HAPPENINGS THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF

ST. STEPHEN’S ON-THE-HILL UNITED CHURCH

AUTUMN 2014

VISIT US ONLINE AT WWW.LOVEGROWSHERE.CA

BACK TO CHURCH!

We mortals can predict a few changes in our lives - but for the most part, many of the changes that occur in our lives will come as surprises. And in each of those circumstances, we can ask how God might be working, and then listen for how God may be leading us.

As we mature spiritual-ly, we can become more aware of change. We can have the sense that everything is changing and seek to resist change as a way to exert control, the same way a teenager

can seek to force change as a way to ex-ert their will. Sometimes change means gain and change means loss. When Aga-tha Christie reached 75, speaking about her advancing age, she said: "I am enjoy-ing myself. Though with every year that passes, something has to be crossed off the list of pleasures. Long walks are off, and, alas, bathing in the sea; fillet steaks and apples and raw blackberries (teeth difficulties) and reading fine print." She went on to describe how much she still had left to enjoy, but we can see how she was noticing how much things were changing. Another aging person, ex-pressed the sense of rapid alterations tak-ing place in his life when Henry Lyte wrote in a famous hymn, "change and decay in all around I see." But he went on to write, "O thou who changest not, abide with me."

In reality, some things do stay the same, or relatively so for a long time, but even-tually things give way to change. The God of the scriptures can always be found at work in the midst of change, leading people from slavery to freedom, from one place to the next, from the old to the new, and ultimately from death to life. Leading the people through some of the most substantial change they had ever encountered. When change intrudes up-on our lives, may we be open to listen for God’s leading. -Dale

Life’s Little and Not So Little Changes Time changes everything except some-

thing within us which is always surprised by change. –Thomas Hardy

Not long ago I was driving through an urban centre where, while sitting stopped at a traffic light, I found myself surround-ed by a sea of election signs. One of the candidates (obviously hoping to beat the incumbent) had the following words as his slogan: “vote for change.” I thought to myself change is not always something we can vote for or against. The fact is things change. There is change we some-times ask for, and then there is also the change for which we never asked. Alt-hough sometimes, we may fool ourselves into believing that things will never change or should never change.

This erroneous sense that things do not change or should not change is a constant theme in the scriptures. I realize there is a certain irony in saying this, for one of the testimonies about God in the Bible is that God does not change. For example, speak-ing through the prophet Malachi, God says, "For I the Lord do not change" (Mal.3:6). This same characteris-tic is extended to Jesus. The author of Hebrews, said, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8). Theologians even have a word for this characteristic of God: immutability. It means "unchangeableness."

We should recognize, however, that the fact of God's immutability in no way hin-ders God from using change as a tool of the Divine will. This God makes “all things new” (Rev.21:5). This is not to say that every change is the will of God, but it is to say that God is above change and operates through change.

Several years ago I saw a banner in a church that displayed a large footprint, and across it were these words: "The sign of God is that we are led where we did not intend to go." God is there to lead us through the change.

WALKING THE WALK… FOR THE COMPASS

On September 20, representatives of St. Ste-phen’s on-the-Hill enjoyed a sunny Saturday morning outdoors while participating in this year’s edition of “The Walk For The Com-pass.” The walk is an annual event that helps

to raise needed funds and awareness of The Compass ministry. The Walk began at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, through Port Credit, and down Mineola back to St. Mark’s where everyone was treated to some lunch. A big thank you to every-one who participated and to all of the sponsors who St. Stephen’s on-the-Hill contingent contributed to the financial and spiritual needs of The Compass..

HONDURAS MISSION - 2014 EDITION

Leslie Bentley is preparing to go to Honduras with Medical Miinistry International again. This is her 9th consecutive year offering her time to minister to the less fortunate in Hon-duras. You may not know this, but Leslie pays her own way to be a part of this mission. The team sets up a "home base" plus several days they will travel to small villiages to treat people who can't make the journey. “Going on the road ”is no small undertaking, as it not only involves travelling on bad roads, but also packing up a pharma-cy and dental chairs and loading them on pickup trucks for the jour-ney twice a day, and sometimes riding in the back of the truck to get there! Always needed items are acetaminophen, ibuprofen, childrens’ and adult multivitamins, toothbrushes and (feminine) anti-fungals, Polysporin or other antibiotic tubes, "tears," heavy cough medicines & ear wash kits. A box will be in the narthex up to and including Sunday Oct 26th. Financial donations are especially helpful as can be used for pur-chases locally; specific needs vary with the clientele. Donations can be made to St. Stephen's-on-the-Hill, ear-marked "Honduras", and a tax receipt will be issued to you.

