Good (no, great ) Coffee, Good (no, great) Cause

1. Would you like to reach out to neighbors overseas not only with prayers and offerings but also by the products you purchase?

2. Would you like to know for sure that more of the money you spend on coffee goes to the hardworking farmers who grow it?

3. Would you like to know that the coffee you drink has been grown with care for the stewardship of the natural environment?

4. Would you like to save some money on your purchase of fair trade organic coffee (compared to prices in most supermarkets)?

5. Would you like to know that your coffee purchase will help guarantee that farmers will earn the income they need to feed their families, educate their children, and improve their communities?

6. Do you have a pulse?

If you can answer “yes” to at least one of these questions, check out the Presbyterian Coffee Project. Try a package from the presbytery —better yet, organize a project at your church! More info at www.pcusa.org/coffee

Growing Deep and Wide in Jacksonville

The following article was written by Bill Jordan and will appear in the 2010 Mission Yearbook for Prayer and Study.

Take one second career minister who is a lifetime outdoorsman and has an undergraduate degree in biology and put him with a small church that dates back to 1871 in a community with rural roots and a growing suburban population, and see what happens. The Jacksonville Church is engaged in the mission: “To serve Jesus Christ by caring for God’s creation and its people.”

Pastor Dana Eglinton was a contractor who built energy efficient houses. Before he heard God’s call to ordained ministry he believed that a Christian is responsible for the care of God’s earth. In worship, Bible study and retreats the church explored many avenues of service and discipleship related to the care of the earth. Eglinton discovered that there were already people in the congregation who were concerned about environmental issues. Together, pastor and people developed the Jacksonville Presbyterian Church Earthcare Ministry.

The Earthcare Ministry reached out to the neighbors of the congregation members with the distribution of compact fluorescent bulbs and an invitation to join the congregation in caring for creation. Other projects include working with the High School Science Club in building bird houses on property that is void of trees. Members of the congregation are involved with a watershed project that monitors chemicals in creeks and streamsas well as in clean-up projects in their township. All ages enjoy canoe and camping trips, and outings where the emphasis is on enjoying the earth and caring for God’s creation and all of God’s creatures.

Make social and environmental justice part of your congregation's Palm Sunday celebration

Palm Sunday is April 5, 2009

The Eco-Palm Project
Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem, accented by the jubilant waving of palm branches, is re-enacted each Palm Sunday in Presbyterian and other Christian congregations worldwide as Holy Week observances begin. Unfortunately for the communities where these palms are harvested, palm fronds do not always represent the same jubilation they do for us.

In 2007 the PC(USA) teamed up with Lutheran World Relief, Catholic Relief Services and the University of Minnesota to offer congregations the option of purchasing responsibly harvested eco-palm branches for Palm Sunday. The palms come from communities in Mexico and Guatamala where workers are paid fairly and engage in sustainable harvesting in order to protect the local ecosystem. Learn more about the benefits of Eco-Palms.

Online ordering new for 2009! Orders are due by March 9 if paying by credit card (March 2 if paying by check). Learn about pricing, ordering options and more.

Read the Presbyterian News Service article about Eco-Palms.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Would you like to make a positive difference every time you drink a cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate or eat an organic chocolate bar? The Presbyterian Coffee Project makes it easy by offering a special link to help us reach out to neighbors overseas not only with our prayers and offerings but with the goods and products we purchase.

Why is this so important? Show the film "Black Gold" in your congregation, which features coffee production in Ethiopia and the farmers in the Oromia Cooperative. Or watch it online Black Gold:

Souper Bowl Sunday - February 1

Souper Bowl of Caring is a national movement of congregations, schools, community organizations and compassionate individuals caring for others on Super Bowl weekend. Souper Bowl of Caring equips and mobilizes youth to positively impact their communities by collecting money or food on or near Super Bowl weekend. 100% of the collections are donated directly to the charity of each group's choice.

Souper Bowl also includes a Service Blitz. In addition to collecting the dollar donations, youth are encouraged to serve hands-on at the charity of their choice the Saturday before the big game.

32 congregations (about 70%) in Monmouth Presbytery are registered for Souper Bowl!

New Jersey Council of Churches Launches "Clip Campaign"

Bring your coupons to the Presbytery Center--we will collect and make them available on request to hunger ministries or send them on to NJCC

In these times of unprecedented fiscal uncertainty, the NJCC is launching a new campaign to help people in need. Every week thousands of coupons that can be used to help purchase necessary items are thrown in the trash.

