Visitors from Bolivia!
Save the Dates! Beginning August 23 we will be hosting 3 delegates from our partners in Bolivia, the UMAVIDA network, in the SF Bay Area. They will be busy visiting Earth Justice and Glenda Hope’s Ministry, meeting with OCO, Jean Gregorys 3 bridges tour, meeting with San Francisco Presbytery Joining Hands Coordinating Team. All MPC members are invited to join us for the following:
- Thursday, August 24, 7-9 PM, adult and youth gathering at First Pres, Oakland (Youth, bring your parents!)
- Friday, August 25, 6 PM, dinner at High Street Presbyterian, Oakland
- Sunday, August 26th, 10:30 AM, Celebration and reception, Clayton Valley Presbyterian, Clayton
- Sunday, August 26th, 5 PM, Celebration and dinner, Montclair Presbyterian Church, Oakland
For more information, and any new developments, contact Jean Gregory For additional information about the conference go to the official website. View bios about our guests, look at the Together for Justice blog, here.
From Kevin Fallehy: Sunrise on the last leg. Our fearless leader starting the first shift of the last leg home. Sunset in our rearview mirror and the anticipation of our families and friends closing in on our windshield.
Today marks the first leg in our journey home. We will drive in four states today, most of it on Interstate 80. We were up by 5 a.m. and on the road by 6:17. The drivers are tired, but we’re switching often and holding up well-keeping safe. We stopped for lunch (peanut butter and banana or potato chip sandwiches and fruit) in Wyoming, about three miles from the state line into Utah. We had our first sighting of buffalo at lunch.
Here’s our group taking a break from the road and imagining what it would be like to make this journey by covered wagon…
After some progress with weeds and some connecting with the children, we ate lunch and then left for another site visit. At the Action Center we got to experience are large share house facility that provides multiple services including a food, clothing and household goods pantry. Donations were constantly being dropped off during the 3 and a half hours that we were there and because it was such a busy day for the center, they were falling behind on sorting clothes. Staff was needed at the front desk, and so it worked out well that we were there to help out. We sorted clothes and got them out onto the “shopping” area as fast as we could. It was amazing how rapid the turnover was.
After our time at our various site visits was up, we met back at denUM for a food stamp challenge of trying to find dinner on a budget of 1.20 per person. A major challenge was that we needed to purchase the food while staying in the neighborhood, for which we quickly learned I’d a “food desert”. We all have great compassion tonight for what folks must go through being in this situation meal after meal.
This is a photo of our group enjoying a quick snack lunch outside of the Colorado History Center, a beautiful and powerful series of interactive museum exhibits about various cultural aspects of the State’s history. It offered us some clues toward the question of root causes of poverty.
From here, we needed to split the crew into two groups to meet the size needs of the service sites we were attending. The first group headed out to a nursing home, where we were met by a representative of Bessie’s hope, an organization committed to bringing care and joy to residents of nursing homes who receive very few visits from family and friends, if any at all. We were given an orientation and then helped lead a program with some of the residents, whom we called our “grand-partners.”. We learned how to warmly greet them, engage them in conversation, led the group in singing, helped them with a fan making craft project.
From our afternoon sites, we immediately joined up for the urban walking tour, led by our staff contact at Denver Urban Ministries. It was hot and we were all very tired. This impacted our experience by sensitizing us to challenges that those on the streets face, with no relief from the elements, the sounds, the glare, the constant movement of a city at work, and the feeling of hunger (the tour was from 5-6:30, and so we knew we would be eating dinner late). Our eyes were opened during this experience.
We enjoyed a delicious spaghetti dinner, followed by recreation, and our evening reflections. We all agreed tonight that this is definitely an “urban plunge” experience. In just three days in Denver we have seen and experienced so much, and tomorrow is another full day! More to come tomorrow.
Hello All! Thanks for continuing to follow our updates. Today, our job is painting, painting, painting. Spirits are good, and have been made even better by a frozen Custard (ice cream) and lunch break. We sought out air conditioning at the restaurant because it’s a scorcher of a day and there’s not a lot of shade at the house. We’re working hard painting the house of a very nice lady, Judi, who is in need of the assistance. Stacy Canzoneri, Emma Carray, and Linnea Gullikson enjoyed the opportunity to hear some of Judi’s life story.
We have been vigilant with water drinking, ladder safety, and sunscreen.
After serving dinner to 281 guests at the Rescue Mission soup kitchen, we returned back to our host church to celebrate Linnea’s birthday with ice cream and a cupcake loaded with candles for the birthday girl to blow out. And then we had our next round of the ping pong tournament that Chris organized. Jim and Oliver are the ones who will progress to the next round tomorrow. Today, we worked very hard and are playing very hard. Everyone agrees it’s time for bed!