THE JOY OF GIVING. . .

2012 Alternative Giving Opportunities

through Ardmore Presbyterian Church

Items listed will be available for purchase at Advent Family Night on Sunday, December 2^nd  and, if supplies last, following worship on Sunday, December 9^th.

GIVE. . . Instead of a material gift, choose to honor your friends, family, teachers or business associates with gifts that help lift people out of poverty.

Appropriate gift cards will be available to acknowledge/explain gift to recipient.

HEIFER PROJECT (A tradition at APC) – “Give the World a Present”

Flock of chicks or ducks, honeybees, tree seedlings and more (gifts available from $10)

THE WELCOME CHURCH, Philadelphia

The Welcome Church is an ecumenical church without walls, ministering to people who are homeless and others, predominately in center city Philadelphia.     

PURCHASE with a purpose - gifts that help create a sustainable life for others.

Brochures and information on chosen ministries will be available to include with gifts.

 

EQUAL EXCHANGE FAIR TRADE ITEMS

Fair trade shares the bounty of trade with those who grow the crops.

Organic hot cocoa and spicy hot cocoa mixes, coffee, candy bars

PAL CRAFTAID ITEMS

Olive wood items such as tree ornaments, pins, salad fork & spoon

ZATOUN OLIVE OIL & ZA’ATAR SPICE PACKETS

DONATE. . . gifts that give encouragement and hope.

 

THE MITTEN TREE

Items go to Main Line/Philadelphia Maternity Care Coalition:

Bring hand-knit or purchased mittens, hats and scarves to decorate the tree in the church entry beginning Sunday, November 25^th (1^st Sunday in Advent). 

CHESTER EASTSIDE MINISTIRES CHRISTMAS TOY DRIVE

Suggested items: toys, books, games, art supplies, gift cards for children infant – 16 yrs. of age

Bring unwrapped gifts to Advent Family Night or leave in church office by December 6^th .   

Heifer Project (www.heifer.org)

Heifer uses donations from people to provide livestock and training to underprivileged families around the world.  Giving an animal to a family is like giving the family a small business and small businesses can lead to very big changes.  So instead of just feeding the hungry, Heifer helps the hungry feed themselves.  Plus, each family who receives an animal agrees to give one of their animal’s offspring to another family.

The Welcome Church – Philadelphia  (www.thewelcomechurch.org)

The Welcome Church is an exciting and growing ecumenical church without walls, proclaiming the hope and love of a gracious God to all people, especially people who are experiencing homelessness.  A monthly service with communion is held monthly at Logan Circle with coffee following in the park.  Our Presbyterian representative is Rev. Schaunel Steinnagel.     

Equal Exchange (www.equalexchange.org)

Equal Exchange is a democratically organized, worker-owned co-operative, founded in 1986 to pioneer a new model of trade built upon fairness and stronger relationships between farmers and consumers.  When you purchase Equal Exchange products, you join a network that enables farmers in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to stay on their land, support their families, plan for the future, and care for the environment.    

Pal CraftAid (www.palcraftaid.org)

Pal CraftAid is a volunteer ministry of compassion, hope, and healing for Palestinians.  Begun in 1993, Pal CraftAid supports families, schools, elderly groups and cooperatives in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

 Zatoun  (www.zatoun.com)

Zatoun, the Arabic word for “olive” has been chosen because the olive tree expresses the essence of Palestine.  Zatoun helps to create a context grounded in ordinary everyday life from which to view and discuss the situation in Palestine.  Purchasing Zatoun products helps Palestinian farmers for whom olives/olive oil is their major or only source of livelihood.  Profits also help support Project Hope: Healing through Art and Trees for Life: Planting Peace in Palestine.

Maternity Care Coalition  (www.maternitycarecoalition.org)

Founded in 1980, Maternity Care Coalition’s mission is to improve maternal and child health and well being through the collaborative efforts of individuals, families, providers and communities.  Their comprehensive approach includes research, public policy initiatives and services for families.  Since its founding, MCC has served over 80,000 families.

