From your pastor…
Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God, and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. (James 3: 17-18, The Message, Eugene Peterson)
Each November, we have the opportunity to continue building a “robust community” here in Algiers by having our annual GIVE AWAY and HEALTH FAIR. Please put this date on your calendar now, and plan to join us in serving our community. On Saturday, November 14, from 9am – 1pm, we will adorn our front lawn with household goods for free, blood pressure checks and blood sugar screening, health information, and a nutritional cooking demonstration, children and adults, and neighbors and friends, and a whole lot of fun.
This event has become one of my favorite activities that we sponsor throughout the year. We need your help now in collecting items to give away for that day. Please keep them at home until the week of the event. We are running out of storage space at the church! This will be the fourth time that Common Ground Health Clinic has joined us to sponsor a Health Fair event. A new community coordinator is on staff at Common Ground. Her name is Gail Sherman, and I hope you get to know her and other staff members of Common Ground, too. We are working on getting community organizations to participate. If you know of a community group who would like to join us for the day, please give me their contact information.
This community event takes a lot of effort. The more people we have to work that day, the easier it is for everyone. If you can only give an hour or two, we need the most help when we begin by setting things up. We will probably gather about 8am to do that. Also, we need cardboard tables or six foot folding tables. We never have enough tables!
By sponsoring this GIVE-AWAY, we are being good stewards by sharing out of our abundance with others who have need and can use the items we donate. With the health fair component, we are helping people to become healthier and giving needed information on resources available. But most importantly, we are building up our community by getting to know better our neighbors all around us. And, we have a good time of fellowship together as well. I hope you will join us! We have a fantastic community, and may the mercy and blessings overflow on November 14!
Grace and peace,
Rev. Becky