The NJCC would like to ask its local churches to begin an organized collection process of coupons for distribution.

Here is how it works. Churches will collect coupons in four categories:

1. cereal
2. baby products
3. detergents/cleaning supplies
4. miscellaneous (a particularly good coupon in any area)

The coupons should be distributed either:

1. to the NJCC office; we will see that they are given to those in need
2. to members of the church who need them
3. to another local church
4. to a local food pantry or soup kitchen
   

Please consider having your church participate by taking this step and helping in another way to make a difference.

For questions or comments, please respond to this email or call the NJCC at 609-396-9546.

New Bible Study--Fair Trade: Using our Purchasing Power for Justice and Hope

People of faith seek both definition and guidance from God as we make choices in our lives. But how can we make the connections between our faith and the vast economic web that affects our own daily lives and all too often puts too much economic risk onto farmers and craftspeople in poor nations—those least able to bear it? Probably not by using the index of your study Bible!

Partners for Just Trade is a new organization that grew out of the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Joining Hands initiative in Peru. As they learned more about Fair Trade, they saw the convergence of its nine basic Key Principles with the Judeo-Christian teachings about justice and became excited about the idea of creating a Bible Study to help all of us understand and be actively involved in God’s vision for the well-being of all of creation.

Fair Trade: Using Our Purchasing Power for Justice and Hope walks the reader through the principles of Fair Trade through personal narration, Bible passages, questions for reflection, and challenges to engage the reader in learning about Fair Trade.

You can do the 6-part study alone or with a group. It can take as much or as little time as you have. Even a quick study will bring new ideas about how important our lifestyles are to the well-being of people we don’t even know; or deeper study may take you to the university for classes, the library for books, or the internet to find some websites.

For more information, contact Partners for Just Trade at 314-707-2831 or visit them on the web.

Invitation to a Church-wide Fast

I recently received an invitation to a Denomination-wide Fast. It says, "At the behest of the 218th General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is inviting its congregations to engage in a monthly church-wide fast to discern faithful responses to the global food crisis, in a world where more than 845 million people go hungry. As many as 100 million more may be driven into extreme poverty due to the food crisis, while others live with plenty to spare." Download the document.

How do you feel about fasting? I must admit that the idea scares me, mostly because I'm not sure I can do it and I really hate failing. And, as a lifelong member of churches in the Reformed tradition, it's not part of my repertoire (even though John Calvin called for fasting as part of the Public and Mutual Practice of Penance.) But I have decided it's time to give it a try--for a year, and one month at a time.

For one thing, as a musician, I know how deadly it can be to never change your tunes.

It sounds like fasting is a spiritually (and socially) transforming and life-giving practice. Noelle Damico, Coordinator of the PC(USA) campaign for Fair Food, notes that “a central purpose is that of reconciliation—to God and to one’s neighbor” which can sharpen our vision to see God’s vision for our world more clearly, strengthen our resolve to live with integrity, and prepare us to act with God to transform ourselves and our world. And—not the least for people like me who too often are overfed—it “brings lasting insights into the physical needs of the body and the daily struggles of those who are hungry and poor.” (You can find much more at www.pcusa.org/hunger/foodcrisis.) I can’t even begin to imagine how God could use our denomination in new ways if just two people in every congregation would become part of this!

I will also be in good company. Fasting used to be a common thing "back in the day" for Jews and Christians, too--which means that I would be joining giants of the faith like Moses, King David, Queen Esther, the prophets Isaiah and Joel, the people of Nineveh, and Jesus--just to name a few. And then there are John Calvin, Mahatma Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr. Closer to home, I already have connections to 453 Presbyterians (several from Monmouth Presbytery) who have joined the new Facebook group "Presbyterians Respond to Global Food Crisis"--and there's plenty of room for more.

Finally, there's more than one way to be part of this. Congregations can commit to the fast as a body, and individuals and smaller groups may also participate. And, for those who are physically unable to fast, there is the alternative of simpler meals.

Are you ready to sign on? The first of the monthly fasts begins on Friday evening, October 3. And break the fast with Holy Communion on Sunday if your place of worship does Communion then. Fittingly, October 5 is World Communion Sunday!

Bread for the World Sunday - October 19 and other Sundays this fall

Note: the following info is from Bread for the World's website.

Bread for the World Sunday is an opportunity for churches to renew their commitment to overcoming hunger and poverty in God's world. On October 19 and other Sundays this fall, worshipping communities across the country will join together in lifting up their voices on behalf of hungry people. Order your free worship resources below.

