April @ Amistad

Greetings and Easter Blessings, Amistad!

Last week several of us marked Good Friday ("God's Friday") by watching together Denys Arcand's powerful film, Jesus of Montreal.

Here's the tentative schedule for the rest of April. Watch the website for changes and revisions.

Friday, April 9: We'll celebrate the ongoing Resurrection with the theme, "On the (Emmaus) Road Again..." We'll look together at Emmanuel Garibay's wonderful "Emmaus" painting -- the one that is taped to our dining room wall year 'round -- and consider just where and how we might encounter God-with-us here with us in 21st century Solano County.

Friday, April 16: "Greetings, the Powerpoint" -- Terry has produced a Powerpoint dealing with the way humans greet one another in various lands and cultures, everything from a fist-bump to Namaste. (Well, I don't know if she has a fist-bump in the presentation...) We'll share her images and practice greeting one another. Maybe a holy kiss?

Friday, April 23 -- Our annual Earth Day "Eco-Seder".

Friday, April 30 -- I'm still not sure what to do about this weekend. We've said we'll look at alternative meeting times for the last Friday of the month. We've all been invited to Shalaun's 2nd Birthday Party on Sat. May 1, so maybe that can be our group meeting for the week. Or, maybe we can find a time-and-date to have supper together during Katrina's shift and take Amistad to Applebees! Or both. Let me know what would work for you...

Some notes for April and beyond:

Saturday's Sacramento Bee had a WONDERFUL article "Do-it-yourself groups in Bay Area form alternatives to institutional churches" which I enthusiastically recommend to you! It's about small, itinerant house churches like Amistad. One of the participants interviewed had this to say: "We think spiritual formation that's really vibrant looks more like a karate studio than a conference hall," he said. "It's like a Jesus dojo." See it at http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/03/2652366/diy-christian-communities-search.html.

Our "Balikbayan Box" for the Bingtans' Cebu Rural Christian Ministry in the Philippines is on its way to Cebu! The school year there begins in June, so hopefully our gifts of food, school supplies and children's backpacks will arrive in plenty of time for the new group of Scholars. And after Erlina Bingtan sits them down to write their "thank you notes" we'll hear from them sometime this summer. May God bless and keep the students and their families!

SAVE THE DATE!! Once again Terry and Kathy have generously shared their ushering credits to get 8 tickets to the Solano College Theatre production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" on Friday, May 21. We'll go out to supper ahead of time at La Cabana in Suisun City, then enjoy the play together. Amistad will pay for supper and you may put in as much -- or as little -- as you can, so no one will be excluded for lack of funds. Please let me or Terry know if you think you'll be able to join us!

And finally, our UCC Bay Association Spring Meeting will be Sunday, April 25 at 5:00 p.m. at Eden United Church of Christ in Hayward. The program promises to be interesting: "Web 2.0 -- The use of technology and the church" with Techno-Revs Bet Hannon and Jeff Spencer. I'll be going; let me know if you'd like to join me!

Hope to see you all on Friday. And pay attention to strangers on the road!

blessings and hope to all --

Marian

www.amistad-vacaville.org