One of the many ways St.Stephen’s on-the- Hills’ donations helped last year, was to enable this lady to smile with a full set of teeth. Full cost was $75.00 Canadian!!. When she returns, Leslie will update us on what our dollars were able to do this year.

A GOOD BOOK ABOUT JESUS?

Every now and then, someone asks me to recommend a good book about Jesus (other than the Bible). One that I have recently read that I highly recommend is Jesus: A Very Short Introduction by Dr. Richard Bauckham, Professor of New Testament Studies at Cambridge. The reasons I like this book are that Prof. Bauckham is an author with ex-cellent credentials, who takes seriously the question of the Jesus of history using the latest archeological and scholarly evidence. Howev-er, Bauckham does not ignore the Jesus of faith and shows how the two are related. The book itself is easy to understand, yet not without scholarly depth and insight. It will hopefully challenge, affirm and get readers to think about this man called Jesus who many believe is the Son of God,

I plan to lead a discussion group on this book through the month of November before we move into the Advent and Christmas seasons. If you would like to join, please add your name to the sign-up list at the church or email me at: dskin-ner@on.aibn.com. The book can be ordered online or from local booksellers. It is also availa-ble in electronic formats. Happy reading. -Dale

Book group dates: November 3, 10, 17 & 24.

Monday evenings from 7:30pm to 8:30pm.

It was back to church as St. Stephen’s on-the-Hill

marked the beginning of another Fall season with

our Great Fall Gathering chicken luncheon following

worship on September 21st. A big thank you to eve-

ryone who helped out from getting the chicken, to set

-up and clean-up and to the ones who contributed

salads and desserts. Even though the forecast has

been for rain, it ended up being a beautiful sunny

afternoon!

Thank you also to Kathryn Howard for her great photos.

Did you know that St. Stephen’s on-the-Hill United Church has a Facebook page? If you are on Facebook, why not “Like” our page. It is a great way to see pictures and learn more about church events.

THANKFUL THOUGHTS

“Before you go out into the world, wash your face in the clear crystal of praise. Bury each yesterday in the fine linen

and spices of thankfulness.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

“The man who has forgotten to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

“Every breath is a battle between grudgery and gratitude. Give thanks…and you win joy.” ~ Ann Voskamp

“O God, when I have food, help me to remember the hungry. When I have work, help me to remember the jobless.

When I have a home, help me to remember those who have no home at all. When I am without pain, help me to remem-ber those who suffer. And remembering, help me to destroy my complacency, bestir my compassion, And be concerned enough to help—by word and deed, those who cry out for

what we take for granted. Amen.” ~ Samuel F. Pugh

ATTENTION SSOTH YOUTH!

Our CN tower looms ever larger but we are ready for it this year just as we were last year. After a month of getting used to school and with reunions, the tower unites the youth as we climb to raise funds for the United Way. Following the climb, we return to a weekly schedule of events. Drop by the youth board to keep up to date with our happenings, or contact Josh Yun at 647-888-

Can You Help?

Volunteers are always needed in Ki-dzone or the Nursery. No matter how old you are, if you have a passion for

children or teaching, please think about giving some of your time dur-ing the year to help make our church home a friendly and hospitable place for others to come and grow in the

Christian faith.

Volunteers are also needed to help with things like coffee service, usher-ing, welcoming and counting. These

are valuable components of our church life and your help is always

needed and appreciated. !

Each week in Kidzone, we are al-ways excited to greet friends and newcomers for Bible stories, games, crafts and of course, snacks! Currently we are studying some stories of the Old Testament and soon, into Advent we will look forward to some special events leading up to Christmas and our Pageant on Sunday Dec. 20th !

