Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-09-15
The Heart of Mission
September 15, 2020
Our Fall is filling up with mission opportunities. Please check out all the new things happening in our mission agencies in the announcements below and don’t forget to check out their Facebook pages as well if you are on Facebook. Invite your friends to participate with you in these or other mission opportunities. And, then tell us about it! Send me a summary and/or a picture of what you did. And don’t forget our own in house mission: CYF (Children, Youth and Families), ESL (English as a Second Language), CPJ (Compassion, Peace and Justice) and ESC (Environmental Stewardship Committee)!
Today I am inviting you to an opportunity that just came my way this past week. We have quite a few walker/runners in our congregation so this is a personal invitation to you. This is a great time of year to “step up” and use your feet for mission. October 4 is CROP Hunger Walk day. I am a little late getting the word out on this but I am personally walking and am inviting anyone of you who are interested in being on a “First Presbyterian Church Champaign (FPCC) Mission” team with me to walk with me or virtually join me. Please email me rachel@firstpres.church if you are interested in walking so I can keep you posted on where I am on walk day. Otherwise join us virtually as listed below.
A CROP Hunger walk is a community-based walk event to raise funds to support the global mission of Church World Service, a faith-based organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement and disaster. Twenty five percent of the funds raised are returned to the host community to support local hunger fighting efforts at the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen, Eastern Illinois Foodbank, Sola Gratia Farm, and Wesley Food Pantry. Join with me in raising funds to help our neighbors near and far get the meals they need this year. Learn more about it at https://www.crophungerwalk.
I have learned from the organizers that COVID-19 has impacted food insecurity in our local community.
From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics:
the C-U Unemployment rate –
Feb 2020 2.7%
Mar 2020 2.4%
Apr 2020 10.9%
May 2020 10.0%
From the Eastern Illinois Food Bank – More than 100,000 people rely on them for food due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unless it is raining, I will be physically walking on a “classic” CROP walk route. You can walk with me or you will be able to join the walk virtually on Oct. 4, 1:30pm.
Peace,
Rachel Matthews, Temporary Mission Coordinator
Background for the CROP walk – The Crop Project was organized in 1947 when farmers were asked to donate food and seed crops to our hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia, a program that soon became known as the Christian Rural Overseas Program – CROP. In 1969 in Bismarck, North Dakota, and in 1970 in York, Pennsylvania, the first walk events were organized to raise funds to support CROP. Since then, CROP Hunger Walk events have been held in hundreds of communities large and small raising millions of dollars to eradicate hunger and poverty.
https://www.crophungerwalk.
CROP WALK – https://www.crophungerwalk.
Sunday, October 4, 2020 at 1:30 PM
·
Zoom Gathering
By Computer:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
By Phone:
Phone Number: (312) 626-6799
Meeting ID: 861 6190 3170
Our Mission Agency Announcements
World Mission Committee – September 15, 4:30pm, zoom.
Community Mission Deacons – September 22, 4:30pm, zoom.
Cuba Partner Network Virtual Gathering 2020 – The PC(USA) Cuba Partners Network Virtual Gathering: Celebrating our Connections in the Time of COVID, will be held via Zoom webinar, September 25 -26, 2020. Registration is $20 for all three days. If you are interested in attending, please contact Rachel@firstpres.church for the registration link.
CU at Home – Again, upcoming Event Highlighting Men’s and Women’s Emergency Shelter, Sept. 30, 12pm. Register with Rob@cuathome.us or Rick@cuathome.us
But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
- Would you join us in prayer for two of our friends who relapsed earlier this week? We pray for their hearts to remain humble and open to receive help.
- Please pray for all of our staff and friends on the street that they would remain healthy as we move towards fall and flu season.
- Would you also pray for a friend whose father passed away a couple weeks ago? We pray for comfort and God’s peace as this family deals with this unexpected loss. Thank you God that one of our friends without an address who is working towards housing as well as going back to school at Parkland this fall!
- Praise the Lord for the cooler weather which brings relief from the heat and motivation for some of our friends as we are reminded that winter is right around the corner.
