THE LUNCH BUNCH
Monday, October 9 @ Noon

Lunch Bunch meeting location TBD.

SPIRITUAL PRACTICES GROUP
Saturday, October 28 @ 11am

This is a time for slowing down, for reconnecting with God and Spirit by pausing together as we recall, notice, name and deepen God’s presence through a rhythm of prayer that enhances our awareness of God’s presence.

“Sabbath Pause – A time and place in the heart of creation where we can receive the gift of a non-anxious presence and learn to live out of this essential blessing in service to the world. Practicing Sabbath takes us from the sometimes-cramped places of our lives to a place where our hearts can truly sing.” (Terry Chapman).

“Light for the Path” will gather in the Narthex before embarking on a guided meditation.

LUNCHES FOR THE HOMELESS
Wednesday, October 25 @ 4pm

Union Station Homeless Services Sack Lunch Project
Here’s a way to be of service through your beloved church! Union Station Homeless Services is part of a premier group of human services agencies in L.A. County that are leading the way to ending homelessness in our community. Union Station is the San Gabriel Valley’s largest social service agency assisting homeless and very low-income adults and families. We are looking to be of service to Union Station by helping out with their programs that provide food for those in need. Our mission will be to provide sack lunches. We will come together at the church kitchen third Tuesday of the month to make the lunches, which will then be taken to the station for distribution. Please let Marcia Albrecht know if you can help prepare the lunches (all food will be provided and in the kitchen). You can email her at: mla2575@aol.com.

FOOD FORWARD FRUIT PICK

* On hold until further notice *

Food Forward was recently awarded a commendation from the US Environmental Protection Agency, alongside myriad national food suppliers and purchasers like Wegmans, Disneyland, MGM Resorts and UC Davis, for the environmental impact resulting from our food recovery work in 2013-17.

One of the things we LOVE about [FF’s] UCLA partnership is that it is manned and woman-ed by students who are feeding other students. What many people don?t realize is that there is a high percentage of students who experience food insecurity. Current estimates show this number to be roughly 20% at UCLA, with students choosing to buy books over food. Food Forward’s program gives these folks a hand by creating an eco-system where the UCLA community can help its own who are struggling to make ends meet.

Watch for SMCC Picks
Watch your email for announcements on future picks with Food Forward. We look for available activities on the third Saturday morning of each month and will pass that info on to you so that you can join the effort. There is a quick registration on the Food Forward site that allows you to sign up for a pick of your choice and lets Pastor Donald know that he has volunteers. www.foodforward.org

SERVICE PROJECTS

RONALD McDONALD HOUSE


Coin contributions for Ronald McDonald House – ongoing.

SAN GABRIEL VALLEY UNHOUSED

We will collect new, unopened travel sized toiletries for those unhoused in the San Gabriel Valley.  Please bring in items and leave them in the designated baskets in the Narthex.

LIZ CAMERON FOOD PANTRY

We will collect non-perishable and non-expired foods for our Liz Cameron Food Pantry, to be distributed to families and individuals in the San Gabriel Valley.  Please bring in items (cereals, canned goods, etc..) and leave them in the designated baskets in the Narthex.

UNION STATION HOMELESS SERVICES

Once a month, we will be gathering in our kitchen and dining room to make sandwiches and pack lunches for those serviced by Union Station Homeless Services.  Please watch your About Our Folx missives for the date and time we will gather each month and join in if you’re able.

“You’re a prince, you’re a frog, you’re a rainbow!” My niece was seven and the stick she had found in my parent’s backyard had become a wand. She danced around, lightly touching flowers and rocks, transforming them to mythical creations in her mind. Her other hand was busily tossing something from an imaginary purse. Glitter, or perhaps fairy dust, she would toss it up and pause following it in her mind as it drifted to the ground. I watched, wishing I could see the backyard with her eyes.

My nephew, her little brother was playing a different game, a very different game. In his hands, the stick he had found was a sword, sometimes a dagger. Waving it through the air he trailed his sister, slashing the creatures she had brought to life. “Take that rainbow” he said as he slashed it into pieces. Raising the stick over his head, he finished off the rainbow with a dramatic stab. Clearly a struggle ensued as he struggled to hold the stick in place. Relieved I couldn’t see his version of the yard, I had a feeling it was filled with smoke, blood and clearly, impaled rainbows, coughing weakly as their colors faded. My sister and I watched, fascinated. The sticks were almost identical and yet in the eyes of two children, they couldn’t have been more different.

When Moses approached the bush, he took off his shoes but apparently kept hold his shepherd’s staff. If needed it could be used as a weapon, perhaps Moses wanted it just in case. The staff was crucial to a shepherd. Usually under six feet tall, it was a wooden rod with a curved end. Shepherds used it for support when walking, the crook part could be used under a sheep’s belly to help pull them from a crevice, guide them through water. It also provided a few extra feet for a sheep that wandered just out of reach. It was used to fend off predators and to kill snakes. It was intended to protect, support and guide but sadly, I’m sure there were awful, weak-minded shepherds who used it to hit. “Toss it down” God said to Moses. Moses did and instantly the stick became a snake. Terrified, Moses ran from it. After some coaxing, he grabbed the tail as instructed and it once again became a staff. Pretty good trick. God told Moses this was the way he could prove to people that he had truly been sent from God.

A staff that becomes a snake, this is what Moses has to lead his people out of slavery and into a land promised to them. In giving Moses this gift, God is reminding Moses that he has tremendous power. This power can be used gently, lovingly, protectively. People can come to admire that staff or despise it. Moses could use like a loving shepherd but in the hands of someone needing to prove their power, this staff could be a nightmare. This simple, wooden rod and its animation potential teaches us the choices we make as leaders and as parents. Do we lead believing that our role is to provide gentle guidance to those who are lost or confused or do we demand to have total control over all those supposedly in our care? God allows us to decide.

SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF MOSES
Rev. Heather Blackstone

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”

2 Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.

3 The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. 4 Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. 5 “This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

6 Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.

7 “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.