The Bridge – February, 2014

Fox Island United Church of Christ an Open & Affirming Congregation

Rev. Janet K. Matthews

Wayne Lackman, Minister of Music

Whoever you are, and wherever you are on life’s journey…

YOU ARE WELCOME HERE!!

AUCTION DONATIONS!!

Donations are needed…gift baskets, potted

plants, services (babysitting, carwashes, yard

work, tax prep, etc), craft items, gift cards,

whatever! Re-gifting is not frowned upon

either!! Each donation needs a donor form

which can be found in the lobby and on the

website. Donations may be dropped off at

church under the auction table in the Narthex.

If the item is of particular value, please leave it

in the office next to the Pastor’s office or give to

Sharon directly. Questions? Contact Sharon at

s.easonsgreetings@comcast.net,

or 253-677-0814.

THANK YOU!!!

DESSERTS!!!! Thank you for all the generous donations of desserts! We are in great shape for the auction. If you are signed up, please deliver your dessert by 4:30 p.m. the day of the auction, and please include a description of your item for the auctioneer to read the audience. If you need help with a description or with delivery, please call Cheryl at 253-549-8105.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

726 6th Avenue (P. O. Box 475), Fox Island, WA 98333 253-549-2420 – fiuccsec@centurytel.net – www.FoxIslandUCC.org

Find us on Facebook! HURRY – GET YOUR AUCTION TICKETS TODAY!

$15.00 IN ADVANCE, $20.00 AT THE DOOR. CALL ERIN AT 253-549-2420, OR STAN AT 273-4185!

Janet’s Journal

This morning as I heard reports about the traffic headed to Seattle; the full buses, trains, and ferries. I felt like I was missing an historic event, a once in a life time happening—the parade and celebration for the return of the Seahawks. Rats! Then I arrived at church to find Ken and Julie Higgins loading up the haul for the food bank. My enthusiasm soared. Instead of being at the parade to welcome the Super Bowl Champions home, which would have been pretty cool or maybe really cold, I was in the church parking lot with our own Food Bank Champions, Ken and Julie Higgins.

Their smiles and joy added warmth to the morning as they kept loading the car with food. The back of their Subaru was so full that they needed to fill up the back seat as well. Way to go 12th Man!

Of course all the fans who wore their Seahawk colors to church on Sunday are the 12th Man. It is a remarkable phenomenon. The team members, coaches, and people associated with the franchise give massive amounts of credit to the Seahawks’ fans, AKA the 12th Man, for the team’s performance. What about that Super Bowl, 43-8?

I believe the 12th Man has ALWAYS been the church. Sometimes church bulletins and signs show the Pastor’s Name/s along with Ministers: Everyone. Then of course we remember that there were twelve disciples and a whole slew of followers that Jesus enlisted to carry on his message. He told those followers you will do greater miracles than I.

Could this really be the church? What if the only people to bring food for the SOUPER bowl were the staff members? There would have been a much lighter showing. But, NO, the 12th man pulled it out. What about our missions and ministries: Environmental Justice, Back Pack for Kids, Yoga, Hungry for Change, Women’s Fellowship, Valentine’s Dinner and Auction, Wednesday Night Live, New Voice Choir, Chancel Choir, Agape, Guatemala students, Centering Prayer, Liturgists, Youth Lock-Ins, Youth Mission Trips and Sunday School and…Wait it’s Old Number Twelve showing up again.

What is it like on Sunday morning when the 12th Man arrives for worship ready to be in the game? The vitality and energy climb! I find this even in committee meetings. I recently participated in a committee meeting that ended early, instead of everyone hurrying home, people stayed for awhile. Closing prayer, meeting adjourned and there we were -- truly! Cheering for our team is energizing, uniting, and just plain fun. If a football team can draw forth this kind of energy imagine what is possible in God’s spirit-filled faith community of Ministers/12th Man.

Hooray Hawks! Rock On 12th Man! Go FIUCC!

Yours in ministry and mission,

Janet

Carl Gann is a co-founder of Orphans Africa with his wife, Michele Torrey, and friend, Liza de Guzman. He began donating his spare time in 2007 to help the orphans and widows in Tanzania. This resulted in the creation of Orphans Africa in 2007. Carl has a Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Missouri and a Master’s degree in Religion from Graceland University. Carl continues his work as a rehabilitation counselor in the Tacoma and Seattle, Washington area. He is an ordained minister with Community of Christ.

February Birthday Luncheon February 19th at 12 noon

Il Lucano Ristorante Italiano 3119 Judson St., #B

(across from the Gig Harbor Post Office) Sign up in the narthex today!!

Special Guest Speaker – Carl Gann of Orphans Africa

Wednesday, February 26th at 7 pm

Community Soup Dinner/Dessert at 6:30

We are excited to introduce you to Carl Gann, Fox Island

resident and founding member of Orphans Africa (OA), a

501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization that began in

2007 with the coming together of three ordinary people

whose desire was to build peace between nations by

providing assistance to those who are most vulnerable.

