Umuntu Ngamuntu Ngabantu !

The importance of Mothers...
I was preparing for a children's sermon at my home church and the scripture chosen for Mother's day was 2 Timothy 1:4-12. I was rereading vr 5- "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you."
While researching, I ran across an article by Lamin Sanneh, professor of missions and world Christianity and history at Yale Divinity School. In his paper Naming and the Act of Faith he talks about the critical way our faith is passed from others to us, and connects us as people.
He describes a Bantu proverb Umuntu, ngamuntu, ngabanu - a person is a person because of other persons. "Faith connects us with others" Sanneh says. So when we work with hunger we are profoundly impacting our fellow Christians.
In my work with hunger, I have seen a lot of actions of faith. Speaking truth to power, caring for those suffering injustice and feeding the hungry. If we were Timothy's family, what types of examples of faith would we be showing our grandchildren's children?

Farm Bill update

This year's emphasis for our Public Policy work is to urge our senators and representatives to improve our nation's farm policy so that it better serves hungry people.

Already, our letters and phone calls are working. Bread For the World Regional Organizer Matt Newell-Ching reports that:

Thanks to our communication with our leaders, an Senators Dodd (D-CT) and Smith (R-OR) proposed an amendment to increase the International Affairs budget which would increase the amount of resources available for poverty-focused assistance. This added amendment is a critical one and was supported by over 1,000 phone calls from folks working hard for the hungry.

Let's keep it up! ~HAE

Souper Bowl of Caring update...

Many churches were able to participate in the Souper Bowl of Caring this year. This is an opportunity to collect funds for hungry people and support local mission. A complete report will be presented at Presbytery. But here is a list of participating churches this year. (almost double from last year!)

Central Presbyterian
Milliken Presbyterian
1^st Presbyterian Berthoud
1^st United Loveland
Mountain View Presbyterian Church
Community Church of the Rockies
United Presbyterian Church of the Apostles
1^st Presbyterian Boulder
Westminster Presbyterian Church
Family of Christ Presbyterian Church
Weldon Valley Presbyterian Church
1^st Presbyterian Church Sterling
1^st Presbyterian Church Akron
United Church of Broomfield
1^st Presbyterian Boulder (Children’s ministry)
St Andrews Presbyterian Church
Nederland Community Presbyterian Church

If your church participated, but is not listed- please post your results on the Souper Bowl of Caring website. You can also contact your Hunger Action Enabler. Thanks for all your efforts!

Seeds of Change

Advocacy? You Bet!

Many of you know that contacting your legislative leaders is an extremely effective way to advocate for hungry people.

Working with Bread for the World (a christian citizens lobbying group) is an great way to join other committed people of faith on specific issues. Many of you know that this year the Farm Bill is up for reauthorization. In it are several pieces that will affect hungry people.

Please consider holding an Offering of Letters at your church this spring. Make it a part of worship, or a meeting or even fellowship time. Plains and Peaks Presbytery will be holding theirs as a part of the May 18-19.

Please go to Seeds of Change for more information, or feel free to contact me!

Presbytery follow up!

Many of you know that at each meeting of the Plains and Peaks Presbytery we collect pennies for hunger during our meal times. Even though we only collect a little time, we pray that each gift may help the work that people are doing to make such a difference for hungry in this world. This past meeting our donations went to support the work of Jean Rankin of Sydney NE. She works with students trying to get their GED certificate. While doing so, she often feeds them or provides them with things that they need in order for them to be successful. Out of prayerful gratitude for her work, we donated the proceeds from our most recent Cents-Ability offering to Jean Rankin.

If you have an idea of who might benefit from the Cents-ability offering at St Andrews in Boulder- please contact me!

One Great Hour of Sharing!

By now, most of you are making your way through the promotion and interpretation of the One Great Hour of Sharing offering. There are many nice pieces in the kit this year, but if you need help try the Presbyterian Hunger Program web site. Once there you can click on new resources to order, art to download for your newsletters and bulletins and lots lots more! Please contact me if you need any help!

Christians in Baghdad...

On the video blog Alive in Baghdad, the most current piece is part of an interview with Father Hani Essa, a Christian priest. It is an extremley thoughtful piece that is really worth viewing. I found it interesting...you can hear the gunshots outside of his church as the interview progresses!

He begins by saying that his society has become very complicated "…now things are so mingled, you cannot distinguish between your enemies and your friends. This affects the whole society, whether Muslims or Christians."

I would love to hear what you think of his final comments about the strife within Iraq, and the forces from outside - "In a garden, you can see a lot of flowers, with different colors, and the more colors in the garden the more beautiful it is. Our nation has many colors and beautiful flowers. But I don’t think flowers fight one another saying, “I am better and more beautiful than you.”

