July 18

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The Disciples Voice – July – August

Posted by on July 18, 2018 in Newsletter | Leave a comment

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Mission & Ministry

JULY

  • 19 Community Event; Cincinnati Civic Orchestra at  Compass Christian Church, 7:00 p.m.
  • 22  Sermon:  “The Gentleness of Wisdom”
  • 25 Seminar: 

  • 28  Volunteer Opportunity;  Queen City Kitchen 9:00 a.m.

We’re going to try something new in July. Rather than guessing, hoping and praying we have enough volunteers for the day or finding out we have too many and sending people home, we’re going to try Electronic Sign up! Here’s the link: https://www.volunteersignup.org/CF7RE  If anyone is interested in sharing shopping duties, please let Linda H. know.

  • 29  Sermon: “God’s Kindness to Us”
  • 31  Volunteer Opportunity Stepping Forward Dinner

We will meet at the Faith Community United Methodist Church on Cox Road in W.C. about 5 PM and partner with Bethany UMC of Liberty Twp. to prepare and serve dinner to over 150 deserving members of our community.

AUGUST

  • 2 Pastor at Panera bread
  • 5 & 12 Guest Speaker Rev. Dr. Daniel Meister

Our Children

Keep Hope Alive!

Olive Tree Planting Campaign

Israel-Palestine

For our VBS outreach project this year we raised money to replant olive trees in Palestine.  The kids raised over $200, and many adults in the congregation added to that amount on Sunday, July 1.  Compass Christian Church will be sending $274.29 for this project.

A gift of $20 covers the cost of the young tree, distribution, planting, and information for farmers on the best techniques for olive tree care. Sponsor

labels are inscribed with the donor’s name and the quote “choose to keep hope alive.”

If you would like to donate to the Keep Hope Alive campaign, you can go online to www.globalministries.org/keep_hope_alive_olive_tree_plan

Olive trees have been cultivated for over 4,000 years and are known as an international symbol of peace. Unfortunately, many olive trees in Palestine, which are the sole income for many Palestinian farmers, have been destroyed in the fighting in that area. The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture has revealed that over 250,000 olive trees have been uprooted.

The YWCA of Palestine and YMCA of East Jerusalem, both longstanding partners of Disciples of Christ/United Church of Christ’s Global Ministries, are carrying out a campaign to replant 50,000 olive trees from areas where they have been uprooted.

Replanting olive trees in Palestinian territories will encourage Palestinians to “keep hope alive” and to reaffirm their commitment to work constructively toward peace-building. Contributions in the first season of the Olive Tree Campaign have resulted in the planting of several thousand olive trees. Trees have been planted in the Bethlehem area and in the fields of Nablus, Ramallah, and in the Jerusalem area.

 

Member Updates:

CCC Member in Haiti

* Global Ministries evacuated Michelle M. from Haiti. She’s back home & hopefully will return in a month once things settle down in. Thank you for remembering her and the people she serves in your prayers.

New Administrative Assistant!

On July 9th, Debbie O returned to the office to be your helper as the office assistant.  She is excited to be back and thankful for all the prayers for her family over the past 2 years.

Many things have changed in the past years, please feel free to stop by and say hello and inform her of all the exciting plans CCC has for the upcoming year.

 

 

Reaching Out with Helping Hands

Members in Mission

Hello everyone! Even though I am new to Compass Christian Church, I’ve agreed to take on the role of Mission Team Leader for Reach Out and Grow. I’m very excited to take this on because CCC is such an engaged and impactful congregation. I look forward to supporting our efforts as we each in our own way act as the hands and feet of Christ.

Here is a list of work I’ve seen being done by our church and by members individually. I’m sure there is more than this. Please email, text or call me and let me know what else you are involved in. Also, if you have ideas for new ways for us to reach out (maybe a mission trip for youth and/or adults), please let me know that as well.

Linda Herrington (619-733-5027, linda.herrington@twc.com)

 

Within our own congregation:

  • Card Ministry

  • Caroling to shut-ins

  • Pastoral and Elder Care

 

Within our immediate community:

 

Here’s the link: https://www.volunteersignup.org/CF7RE

 

 

Within the larger nation and global community;

 

Mission Day at Camp Christian                   June 9th

We arrived at Camp Christian at 10:00 AM on Saturday.  In total, 17 people participated: Jeremy, Sara, Andie, Navy, and Ty A.; : Lyle & Laura D.; Dave D.; Sally E.;  Daun, Steve, & Andy S.; Troy S.; Sue T.; Deborah T.; C.J. Y; Ed V.

