Offering of Letters update!

Thank you for writing letters to your members of congress at the beginning of summer!  I am proud to say that we collected almost 100 letters from members from Central and Loveland Presbyterian Churches and had successful meetings with each office.

The letters you wrote on behalf of hungry people had a tremendous impact on our leaders. Because of the debt ceiling debate our request changed a bit to ask for protection for the programs that help hungry people. All members were receptive to our requests but as many of you know, wrestled with the budget ceiling debates late into July. Your letters, personal emails, phone calls made a huge difference for the hungry.

While many programs were saved in the initial round of cuts, the bipartisan “super committee” must consider all parts of the budget which might include cuts to some programs essential to the hungry.  Much is still at risk, and we will need your help to protect these important programs during the next stage of this process. We must ensure that long-term reforms are balanced and spending cuts are fair, so that the burden of deficit reduction doesn’t fall on the most vulnerable people.

If you would like to continue to be involved as a voice speaking on behalf of the hungry- please contact Phil Goerner (pgoerner@gmail.com) for more information.

Thank you for the role you play in helping hungry and poor people in the United States and around the world!

Are you curious about the churches in the Synod of Zambia?

While Chawama Central Church is similar to our church by tracing its origin roots from Scotland, they have a different organizational structure than in the US. It is quite interesting and may be the reason why churches are growing so rapidly in Zambia!

As some of you may know, here in the US, the Presbyterian Church, USA, is organized in a democratic/representative manner. There are over 11,000 congregations which are organized into 173 Presbyteries (district governing bodies). Our church is one of 41 churches in northern Colorado and Nebraska that sends representatives to the Presbytery of Plains and Peaks, which meets quarterly. Our Presbytery sends representatives to the Synod of the Rocky Mountains and then to the national governing body, the General Assembly.

The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) has only one Synod in Zambia, with 10 Presbyteries and around 60 congregations.  Then, the structure gets interesting.

Each congregation is responsible for sharing their faith and fellowship with the surrounding communities. So, each church begins to plant “prayer houses” which are groups of people meeting together in a home, classroom or other available space.  These prayer houses have both members and elders from the home church who help run the service, preach and organize.

There is greater need for prayer houses because transportation is often an issue (most folks walk to church). So, a 3rd level of outreach is established in areas called “preaching points”. The purpose of the preaching points are to send elders and members to areas where a prayer house may be welcome.

Once a year or more, all the prayer houses meet at the host church. Easter is an example a time when all prayer houses meet at the host church to share a 2-3 day festival and communion. Krista and I were a part of such a celebration last November with the induction of the new minister at Chawama, Abusa (Reverend) Daniel Tembo.

The prayer houses have many of the same responsibilities as the church. Elders are ordained, offering taken (of course!) and Sunday School is offered. These prayer houses often grow quickly and can request to the Presbytery to form their own Church.

When Central Presbyterian first started their relationship with Chawama Central in 2008, there were 5 prayer houses and 2 preaching points.

• Chawama (Means “It is good”)
• Lilayi (rural area, meets in school on police compound/training grounds)
• Kamwala (means “good hope)
• Kabwata
• Kafuela

About a year ago, Kamwata and Kafuela prayer houses were growing so quickly that they began plans to make their own church which they planned to call St Peters. They made a formal request to the Chawama Session to begin this process. It was approved, but the project (like a new church development project here) needed to have representatives, elders and families to help “grow” the church. They had several requirements such as regular services with substantial attendees and good offering receipts to show their sustainability. All these steps were approved so they were able to call a minister in December of 2011 and he was inducted in January 2012.

The Presbyterian Church in Zambia is growing rapidly.  Our partnership with Lusaka Central Presbyterian Church is flourishing and needs regular communication and commitment to remain strong.  The new St. Peters congregation, which contains many original members from Lusaka Central, will also grow and reach out to welcome new members.  They, too, will seek a sister church.  These partnerships benefit both congregations, expanding awareness and compassion for each other’s lives and challenges through faith and the love of our savior, Jesus Christ.

Presbytery 8/13

6am -

Report:
Hunger Action Advocate report
Update on Offering of Letters: Many thanks to all the folks that wrote letters and emails to their members of congress urging them to put a circle of protection around the poor and programs that protect them such as WIC, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program etc.  Thankfully these programs were not cut during the recent budget ceiling proposal.


Crop Walks in our Presbytery
Take advantage of this opportunity to raise funds for hungry people. Funds raised are split with Church World Service and local hunger needs. Join a walk in your area!

·         Boulder County CROP Hunger Walk 2011 October 23, 2011

·         Estes Park CROP Hunger Walk 2011 September 11, 2011

·         Fort Collins CROP Hunger Walk 2011 October 2, 2011

·         LaSalle CROP Hunger Walk 2011 October 8, 2011

·         Loveland CROP Hunger Walk 2011 October 1, 2011

·         Northeast Colorado CROP Hunger Walk 2011 September 11, 2011

·         Windsor CROP Hunger Walk 2011 October 2, 2011

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Disaster relief in Horn of Africa

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Huge drought conditions have resulted in famine and now disaster. CARE has identified 29,000 children under 5 have died from starvation, 600,000 Somalians are fleeing (PCUSA) and 12.4 million people are at risk for starvation in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti according to the UN. The need is great- and scientists predict that  conditions will continue until December.

If you have members that would like to contribute to disaster relief please use PCUSA disaster relief number DR999999. This will guarantee that 100% of all donations go directly to the affected area.