Souper Bowl Time!

Brace yourselves sports fans....the SOUPER BOWL is almost upon us.

Yes the Souper Bowl of Caring! It is a youth-led, grassroots movement of caring, often young people joining together to fight hunger and poverty in their communities. It is an ideal way to engage communities of all faiths in the fight against hunger and poverty.

Each year, on or near NFL Super Bowl Sunday, Presbyterian churches join others in their communities asking their members to donate money or cans of food to those in need. That’s not all- on the Saturday before the big game- your students can participate in a Service Blitz, doing volunteer work within your communities.

Since 1990, $33 million has been raised for charities across the country. Last year in the Plains and Peaks Presbytery the youth in 10 churches collected over $1600, collected 600+ and had over 120 service blitz hours.

If you need more information- please contact me!

State of the Hunger Action Advocate...

Here is is the end of the year, and I am very grateful for the work that we have done together for hungry people. As people of faith, it is imperative that we work together to battle injustices and advocate for the poor.

Here are a few of the things we have done this fall...

Many churches celebrated Hunger Sunday in October.

October also hosted at least 6 CROP Walks for hungry people held in the communities of Boulder, Broomfield, Estes Park, Ft Collins, Greeley, LaSalle and Windsor. St Andrew's Presbyterian and Apostles drew many members as they participated in the Boulder walk which benefited Community Food Share, Church World Service and Bread for the World.

At our Presbytery meeting in late October, attendees participated in Centsability (meal offerings for hungry people ) where almost $30 in pennies was raised and donated to Our Center in Longmont. Packets to starting Centsability were awarded to congregations too.

Just Eating: Practicing Faith at the Table curriculums were also given to some congregations, and leadership training was scheduled.

The Souper Bowl of Caring celebrations are coming soon- and youth leaders of churches should be receiving a mailing very soon. The mailing will explain that in addition to collecting the dollar donations, youth are encouraged to serve hands-on at the charity of their choice the Saturday before the big game. We're hoping to have over 300 Presbyterian youth involved in the service BLITZ this year.

If you have any questions about these or other activities of your Hunger Action Advocate, please contact me!

Hunger Free Communities...

A year ago in June, my boys and I went to Washington to join other Colorado Bread for the World members Coloradoans to lobby congress to reaffirm the goal of ending hunger in the United States. Our goals were to get a report on progress made towards these goals, and continue to adequately fund food stamps and other national nutrition programs. Additionally, there was a grant component that would increase federal funding available to community-based anti-hunger organizations.

I'm happy to say that even though it took 2 years, late last week the Hunger Free Communities Act passed in the Senate. We are proud of our Colorado co-sponsors Senator Ken Salzar (Alex gave him a "hunger plate") and Representatives Diana Degette and John Salazar. How wonderful. I would encourage you to write these folks and thank them for their support. If you feel like it- write the other ones that didn't co-sponsor and encourage them to support other hunger work.

Our leaders have gone on holiday recess, without completing the majority of the spending bills for FY 2007, including poverty-focused development assistance. They will take up this business when they reconvene in January...So plan to contact those members after the first of the year.

The 110th Congress will take up the matter when it convenes in January. Now is the time to lay the groundwork--especially with newly elected members. Your congregation can take action by writing letters and participating in the offering of letters. Writing members of congress urging them to fully fund the poverty development assistance ($2 billion was requested by the President).

Keep writing and celebrating successes!

LaSalle Breaks the CROP records

Elaine Oster, from First Presbyterian Church was the coordinator for the LaSalle CROP walk held last weekend. She shared some wonderful news from the 2006 walk. There were

27 walkers (a little less than last year) but the walkers raised TWICE as much as they have before. They raised $2,056.50. Of that total amount, LaSalle First Presbyterian accounted for (drum roll please) $1,162. WOW!

PRAISE THE LORD!

Thanks for the update Elaine!

Boulder Crop Walk

Success for hungry people! Several CROP walks were held last weekend, and Alex and I were able to attend the one in Boulder. While final numbers are not in...the around 400 walkers were working hard to raise more than $40,000 this year! What a festival- there were lots of nice booths in the finish area, including Virginia's water carrying booth. I was able to carry a gallon of water on my head...but didn't trust myself to add more!

Pictured here is the fabulous group from St Andrew's Presbyterian Church who looked like they were in the running for the traveling trophy for most walkers from one group. Congratulations St Andrew for such a huge turn out!

I would love to hear about other walks in your areas- please leave a comment or give me a call! Foothills walk is this coming weekend and Fort Collins on the 21st. Check 'em out!

Listen to the voices!

