Give Water to School Children

“Over half of all schools worldwide lack safe water and sanitation, jeopardizing the health and education of millions of schoolchildren. Most of the 115 million children currently out of school are girls. Many are denied their place in the classroom by lack of access to decent toilets at school, or the daily chore of walking miles to collect water.” - UNICEF, 2005

In the next week we will be finishing up with the Advent Conspiracy and sending our donations off to the Humble United Methodist School in Uganda.

We are collecting money to help to install a water system at Humble United Methodist School in Uganda. This school 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 supply of clean water for sanitation and cooking.

Did you know?

• More than 150 million school-age children are severely affected by waterborne parasites like roundworm, whipworm, and hookworm. These children commonly carry up to 1000 parasites at a time, causing anemia, stunted growth, and other debilitating conditions.
• Children who suffer from constant water-related illnesses carry the disadvantages into school. Poor health directly reduces cognitive potential and indirectly undermines schooling through absenteeism, attention deficits, and early drop-out.
• Nearly 90 percent of all diseases in the world are caused by unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, and poor hygiene. Every year, there are 4 billion cases of diarrhea as a direct result of drinking contaminated water; this results in more than 2.2 million deaths each year—the equivalent of 20 jumbo jets crashing every day.

We can do a small part to help these kids get the safe, reliable water they need to stay healthy and get an education. To find out more visit Living Water International. Please give donations to Allen, Sara, or Erica by February 1st.

Souper Bowl of Caring

Allen and Sara will be hosting a super bowl party at their home on Sheffield Street on February 1st at 6pm. Come watch the big game on the big screen...and if you are not interested in football, come anyway, enjoy the food, company and some fun games.

We will be ordering pizza, bring your favorite Super Bowl snack or drink to share.

Also, we will be collecting food for the Sacred Heart food pantry, and money for the Wayside Soup Kitchen, as part of the Souper Bowl of Caring.

The Souper Bowl of Caring is national movement of thousands of congregations, schools, community organizations and compassionate individuals caring for others on Super Bowl weekend. Souper Bowl of Caring equips and mobilizes youth to positively impact their communities by collecting money or food on or near Super Bowl weekend. 100% of the collections are donated directly to the charity of each group's choice.

Last year 5.6 million dollars, and 4.7 million pounds of food were donated to local hunger relief agencies all over the country from this event.

Let's do our part to help this important mission!

We're the generation, we can't afford to wait

John Legend - New Music - More Music Videos

This is a wonderful song of challenge to us on this day before the inauguration. It's up to all of us to change the future of our country and the world. I celebrate the election of Barack Obama, but more than a dream of him being our savior, I hope that we can work together as a nation to make a better world. My prayer is that I would do my part today and in the days to come.

Celebrating Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The work is not finished.

So let us turn our thoughts today
to Martin Luther King
and recognize that there are ties between us,
all men and women
living on the earth --
ties of hope and love,
sister and brotherhood,
that we are bound together
in our desire to see the world become
a place in which our children
can grow free and strong...

The Seeker

I do not ride on camels
through a wind-swept desert.
I do not carry gifts
that are fit for a king.
I do not see the star
that guides the stalwart riders.

Yet I, too, am seeking.
I, too, am longing.
I go among busy days
yearning for the Unknown One.

In the breath of a prayer,
in the care of a friend,
in the beauty of a bird,
a star-like glimpse comes to me.

A flicker of hope arises,
enough to stay in the fray,
to keep searching for the One
who is slowly revealed
in tiny sparks of daily encounters.

Holy One, you who reveal,
make manifest your presence.
Open the eyes of my heart.
Awaken my unattuned spirit.

Bring me to full attention,
so that I come to know,
in my every moment,

your radiant star of guidance.

-Joyce Rupp
from Out of the Ordinary
prayers, poems and reflections
for every season

Community Worship Gathering in January

Community Worship Gathering

Sunday, January 25

6:00 pm

Location to be announced

Get it on your brand spankin' new 2009 calendar now!

Coming in January: new LIFE Group configuration

Starting the first week in January, this new schedule for LIFE Groups takes effect:

• Monday LIFE Group at 5:30 pm, generally meeting at Ashley & Eric's house
• Tuesday LIFE Group at 6:00 pm, meeting at Allen & Sara's house
• Wednesday LIFE Group meeting later (probably 7:30 pm, but wait for confirmation on this) at Paul & Carlie's house

We'll be offering more details about this new LIFE Group configuration in the coming days, but plan to stay connected by participating regularly in one of these weekly New Light gatherings.

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.

New Light this week

Just one LIFE Group this week

Monday evening ~ 5:30 pm ~ O'Naturals

If you're around this week, we hope you'll join others from the New Light community for a single LIFE Group, meeting Monday, Dec. 29 at 5:30 pm at O'Naturals restaurant, 83 Exchange Street in Portland.  Grab your favorite meal from the O'Naturals yummy menu, and then head downstairs to the community room on the lower level.  Erica will be leading, first in catching up after all the Christmas festivities, and then in a time of reflection as we anticipate the arrival of a new year.

I will light Candles this Christmas; 

Candles of joy despite all sadness, 
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch, 
Candles of courage for fears ever present,
Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days, 
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens, 
Candles of love to inspire all my living, 
Candles that will burn all the year long.

Christ is born!

Merry Christmas!  We are writing from the mountains of North Carolina, where we're visiting with Sara's family for a few days.  We hope that you are with people you love, and that the spirit of Christmas continues to be alive in you.

Christ is born, and that is profoundly good news for the world!  It's the reminder that God loved the world God created so much, that God chose to come among us, to become one with us... not with power and might but in the most vulnerable, humble way possible:  as a tiny baby, born to a poor, young woman in an obscure village in a remote corner of the world.  Jesus was born not amidst the luxury of a palace but surrounded by animals (and all the smells that accompany them) in a stable;  not among the wealthy or respected but among the working poor.  Jesus' birth reminds us that God knows everything there is to know about what it means to be human.  More importantly, Jesus' life serves as an example of how to live in and through the love of God.

Maybe your gifts are unwrapped under the tree, or packed in a box, or waiting to be returned for a different size, but the gift of a newborn Christ continues.  God's light still shines in the darkness.  Hope springs eternal!  Christmas changes everything.

So we hope you'll continue to claim the promise of Christ's birth here in these days after Christmas, and that the blessings of a newborn Savior will carry you forward into the new year that awaits us, just around the corner.

Light and love,
Allen & Sara