This year's observance of Bread for the World Sunday takes place at a time when soaring prices for food and fuel have created an urgent hunger crisis – both in our own country and overseas. An additional 100 million people have fallen into poverty and are at risk of hunger and starvation.

In the midst of this global hunger crisis, our nation is electing a new president and new Congress. Living in God's grace in Jesus Christ, we have received a great inheritance: the gift of citizenship – a resource to use on behalf of those in need. As citizens, we have the privilege to elect our nation's leaders as well as the responsibility to use our country's abundant resources to make sure people have enough to eat – and the opportunity to make a living and feed their families.

The Bible study by Pastor Heidi Neumark found in this year's Reflection Resource offers insights that will be useful for both sermons and adult education forums. The Parable of the Prodigal Son calls us to repent of our own squandering of our inheritance of God's grace – and invites us to return to our gracious Father and place our faith in the Faithful Son who creates an abundant feast for all in need. These themes of repentance and return, faith and abundance can be found in many of the different Gospel readings used throughout the fall worship season.

Join with churches and worshipping communities across the country as we rededicate ourselves to ending hunger in God's world.

Read ideas on how to celebrate Bread for the World Sunday at your church.

Another way to help hungry people

I received this from Laura Stubaus, the Church Administrator in Hightstown. There may not be any such thing as a free lunch, but this is a way to get free rice donate to the World Food Program and improve your vocabulary. Laura writes:

I saw the attached article in People magazine (March 17 issue) recently. What an amazingly easy way to help support a hunger program! I've added the website to my saved folder in my email, along with a couple of others that I visit daily (such as the Breast Cancer Site that allows for free mammograms for women without insurance when people visit the site and click on the icon for the free mammograms). I plan to take a few minutes each day and visit the Free Rice site as well.

Hungry people need our help right now--we have the power to make a difference!

Following is a message from Bread for the World about the current crisis. It's easy to feel helpless when you watch people around the world suffering for lack of food. Please sign up for the Recipe of Hope campaign and be part of the solution.

It's in the news nearly every day: Food prices are soaring worldwide and hunger is rising. More low-income people in the United States are making trips to food banks, where stocks are quickly depleting. For the world's poorest people in developing countries—who spend up to 80 percent of their income to buy food—the situation is even more devastating.

But you have the power to make a difference in this global hunger crisis. Bread for the World is launching an emergency Recipe for Hope campaign which will run from Mother's Day, May 11, through Father's Day. We will help hunger activists raise awareness and take action. Each week, an email from Bread will offer the ingredients for a:

• Recipe for Despair—more information on the causes of this crisis
  
• Recipe for Hope—specific actions you can take to help end it

It’s easy to feel helpless when you watch people around the world suffering for lack of food. Join Bread for the World's Recipe for Hope and be part of the solution.

Mother's Day Recipe: Ingredient for Despair: Rising Fuel Prices You've likely felt the impact of rising fuel prices at the gas station. The cost of a barrel of crude oil has doubled in a year, reaching a new record. Higher oil and energy prices affect the entire chain of food production, from fertilizer to harvesting to storage and delivery. People in the United States are seeing these increases in their grocery bills. Poor people in developing countries are hit even harder, since these countries must import food to feed their citizens. The Washington Post put it well in a recent special series, "As prices skyrocket, those who can least afford it are squeezed the most as the world confronts the worst bout of food inflation since the Soviet grain crisis of the 1970s." Read Rising Food Prices: Impact on the Hungry by the World Food Program. Ingredients for Hope: Join the campaign and sign up to receive weekly emails and tell-a-friend.

Thank you for your efforts,

David Beckmann
President
Bread for the World

Reese-isms (for making a difference)

The following post isn't related directly to hunger and environment--but it is about being "wise as serpents and gentle as doves"--exactly what we need to make a difference.

Sometimes cleaning out your desk can yield forgotten treasures along with a neater desk, and I just found one that the Rev. James Foster Reese provided at a workshop a few years ago. He called them "Reeseisms (For Making a Difference." I call them uncommon sense. Here they are:

1. "Don't put your dog in every fight"
2. "Don't argue if you can't win."
3. "Don't think you will learn something from the second kick of a mule." (Mark 6:10-13)
4. "Don't be known for much speaking as for speaking much."
5. "Don't self-sacrifice unless this is your last cause or you know you will rise on the third day."
6. "Don't believe that just because it is right, it is necessarily smart."
7. "Don't forget, you can learn something from a jackass!" (Numbers 22:22-35)
8. "Don't risk more than you can afford to lose."
9. "Don't think you can get clean clothes without agitation."
10. "Don't always believe a meeting is more important than a birthday party."
    

