Weekly Word | October 15, 2021 | Issue 11

The Tuesday Morning Women’s Bible Study will begin reading Rob Bell’s new book, Everything is Spiritual on Tuesday, October 26! You can order the book through Amazon for $15.49 and it is also available on Kindle and Nook. I also understand that there are copies available at our local libraries to be checked out! Join us at 10:00 a.m. either in person in the Fellowship Hall or via zoom. If you need help getting the book or the zoom link, let Pr. Tricia know.

The Wednesday 10:00am Lectionary Study group led by Hal Vogelaar and Larry Gordon is meeting in the Fellowship Hall. Masks are required except when you are eating or drinking. They are considering adding a Zoom component for those who aren’t getting out and about; let Larry Gordon know if you are interested.

On September 24, 2021, we did something we had never done. We participated in a march, demonstration, or rally, whatever you may want to call it. Our group joined thousands of others gathered in 99 countries around the world to demand real climate justice. It was called Climate Strike and was held at the Prescott Courthouse Square. There were various speakers, and several young girls shared what climate justice meant to them. We then marched around the courthouse carrying signs. We did not carry a sign; maybe next time.

Another event that we attended in August was a presentation on a campaign to secure public and political support for the implementation of a climate risk assessment in the Quad Cities. This campaign is called “Planning for the Resilience of Our Towns, Environment, Climate and Tourism” (PROTECT). The PROTECT campaign is a grassroots movement made up of local citizens and students from Yavapai and Prescott college. Flagstaff, Sedona and the Verde Valley completed such a risk assessment in 2012 and 2020 respectively. Just recently they completed a Climate Risk Action Plan.

Why is this risk assessment and then a risk action plan important? Paradise, California, did not have such a plan when the Camp Fire blazed in 2018, and it burned 153,336 acres (240 square miles) and killed 85 people. A similar fire centered in Prescott Valley would cover from southwest of Prescott to northwest of Chino Valley to southeast of Dewey-Humboldt. The picture below shows how much of the Quad city area would be burned by such a fire.

We are in a 23-year drought: we are dealing with drier and hotter temperatures, reduced levels of lakes and rivers, dying trees, and catastrophic fires. We older people will probably not experience much impact on our lives from climate change. However, our children and grandchildren will be affected to a much larger degree if we do not make decisions now to mitigate the effects of climate change. We must act now!

The group is making great progress and we are hopeful that we can launch the new site by Thanksgiving.

One way that you can help is pictures. We need pictures of people doing church activities. So if you are attending worship or Bible Study or playing handbells or meeting with the quilters or helping with the Interfaith Meal…take a picture and send it to the church! If you have a smartphone you can email your pictures to the office at emmanuelelca@gmail.com. We want to share with folks the personality and character of our church: giving, loving and learning!

Here's Ethan grinning at us from the recliner and helping out in the garden! He loves to pick tomatoes, and then carry them around everywhere!

We Want to Hear from You!

Just like we did in the monthly newsletter before the pandemic, if you have anything to contribute to our weekly newsletter, please send it in so we can share what's going on with each other! Email your submissions to Kimberly at ELCPVnews@gmail.com (or click on the email link, or simply reply to this email!) by Wednesday afternoon to be included in the Friday email.