Chester Eastside Ministries (www.chestereastside.org)

Begun in 1985, under the oversight of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, the mission of CEM, directed by Rev. Bernice Warren, is to bring urban and suburban people together in worship and service.  The goal is to render services to individuals in need of food, clothing, spiritual guidance, and educational and recreational opportunities so they may meet the challenges of life.  Programs include CEM library, Saturday Cultural Arts Program, GED programming, after school and summer day camp programs.                                                                              11/8/2012

Build-it Bus

The Build-it Bus has been a ministry of Ardmore Presbyterian since 2008. The Bus is traveling, creative workshop that operates out of a refitted SEPTA para-transit bus. (You may have seen the bus in our back parking lot). The bus travels to urban churches and schools teaching skilled handicrafts to city children. Students work on the bus itself, which is equipped with workbenches and manual tools re-engineered for use by children.

Last year the Build-it bus continued its work with churches and schools, with a particular focus on supporting spiritual development programs with a multisensory component. We worked with five churches offering equipment-building workshops for a unique and powerful Montessori-based kids worship program called Young Children and Worship. We established a woodworking woodshop at Woodland Presbyterian to help kids express their faith through both devotional art and mission-focused projects. We also worked at three different VBS programs, supporting their spiritual education theme.

Our other main focus last year was a new initiative with Calvin Presbyterian after school program. In partnership with our own (Y)Ard Farmers, we established a small raised garden bed at the church. We built garden structures, made healthy snacks, did art projects, made garden related gifts for the family.

Other miscellaneous projects include: Spruce Hill 8^th grade woodworking elective, Woodland Presbyterian church family nights, church street fairs, evangelism projects in local parks, and various projects in our continuing relationship with the Barry School through Eastern University.

We are excited about this upcoming year. Continuing our relationship with Calvin, we have just stared to set up an aquaponics system for winter gardening. Aquaponics is a looped hydroponics system that obtains plant fertilization from the water of a live fish tank - in a cycle that fertilizes the plants and cleans the fish water. The kids will each have their own fish they can name and observe. With this project we hope to integrate a wide range of disciplines:  ecology, science, animal husbandry, gardening, woodworking, art, cooking and literature. We will be growing herbal tea plants in our aquaponics system. The kids will be making their own tea and cooking for monthly tea parties. We will use the outside glass of the fish tank as rotating art gallery. The students will be art-making in different media. They will be doing carpentry projects on the bus. We will also have regular read-aloud events on a garden or fish theme. We are calling this the “Art-Tea-Quarium”.

We are also excited about our growing relationship with Woodland Presbyterian. In addition to continuing with the Youth Group woodshop, we will be going on monthly community outreach events at nearby Clark Park. We have done button-making, pumpkin decorating, making leather thanksgiving journals. We have had a great response at Cark Park, making people aware of the Christian ministry at Woodland.

One of the joys of working with the Build-it Bus is working side by side with wonderful APC volunteers. We can’t thank Barb Wood, Tracey Nofer, Edna Gray, Anna Poorman, Carol Shih, Laura Goetsch – enough!! The Bus Ministry would not be possible without the support of APC! We are so grateful for our church’s financial support.

The Build-it Bus is always looking for more volunteers! You don't have to have any woodworking experience. You can volunteer any way your schedule allows: weekly long-term, weekly short-term, monthly, or for single events. If you are interested contact Sherina Poorman brick476@verizon.net or 610 316 1928.

Hurricane Sandy Relief 11/11/2012

HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF

Are you interested in helping relief efforts for Hurricane Sandy?  In the next few weeks, APC will be sharing how you can bring the love of Christ to those affected by this devastating storm.   

This week, we have a very practical way to help. Amy Foote, a child of the church, lives in Brooklyn and is collecting items for St. Jacobi Lutheran Church,  The church is acting as a main hub for donations, cooking meals and transporting volunteers in car pools to the areas in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island that were the most effected.   

Bring your items on Sunday, November 11, during worship, and Amy will get them to the church in Brooklyn.  Please pass the word to folks in and outside of the church. 