- Praise to Jesus for the men’s and women’s shelters which continue to see high attendance each night! To date, the men’s shelter has seen over 470 different men while the women’s shelter has seen over 120 different women since October 31, 2019! The need is great and we appreciate your prayers and continued financial support!
DREAAM – University of Illinois is offering a free course regarding our pandemic on Sunday nights from 8-9pm. This is a very informative course. One of the speakers on December 6 is Tracy Dace, the director of DREAAM. You do have to register. https://covcourse.web.
COV-Course: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding the Pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented public health crisis. In this course, created by provost Andreas Cangellaris and other campus leaders, you will gain a comprehensive, multidisciplinary understanding of the pandemic. The course will guide you through past, present and future perspectives on the pandemic, with weekly topics that range from history, biology and business to data security, racial disparities, mental health and more.
This non-credit course is free of cost and open to all. Classes will be held online from 8:00–9:00 p.m. every Sunday evening during the fall semester. See the course schedule for details about the instructors and topics covered.
12/06 – Social Life: COVID-19 and the CU Community
Introduction: Antoinette Burton (Professor of History and Director, Humanities Research Institute)
Speakers: Julie Pryde (Champaign-Urbana Public Health District), Tracy Dace (DREAAM)
Environmental Stewardship Committee – The Faith in Place Green Team Summit is happening this week, September 13-17, connecting the dots between climate change, COVID-19 and racism and all the other environmental crises we seem to be facing right now. This Summit is sponsored by the Interfaith Power and Light organization. Several of our own Environmental Stewardship Committee “Green Team” members will be attending this virtual summit. You can still attend by registering at
https://www.greenteamsummit.
Frontera de Cristo – Coffee & Conversation Continues/Café y Conversacion Continua
- Sept. 17 de Septiembre: Clase de Cocina: Come Los Tamales Casi Dividio la Iglesia Cooking Class: How Tamales Almost Divided the Church
- Sept 24 de Septiembre: Loteira de Frontera de Cristo: Play Virtual Mexican Bingo with us: Have Fun and Learn About the Life and Ministry of Frontera de Cristo
Email “conversation” to office@fronteradecristo.org to get the Zoom link
Other Mission Opportunities around town –
Twice is Nice Thrift Store is
Open for Porch Sales
607 W. Elm St.,
Urbana
Saturdays August 22, 29, Sept.12, 19, 26
From 10am-2pm
Featured Items:
Sept 19 Puzzles, Games, Toys, Books Stationery
Sept 26 Winter apparel, Holiday
Let us keep all our mission partners in our prayers, those who are waiting to go back to their place of ministry and those who are able to work where they are. Listen for God’s call to you in their ministry.
Our PC(USA) Mission CoWorkers:
Mark Adams and Miriam Maidonado Escobar (Mexico)
Farsijanna Adeney-Risakotta (Indonesia)
Jeff and Christi Boyd (Central Africa)
Jo Ella Holman (Carribean and Cuba)
Bob and Kristi Rice (South Sudan)
Our regional and global mission partners:
Kemmerer Village (and Camp Carew)
Lifeline Pilots
Marion Medical Mission
Mission Aviation Fellowship
Opportunity International
Friends of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan Presbyterian Cuba Partnership
Special Offerings of the PC(USA)
Theological Education Fund
Young Adult Volunteers
Here in Champaign – Urbana:
CU Better Together
CU at Home
CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE
CANTEEN RUN
COURAGE CONNECTION
DREAAM
eMPTY TOMB, INC
FAITH IN ACTION
JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY
THE REFUGEE CENTER
RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY
SALT & LIGHT
Here at First Presbyterian Church
FPCC Amateur Preachers
FPCC Environmental Committee working with Faith in Place
FPCC Presbyterian Women
FPCC ESL
FPCC Children, Youth and Families
FPCC Mission Possible/Go and Serve
302 W. Church Street
Champaign, IL 61820
217-356-7238
info@firstpres.church
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