COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS

Community Emergency Response Training Site

LA Million Trees Distribution Site   

Election Polling Place

National Memory Screening Site 

Village Christian School Shuttle Site

The following community groups meet at the church facility:

4-H

Alcoholics Anonymous

Angeles Canyon Dog Club

Friday Friends -- Quilting and Handcrafts

Girl Scouts

Tierra del Sol Job Training Volunteers

Verdugo Hills Doll Club

ANNUAL BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS

Friends and neighbors gather on the "South 40" under the Oak Tree to share their love of animals and thank God for the blessing their animal friends have been in their lives.  Each animal is then individually blessed by our pastor.  Free photos are taken of each blessing and our animal friends are presented with a special treat.

MISSION POSSIBLE

News from Mission Possible III 

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!  Our brothers and sisters from Winds of Hope, Faith Presbyterian of Valley Village, Shadow Hills Home Owners Association, and the local Boy Scouts partnered with us to serve the community.  Over 160 adults, teens, and children served on eleven different mission projects. 

Our day began early in the sanctuary for praise and worship led by Pastor Janet and our energetic Praise Band.  After dedicating ourselves to mission service and being commissioned by Pastor Janet to go forth and serve, everyone enjoyed fellowship and a wonderful breakfast consisting of breakfast casseroles, fruit, bagels, donuts, juice, coffee and tea.

After fellowship and food, our teams dispersed to various destinations.  Our variety of services included working in food banks, providing and serving breakfasts and lunches at different shelter locations, clearing brush and landscaping at a half-way house, preparing and delivering food baskets, sack lunches for the homeless, and “Meal in a Bag” to recovering prostitutes and their children. We also provided a listening ear to forgotten nursing home seniors who included live crafts, love music, magical refreshments, and dog visitations. We were ‘thrice’ blessed by having the talents of a harpist, a wondering guitar man, and a local famous bluegrass band. 

On Sunday, we met for One Great Hour of Service. A member from each Mission Team shared their group’s personal insight on what the experience taught them about themselves and God.  

CONTINUING LOCAL MISSION

BAILEY CENTER FOOD BANK

Shadow Hills Church continues its support of The Bailey Center Food Bank located at the Tujunga Methodist Church every 4^th Saturday of the month from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.  Volunteers sort food, package food for clients, file, break down vast quantities of beans and peanut butter, etc…  Every third Sunday of the month we collect food and toiletries to give to the Bailey Center and Temporary Aid, another local food bank located in Tujunga.  The donation basket is located in the church parlor. 

DEACON HOLIDAY BASKET S

Fall is a busy season for our deacons as they collect food for holiday gift baskets.  Each year, the weekend before thanksgiving, deacons and friends deliver bags of food to needy families in our community.  The week before Christmas, the food deliveries also include gifts for the children of the families visited. 

REPORTS FROM THE MISSION FIELD 

"Out of Chaos, Hope" -- Gulf Coast Clean-Up

"Like a Crazy Idea"  -- Guatemala Education Development

OUT OF CHAOS, HOPE – Notes from the Gulf Coast Mission Trip

Frank’s and Tammy’s Katrina Story

When the radio reported on Sunday, August 28^th, that Hurricane Katrina had graduated to a category 5 storm, Frank decided that he and his wife Tammy should, as a precaution, evacuate their home in Diamondhead, Mississippi, located just north of St. Louis Bay.  Even though their house sits about five miles north of the Gulf Coast, and stands at 18 feet above sea level, the cone of projection had that part of Mississippi targeted for the eye of the storm, promising fierce winds and rain.

But they could not find gasoline by this time, and the I-10 was a parking lot; they realized they may not get far before the storm struck landfall.  Before daybreak of Monday, August 29^th, the relentless growling of the wind and incessant “pop” of breaking pine trees sent them upstairs, to secure refuge, in the attic above their carport, an attic with a single vent window.

Katrina simply had them in her sights, though, and unimaginably roared right up St. Louis Bay, swamping Frank’s and Tammy’s neighborhood with a 26-foot storm surge.  Tammy recalls putting her arm out of the attic window to check the water line and finding it just at finger’s reach.

Blessedly, Frank had a marine radio and managed to contact some county sheriff’s deputies.  Frank and Tammy were rescued Monday afternoon by boat, their house     under water to well above the roof line. 

When the water receded, the house, although standing, had sustained substantial flood damage, a peril for which they were not insured, their insurance company not willing to write a policy because they were not located in a federal flood zone.

The damage to their home was assessed at $109,000.  Their homeowners insurance paid $1,000.  Tammy and Frank, both disabled and on fixed incomes, spent the rest of their savings paying an opportunistic contractor to gut the house with less than satisfactory results.  The Diamondhead couple began living in a FEMA trailer parked in their front yard.  They live there still.

For weeks after the storm, Tammy and Frank were visited by various relief organizations, both religious and secular, but, as they tell it, only the Presbyterians came back.  Since then, volunteers positioned by the PDA (Presbyterian Disaster Assistance) have treated their gutted home for mold, repaired electrical and plumbing, put on a new roof, and hung, floated and taped new drywall.  When the SHPC crew came on site, we primed and painted some of the rooms.

Frank told us that the Presbyterian Church has given them immense hope for which they will be eternally grateful. They have since joined the local Presbyterian congregation, Diamondhead Community Church, the church hosting the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance camp.

Because we landed at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, we took the opportunity to survey the damage done to the Crescent City.  

Our first stop was to the 17th Street Canal levee, the site of the initial breaching.  This area of New Orleans is called Lakeview and is comprised of middle to upper-middleclass dwellings.