These are the types of supplies they need:

• Water! Water! Water!
• Cleaning supplies
• Non-Perishables (Canned goods, soups, vegetables)
• Dry goods and ready to eat food (Cereal, power bars, granola, crackers, etc) 
• Matches
• Cleaning supplies
• Ready to eat food
• Foil
• Cold cuts
• Sliced cheese
• Dish soap
• Vinyl and latex gloves
• Ziploc
• Face masks 
• Paper towels
• Shovels and rakes
• Power strips
• Baby food (vegetarian, with meat/chicken, fruit, cereal stages 1, 2, 3)
• Water
• Evaporated, powdered and regular milk (1/2 gal. or smaller)
• Soy milk
• Pediasure
• Ensure
• Glucern
• Ready made formula (with iron, regular/soy/sensitive)
• Canned goods (beans, vegetables, tomato sauce, soups, tuna fish, sardines, vienna sausages)
• Protein/granola/cereal/fruit bars
• Apple Sauce
• Diapers (newborn, sizes 1, 4 and 6)
• Toddler training pants (sizes 4+)
• Flashlights
• Batteries (especially C and D)
• Candles/Flashlights
• Peanut butter
• Sliced bread
• Fruit (apples, oranges, bananas, etc
• Disposable hand warmers
• Gloves
• Socks
• Dry Ice (we have none and already, some residents' insulin have gone bad.)
• Pet Food

Annual Mainline CROP Walk

To join us walking, click here. 

To donate, click here.

During the 33 years of its existence approximately 5,600 participants from local churches and schools have raised over $310,000.00.

This past year caring people in some 2,000 communities in the United States joine together in 1,532 CROP Hunger Walks and other events to benefit Curch World Service in raising $13.9 million to help end hunger by providing:

• SUSTAINABLE SELF-HELP AND DEVELOPMENT,
• DISASTER RELIEF,
• REFUGEE ASSISTANCE,
• LOCAL HUNGER FIGHTING PROGRAMS,
• FOOD BANKS, SOUP KITCHENS AND
• COMMUNITY GARDENS IN MORE THAN 80 COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD.

The biggest enemy of health in the developing countries of the world is poverty.

The proportion of the world's population living on less than two dollars a day: almost 50% (2.8 billion).

1.1  billion people are foced to survive to survive on less than a $1.00 a day - one of every six people in the world.

How do we achieve the better world we imagine?

With small steps at first, then larger ones in time. Our steps are powered by simple acts of generosity and the methodical application of intelligene, empathy, ingenuity and faith.

For the poor of the world the daily struggle to survive overwhelms all of life's other possiblities. Our satisfaction comes from witnessing the moment when people who once had no hope suddenly discover the boundless possiblities of their own existence. That's when they realize it's their world too.

We should not - in trying to thnk about how we can make a big differnece - ignore the small daily differences we can make - which over time - add up to BIG differences that we often cannot foresee.

On Sunday, October 21, 2012 you will have the opportunity to join us as a walker - or if you wish  - sponsor a walker. In so doing you will provide a positive way to respond to world hunger. Hunger is an ongoing problem. The world produces enough food each year to provide a healthy diet to everone on the plantet. But over 800 million people (almost three times  the population of the United States) are undernourished - meaning they do not do not get enough food to lead active, healthy lives.

We have the resources.

We have the knowledge.

Indivdually we cannot solve the problem but collectively we can reduce it.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

Isn't it worth a try?

-Ralph Miller, Elder

To join us walking, click here. 

To donate, click here.

 

Pastor's Pen: The Forgotten Spiritual Discipline

The market for books on spirituality has grown considerably in the last twenty years.  Even bookstores which are not particularly religious carry growing sections devoted to titles on prayer or meditation.  Mysticism is big.  Growing interest in Kabbalah or Sufism or even the Eastern faiths suggest a spiritual hunger.  People want to tune into something beyond themselves. 

In the Christian Church, we too see a longing for the spiritual.  People are sampling from a variety of traditions.  Even Protestants are considering the iconography of the Eastern Orthodox.  Others are walking labyrinths supposedly born from Medieval Roman Catholicism.  It is helpful to be reminded that the world is much bigger than we experience.  However, our spiritual practices are too often treated as an escape from the ordinary.  We get caught up in the moment, but then we still have a job we don’t like or some bad habit which continues to bother us. 

The Christian faith is unique.  Instead of us reaching new spiritual heights, God comes to dwell with us in our everyday life.  Jesus Christ does not provide an escape from our lives, but he achieves victory over it.  We are transformed in such a way that our daily efforts are understood as part of God’s realm.  A spiritual practice which is truly Christian must remind us of God’s gift and then send us back into the world to serve. 