Carl , along with his fellow OA co-founders, traveled to Tanzania where malaria and the AIDS

epidemic has left victims of all ages. Over three million children have been orphaned. Widows have

lost their husbands and desire opportunities to support themselves and their children. Working hand-

in-hand with grassroots non-governmental organizations in Tanzania, OA provides the orphans with

education and basic necessities, and provides the widows with the training and opportunities they need

to become self-sufficient. “We believe that by educating children and helping widows to become self-

sustaining, we are bringing hope, not only to today, but to the future.”

Please join us on February 26th to learn more!

Carl Gann is a co-founder of Orphans Africa with his wife, Michele

Torrey, and friend, Liza de Guzman. He began donating his spare time in

2007 to help the orphans and widows in Tanzania. This resulted in the

creation of Orphans Africa in 2007. Carl has a Master’s degree in

Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Missouri and a Master’s

degree in Religion from Graceland University. Carl continues his work as

a rehabilitation counselor in the Tacoma and Seattle, Washington area. He

is an ordained minister with Community of Christ.

FOOD BANK REPORT By Ken & Julie Higgins

We delivered 367 cans of soup and other groceries for a

total of $515. – a super donation from a lot of super people!! The food bank reports they are currently very low

on Mac ‘n’ Cheese and Tuna Fish, but always welcome whatever is so generously offered.

Thanks to all for a great Souper Bowl Sunday!!

(Please remember that pets need food too!)

Upcoming Concerts at the Fox Island United Church of Christ

Sunday, February 9th at 3 pm – Harbor Winds

Harbor Winds is a concert wind ensemble under the direction of Eric Swanson. They will perform classical and contemporary selections appealing to all ages. This is a free community concert with donations welcome to benefit The Narrows Music Society/Harbor Winds. www.narrowsmusicsociety.org/

Sunday, March 2nd at 4 pm – Tacoma Youth Chorus

Tacoma Youth Chorus returns this year with the Concert and Chamber choirs performing under the direction of Judith Herrington. This is also a free community concert with donations welcome. www.tacomayouthchorus.org.

Sunday, April 6th at 3:30pm – Cora Voce

We are pleased to be one of the venues for Cora Voce’s spring concert series, For the Beauty of the Earth, which celebrates the wonder and beauty of creation with fabulous choral works, both sacred and secular. This program includes popular pieces by well-known American and English composers. The choir is especially excited to be premiering new works composed especially for Cora Voce. For more details and ticket information, please visit www.coravoce.org.

Please be sure to check our website for details and updates.

Hope to see you there!

www.FoxIslandUCC.org

Retreat Opportunity at Pilgrim Firs – September 19-21, 2014

The church has reserved and paid a deposit for a minimum of 10 spots at Pilgrim Firs this fall, but our plans have changed. Before we let these primo dates go, we wanted to ask if there are any church groups or committees that might be interested?

If you want these dates, you need to talk to Pastor Janet NOT LATER THAN MARCH 1st.

Lenten Series…2014 "Walking the Spiritual Path of Jesus"

Each year during Lent, the Diaconate offers what we call our "Lenten Series". This is a series of classes intended to give interested members of our congregation an opportunity for spiritual growth and reflection. This year, a series of five classes will be held after Sunday services, beginning on March 9 and ending on April 6. Rev. Fred Plumer will lead us in "Walking the Spiritual Path of Jesus". "In this series, we will discuss the essential teachings of Jesus as a path of kenosis or self-discovery. Together we will focus on the foundations of these teachings as well as their intent. If we are willing to take these teachings seriously and practice them, we may also experience a bit of the Kingdom or "Queendom" that Jesus suggested was available to all of us. There will be some lecture time, time for sharing, and a time for silent reflection each week." (Rev. Plumer) See the brief bio after this article to learn about Rev. Plumer's extensive background. We are very pleased that he is willing to present this series for us. At 11:30, on each of the five Sundays, the Fellowship Committee will provide a soup and bread lunch in the Fireside Room. Classes will begin promptly at noon and end at 1:15. Our regular childcare attendants, Jessica and Sara Sharp, have graciously agreed to extend their hours to provide childcare for parents who wish to attend these classes. Please come and join us in this wonderful opportunity to feed your body and nourish your mind, heart, and soul in preparation for Easter. Diane Larson, Chair of Deacons

About Rev. Fred Plumer

After an extensive background in building management, real estate development and restaurant ownership and management, Fred Plumer made a career shift in 1981. He earned his M.Div. degree at the Pacific School of Religion while doing work in an inner city community center. In 1984 Rev. Plumer was called to the Irvine United Congregational Church in Irvine, California to lead a UCC new start church. The church became known throughout the denomination as one of the more exciting and progressive mid-size congregations in the nation.

