Friendship and More

For seventeen years Brian and Melody McQuitty, pictured on the left, have operated the Friendship Coffee gathering on the second and fourth Thursday of the month at SPPC.  They have made countless pots of coffee, supplied a boatload of goodies, and welcomed newcomers and oldtimers alike to share a chat and a few laughs.  After all this time, they have decided to step aside.  Fortunately, Brian and Vivian Lawrence, pictured on the right, have taken up the mantel and Friendship Coffee will continue as before.
    I say fortunately, because this is one of those quiet ministries which fulfills a major role in our congregation.  One cannot overstate the importance of fellowship at SPPC.  Whether it is our demographic, our location, or some other reason, our members feel the need to gather together.  Friendship coffee provides companionship for those who are lonely, respite for those who are burdened, and a welcome for those who are strangers. 
      At one time Melody and Brian suggested the Friendship Coffee take a summer break.  They were quickly voted down.    
    While it is not a Presbyterian tenet that men and women should gather separately, Friendship coffee seems to divide into two groups.  Men talking about whatever men talk about and women chatting and knitting.  Melody must have learned her Sunday School lessons well, " In Works of Labour or of Skill I would be busy too: For Satan finds some mischief still for idle Hands to do."  I. Watts, for she has persuaded, taught, cajoled, nagged, . . . until nearly all the women knit while enjoying their coffee.  The products are often cotton dish clothes, which are delivered to the Compassionate Warehouse, for distribution in Africa.  These cotton squares, when washed and dried in the sun, are sterile enough to be used in surgery, where hospital supplies are sparse.  SPPC has sent thousands and thousands of them to needy villages via the McQuitty's and the Compassionate Warehouse.
   Those who aren't making cotton squares, are often knitting teddy bears.  Lois Shold has made 1000 of them herself, Hazel Taylor, 1300.  Again these are distributed through the Compassionate Warehouse wherever children are in need of a smile and a cuddle.  The output from our congregation is amazing.  Every three or four weeks Brian and Melody stuff their car with donated goods and head for the warehouse in Esquimalt.  
   There is also a saucer beside the coffee pot, to collect loonies and toonies.  Over time these donations add up and are given to PWS&D.
      We are grateful to the McQuitty's for their dedication and service and thankful to the Lawrence's who saw a need and stepped in to fill it.  Here's to Thursday mornings and a cup of coffee among friends.

Foster Child

   About ten months ago SPPC was assigned a foster child from Pakistan.  She lives in the Chakwal district, about 100 km south of Islamabad.
   Our foster child is fortunate in that she attends a school in her home town and will have the opportunity to attend a college for women there as well.  In Pakistan over 60 million girls do not have the opportunity to attend school.  70% of women and girls live in extreme poverty and are much more likely to be malnourished than males.

  Our foster child is 12 years old, lives in a brick house wth a reed roof about one kilometer from a well that supplies clean drinking water.  She has five brothers and a younger sister.  The family is Muslim and their language is Punjabi.
   Last fall the children at SPPC wrote to her, discussing their favourite foods.  Here is her reply (translated.)
   Hello, I am fine, and hope that you will be fine also.  I was glad to read your letter.  Greetings to all of you.  To Benjamin:  I was glad to read your letter.  I hope that you will be fine also.  I would like to eat pizza.  I like music.  To Norma:  I was glad to read your letter.  You pray for my health and happiness.  I was glad to see your picture.  You all sit together.  You all are sweet.  I would like to go to school.  I am fond of studies.  To Megan:  I was glad to read your letter.  My best friend's name is Hania.  Her house is near to my house.  It's winter season here.  I would love to eat dry fruit.  To Rebekah:  I was glad to read your letter.  I was happy that you remembered me.  It's winter season here.  I would like to eat dry fruits in winter.  I like music.  Good-bye
  

 Following Irwin's children's time with the tulips, the senior class at SPPC decided to write to our Pakistani friend and include drawings of tulips.


   "It's a small world" is synonymous with Disneyland, but the love and care of a Christian community can encompass our vast planet and make it a small world too.   Thanks to the teachers and children of our Sunday School for their ministry.


With thanks to Norma Scott and Diane Cunningham.

Men's Breakfast

The Men's Breaakfast is one of the oldest fellowship programs at SPPC.  It was begun at least twenty-four years ago, while the congregation was meeting in space rented from the Seventh Day Adventist Church.  It fell under the auspices of "Congregational Life," a committee of Session with the mandate to promote fellowship within the congregation. 

     At the time there was a very active ladies group, but nothing specifically for men.  Since it's a well-known fact that men like to eat, a Men's Breakfast seemed the perfect solution.   The number of men attending averages 15 a month, although a personal invitation will induce more men to give the gathering a try.

   Bill Stewart, pictured here, is the third convenor of the program.  He's been cooking breakfast at the church on the last Saturday of the month for years.  He keeps the menu simple, does the shopping and keeps the coffee hot.  He also oversees the clean up, where everyone pitches in.  George Allen is faithful with the dishwasher.  The men I interviewed took pains to point out that the kitchen is cleaner when they leave than when they come in.  Since I have no evidence to the contrary, I took their word for it.

   As well as breakfast and comradeship, the men have enjoyed guest speakers ranging from football players discussing religion in professional sport to police officers presenting defensive driving techniques, particularly for seniors.