In Matthew 6, Jesus discusses spiritual practices.  Two are familiar, even if we don’t practice them, prayer and fasting.  However, he mentions a third--our gifts.  The giving of our money, our time, and our talents are spiritual disciplines.  Our checkbooks may unfortunately speak more about our spiritual lives than our prayer journals. 

Stewardship is not something that occurs once a year at a budget drive.  Instead, our giving to church, to neighbors, and to the least among us reminds us of God’s giving.  Moreover, God uses our giving to transform us and the world around us. 

Christ is Lord of everything…including our hard-earned resources.  I have always been amazed at the generosity of the members of the Ardmore Presbyterian Church.  May God use that generosity to draw us closer to him. 

Grace & Peace,

James

Main Line Hunger CROP Walk

The Annual Mainline CROP Walk.

During the 33 years of its existence approximately 5,600 participants from local churches and schools have raised over $310,000.00.

 

This past year caring people in some 2,000 communities in the United States joine together in 1,532 CROP Hunger Walks and other events to benefit Curch World Service in raising $13.9 million to help end hunger by providing:

• SUSTAINABLE SELF-HELP AND DEVELOPMENT,
• DISASTER RELIEF,
• REFUGEE ASSISTANCE,
• LOCAL HUNGER FIGHTING PROGRAMS,
• FOOD BANKS, SOUP KITCHENS AND
• COMMUNITY GARDENS IN MORE THAN 80 COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD.

The biggest enemy of health in the developing countries of the world is poverty.

The proportion of the world's population living on less than two dollars a day: almost 50% (2.8 billion).

1.1 billion people are foced to survive to survive on less than a $1.00 a day - one of every six people in the world.

How do we achieve the better world we imagine?

With small steps at first, then larger ones in time. Our steps are powered by simple acts of generosity and the methodical application of intelligene, empathy, ingenuity and faith.

For the poor of the world the daily struggle to survive overwhelms all of life's other possiblities. Our satisfaction comes from witnessing the moment when people who once had no hope suddenly discover the boundless possiblities of their own existence. That's when they realize it's their world too.

We should not - in trying to thnk about how we can make a big differnece - ignore the small daily differences we can make - which over time - add up to BIG differences that we often cannot foresee.

 On Sunday, October 21, 2012 you will have the opportunity to join us as a walker - or if you wish - sponsor a walker. In so doing you will provide a positive way to respond to world hunger. Hunger is an ongoing problem. The world produces enough food each year to provide a healthy diet to everone on the plantet. But over 800 million people (almost three times the population of the United States) are undernourished - meaning they do not do not get enough food to lead active, healthy lives.

We have the resources.

We have the knowledge.

Indivdually we cannot solve the problem byt collectively we can reduce it.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

Isn't it worth a try?

 -Ralph Miller, Elder

Youth Music Opportunities

Dear Ardmore Presbyterian Families,

Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 5, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., there is a special opportunity to preview two musical groups for youth, grades 6-12.

5:00 p.m. - Youth Choir

5:40 p.m. - Pizza!

6:10 p.m. - Youth Ringers

7:00 p.m. - We're finished!

**NEW - APC Youth Ringers**

 Directed by Maggie Montgomery, this group will meet in three five-week segments (Wed, 6:30-7:00 p.m.), and play a modest piece in worship at the end of each segment.  The segments begin Sep. 12, Oct. 17, and Feb. 20.

You do not have to sing in Youth Choir, nor do you have to read music, to try Youth Ringers.  Come out and try it!

APC Youth Choir

APC is one of the few churches on the Main Line to actually have a Youth Choir!  With a strong history, this choir sings several times per year.  Special projects include a biennial musical, and an annual choir exchange with Trinity Pres-Arlington, VA.  The choir rehearses Sundays after church.

So, if you've never tried our choirs for youth, why not come to the preview next Wednesday?  You can try one or both groups, and be sure to stop in for pizza (my favorite food group).

If you have questions, simply e-mail or call me.  Thanks for reading!

Gary Garletts

Director of Music

music@ardmorepres.org

610-642-6650 x23