May Happenings at SPPC

 

The link for this week's live-streamed service is here

Remember all those supplies we gathered in March for the Compassionate Resource Warehouse, bound for Ukraine? Thanks to Brian and Vivien we've received this report.

CRW UPDATE

Our POLAND-UKRAINE load was finished shortly before 6 pm today.
Over the last few days, some of the building supplies were loaded as they were delivered. This helped to have space inside the warehouse, and greatly reduced our loading time today. An amazing load of supplies-- plywood, sinks, doors, windows, crates of tools, plus so much more.

The back boxes of diapers were all collected and stored at Soap for Hope. They gathered these during our drive a few weeks ago. They still have more to share with future loads but they do make a colourful back door opening! Thank you Soap for Hope.

To all who have worked so hard, I hope you sleep well tonight, and tomorrow night and the next. This has been a heavy go and some very heavy days.

I am looking forward to seeing just how much this container weighs!

The consignee is already thrilled and excited to receive the load.
Thank you everyone.

This is good news indeed. However, they do not indicate they they are ready yet to receive further donations.  So we will keep checking to find out when this happens. -- Brian and Vivien

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The big wind on Wednesday did a little pruning on our the big cedar tree in the parking lot! Luckily no one was standing nearby when it happened, sometime between 2:00 pm and 6:00 pm. 

It's all cleaned up now and turned into a pile wood. 

Thursday was Friendship Coffee. Good to see so many people out enjoying a visit and some goodies. I was especially pleased to see Kathy out and about and sounding like herself again. She hopes to come to service on Sunday.

      During Bible Study on Wed. morning we talked about worship as gathering together in "holy expectation." While we have all been glad of the opportunity to "attend" worship through the on-line streaming, we have missed the gathering together. 

 

Don't forget to mark your calendars for June 4, when SPPC hosts a Platinum Jubilee "street party" in the parking lot in honour of Queen Elizabeth II's seventy years on the throne. Check out the Peninsula News Review story.  We are on page A-4.

     

   Weekly choir practice is back on the calendar.  Bible study is back in session. Sunday school has restarted. Regular committees are back at work. The sign up board has plenty of openings. Hard to believe that just a few short weeks ago we were getting ready for Christmas Eve Service amid worries about the electric power.

      In the "big wind" of 2018, some 800,000 households on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands lost power. Given the circumstances SPPC got off lightly. We never lost power completely but we did lose some. We have a three phase power system. A branch came down and touched the lines. We lost two phases. Not dire, but worrisome just before our biggest service of the year. 

     Our electrical services were so unpredictable life got complicated. Lights in the hall worked but not in the office. The organ had power but  the photocopier did not. Heat was erratic.

     Even once full power was restored timed systems, like the outdoor lights, were unreliable. On Christmas Eve the parking lot and driveway were in total darkness. Regular congregants had a hard time finding the gateway so what chance did visitors have?

     Turns out they managed just fine because we had a full house. The service was lovely. Ironically, we turned off the lights toward the end of worship, leaving the sanctuary lit only by candles as we sang "Silent Night." 

     Clean up is now complete, we think. Welcome all to SPPC in 2019--and bring a sweater, just in case.