Many of you know talented young people who have decided to serve the church. Becca is member of Longmont Central Presbyterian and is now serving with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance in Mississippi. Becca is currently the manager of the Pearlington PDA village and you can follow her experiences in her blog Becca on the Bayou. Check it out...I think you will learn right along with

Colorado Minimum Wage?

OK, we all should be concerned with the Colorado Minimum Wage issue coming up on this falls ballot (amendment 42). Here are some things to consider:

A minimum wage worker in Colorado earns just $5.15 an hour...that means if I'm working full time at 40 hours per week, I make just under $11,000 annually. I can't make ends meet...I'm still in poverty. There is no way I could raise my family. I'm not alone.

It is estimated that over 37,000 Coloradoans experience this type of poverty. It just isn't a living wage, and congress hasn't adjusted this since 1997. What we need to struggle with is how can we let this continue? Why can we let our fellow Coloradoans suffer?

Opponents say this will eliminate entry-level jobs and crush small businesses. Why would it have to be that way? Can't we find a way to help those struggling to find skills or become educated WHILE compensating them fairly with living wage? Wouldn't this strengthen our economy, and make us stronger? I encourage you to get to know the issues and the candidates for this fall. There are lots of hungry people that will be affected by your choices!

Update on CROP walks

Less than a month to go for some of our front range CROP walks! Get your family and co-workers to sponsor you. Remember $400,000,000 is raised annually to help stop hunger. You can help too! Call one of these organizers today!

Boulder	Sunday, October 8	Katy Kineavy (720) 261-9695
Broomfield	Saturday, Sept. 30	Connie Siebenrock (303) 431-4920

Foothills	Sunday, October 15	Peter Boddie (303) 979-5837
Fort Collins	Sunday, October 22	Roger Parmenter (970) 419-1219

Greeley	Saturday, October 7	Jack Stringer (970) 339-9924
LaSalle	Saturday, October 7	Elaine Oster (970) 284-6252

There are several in Denver too. If you would like more information on those...check the CROP WALK site!

Sweat Free T-shirts

College campuses are really something. Tonight on the news I saw where student activists on the Colorado University campus were protesting the sale of university apparel because was constructed in sweat shops. Sure looks like those students have been working on this issue for a while.

PC, USA has been working on it too as a part of their Enough for Everyone campaign. It is a great way to work on lifestyle issues. For example, when you buy clothing from the women's sewing cooperative in Nicaragua you make choices that support the world economy. Please consider using sweat free t-shirts when your fall sports team get together, or you celebrate in your Sunday school or even when you are just having fun with your family. You will be doing a good thing, and it will feel good too!

World Water Week

I was reading the blog Campus Bread this week where author Erin Luchenbill has an excellent article about the 1.2 billion folks that don't have access to fresh drinking water. It got me to thinking about our water here in eastern Colorado, and the depletion of the aquifer. Many farmers already know what may take some of us a long time to figure out...that this precious resource - water - is slowly being depleted. Seems like now would be a great time to talk about it since we just finished celebrating World Water Week. Erin suggested this, and I think it is a great idea...Do you have a story to share about water? Perhaps you have a reflection on a time when you didn't have access to water? Share your stories on my comment section and lets all remember the refreshment and life sustaining qualities of water.

Just Eating? Practicing Our Faith at the Table

Here is a terrific resource developed to be used for congregations as they explore the relationship between the way we eat and the way we live.

	the health of our bodies
	the health of the earth that provides our food
	the ways we use food to extend hospitality and enrich relationships
	the challenge of hunger

A guide is available for every congregation in order to study scripture, use prayer and tell stories about your local community as it relates to the global community as we explore key aspects of our relationship with food. Please contact the Hunger Action Enabler for your copy!

Click on the ICON on the right take a closer look!

Time to get ready!

Don't miss the opportunity to "rededicate ourselves to ending hunger in God's world!" Bread for the World suggests we take a chance to pray for the hungry and "renew our commitment" to share what we have with others. This is a terrific opportunity to add vital components to our worship between World Food Day (October 16) and Thanksgiving (November 23).

If you need ideas, Bread suggests six ways to celebrate this time...check 'em out! Many of our congregations begin our fall food drives around this same time- what a great way to make it
more meaningful for our members! You can also contact Tanory Ateek, Interim Bread for the World Organizer for more informaion.

Feel free to contact me for more information too!
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CROP walks

It is never to early to plan on attending or volunteering at a CROP walk to help hungry people. Boulder's CROP WALK is scheduled for October 8th and I know there are others too. Let me know if your community has one- I'll post it here!

CROPWALKS are usually held in Church World Service as fundraisers to help hungry people in your local area. For more information about these great events...click CROP WALKS!