Greetings Amistad!
We had sunny-but-chilly weather and plenty of food at our Picnic in the Park last Friday. Wonderful to have Peggy back with us! And now here's the tentative schedule for our Friday evening Agape Meal gatherings during June. Check the website for updates!
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Friday, June 3 – Encountering the Risen Christ on... Facebook??? During the season of Easter we focus on the Emmaus Road story on the surprising encounter with the Risen Christ somewhere in a working-class tavern or a crowded coffee shop. What about on Facebook? Can we have a Resurrection encounter there as well? I'll set up the laptop, we'll check out some of the features and see what we think. (And we'll also celebrate Peggy's birthday this evening!)
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Friday, June 10 -- Wind, flame, Spirit, speaking-and-understanding -- it must be Pentecost!
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Friday, June 17 -- June is the month of anniversaries for us! We'll celebrate 11 years of Amistad United Church of Christ in Vacaville, and we'll remember the "Amistad Incident" of June 1839 when kidnapped Mendi people revolted aboard the Schooner La Amistad and turned the ship toward freedom.
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Friday, June 24 -- If you've been following the sordid story of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the ex-chief of the International Monetary Fund, you may have been reminded of the work of the Jubilee USA Network calling on the IMF to put the extra $2.8 billion in unexpected profits from gold sales toward helping the world's poorest countries. We'll talk about that story and generally update ourselves on the work of the Jubilee Network.
A few more early summer notes:
Tuesday, June 21 is our semi-annual Greet the Sun on the Solstice gathering: 5:30 a.m. in the parking lot of Christian Church of Vacaville, 66 Vine Street. Sunrise is predicted at 5:44 a.m. after which we can go out to coffee somewhere and reflect on the turning points in our lives.
If it's June, the Creekwalk Concert series is coming up! We've enjoyed going on-the-road to this as a group every summer, so check out the schedule and tell me what kind of a band you'd like to hear: New Country? Summer of Love? Cajun & Zydeco? Rhythm & Blues? Latin Pop? The bands and dates are listed here: http://www.creekwalk.com/index.cfm?page=artists Let me know which one you'd like to hear!!
Mission Fund Update: this Spring we emptied out our Mission Fund by sending $200 each to Jubilee USA and to HEAL Africa for their fistula hospital in Democratic Republic of Congo. (We also sent $50 to the California Council of Churches.) We've received a nice note from the folks at Jubilee and another from HEAL Africa:
Dear Friends at Amistad -- I love the name of your church! Thank you for acting on your information from "Half the Sky". I welcome your gift on behalf of HEAL Africa, whose staff in Congo are really doing amazing work that not only heals bodies, but is working within communities to change the conditions that cause so much hurt. We just spent two months in Goma and visited many safe houses, loan committees, solidarity groups as well as hospital wards. Your contribution is highly appreciated and very carefully used... Pray for peace in Congo! And for the HEAL Africa staff. Peace to you, Judy Anderson
blessings and hope to all --
Marian