In the main, ruined houses remain standing much as they did when the waters receded.  New Orleans has taken to calling itself the “City with a Bathtub Ring”; a light, orange-brown horizontal line running about 6-8 feet above the ground is noticeable on many of these homes in Lakeview, evidencing where the water line stabilized for awhile.

Our second stop was to the Lower Ninth Ward about which we have all heard so much. Like Lakeview, the ruined houses still remain, row after row of tenant housing, but there are no FEMA trailers here.  The landlords are not going to rebuild.

As we drove out to Diamondhead on I-10, driving out over East New Orleans, from a distance, the ruined businesses and homes almost looked like ancient ruins, the tropical foliage the only living thing that came back, but absolutely no other signs of life:  no commerce, no cars, no kids, no pets.  Human sacrifice aplenty.

All-in-all, these three areas of New Orleans are wasteland.  Everyone tells their Katrina story, indeed, it is a city obsessed with its Katrina story.  But, anymore, you have to go to this city to hear its story, the media long ago deeming it yesterday’s news.  And what this city needs is for more Americans to personally hear, and see, its Katrina story. The inner urge to help will be palpable.

General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA decided this past June to make a seven-year commitment to the devastated Gulf region and is encouraging every congregation to send a work party annually.   Like Francis of Assisi is credited with saying, “Preach always. When necessary, use words.”    Deidra Goulding

LIKE A CRAZY IDEA

It is very nice to see you again, my friends, and to remember the many beautiful moments when I lived here in 1999 and 2000.  Each one of you knows that I am from San Juan Chamelco A.V.    I am living with my wife, Zuly, and my little boy, Edgar Manuel Antonio, in San Pedro Carcha A.V.

I am working in Coban, Guatemala, as a supervisor.  I visit 52 schools now, because in July we opened 10 more schools.  All the schools are in small villages, most of them are very far from my home.  Sometimes, I have to take a bus for three hours and walk two or three hours more.  Most of the people in this area are a very poor people.

My first action was to change the parents' minds.  The tradition was to send only the boys to the schools.  Now they are sending their girls to school also.  I always say that the girl is a mother of the future, if the mother went to school, she will send her kids to school also.

When I came into the classes in the first time, it was like a cemetery.  All the students were sitting in silence and the teacher talked all the time.  The students only used to listen, listen and listen every day.  It was such a boring class!  Now the class is very happy, the children sing all the time.  They play all the time.  They are talking more.  They are learning more in a happy place.

For many years, the classes were only taught in Spanish.  This is a wrong way because the students are Mayans and their own language is Q'eqchi'.  They didn't understand Spanish and would leave school.  Five years ago, I started to change this, because the children could learn other languages if they first know to read and to write their own language.  Just it is my hard challenge now, but I am doing it.  I have a friends who are helping me to teach all the teachers in Q'eqchi' language.  No more children are going to leave the school now because they don't understand the language.

Just in this year, I started to teach the English language to the teachers because, in this time, it is so important to know the international language.  The students in 4th, 5th, and 6th grades are learning a few words in English for their own life.

Other activity I am doing is "Teaching Language To Mom".  I think this project came from my heart.  These ladies never went to school when they were children.  The students in the 6th grade are teaching their Mom.  It is a hard job.  I am teaching my Mom also.

Most of the schools have a little library.  The government gave us books, but we have to teach the teachers how to use it better with the students.

I am beginning a new project.  I am looking for physically challenged children.  I have a friend who is helping me to tape the physically challenged children and to show the tape to organizations that can help them, because education is for all the people.

This is only a part of my activity in Guatemala.  Somebody in my country can say to me, "This is not normal.  This is new for me.  Nobody does this." or "This is a crazy idea."  But for me, it is service and mission for my people.  If I want a better life for me, I want also a better life for my people.

My Mom always prays for me and says to me, "You have to continue.  Do not stop."  Sometimes she gives me money because it is to hard to work when I have to pay for gas or bus to going to visit schools.  The government only pays me a little.  I use this money to go and to come back from my home to my office, and I use it also for bring food to my family.  So, do you want to join in this mission?  I have many activities we can do together.  Pray and say to God:  "Show me the way."  ...La mies es mucha y los obreros son pocos...  (Matthew 9:36-38).

From my heart, Edgar Antonio Chen Bac

WORD FROM PASTOR YAHYA ...

The Loths share this e-mail update from our friend and International Peacemaker who joined us for a weekend, last October.  

Dear Elisabeth and Pierre,

My churches gave me a new duty from January, 2007, until December, 2009, as the General Secretary in the Christian Churches of Java Synod. So I need to stay in Salatiga from Monday until Friday, and come back to my home church in Purwantoro on the weekend.  So many changes in a short time.

Seven Churches of Java surrounding Jakarta are in the area of the flood. The churches in Jakarta are more ready to organize an emergency response, because the floods regularly come to many areas in Jakarta every year. But this year, rains and floods are bigger than the usual. The rain season will last until the end of April. So the people in Jakarta are threatened with floods during that time.

The churches of Java in Jakarta are richer than in other places.  Usually they give donations to other churches. So it was very strange when, during the last flood, we collected and distributed donations to them. The support the churches in the area affected by flood helped them to assist and care to their neighbors.

The situation makes us more aware of the importance of the conservation of our forest in the countryside and open space in the city. Also our people more critical of our government regarding the preparedness to the emergency situation like this.

We plan to make training on disaster management response our priority before May 2007. The big earthquake, volcano, tsunami and flood, and a storm in Yogya three days ago, are enough reason to move to organize a disaster management team in every class/presbytery among the Christian Churches of Java Synod.

For me, this time is a big opportunity for the churches to learn by action about how the church involve and share to community. An emergency situation always opens many locked-doors in the social relationship.

You are also in our prayers,