McCurdy Volunteer News
September 2022
COVID-19 Update
As of September 6, the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) reported the following number of new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population (by county):
 
  • 9 cases per 100,000 in Bernalillo County
  • 5.4 cases per 100,000 in Los Alamos County
  • 5.4 cases per 100,000 in Rio Arriba County
  • 5.4 cases per 100,000 in Santa Fe County
  • 5.4 cases per 100,000 in Taos County
 
Currently, most counties in northeastern New Mexico are at the “low” level of risk category, which is an improvement from previous months.
 
As always, McCurdy continues to implement health and safety measures regarding COVID-19 protocols to help ensure the safety of the children and youth we serve as well as our staff and volunteers.  
 
If you are bringing a VIM team to McCurdy this year, please be sure all team members review the McCurdy COVID-19 Protocols: LINK

Please note that all VIM team members are required to be fully vaccinated at least 2 weeks prior to departure to a week in mission at McCurdy and must have a negative COVID-19 test within 48 hours of departure for Española.
 
Use this link to view the latest information from NMDOH: https://cv.nmhealth.org/
What do all these communities have in common?
What do the communities of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Westerville, Ohio; Tulsa, Claremore and Tahlequah, Oklahoma; Lewisville, Texas; Grass Valley, California; and Pound, Virginia all have in common? Individuals from these communities across the United States have been serving on Volunteers in Mission Teams and as long-term volunteers who assisted as Dorm Hosts this summer.
 
This July, August, and September, these volunteers have been making a big difference at McCurdy and we are delighted that even more teams are coming from Ohio, Texas, and Arizona to help in preparing the campus for our 110th annivwesary Fiesta. It is always such a joy to get to meet everyone who comes to McCurdy Ministries and see the difference their efforts make.
 
As we start our 111th year “creating hope and empowering lives”, we already have seven teams who have signed up to come in 2023. What a blessing these volunteers are, as we continue to serve together in the Española Valley. 
 
More teams needed in 2023
If you are interested in volunteering in 2023, please contact our Volunteer Registrar, Eufemia Romero by phone at 505-753-7221, ext. 210 or by email at eromero@mccurdy.org. She can provide you with the dates that are available.  
Top Left Photo: Church of the Messiah volunteers painting the lounge in the Teacherage
Photo Above: New privacy fencing for Project Carino that was built by one Oklahoma team and stained this week by another Oklahoma team
Rebuilt flower boxes in front of Project Carino with new irrigation system
Volunteer shredding envelopes and saving unusual stamps for a children's project.
Ways to Support McCurdy


2022 McCurdy Fiesta
Don’t miss out! The McCurdy Fiesta is only a month away! Special events are planned to celebrate McCurdy’s 110-anniversary celebration on Friday and Saturday, October 28 and 29, 2022. 
 
The special activities include an antique car show, volunteers dressed in period costumes, games on the lawn, “Trunk or Treat” for the kids, a Silent Auction, a Virtual 5K walk/run, a special anniversary celebration presentation, dessert for all, and much, much more.  Don’t miss this great opportunity to come to the McCurdy campus and celebrate this amazing milestone with us!
Power tools stolen
Unfortunately, we have had several cases of vandalism on the McCurdy campus in recent months. Most recently, the maintenance shop was broken into and many of our power tools were stolen. Your help is needed to replace these important tools that help us maintain our campus grounds.
 
Items needed include:
  • Two lux LED flashlights (cost $35.00 each)
  • One five-gallon diesel can (cost $27.00)
  • One five-gallon gas can cost ($27.00)
  • Husqvarna chainsaw (cost $324.00)
  • Stihl chainsaw (cost $420.00)
  • Husqvarna four stroke 25cc weed trimmer (cost $369.00)
  • Stihl gas weed trimmer (cost $480.00)
  • Stihl FS 56 weed trimmer (cost $250.00)
  • Echo two stroke weed trimmer (cost $299.00)
  • Craftsman powered pole saw (cost $200.00)
  • Two cordless DeWalt 20 Volts drills (cost each $160.00)
  • Two cordless DeWalt 20 Volts impact drivers (cost each $170.00)
  • Cordless DeWalt 20 Volts grinder (cost $249.00)
  • Cordless DeWalt 20 Volts reciprocating saw (cost $300.00)
  • Tow chain 20 feet with hooks (cost 106.00) 
Please prayerfully consider donating funds or sending a Lowes gift cards to help us replace these items. 
 