Children of Kidzone continue to support their Foster child Daba, in Africa and during Advent will also be collecting toys for local children in need. Please consider bringing in an unwrapped toy for a child in need. Toy collection will begin on Sunday Nov. 30th . Special thanks to Alexander Chaisson for taking on this initiative, on behalf of Junior Youth

Calling all kids in grade 7 & 8!! Sun-day Oct. 26th is Saddle-Up Sunday!

Following the service we will be going horseback riding! Watch your email for more information! See a full schedule of events on the CD Bulletin board!

COMPASS NEWS from Lynda Appleby

As you know St. Stephens on-the-hill is one of the 16 church partners that support the Compass Food Bank and its other programs. We support this much needed social agency both fi-nancially and with volunteers from our congregation.

At the September Compass board of directors meeting I heard that food supplies were pretty low this summer. Part of this is because all the churches and other agencies that do food drives for the Compass are not very active in the summer months. The Mississauga Food Bank is the other way we regularly get the necessary food to stock the shelves for our clients.

The Mississauga Food Bank moved its location this summer and so they wouldn’t have to move so much inventory they slowed down the appeal for donations. This had a broad affect on all the various food banks that count on the MFB for a large portion of their food donations. They have now moved and recently had an open house. They twill again be concentrating on reaching out to their many food suppliers so we should re-ceive our usual food supplies shortly. In the month of August the clients that came to the Compass for food broke down as follows: 40 single parent fam-ilies, 52 two-parent families, 42 cou-ples no children, and 171 single per-sons.

Those of us that spend some time at the Compass know there are a lot of single people living down in the south-

ern part of the city, mostly in rooms or flats along Lakeshore Road. More than half of the clients who come to the Compass on a regular basis are on a Disability Pension or financed by Ontario Works, which is the new term for welfare.

Those on the Ontario Disability Pension are folks who have been deemed “unable to work”. These folks suffer either mentally or phys-ically from a condition that makes them unemployable on a more or less permanent basis. Many of the single folks that are Compass cli-ents fall under this group of gov-ernment support.

The Toronto Star recently had an article entitled “Disability makes poverty likelier than ever”. From the experience we see at the Compass this is certainly true in the catchment area of the Com-pass. There are also many people on

regular “welfare” who really could be deemed disabled but it takes a long time, and a lot of red tape, to move into this more permanent, and stable, area of funding.

Ontario welfare support has not kept up with inflation since it was frozen by Mike Harris’s social-welfare reforms back in 1995. A single person on Ontario Works, (welfare) receives about $626 a month and someone on disability receives about $1,086 per month. A small apartment along the lakeshore is hard to find under $900 a month and a basic room costs upwards of $500. Most of

Compass News con’t.

those rooms none of us would want to live in and they don’t come with cook-ing facilities other than a microwave oven. There is not much money left for nutritious food from these government supported incomes. As well the disabil-ities often get in the way of people be-ing good “money managers”.

Some suggestions for food do-nations are:

Flaked or chunks ham, chicken, tuna, and salmon are good choices for protein. Non-sugar cereals are best. 100%fruit juic-es such as apple or tomato. Fruit choices should be un-sweetened and fruits canned in water instead of syrup. Finan-cial donations for food purchas-es are also very welcome.

The Compass is in need of vol-unteers. The volunteer shifts are 2 ½ hours on either Mon-day, Wednesday or Friday. The most needed people are folks we call “shoppers”. They, on a one to one basis, keep track of the cost of the food a client is choosing as there are limits that they can take each time they come to shop. So you are a “manual adding machine” real-ly. You get to know people and will be with other volunteers from the many churches in our area. Phone the Compass at 905-274-9309 if you can offer some time for this really worthy cause usually right in your own part of Mississauga.

The SSOTH Outreach Commit-tee cordially invites you to a “Pot Luck Supper Challenge”

The supper is planned for Friday, November 7th from 6:00 to 7:30 PM in the SSOTH Common Room. Here’s the challenge! Your ‘pot luck’ dish must contain only the foods regularly available from a food bank like the one at The Compass. These foods include things like fresh carrots, potatoes, apples, canned or dried soup, pas-ta, canned vegetables, canned meat, canned fruit, cereal, peanut butter, sugar, flour, rice, milk and cooking oil. Keep in mind spices are expensive often in short sup-ply. You can use a little salt and pepper. Why not make it a family project to come up with some-thing really tasty? Please bring the recipe to share it with others. Dare to have your dish evaluated by one of our “celebrity judges” whose discerning palettes will be on hand! Please come and bring a friend to what we hope will be a fun and rewarding time together.