   

   Bill is stepping down from his position.  He says that after many years in a job, people become stale.  It's time for a fresh approach, but he is as committed as ever to the need for the Men's Breakfast and similar programs.  For some members of our congregation, this is their only social network.  It provides that vital human connection so necessary in a society where many are lonely and isolated.  Even members of the congregation who can no longer attend Sunday services, are able to attend Men's Breakfast, since Bill and others arrange to pick them up and take them home.

 

      Romans 12;13 reminds us to show hospitality.  Thanks Bill, for all your years of invitation and service and showing forth hospitality.

Sorrow

Let not your heart be troubled
Ye believe in God
Believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many mansions
If it were not so I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you
And if I go to prepare a place for you
I will come again and receive you unto myself.

It has been a sad week at SPPC with memorial services for two of our members.  We shall miss seeing them at Sunday worship.  We'll miss them at the coffee hour.  We'll miss their helping hands and willing hearts in any number of tasks.  One was an elder.  We'll miss his knowledge and service on the Session.

Our community will miss them, visiting at Saanich Peninsula Hospital, volunteering for the Peninsula Emergency Measures Organization, serving in their recreational clubs, sharing encouragement and Christian love.

No one will miss them more than the families they leave behind.  Those who will witness day after day, the empty chair at the table, the missing note in the music of family life, the silence where once there was laughter.

At times like these the love and care of the congregation shines through the gloom like a beacon, pointing toward the Light of the World.  A card in the mail box, flowers at the door, an invitation to coffee, shared tears, music, ritual, food.  All these small acts bring comfort and show forth the love of God. 

It has been a sad week at SPPC but we give praise and thanks to God for the gift of Jesus.  Thank God that grief and sorrow is not the end of life, but the beginning of eternal life.  We commend our brother and sister to God's care in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection when all believers will meet again in Christ.

Annual Congregational Meeting

 Sunday we held our Annual Congregational Meeting.  Here our clerk of session, Jean Strong, who also "volunteered" as secretary for the meeting and our minister, Rev. Irwin Cunningham prepare for the business part of the day. 

   But first, we ate.

Acts 2:41-42, in speaking of the first

converts to the church says they

devoted themselves to the apostles'

teaching and fellowship, to the

breaking of bread and the prayers.

At SPPC, we do the breaking bread part very well. 

Apart from an excuse to eat together, the annual meeting gives the congregation an opportunity to review the year that was and to set goals for the year to come.  One often thinks of the budget as the major item in a meeting of this sort but there were reports from over twenty individuals and groups within the church, showing that we are much more than the maintenance of a building and the payment of accounts. 

    We have music (two reports) learning (two reports) mission and outreach (we supported at least 12 different charities, close to home and farther away,) but what came through over and over again in the pages of the annual report, was that we are a community who love one another.  That commitment to love shines through all the work of the congregation whether it be under Pastoral Care, or Fellowship, or our budget allocation to PWS&D.   As one congregant so eloquently put it, "We come to church one day a week to hear the minister talk and the choir sing.  The other six days we are the heart and hands of God."  Amen

Sunday School Bake Sale

The congregation at SPPC has responded generously to the many appeals for emergency aid throughout the year, so, in a sense, every month is mission month, but it is our tradition to designate February for a special focus on the needs of others.  To that end, the Sunday School held a bake sale on Sunday, Feb. 12, with proceeds to go to the Christian Blind Mission. 



     As the poster in the above picture shows, the hope is to supply The Miracle of Sight!   For $33.00 we can purchase cataract surgery for a father like Isaack.  Removal of his cataracts means he can work again, keep his small farm and maintain his family.  A miracle indeed.

     For $50.00 we can supply a family with two pigs.  The pigs eat vegetable scraps, provide natural fertilizer for the family garden and produce large litters of piglets every year.  In short they provide food and an income that a family, and eventually a whole village,  can depend on.

    $6.00 provides a school toolkit for a blind child, including braille paper, a stylus and slate.  $34.00 purchases a pair of eyeglasses for a child and $15.00 gets a toy for a child with special needs.  Toys like a vibraphone to help children distinguish sounds and colours.

   It appears the children at SPPC will get their wish.  The items listed above come to $138.00.  On Sunday morning the sale had raised $350.25 in cash with more donations to come in cheques and through the envelopes.  What's more, an anonymous donor in the congregation has offered to match money raised through the bake sale.  There will be enough money to meet the wish list with more left over for things like casts and splints($37.00) for children with clubfeet, or to purchase a rooster and two hens ($50.00) for a needy family.  Such precious gifts for the price of a cookie.

    Thanks to the congregation for your generosity and enjoy the cookies.

   

Thank you and Good-bye

For the past several weeks, our organist/choir director, Michael Denton, has been away. During this time, we've been fortunate to have Brian Richardson filling in on the bench.

    Although Brian has retired from full time work as a church musician, he hasn't retired his skill or his love of church music. During the past few weeks he has taught the choir some new hymns and introduced us to Taize music.  We sang three examples during the offeratory yesterday.  Brian's enthusiasm and knowledge shone through all our practices. We heard stories about Henry Purcell, Samuel Wesley, and Thomas More to name a few. The only complaint we ever heard him make was that choir practice was too short. He had so much more he wanted to share.
     Mr. Richardson also played for the Living Flame Choir, pictured here doing their imitation of a rainbow, and we thank him for his generosity there as well.

    As we say good-bye to Brian, we thank him for spending time with us and wish him well in his next endeavours. Apparently his "retirement" is a very active one since he's on the list for half a dozen churches all looking for a substitute this winter. Those who are lucky enough to secure his services are in for a treat.