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AVONDALE UNITED CHURCH

SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN #15 ALL IN...Wherever our Faith Journey Takes Us… June 29, 2020

Dear Members and Friends of Avondale United Church Welcome to our weekly news bulletin, another example of Avondale’s efforts to help us all stay connected. It is prepared each week for sharing by email on Mondays. If you have information you wish to include please send to Yvonne Casey @ avondaleuc@wightman.ca by 11:00 a.m. Monday morning. LISTEN LIVE – Please join us this week at 10:00 a.m. via the listen live link on our website (www.avondaleunitedstratford.com) . We had 163 Listeners for the June 28th Service. Sponsors were: Peter & Audrey Switzer and Bill & Donna Dinsmore. Thank you to Heather Herman for providing tech support. Lunch & Learn– Tuesday, June 30th @ 11:00 a.m. This group will be meeting via zoom. Everyone welcome. If you wish to join this group, contact Rev. Keith keith.avondaleuc@wightman.ca for zoom details. The reading for Sunday July 5th is Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30.

Condolences

Our condolences to the friends and family of Robert “Bob” Gulliford. Bob passed away June 27th.

From the office……

Staff will be off Wednesday July 1st for Canada Day. I will be emailing Keith’s story on Tuesday June 30th.

Thanks to all that submitted photos from the Canada Day service.

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UPDATES FROM YOUR EXECUTIVE TEAM OF COUNCIL We have turned our attention to what needs to be considered before we return to in-building/in-person activities. Your Re-entry Steering Committee meets again this week on June 30 to hear back from the smaller task groups who have met to discuss a number of areas to resume activities and to recommend the safety precautions to be implemented. It is our intent to develop a phased-in approach so that each step we take is manageable and all participants understand their responsibilities to keep each other safe. We are committed to: “Living out our mission as a faith community while ensuring the safety of worshippers, congregant and community members”. Your Re-Entry Steering Committee includes: Terri Sparling, Beth Gleadall, Judy Hart, Doris Barkley, Cathy Pearson, Marny Malcolmson, Meghan Creech, Heather Herman with Keith and Yvonne as staff resources. We commit to sharing out updates on plans on a regular basis. Your Executive Team of council continues to be in close communication and holds regular meetings to ensure oversight of all matters concerning Avondale during this time. Your Council has agreed to continue monthly meetings for July & August. Your Executive Team of Avondale Council Terri Sparling, Chair Judy Hart, Vice Chair Beth Gleadall, Past Chair Lauren Francis, Secretary Eva May Gray, Treasurer Keith Reynolds, Ex Officio Hilda Emerson, Accessibility Officer Classy Glass Lassie projects – Work sessions will reconvene in July for our “Hope and New Beginnings line of products – themed with sunflowers, flowers and butterflies and our new Rainbow heart suncatchers to mark Pride month; $20. To order any items email Terri @ terris@hpcentre.on.ca

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GRATITUDE – Thanks to everyone who made the zoom chat with the children on Sunday possible. It was awesome to hear your voices Grace, Gracie, Hudson, Jocelyn, and Perla.

A FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITY – ‘SPONSOR (by donation) A LISTEN LIVE BROADCAST’. Celebrate a special event in your life or remember a loved one, while financially assisting the church. Donations will be added to your year end tax receipt.

If you are interested please contact Yvonne at avondaleuc@wightman.ca

Avondale Listen Live Sponsorship

In Celebration of: __________________________________________________

In Memory of: __________________________________________________

Offered by: ____________________________ Amount enclosed: $_________

Date of Broadcast: Sunday, _____________________

MEALS ON WHEELS This service is continuing at this time. Avondale United Church is

responsible for delivering meals Monday to Thursday, the week of July 13th to July 17th and the week of July 20th to July 24th . . If you are able to help, please contact, Emma Carruthers (519) 271-8635 for the desired dates that you are able to deliver. The schedule needs to be at the Spruce Lodge Office by July 10th. Procedures have been modified due to circumstances and to ensure the safety for all. In addition meals are put in a plastic bag and left at the door after knocking. There is no contact. Thank you for your support of our church and our community. Volunteers are welcome. The commitment is only 4 deliveries a year (Jan. Apr. July, and Oct.) Please contact Emma is interested in this worthwhile service.

