Napkins
Spoons/Forks
Thanks so much for your generosity in our ministry with the poor.
God Bless Us All,
Kevin Higgs
Pastor
Church of the Reconciler
205-324-6402
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