Dear Skyland Friends,

 

This is the first year in over two decades that we haven't been in the last minute preparations for the Skyland Run. I am excited that the Mission Board is working on alternative ways to highlight our volunteering and fundraising efforts. In May, I shared sermon time with John Heyes, who spoke very meaningfully about his weekly work during two summers as a volunteer tutor at San Quentin State Prison. In July we will do some fundraising to ship the latest collection of books for African Library Project. Anne Evans has been working on a video to showcase the work of our local volunteer fire and rescue crew. 

 

You can expect more information and projects in the future. Thank you for all your volunteer work, generosity with your finances and your emotional and prayer support for the work we do together. God is still creating a world of peace and justice partly through moving us to action. May God's spirit continue to flow in and through us to do this work.

 

On a sad note, many of you probably already know that Geneva Foster-Ward, who grew up at Skyland Church, recently experienced the death of her husband and the birth of her second child within a few days of each other. Our hearts and prayers go out to her and her family. I had the honor of officiating at the marriage of Geneva and Aaron Ward ten years ago; and I represented our church and community at his memorial service recently, at which I suggested that the empty places in the pews of their church in McMinnville, Oregon were filled in spirit with mountain and church community friends. 

 

If you would like to contact Geneva, please let me know and I will share her address with you. Meanwhile, let us keep Geneva, her mom, Gina, her children, Liam and Israel, and the rest of their family in our prayers.

 

Wishing you and all blessings for the end of the school year and moving into summer,

-- Stephen

+++ 

 

The Mission Board has supported Loma Prieta Volunteer Fire and Rescue with money from the Skyland Mountain Run for many years. In this season of a hundred-year drought, the local firefighters need our support more than ever. 

 

At the well-attended Firemen's BBQ on June 1, a group of community volunteers staffed a booth to begin the drive to get a new water tender. The current one is 22 years old, is leaking and "in the shop for repairs." Our community has been without a water tender for over 100 days in 2014. 

 

To make a donation, volunteer your time, or learn more about this essential piece of fire-fighting equipment, contact Anne Evans or Larry or Nancy Jo Lopp.

 

Many thanks to all of you from Skyland Church who attended and gave very generously at the Firemen's BBQ. 

 

-- Anne Evans for the Mission Board

 

 +++

Veteran warehouse worker in New Orleans moves books bound for Africa

 

 

"For everyone everywhere, literacy is...a basic human right," wrote former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

 

 And yet, in South Africa the literacy rate is about 30%.

 

Our Skyland community has shown that it wants to make a difference through the African Library Project. Therefore, the Mission Board is directing the collection of a thousand books for another library, our eighth, which is to ship in early August. This one will go to South Africa, via a transshipping center in New Orleans (see photo above); and we are already working with local schoolchildren to recycle their books into the hands of South African children.

 

This will be a community library, so children, teenagers, and adults will all be using it. However we have been asked to collect books with a maximum reading level of 8th grade.

 

Bring your books to Skyland Church and leave them in the room next to Stephen's office. If you need to have books collected or have questions, contact

 

Angela Patterson at angelapatt@gmail.com, 408-353-5364; or

 

Shannon Edwards at shannonedwards14@gmail.com

 

Children are the future stewards of our planet!

 

 -- Gerald J. Alonzo

Skyland Community Church