TO DONATE ONLINE: 
Use the DONATE button on the McCurdy website: https://mccurdy.org/give-now/. Please leave a notation that the funds are to be used to replace the stolen power tools. 
 
TO DONATE VIA MAIL: 
Send your check or Lowes gift card to McCurdy Ministries Community Center, 362A S. McCurdy Road, Española, NM 87532. Again, please provide a notation that the donation is to be used to replace the stolen power tools.
 
Thank you for your continued support of our ministry!
Recipe of the month
Recipe of the month
 
Here’s something to try the next time you want to have a bit of a spicy dish with the great Southwestern flavor of New Mexico. The recipe for this dish is from McCurdy’s very own collection, Recipes of a Century Past, published in 2012 to celebrate the ministry’s 100th anniversary. The recipe is Milt Denny’s, Class of 1959, courtesy of William Norwich. 
 
Spicy Corn Stew
 
·        5-8 ears of fresh corn
·        3 tablespoons butter, divided
·        4 strips thickly sliced slab bacon
·        1/2 small onion, chopped
·        1/2 cup dry white wine, preferably Riesling
·        2 garlic cloves, crushed with a flat side of knife and finely chopped
·        1 large jalapeño pepper, chopped
·        2 cups chicken broth
·        12-15 cherry tomatoes, quartered
·        1 tablespoon finely minced cilantro plus 4 nice sprigs
·        Juice of 1/2 lime
·        Salt and freshly ground pepper
 
Shuck the corn and cut the kernels off the cobs. Reserve the corncobs and kernels separately. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the bacon and onion, cover and cook 3 to 5 minutes, until the onion is softened but not browned. Add the wine and bring to a boil. Add the garlic and jalapeño and boil until the wine is reduced to about 1 tablespoon. Add the chicken broth and the corncobs. Simmer for 30 minutes. Add the corn kernels and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove and discard the corncobs and bacon. Swirl the remaining tablespoon of butter into the corn. Add the cherry tomatoes, minced cilantro and lime juice. Season with salt and paper to taste. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the sprigs of cilantro. Serve warm. Yield: 4 servings.
Devotional
Running on Empty
By Meghan Mellinger
 
“Today, I feel like a car that's run out of gas.
 
I've been speeding through life without stopping - hustling and hurrying my way through every invite on my calendar and every person in my life. Sure, I saw the ‘low fuel’ alerts, but I ignored them and just kept going...
  
And now I find myself running on empty, overwhelmed and anxious, wrapped up in blankets, candy wrappers everywhere, flipping through every verse my Bible‘s concordance has on ‘rest’.
 
And then a verse I've read many times before strikes me differently:

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing;
so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy,
because on it he rested from all the work of creating
that he had done" (Genesis 2:2-3, NIV).
 
The day God poked holes in the night sky? Good. The day God created the narwhals? Good. The day God created man and woman? Very good. (Genesis 1:16-31) But the day God stopped and rested from His work? That day was different. That day was set apart. That day was holy.
 
Rest is so significant that God declared one day of the week for it.
 
But what does true rest look like? How do I break the daily grind of performance and productivity to honor a day of rest?
 
Jesus offers us examples of resting without staring at a screen or eating a whole stuffed-crust pizza in one sitting (guilty!). He shows us rest that is restoring, not mindlessly distracting.
 
After He served and saved the masses:
 
  1. Jesus spent alone time with the Father. Away from His work and His people, Jesus talked with His Dad. There was praying and pleading, rejoicing and praising, listening and waiting. It was quality time together with the One who loved Him the most.
  2. Jesus spent quality time with His closest friends. Throughout Jesus' ministry, we see Him sharing food, emotions and time with close friends and family. While Jesus had many followers, He intentionally took time away from the masses for quality time with a few people.
 
To us, shifting from 100 miles per hour to a complete standstill may feel wrong. It feels counterproductive and is countercultural. It feels almost impossible to cut out 15 minutes a day, let alone a whole entire day, to rest. But it is necessary. It is life-giving, joy-filling and soul-restoring.
 
It is a day that has to be different from the rest.
 
