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Messenger June 2008 Page 8
Contents
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PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN
Our members are completing a year of commitment to
service, prayer, study and fellowship. PW has supported the churchwide
mission of PC (USA), the Hunger Fund, PW Thank Offering, PW
Birthday Offering,
the Fellowship of the Least Coin and the PW Leadership Fund.
The Mission Sewers will meet on Thursday,
June 12th, at 1 p.m. in the church lounge. An open invitation is
extended to any woman who would like to sew to come join in as we create
items that are donated to local charities. This year, 33 lap robes have
been donated to
Lancaster Manor and 6 quilts and 62 wash cloths have been donated to
Cedars Services for Children. Currently members are working on more
quilts plus pillow cases for the American Red Cross for a children's
project.
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PW CALENDAR
Circle 4 - Monday,
June 2nd, 6 p.m.
Potluck Supper at
home of Sarah
Parker
(Note meeting date)PW Coordinating Team
Tuesday, June 10th,
1 p.m.
Meeting in church
lounge.
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Pearlington Mission Trip -
A New Experience |
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I am a mission trip newbie.
Despite being into my thirties and growing up in mission active
churches, I had never previously been on a mission trip. This
spring, the time felt right and the cause felt close to my
heart. I signed up and before I knew it, our group was rolling
south down highway 55 in a ‘church van' watching our
surroundings turn from brown to green.
We arrived at the PDA camp in darkness.
The air wet and alive with new sounds. The barely perceptible
silhouettes of massive, enveloping trees quietly observing you
dig sleeping bags and backpacks out of the van.
Each day came early that week -- I
was always up just before dawn. This is abnormal behavior for
me, but I was excited to start every day. The communal sense of
purpose in this camp has an almost tangible vibration that is
positively energizing.
Pearlington is beautiful. This
was not my initial reaction. On the surface, it is a swamp. A
backwater randomly dotted with condemned houses and FEMA
trailers, and covered in the residual patina of dirty
floodwater. Still, it is beautiful.
It is the people there that make
it so; both the residents and the many volunteers from around
the country who converge on this community to re-build and re-
connect those dots.
One significant feeling I experienced
during our week in Pearlington was the compression of
difference. Superficial barriers that would, in other contexts,
hinder the development of a new acquaintance were erased there.
Despite the fact that notions of age, race and class have had an
unfortunate negative impact in that environment, on an
interpersonal level, these issues felt refreshingly
insignificant. I have never met such a wide variety of people in
such a short span of time: residents, work release prisoners,
teen girls from suburban Chicago, the Amish.
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I even saw a few Presbyterians! All different flavors and all
here in this little community with a singular goal.
After being there for a few days working
and taking in this new environment and new connections, it dawns
on you that long before Katrina struck, there was already
tragedy in this community-- hundreds of families struggling to
make it through another day, to another paycheck. I felt a tinge
of disappointment that it took such a destructive ‘act of God'
to get God's people to act. The good news is that anyone can do
something to help and it doesn't require any previous
experience. All it takes is a willing heart, a servant's heart--
like Jesus showed us numerous times during his life. Washing
your fellow's feet will always be time well spent. There are
many opportunities to ‘grow in mission'--this is one.
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