I got an e-mail this week from someone at Overlook Presbyterian Church in Mobile, Alabama. She said that their church wanted to partner with a church in San Diego to help with the fire relief. After looking at our church website, they felt that this was the church they wanted to work with!

Here’s the e-mail that we received:

Good morning,

My name is Deb Futral and I am the Chair of our Mission and Outreach Committee at Overlook Presbyterian Church in Mobile, AL. After hurricane Katrina our church received numerous donations from across the country for disaster relief in our community… We went, we took food and supplies, we cleaned, we built, we distributed, we housed and WE GREW in our love for our neighbors and understanding of becoming a missional church. We continue to grow and discover.

After seeing the pictures of the fires, our session voted to send money from our disaster fund to San Diego. During my quiet time the Holy Spirit told me to seek an “Overlook” in San Diego. So, to the web I went and the PCUSA site to find a church… I knew the minute I clicked on your site I had found where the spirit was leading me.

Next Sunday I will present a Moment for Mission and we will put your website on the screen for our congregation to see and feel a connection. We will be collecting contributions through November and will send a check the beginning of December to assist in your efforts to help your neighbors.

In Christ,
Deb Futral

Sermon by Markus Watson on November 11, 2007

This is the third of a five part series titled “The Big Picture - An Overview of the Bible”

Theme – After Babel, God chose Abraham and his descendants to be God’s people on earth. Through Abraham’s descendants — Israel — the earth would be blessed. They were, so to speak, God’s missionary people in the world. This wasn’t a bad solution, but it wasn’t God’s final solution.

This sermon may be downloaded to your local machine by right clicking (or control clicking on a Mac) on the link above and saving the mp3 file to your local hard drive.

It is recommended that you give Juice a try. Juice is an open source podcast receiver, allowing users to capture and listen to podcasts.

Northminster worked with volunteers from all over San Diego and as far away as the Long Beach area to fill Sand Bags for the victims of the recent fires.

While there we learned that the sand bag facility is a completely volunteer effort which was originated by one city employee that saw a need and started making calls. All materials and labor are being donated to provide sand bags to residents for erosion control.

We left with sore backs and the knowledge that we had provided assistance to fire victims that had more urgent things to deal with in their lives than fill sand bags.

This coming Saturday, November 10^th, volunteers from Northminster’s congregation and the surrounding community will be getting together to help fill sand bags at the Rancho Bernardo Recovery Center in support of the fire recovery effort. Volunteers will be carpooling from the church parking lot at 7:30 a.m. (4324 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.), or meeting at the Rancho Bernardo Recovery/Local Assistance Center a little after 8:00 a.m.. The center is located at 18448 West Bernardo Drive, San Diego, Ca. 92127. Please join us in this worthy effort.

All volunteers of high school age and older are invited to join us. Volunteers will need to fill out a Medical Release and Consent Form prior to assisting, which can be picked up at the church office during weekly office hours or before leaving on Saturday morning. Volunteers under 18 years of age must come with a Consent, Waiver and Release of Liability Form signed by their parent or guardian. Please contact the church office at (858) 490-3995 before 3:30 on Thursday afternoon if you are planning to attend. Volunteers are asked to bring work gloves, hats, sun screen, a bag lunch and water bottles. We hope to see you Saturday!

What a fun, crazy, busy week this has been! Monday we had a fun Young Life club! Kids dressed in their halloween costumes, we played games, and leader Matt Knox talked about having Jesus in his life.

Wednesday- Halloween, I turned 25 and took the Wyldlife kids “reverse” trick or treating. We filled up bags, walked to Clairemont Square, and handed out our candy! We trick or treated on the way back, and ended up filling the bags back up. It was a different, fun, memorable experience.

Also Wednesday, leader Matt Knox attended UC High’s lunch club with Urban Youth Collaborative leader Nate Landis. Thursday leaders Matt Knox, Jonny Sherfy, Joey Partyka, Mark Presley and I lead Madison High’s lunch Bible Club, and I did a talk on letting Jesus be your Lifeguard.

Thursday night at our Fall Banquet we celebrated what God is doing in Clairemont Young Life! We raised double the amount of money we had hoped for–Praise God– and had a great time of fun, laughter, fellowship, with guest speaker Mike Curran. Mike is an area director for Young Life in the Point Loma area. Thank you to everyone who came to this event, and thank you to Haley Montgomery for the awesome music!

Friday an old Young Life leader came to visit for the weekend- Noah Lopez. Noah was a leader from 2001-2003, and now lives in San Jose. He got to go to the Madison High School homecoming game with us on Friday night.

Saturday Noah helped our Young Life group sell hot dogs at the Preschool Carnival, which was a lot of fun. We decorated my van with window markers and streamers, bought two bottles of sparkling cider, then later picked up five Madison high students for their homecoming dinner and dance. We took them to dinner, then gave them a ride to their dance. It was so much fun and we were able to reminisce about the old days, when we were in high school.

This weekend two Young Life girls accepted Jesus as their Savior! This is why we do what we do! Stay tuned for more updates. For more pictures, see the gallery. God Bless you!

Chelsea

Sermon by Markus Watson on November 4, 2007

This is the second of a five part series titled “The Big Picture - An Overview of the Bible”

Theme - God created us to be in a perfect relationship with Him. But we turned our backs on God and have been living in separation from Him ever since. God’s desire is to bring us back to Him. He continues to cry out, as he did to Adam and Eve, “Where are you?!” After Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, the world plunged deeper and deeper into sin. God’s first response was the flood, starting over with Noah’s family. But humanity again fell into sin, until God finally scattered humanity across the earth at the Tower of Babel.

This sermon may be downloaded to your local machine by right clicking (or control clicking on a Mac) on the link above and saving the mp3 file to your local hard drive.

It is recommended that you give Juice a try. Juice is an open source podcast receiver, allowing users to capture and listen to podcasts.

Please join us on Thursday, November 1 from 6:30 pm-9:00 pm for our Young Life Fall Banquet and Concert! It will be a delicious dinner, student testimonies, music by up and coming artist Haley Montgomery, special entertainment, speaker, silent auction, and more! We are currently collecting silent auction items, such as gift baskets, gift cards, etc. Tickets are $10, children are welcome!

Please contact the church office for additional information.

Our “Wild Wild West” Carnival is Saturday, November 3, 2007 from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. This is Northminster Preschool’s biggest fund raiser of the year.

There will be games, silent auction, raffle drawing, bake sale, youth group hot dog sale, and church sponsored craft sale.

All are welcome.