Support the Mission and Service Fund

By Giving Gifts of Vision

Looking for the perfect gift for someone who has everything?

Give gifts of goats, wells, and Indigenous language books in your loved ones’ names to projects that mend the world.

The United Church of Canada launched the new Gifts with Vision giving catalogue October 1, 2014, after three successful pilot years that raised $900,000 for more than 60 Mission and Service partners.

Gifts range from $10 to $250 and can be made in the name of friends or family members. This year’s gifts include farm animals for women’s cooperatives in Ken-ya, wells built by the Moravian Women’s Union in Nicaragua, books for First Na-tions Language Revitalization projects in British Columbia, as well as child well-being, food, and social justice programs in Canada and internationally.

Gifts are selected from a yearly call for proposals The United Church of Canada sends to its Mission and Service partners.

“Our gift-giving makes a difference in the lives of our neighbours,” says Cheryl Curtis, Mission and Service Funding Officer, “when we mark special occasions with a Gift with Vision.”

The Mission and Service Gifts With Vision catalogues are available on the table at the front entranceway of the Church.

Cleaning-Up

Our Act! Our Fall Property Clean-up will take place Saturday, No-vember 15 from 9:00 a.m. until noon. The

more people that turn out the less work there is for everyone! Plenty of coffee and refreshments will be on hand. Bring along a rake, work gloves and any other yard tools you need. This is a good way for high school students to get in some hours for their community service require-ment. Plan to come and pitch in!

Each summer, SSOTH is blessed to have members of its congregation willing to step

forward and offer worship leader-ship. This summer these people in-cluded Brian Hare, Brendan Cunning-ham, Jon McDonald, Diane Segger and Rev. Joyce Kelly. For music lead-ership we were fortunate to have Ruth Hopkins and Carolyn Piitz also share their gifts in worship. Besides these individuals there were others who also deserve to be thanked for ushering, greeting and making lem-onade in order to help enhance eve-rybody’s summer worship experi-ence.

SSOTH ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

As many will recall, this year’s SSOTH Annual Golf Tournament had to be postponed due to inclement weather on the original date back in June. However, Rev. Skinner managed to do some remedial work in meteorological prayer this past summer (just kidding) and on the after-noon of September 23rd we were blessed with some great weather for our make-up tournament (no kidding). Due to the rescheduled date we were smaller in number but our spirit was large. A good time really was had by all while we golfed and then as we shared dinner in the club-house afterwards. This year's winner of the Ab Forth Trophy for ladies low score was Joan Leishman. Taking the Howard Sweezie Trophy for men’s low net was Robert Barclay. This year’s winner of the Closer than the Clergy Cup was Bob Lepp. A big word of thanks goes espe-cially to chief organizer Tom Leishman, also to Don Whitely and to scorer Graham Segger. We look forward to next year’s tournament scheduled for Wednesday, June 10th.

Above: Last year’s Ladies low net

winner Diane Segger presenting to

this year’s winner. Joan Leishman.

Above Right: Robert Barclay and

Tom Leishman.

Right: Carl Pauptit bearing an

eerie resemblance to that fellow’s

mug on the Closer Than The Clergy

Cup!

~PASTORAL NOTES~

CONGRATULATIONS to

Art & Phyllis Good on the arrival of their granddaughter Aislin Ann born June 22 to Ryan & Katherine Good

Bob & Darlene Lepp on the arrival of their granddaughter Avery McKenzie born on July 8 to Jeremy and Amy MacRae

Gwen and David Laing on the mar-riage of daughter Taryn to Tim Colli-er on September 27.

Ren Anthony John Scott, son of Ronald Scott and Robin Harding. Ren was baptized on June 15.

Hudson James Good son of Brendan Good & Lisa Araujo who was baptized on June 22.