Our job was to clean the cabins (16) and camp to ready it for the following weeks’ group.  Al and Donna Channell, the Camp Superintendents, made a list of all the chores that needed to be completed.  In the cabins, we wiped down each bunk, swept and mopped the floors, and scoured and cleaned each bathroom in the cabin clusters (8).  We also swept and mopped the common areas of each cabin cluster, the porch at the front of the dining hall, and the breezeway of the administration building.  The floor of the gym was swept and mopped and the bathrooms in the gym were cleaned.  Trash was taken out of the cabin clusters and driven to the dumpsters.  Donna provided a beautiful lunch for us.  We worked until mid-afternoon on finishing all the cleaning.

After that, we took a pool break.  The water was cold, but it felt refreshing after a very hot day.  The late afternoon was spent trying a little fishing (the fish were not very cooperative!), and playing some parachute games in the gym.  We had pizzas delivered and Laura brought a beautiful salad for us to share.  We built a bonfire in the evening and made s’mores.  A few board games and card games were enjoyed in the dining hall.

On Sunday morning, Daun led worship on the dock by the lake.  We served communion to each other.  Each family contributed food toward our breakfast.  We had muffins, Danishes, bananas, grapes and a lovely fruit salad.  We packed up and cleaned the cabins and bathrooms that we had used for the night.  Once everything was straightened up, we headed for home. 

Our work was very much appreciated by Al and Donna.

Abbey and I traveled to D.C. on June 23 for The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival’s rally and march. Our General Minister and President, Rev. Terry Hord Owens, invited       Disciples to join her for this historic event. Abbey and I went as representatives of our congregation, region, and general church and share the following so you might have a sense of being there as well.

We took the Metro and walked to National City Christian Church where President Lyndon Baines Johnson once attended. Our GMP was pleased her initial call for 30 other Disciples to join her was vastly exceeded, honored that fellow Disciple Rev. Dr. William Barber was co-chair of this event, and reminded us that “Hope is here, the truth is here, we are the change.” Also present were other general church staff,    regional ministers, and theologian/author Rita Nakashima Brock.

We walked with Disciples Public Presence signs and arrived on the Mall with a large stage area before us, the Capitol Building in the background and the Washington Monument behind us. The rally opened with an Apache drum and song blessing. Multiple faith representatives spoke of justice from their sacred texts. The opening words of the Declaration of Independence were read alongside Dr. Martin Luther King’s words from the 1968 Campaign: “People ought to come to Washington, sit down if necessary in the middle of the street and say, ‘We are here; we are poor; we don’t have any money; you have made us this way…and we’ve come to stay until you do something about it.”

A roll call from 40 states was done, showing the breadth of the state level campaigns launched after Mother’s Day. Dr. Barber spoke from Ezekiel 22 of political leaders like wolves shedding the blood of the poor and needy, God-seeking repairers of the breach to stand in the gap, and asked, “Is there anybody willing to stand?” The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop Michael Curry quoted Alexis de Tocqueville, “America is great because America is good; and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” Systemic racism is one evil that must be addressed for our greatness to occur. David Goodman, brother to Andrew who was murdered in 1964 in MS during the        Freedom Summer, spoke next. Others spoke of current efforts to discriminate and disenfranchise the marginalized including Supreme Court decisions in CO against LGBTQIA and OH to purge voter rolls.

Our GMP spoke on systemic poverty and reminded us that scarcity is a lie, that God provides more than enough for everyone, and that poverty is a human invention opposed by God. One significant feature was that key speakers weren’t experts, but folks impacted directly by systemic injustice. Such speakers included a biracial transgender woman without health insurance, a former addict/homeless woman, a nurse that joined 400 others in 1969 in Charleston, SC to strike for better wages, and labor presidents who gave up the dais to introduce workers organizing in different trades. A Reformed rabbi reminded us that ecological devastation distorts God’s intention for the world; “the earth belongs to the Lord and all that is in it,” and not to us. A Unitarian Universalist minister reminded us of King’s words, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” 53% of our discretionary spending goes to the military, with only 15% for social uplift.

Interspersed between speakers were amazing singers, poets, and others because music and the arts are essential to the struggle for justice;   ethnomusicologists take sorrow and rage and transform it into something beautiful. Matt Morris united us singing, “When you lift from the bottom, everybody rises!” At the conclusion, we joined over 10,000 to march around the Capitol, not to commemorate but continue Dr. King’s work 50 years ago. Thank you for your support so we could be present.

 

 

 

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