Our rest day is our holy day.
 
A day of rest in the presence of a heavenly Father who loves us more than anything, and a day shared with friends who know us better than anyone. Now that will fill up our tanks.
 
From the beginning, we were never designed to be constantly on the go. God didn't rest on the seventh day because He needed to - He did it because He knew we would need to.
 
Jesus, help me to choose the holiness of rest
over the pressure of busyness. In Jesus' Name, Amen”
 
To read the full devotional: LINK

***
 
Do you have a favorite hymn or scripture that helped you through a difficult time? If so, would you be willing to share your story with me and with our readers? If so, please email it to me at lpolson1966@gmail.com
Hymn of the month
Hymn: Take My Life and Let It Be
Here’s the story behind another favorite hymn from growing up in the church and walking daily with the Lord. The story is copied from the Believer’s Portal website.
 
“Frances Ridley Havergal (1836-1879) was an unusually gifted and passionate saint. The daughter of a church rector, she was raised in Worcester, England and attended schools in England and Germany. In her love of learning, she grew to become an able scholar (even becoming proficient in both Hebrew and Greek) and a talented singer and pianist.
 
The deepest desire of her heart, however, was in ‘personal spiritual influence upon others’ (Benson). This led her to value most of all her ability to write; for that reason she expended the majority of her life’s labors in writing prose and poetry that would be spiritually beneficial to the saints.
 
Havergal suffered poor health and was taken by the Lord at just 42 years of age. But the Lord prospered her ministry; her writings had a large impact in her own day, and several continue to be read and sung today.
 
The story of Take My Life gives a good picture of the kind of passion and joy she had in ministering to others. She once recounted the story behind it:
 
Perhaps you will be interested to know the origin of the consecration hymn, Take my life. I went for a little visit of five days. There were ten persons in the house, some unconverted and long prayed for, some converted but not rejoicing Christians. He gave me the prayer, ‘Lord, give me all in this house!’ And He just did! Before I left the house every one had got a blessing. The last night of my visit I was too happy to sleep, and passed most of the night in praise and renewal of my own consecration, and these little couplets formed themselves and chimed in my heart one after another, till they finished with, ‘Ever, ONLY, ALL for Thee!’
 
In her own words, the hymn is a ‘consecration hymn’ in which the singer commits all of her possessions and being to the Lord for his purposes. It expresses what each of us ought to feel and long for, even if at times we see so much disparity between the words and our actual state that we have to sing most of it in hope and faith…
 
Take My Life and Let It Be Hymn Lyrics
 
Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
 
Take my hands, and let them move At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee.
 
Take my voice, and let me sing Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips, and let them be Filled with messages from Thee.
 
Take my silver and my gold; Not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect, and use Every power as Thou shalt choose.
 
Take my will, and make it Thine; It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart; it is Thine own; It shall be Thy royal throne.
 
Take my love; my Lord, I pour At Thy feet its treasure-store.
Take myself, and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee."
 
***
 
Do you have a favorite hymn or scripture that helped you through a difficult time? If so, would you be willing to share your story with me and with our readers? If so, please email it to me at lpolson1966@gmail.com
McCurdy Ministries Community Center creates hope and empowers the lives of children, youth, adults and families through education, life skills, and faith-based programs in Española, New Mexico.
 
The month of September reminds us that soon we will see the shortening of days and feel the change in temperature as we experience the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. 

Please join us in praying that McCurdy’s programs will continue to have a powerful and positive impact on the children and families of the Española Valley throughout the end of this year. May we always seek God’s guidance and blessings in everything we do.
 
McCurdy Board and Staff
Through our Volunteer Newsletter, we are providing the latest information about volunteer opportunities at McCurdy Ministries Community Center and sharing helpful tips about planning a mission trip to Española. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or suggestions about articles or resources. Send your suggestions or questions to Linda Polson at lpolson1966@gmail.com. Linda is an MMCC Board Member and experienced VIM Team Leader.
 
For more information about McCurdy Ministries Community Center, click on the link below to go to our website at www.mccurdy.org. Also, don’t forget to like McCurdy Ministries Community Center on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mccurdyministries or use the link below.


McCurdy Ministries Community Center creates hope and empowers the lives of children, youth, adults and families through education, life skills and faith-based programs
in Española, NM.