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From OUTREACH team to the members of Avondale

Here is our first article and the Outreach team hopes you will enjoy reading it. Watch for parts 2, 3 & 4 in Avondale’s newsletters throughout the summer months. We’re excited to have the opportunity to share information about Hope that you might not know. Our series of articles will include: > the history of HOPE Center; > its founder/director, Lucy Gacheru, and her vision for HOPE; > first St. John’s, and now Avondale’s connection with HOPE; > the current situation at this orphanage during Covid crisis.

“In the Beginning” ~ the history of HOPE Center Hope Community Center was the vision of a Christian woman named Lucy Gacheru. Her simple act of feeding one starving child on the streets of Nairobi grew into a community serving hundreds of homeless and parentless children of Kenya. With God’s grace, Lucy has given hope and a future to the forgotten street children of Kenya’s cities and villages. In 1997, after graduating from a local university, Lucy started to work in Nairobi ~ Kenya’s capital of more than 4 million people. She was a very determined young woman; only 20 yrs old. When coming home from work one day, Lucy started a conversation with a young boy outside her apartment. He was living on the streets and hungry so she offered him some food. Her eyes were quickly opened to the overwhelming needs of the street children in her very own neighbourhood. She prayed to God and did what she could by providing food and shelter for seven children in her own one bedroom apartment. Then she requested help from her church who agreed to open their doors to help. With Lucy’s tenacity, they housed and fed more that 70 children in her small neighbourhood church. After only 2 years, they were literally bursting at the seams, so Lucy needed to find larger facilities & greater resources for the children. God led her back to the rural community were she grew up ~ North Kinangop (60 miles from Nairobi). Lucy used her savings to purchase a small piece of land. Hope Community Center was born.

At first the children lived in make-shift tents, followed by wooden sheds with tin roofs. When Lucy started to receive some funding from Mennonite Central Committee, as well as individuals and organizations in Canada and the U.S., she start to build sturdy block buildings ~ first a kitchen, dining hall and dorms. And later on ~ a clinic, high school, baby & toddler house, and elementary school; all within a safe and secure compound.

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From Kathi’s Prayers of the People & the Lord’s Prayer shared on June 28, 2020

Prayers of the People & the Lord’s Prayer Divine Presence, at this time when we celebrate Canada, we think about freedom and privilege: to vote for leaders, to live by the rule of law, and to develop laws and codes that embody human rights and liberties; the freedom to choose whom we love and to have our relationships acknowledged within civil systems; the privilege of universal health care; our freedom of worship and belief. Open our hearts so that we might care for each other in ways that assure that freedom and privilege might be accessed by all the peoples of this country: agreements and treaties honoured; the safety and security peoples of every colour, culture, faith understanding, and gender identity be given equal priority; and reparations, long overdue, offered. Give us heart and courage to be the true north, strong and free in love and spirit. We give thanks for babies born, birthdays celebrated, and relationships honoured. We give thanks for all those whose lives have been stretched, changed and challenged because of their roles as essential workers: those who play a part in keeping the economy functioning, those who care for the most vulnerable and at risk populations, those who are emergency service workers, those who are healthcare workers. By our cooperation, our financial resources, our prayers, may we support them in their work. O Healer of Brokeness, be present with those who are suffering or struggling: with illness; with addiction, with fear, with pain. Comforter, be with all those who mourn. We ask for your presence to rest upon all those whose names we whisper as we pray. May healing remain a real possibility for each of your beloved ones, at every intersection of life, so that there is comfort, strength, and courage for each new day. Be with us so that we might bear the presence of Christ to every person we encounter. Be with us so that we might find, in our interactions, one with another, opportunities to embody the love of Christ in what we say and in what we do. Help us to speak words of grace, where grace is so acutely needed… help us to act with kindness and compassion toward fragile ones… strengthen us to speak out for justice where people are down-trodden… make us wise leaders when it is time to lead, and thoughtful followers when it is time to follow. May all that we say and do be a true reflection of your heart within us. We pray, as Jesus did, saying: “Our Father, who art in heaven...