Can You Imagine?

CAN YOU IMAGINE

Can you imagine
how it would feel
to a homeless woman
who has spent months
or years sleeping on the streets
or mats at the city shelters
to finally have
a home of her own?

Can you picture the look
of wonder on her face
when she opens the door of
a brand new apartment
and says "This is mine"?

Can you imagine her
sleeping for the first time
in her own bed,
feeling really truly safe at last?

Multiply that 60 times.

Check out the Florence House, the new shelter in Portland that will do exactly what this poem talks about, when it opens in March. Then consider making a financial contribution this year, to help those who really need it. Checks can be made payable to New Light (with Advent Conspiracy in the memo line) or online here.

Advent Conspiracy Video

I've watched this video 10 times, and it doesn't stop being meaningful. Watch it, and pass it on.






This Christmas consider making a financial contribution to help those who really need it. Checks can be made payable to New Light (with Advent Conspiracy in the memo line) or online here.

Blood: Water Mission

Did you know that $1 can provide water for a year for a sister or brother in Africa? We have decided to give half of the money raised through Advent Conspiracy to Blood:Water Mission, an organization dedicated to empowering communities to work together against the HIV/AIDS and water crisis in Africa.

Blood:Water Mission promo video from Blood:Water Mission on Vimeo.

Blood: Water Mission funds full-scale programs in iWASH: Integrated Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene. This approach is critical as community behavior changes in hygiene and sanitation practices have the potential to more than triple the health impact of clean water alone. While each program is unique according to the cultural, environmental, and political climate in which it's implemented, every program is built around core principles in community empowerment. To date water technologies used in Blood: Water Mission projects include drilled wells, rain catchment, spring development, gravity flow, and biosand filtration.

Through the efforts of many generous supporters, Blood:Water Mission has completed 859 water projects, in 11 countries, changing the lives of over 570,000 people. They have also opened 3 clinics, tested 18,000 people for HIV/AIDS, and served over 22,000 people.

This Christmas, consider making a financial contribution to help those who really need it. Checks can be made payable to New Light (with Advent Conspiracy in the memo line) or online here.

Florence House

We have decided to give half of the money we raise from Advent Conspiracy to a local project called Florence House, a project of Preble Street. Florence House will provide safe, supported permanent housing to chronically homeless women in Portland, Maine.

The building will include three types of housing designed to offer options to 60 women including:

• Efficiency Apartments for individuals who are ready to manage independently.
• A Safe Haven to provide a permanent private living space for chronically homeless women who are not quite ready to maintain their own apartments and who may, with support, begin to develop trust, self-assurance, and skills to become more independent.
• A small number of Emergency Beds for immediate, short-term housing for women who are temporarily homeless because of an economic or situational crisis.

The Florence House model is based on approaches to homelessness and chronic mental illness that have emerged nationally as key strategies for ending homelessness.

Consider making a financial contribution this year, to help those who really need it. Checks can be made payable to New Light (with Advent Conspiracy in the memo line) or online here.

Advent Conspiracy 2009

We are issuing a challenge to members of New Light and Chestnut UMC to celebrate Christmas more simply, this year by spending less on Christmas gifts for friends and family -- and then to match that amount, dollar for dollar, with a gifts to people who really need it. With a little help from Advent Conspiracy, we are encouraged to spend the season worshiping fully, spending less, giving more, and loving all.

We are focusing our efforts this year in two different ways:
First, a local project, to help Florence House, the new Women's Shelter opening in Portland, by furnishing an apartment. Florence House, a program of Preble Street, will provide safe, supported permanent housing to chronically homeless women in Portland.

Secondly, a global project, Blood:Water Mission is partnering with groups and individuals to empower our sisters and brothers in Africa to build healthier communities through sustainable clean blood and clean water solutions. Since 2004, Blood:Water Mission has completed 617 water projects delivering clean water, hygiene, and sanitation training to 460,000 people while helping to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Did you know that $1 provides one year of clean water for our sisters and brothers in Africa? Let's see how many people we can help this holiday season.

When you're ready to make your contribution, just make a check out to New Light, clearly marking "Advent Conspiracy" on the memo line. Or if you'd like to make your gift online using a credit or debit card, you can do that here... Just scroll down and make your gift in the "Advent Conspiracy" category.

Join the Conspiracy! And remember, matching your Christmas spending dollar for dollar is the challenge, but it is not an all-or-nothing deal. Set a goal and try to reach it, and honor Christ by helping people in need this holiday season.

Advent Conspiracy continues!

Now that the season of gift-buying and gift-giving is coming to an end, it's time to prayerfully consider how you will participate in the Advent Conspiracy project we've been talking about since early November. 

Some of you have already contributed to a local project -- buying coats or boots for children in the Parkside neighborhood and/or helping families who've recently adopted children from foster care.  We really appreciate these gifts, which are already making a difference for local families who can use a little extra help this time of year.

During the month of January, we will receive your gifts toward the global project:  helping to install a water system at Humble United Methodist School, a school in Uganda that provides food, shelter, and education to about 250 children, most of whom are orphans due to the AIDS crisis or civil war.  Currently the school lacks a system that provides a consistent suppy of clean water for sanitation and cooking.  We're working through the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, an agency that has developed strict accountability measures, to ensure that 100% of your gift goes directly to this specific project.

In November, we issued an ambitious challenge:  that each of us match our giving to family and friends, dollar for dollar, with giving to help people in need.  How you will respond to that challenge is your call.  We hope to be able, as a New Light community, to make a signficant gift to assist with this project, so let's work together to see how we can honor the Christ Child by helping God's children in need in an area of extreme poverty -- poverty most of us can not begin to imagine. 

Please give your Advent Conspiracy gifts to Erica, Sara, or Allen, by the end of January.  Checks can be made out to New Light, memo "Advent Conspiracy."  Let's see if we can make a world of difference.

Christmas Giving

A few months ago New Lighters were issued a challenge: to celebrate Christmas more simply this year by spending less on Christmas gifts for friends and family -- and then to match that amount, dollar for dollar, with a gifts to people who really need it. With a little help from Advent Conspiracy we are encouraged to spend the season worshiping fully, spending less, giving more, and loving all. We have pledged as a community to help in the following ways:

We are collecting coats and boots for children in Parkside Neighborhood who are without. If you have signed up for some, please bring them back as soon as possible as it is getting cold.

We are also collecting donations to help develop a water system for Humble United Methodist School in Uganda. Humble is a school that provides for the educational and spiritual needs of 250 children, most of them orphans to the AIDS virus and civil wars.

We are also receiving gifts of money to provide gift cards to two local families in need who have recently adopted children from foster care.

If you would like to make donations to any of these causes, please give the money to Erica. We would like to have the money for the gift cards by the middle of December so that the families can do shopping in time for Christmas.

This video is of a cool song familiar to most New Light folks called "Share the Well." It is a catchy and meaningful tune, give it a listen and think about ways you can celebrate a more Christ centered Christmas this year!