Jace Oliver Troegner, son of William Troegner & Christina Araujo. Jace was baptized on June 22.

Nathan William Reid, son of William Reid & Taryn Kelly. Nathan was bap-tized on June 22.

Luke James Nicholson and Jeremy Donald Nicholson, sons of Brad and April Nicholson. They were baptized on July 27.

Rev. Maryann Skinnner who accepted a call to First United Church in Port Credit beginning August 1.

OUR SYMPATHIES TO:

Maureen Lowry and family on the death of her husband Bill on July 5

Family and friends of Don McClintock who died on July 13

Doreen Zaharuk and the family and friends of Peter Zaharuk who died on August 14.

Darlene Lepp and her family death of Darlene’s father Don Dixon August 23.

Bud Sumsion and family on the death of Bud’s wife Joan on September 24.

ELDERS UPDATE September really marks the new year for us – unlike January bound by intro-spection and cold weather – September affords the chance for new opportuni-ties, a new school year, and the glorious change of seasons.

The Elders' team are pleased to wel-come 2 new Elders to our roster; Ni-colette Mapplebeck and Jamie Laws. We continue to refine our elder lists and are using this opportunity to build and fos-ter stronger relationships with our long-standing and newer members. Any and all suggestions welcome.

To this end we held a "Meet your El-der" function on Welcome Back Sunday (Sept 21st) and we hosted our annual Chicken Lunch for 70 people. It was a great time to reconnect and visit after a long summer over a delicious lunch of salads, bbq'd chicken and sweets. Over the past summer we've suffered the loss of long-time and much loved mem-bers. We are aware of how this loss has impacted so many of us. If there is any-thing that your elder or myself can do – please let us know.

Change for all of us is a constant – the age-old question around why it is so hard to accept change – has been dis-cussed infinitum. As a church we need to be creative, ready to try new things, and do whatever it takes to support and care for each other as we reflect on our own spiritual journeys and our commu-nity. God has made us intelligent, adap-tive, and a growing people – we just need to believe it!

As Elders we are committed to being part of this change and we will ensure we assist in positive, compassionate, constructive communication as we wel-come this new year.

May God bless our time together in whatever capacity we meet – whether on the hill or off.

Karen Penseney, Chair of Elders

Support.Education.Togo (SET) An Update

Janice and Bob Barclay

In early May, Janice and I along with the other three directors of SET and some of their family members travelled to Togo. We had two main goals.

One was to visit the existing six projects to see how things were unfolding, to confirm in our own minds that funds were being well spent, and that the overarching goal of supporting education in Togo was being achieved. We had the good for-tune of being involved in the inauguration of the

school in Ametonou Kondji and the opening of the school in Ataregbe. The inaugu-ration was quite the event. Many layers of dignitaries, three chiefs, a king, hun-dreds of children, dancing and a community meal. I was made Chief of the Yoto Region, a great honour indeed – crown, robe, and many official blessings.

All schools are doing well and our visits provided much input against our second trip goal which was to revisit our mission and direction for SET. This was to be based on the expressed needs of the villagers, teachers, par-ents, children, and principals. We had meetings in sev-eral villages and came away with a richer understanding of how SET can play a broader role in supporting educa-tion. The list of expressed needs is long; salary support for teacher interns, school supplies for the schools (globes, dictionaries, wall charts, chalk), school supplies for children such as exercises books, food programs so kids are not trying to learn on empty stomachs, provid-ing clean water to avoid sickness and absenteeism, se-curity of the schools against robbers, etc. Our task now is to redefine our scope. We have already agreed to provide books for teachers, teaching material such as maps, geometry sets, weights and measures, etc.

The Board has also agreed to help subsidize the salary of the interim teachers - $32 per month per teacher. Two highlights of our trip. First was the children. They are wonderful, optimis-tic, energetic and so darned cute! The second was the wonderful support we received from our partner, Action Enfance et Développement. The volunteer president, Laurent Dekalikan is

inspired to move Togo forward through making sure that children get through pri-mary school giving them the Three Rs.

We have committed to building our 7th school in Avedze which will be open in time for start-up September 2014. Stay tuned for more …