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Helping Hands
a silent auction organized by the Outreach
Committee at Grace Church
Sunday March 9,
2008
at Coffee Hour
(11:45 am)
to benefit St. Luke’s our partner
parish in
Renk
,
Sudan
It's not a
Craft Sale, It's a Small Miracles Sale.
When I was living in
Japan
I
learned about a concept called aichaku. Aichaku
is a word made up of two characters--one means "love" and
the other means "to adhere to." The idea is that we have a
relationship with the things we use everyday. We have memories and
associations with a beloved pair of jeans or a favorite coffee cup.
It's why people love receiving handmade gifts and it's why people
frame their children's art.
On March 9th
at Coffee Hour we will have a silent auction to raise money for our
partner parish in
Renk
,
Sudan
.
Mother Alice hopes to purchase some tents that could be a rental
income source for her impoverished church in an area that has
withstood war for a generation. As I write this members of the Grace
Community of all ages are using their hands to make small items or
their skills to offer experiences and services with the hope that we
might in some way make a small dent in this overwhelming problem of
extreme poverty. Last Sunday several of us watch in amazement as some
of Grace' s children and adults spent hours knitting, sewing and
making embroidered items for the auction. The items that you will see
and the services and experiences that will be offered are each
individual's way of saying, "I want to help. I want to make it
better for another member of the flock. This is what I can do."
I ask you to
think about what you might be able to offer and to bid as generously
as you are able on the items being offered. Not only will you be able
to improve the lives of those in our partner parish, but that little
bookmark made by a 6-year-old from Grace will remind you every time
you use it that each of us has the power to make the world
better—one bookmark at a time.
-Weeks
Ringle
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