Join Northminster in helping the homeless January 13, 14, and 15.

Here in San Diego County, it is not uncommon for as many as many as 2,000 individuals to be homeless on any given night. Many of them are children.

The Interfaith Shelter Network (IFSN) consists of 120 faith congregations in the county who link up during the cold weather months to provide food and shelter for some of these people. An IFSN homeless shelter will be set up at Clairemont Lutheran church, (across the street from NPC) for most of January 2008. For three days, Northminster Presbyterian will be responsible for providing donations for breakfast and lunches, cooking dinner for about 12 individuals, and providing one or more persons to spend the night at the church. There are other ways you can help as well.

This is a great volunteer opportunity for friends, families and organizations to work together in this important endeavor. To learn more, please visit the sign-up table between Sunday services, or call Johana at 858-467-1836.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, reminding us again of God’s abundant gifts to us. The past few weeks have brought horrendous loss and pain to the county. We continue to comfort and assist those whose losses have been great, and we hold the community in prayer, especially during this grieving/healing time following the fires.

Traditionally, each year at this time Northminster has received offerings of funds and goods to assist those in direst need in the San Diego community at Christmas time. In the past these offerings were received separately for the Community Christian Service Agency (CCSA), Military Outreach Ministries (MOM), and the Presbyterian Crisis Center (now known as Presbyterian Urban Ministries, BUM) over several Sundays prior to Christmas. This year ONE offering to benefit ALL THREE outreach agencies will be received on Sunday, November 14. Our gifts, therefore, will be available early enough to ASSURE that special Christmas assistance WILL be available to those in need in Clairemont, San Diego, and nearby communities.

Our thanks-giving is obvious in our thanks-living. We are so thankful for the OPPORTUNITY of being called into the service of God, the Giver of Life. Let us continue to pray for God’s people everywhere, and let us PARTICIPATE GENEROUSLY in this tangible giving of ourselves this Sunday.

Special ‘Thanksgiving Offering’ envelopes will be enclosed in the bulletins on Nov. 18. or your offering may be mailed to the Church Office, please mark it “Thanksgiving”.

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

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!

For the next two weeks, Northminster’s congregation, along with the San Diego Presbytery, will be collecting the following items in support of the fire victims throughout San Diego County. Thank you for all of the support offered so far and please continue to contribute as you can. Delivery trucks and drivers are also needed to transport these items to the distribution centers when our collection is complete. Please contact the church office if you can help in this effort.

Emergency Clean-up Buckets

These supplies enable people to begin the overwhelming job of cleaning up after a disaster. The value per Bucket is $45.

• One five-gallon bucket with resealable lid
• Five scouring pads
• Seven sponges, assorted sizes
• One scrub brush
• Eighteen cleaning towels (reusable, like Easy Wipes®)
• One 50-78 oz. box dry laundry detergent
• One 12 oz. bottle of liquid concentrated household cleaner (like Lysol®)
• One 25 oz. bottle liquid disinfectant dish soap (like Dawn®)
• Fifty clothespins
• Clothesline, two 50 ft. or one 100 ft.
• Five dust masks
• Two pairs latex gloves
• One pair work gloves
• One 22-27 count roll heavy-duty trash bags (33-45 gallon, remove roll from box)
• One 6-14 oz. bottle of insect repellent (drops or lotion, not aerosol)

Please purchase all liquids in plastic bottles. Be sure to send only new, unopened materials. Put all items in the plastic bucket, making sure they are packed securely to avoid damage during shipment, and seal lid with packing tape. If shipping, place each Bucket in a separate box.

Tools

• Rakes
• Shovels
• Wheel Barrows

Hygiene Kits

• One hand towel (no fingertip or bath towels), measuring approximately 16″ x 28″
• One washcloth
• One wide-tooth comb
• One nail clipper
• One bar of soap (bath size in wrapper)
• One toothbrush* (in original packaging)
• Six Band-Aids ® (available at the 99 cent store)

Seal all items in a one-gallon plastic bag with a zipper closure. *Toothpaste that has an extended expiration date will be added to Health Kit shipments just prior to shipment.

All items should be brought to the church during office hours. Please contact the church office (858-490-3995) for additional information.

If you have not already dropped off something at NPC for the Fire Relief, we plan to continue to collect items on Thursday & Friday 25 & 26 Oct.

Other suggestions are items needed to enable people to begin the overwhelming job of clean up after the disaster include the following:

• Sun Screen(Lotion)
• Hats/Visors
• Bucket
• Scouring Pads
• Sponges
• Scrub Brush
• Liquid Cleaner
• Dish Soap
• Clothespins
• Cloths Line
• Latex Gloves
• Work Gloves
• Trash Bags
• Insect Repellent (Lotion)
• Hygiene Kits: Pkg. In Zipper Bag
• Hand Towel
• Wash Cloth
• Comb
• Nail Clipper
• Bar Of Soap
• Toothbrush
• Band Aids

Thank you so very much for your generosity.

Be safe and God Bless!

The 211 Phone Line is OVERWHELMED with people needing to be directed to resources to help them “right now”. The 211 Phone Line is for those who have been impacted by the fires & need help or help for their families trying to get info about their loved ones.

If you can help, please email Chelsea with your full name or call the church office at 858-490-3995. Chelsea will coordinate our response to the County. We need to know ASAP if you can help.

They will train — they just need people.

The call center is located in MISSION VALLEY and there are 4 hour shifts of 20 people each that need to be staffed. The shifts start at 4 pm, 8 pm, and 12 am.

If you are available, let’s step up and help to fill the need.

To help the victims of the fires and the evacuees here in San Diego County, we’re asking for your help. Please bring blankets, books, and games to the church on Wednesday, October 23, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

We also need 2 or 3 volunteers with trucks or vans who can deliver the donations in the afternoon. If you can help with the delivery, please call the church office at 858-490-3995.

The church is located at:

4324 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92117

Thank you for helping!

I’m sitting in front of my computer trying to think what I can possibly say about the fires in Southern California without it sounding trite or inauthentically spiritual. Thousands are suffering tonight, and all I can think is, “I have no idea what they must be going through.”

It’s hard to believe the amount of destruction Southern California has sustained in these last two days. The fires that we’ve all seen and heard about on the news or while driving by on the freeway have burned over 240,000 acres of land and at least 655 homes (from the AP).

That means that there are at least 655 families in Southern California who now have no home to return to. And there are thousands of others who are praying and waiting to hear if their homes are safe or if they’ve also been destroyed.

I want to first offer up prayers for those who have been impacted by this fire. We’re praying for God to take care of you and comfort you in your suffering. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have lost everything.

And as a church, my prayer is that we would step out and do what we can to bring relief to those who are suffering in our community and our region. I pray that not only Northminster, but all of God’s people in Southern California, would reach out with love to those who need it–not only caring for people emotionally and spiritually, but providing for them physically.

My words feel thin to me, as though I can’t truly express what I’m feeling. So, I guess I’ll leave with these words of hope from Psalm 34:18:

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those who are crushed in spirit.