Which one would you like to work on? I think I'm going to work on one a week.

Wishing you traveling mercies, many glimpses of redemption on your journey with Jesus, and the joy of making a difference.

Make the World a Better Place

Do you dream of a better world? Why not help make your dream come true?

San Jose Presbytery has published a beginners guide on how to do it. A copy is available at the Presbytery or you can watch it on line. The theme of the documentary is:

• Do something to improve the world (even if it's a small something)
• Urge others to do something, too
• Do that something soon (. . . a better time may not come!)
• Notice, stop, act - Be like the "Good Samaritan" who noticed the man in the road, stopped, and acted to help the man recover from his injuries, even as others passed by who could have helped, but chose not to. (Luke 10:33)

Watch the film

"How to Make the World a Better Place...

a beginners guide" online and see how to use it in a discussion on service, social change, advocacy and individual ability and motivation to make change.

THANKS TO PAT PLANT, HUNGER ACTION ADVOCATE

IN SAN JOSE FOR SHARING THIS!

Hunger Resources Available at the Presbytery Office

Looking for "good stuff" to enliven your hunger program? The following are available at the Presbytery office in Tennent. Some are for purchase, others are free.

1. Hunger Next Door, an 8-minute video from Shoprite's Partners in Caring is a good introduction to hunger in our communities; free.
2. Just Eating? Practicing Our Faith at the Table, an excellent curriculum, for 5, 7, or 13 sessions, that explores various aspects of our relationship with food and ways to practice our faith. Leader's Guide is $6.50, Partipant's book is $3.
3. Cents-Ability Kits containing info on: Getting Started, Worship Resources, Educational Resources, Promotion, and Sample Forms. Free.
4. Talking with Children and Youth about Sweat-Free Ts: a script to introduce Sweat-Free Ts to upper elementary and middle school-age students. Adaptable for younger and older groups. Free.

There's more, and I promise to add to this list. In the meantime, if you're looking for something, please feel free to call or e-mail.

Feast and Fast in Lent or Anytime

We are called both to attend to the sacredness of Creation and to respond to it by active participation in the protection of Creation. This list from Presbyterians for Restoring Creation uses the metaphors of feasting and fasting to invite both these elements of caring for Creation into our Lenten observance. Which ones will you choose?

1. Feast on foods lower on the food chain such as whole grains and vegetables.

2. Fast from purchases at national chains by shopping at local stores.

3. Feast on the light of God by having one meal by candlelight.

4. Fast from television.

5. Feast on the beauty of community by calling or visiting with a loved one.

6. Fast from extra energy use by adjusting your thermostat when you will be away for more than a few hours.

7. Feast on local agriculture by finding out the location of the closest farm stand, farmers’ market, or grocery stocking local produce (and then supporting it!)

8. Fast from giving consumer products as gifts and instead give donations or subscriptions on someone’s behalf to worthwhile organizations (such as giving a PRC gift membership!)

Read more ideas for Feasting and Fasting.

A Super Souper Bowl Story

It's always exciting to hear stories and creative ideas from churches. Candy Peterson from Morning Star sent this in:

"By the way, we did take your advice and do the 'Souper Bowl of Caring,' but we didn't collect money for it (we are going to have another Cents-Ability collection at the end of this month and didn't want to interfere with that); we just collected soup, and people brought lots of it! We stocked our food pantry with soup as well as giving quite a large amount to an outside ministry named Lakewood Outreach Ministry, a ministry that cares for the homeless people in our area. We have joined with them and helped to raise money for 'tent kits' and food."

This year, give a boost to your One Great Hour of Sharing Offering

For nearly sixty years, Presbyterians have joined with millions of other Christians through OGHS to share God’s love with people experiencing need. Our gifts support ministries of disaster response, refugee assistance and resettlement, and community development that help people find safe refuge, start new lives, and work together to strengthen their families and communities. The Presbyterian Hunger Program receives 36 percent of undesignated OGHS gifts; Self-Development of People and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance each receive 32 percent. Most congregations receive the offering on Easter Sunday, Palm Sunday, or both, while many receive it throughout Lent.

This year, give a boost to your One Great Hour of Sharing Offering: mission and stewardship committees report that promoting this offering is fun and easy using children’s sermons, minutes for mission, skits, and other the material available from the PC(USA). I’m available to provide training in how to use them.