After serving the IUCC church for over twenty years, Rev. Plumer retired to devote more time to writing and speaking. He was elected as the President of Progressive Christianity.org in 2005. In the last eight years, he has traveled hundreds of thousands miles as a keynote speaker and workshop leader helping church leaders transition to a Christianity for the twenty first century. He has been a workshop leader for several hundred churches and has published over a hundred articles writing about a new Christian story. He is the author of the extensive Study Guide for the Eight guiding principles of PC.org and will soon have an anthology published.

January 30, 2014

An Open Letter to Wayne Lackman Minister of Music at Fox Island United Church of Christ

Dear Wayne,

My wife recently had the anterior cruciate ligament in her left leg replaced. In order to work with the surgeon who we believed to be the best for the job, we had to travel to a clinic in Issaquah, Washington. As Kathy and I waited, a continual stream of doctors, nurses and technicians came through the pre-op. area to prepare her for the surgery. Finally the nurse who would be assisting with the surgery came and introduced herself to us. As she scanned through Kathy’s chart she looked up and said, “I see you are from Fox Island. Isn’t that near Gig Harbor?”

“No,” I said, “Gig Harbor is near Fox Island.”

“I was there recently” she said without looking up from the chart that she was studying.

“Really?” I said, “What brought you to Fox Island?”

“I went to a small church there to a Messiah Sing-along.”

“That’s our church!” we both said at once.

She went on to say that the performance was a highlight of her Christmas season and that she was already making plans to return next year to repeat the experience. That opened the door for us to share our common faith, which we all three did. We told her we were trying to get the African Children’s choir to visit and she gave us her name so that we could contact her for future events.

Some of our services are fairly labor intensive, but if our labors touch just one person and help them with their walk, then our labors were well spent!

Thank you, Wayne, for the Messiah Sing-along. Thanks also to the Choir and the Gig Harbor/Peninsula Civic Orchestra and all the participants of so many wonderful events. Thanks to the people who made the refreshments and parked the cars and all the many functions that it takes to pull off this and other performances.

It was wonderful for us all!

I also hope to participate again next year.

Stan Adams

WINTER BUILDING MAINTENANCE ANNOUNCEMENT

Please, please, please be sure to check the heat before you lock up the building, or at least remind those still in attendance to remember to check the heat. It is being left on during long periods of non-use which is a terrible

waste of resources. DURING THE WINTER, THE HEAT SHOULD BE TURNED DOWN NO LOWER THAN 60 DEGREES. We will do our best to place reminders at each thermostat, but do rely on the help of everyone. Our building is being well-used this season, which is a great problem to have, but we do need to be mindful of the utility bill.

Save the Date ~ May 16-17th

All Church Retreat

Exploring Spirituality Through The Arts This year’s retreat will be held at our Church with a focus on exploring spirituality through the arts. We will kick off the week-end on Friday evening with a potluck dinner, ice breaker and campfire. Saturday will start with a pancake breakfast before the morning program begins. We will have a wonderful lunch, and further activities ending with a Vespers Service. Anyone who would like to camp or stay in their motor home Friday night are welcome to do so. We are still in the planning stages, with more information to follow in the coming weeks, but we do know it will be a fabulous week-end of fun, friendship, and deepening faith.

I received this note from the National Setting of the United Church of Christ. One Great Hour of Sharing is one of our 5 for 5 offerings that are received throughout the year. Here are some of the ways our gifts are making a difference. ~Pastor Janet

God’s amazing work in the world continues. Through One Great Hour of Sharing, you build networks of relationships

that multiply this good news in ways we can only imagine.

Way back in 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated the United States Gulf Coast, you were part of the recovery of

Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi and beyond through One Great Hour of Sharing and the Hope Shall Bloom special

fund. Since then, thousands of volunteers from all over the country have traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to assist

in disaster recovery and in Back Bay’s on-going work of “Strengthening Neighborhoods, Seeking Justice, Transforming

Lives.” Members of the United Church of Christ in Longmont, Colorado have been among those Gulf Coast volunteers

since 2007.

In September of 2013 when severe floods struck their own home community, people in the Longmont UCC knew just

what to do from their Back Bay experience. They got busy mucking out and repairing homes. As John Rostykus, who

coordinates the church’s recovery efforts, put it, “If we hadn’t been to Back Bay Mission, we’d be just as lost as

everyone else right now.” The pastor at Longmont UCC, Rev. Rick King, knew that the UCC is part of Church World

Service and immediately requested clean-up buckets http://www.cwsglobal.org/blog/an-unexpected-job.html

Through OGHS, you helped provide the Church World Service infrastructure for those buckets to be available when

and where they were needed.

As the rebuilding stage of recovery began in Colorado, your participation in One Great Hour of Sharing helped

provide training through Church World Service that helped people understand differences between the earlier stages

of disaster recovery and the long-term stage. Members of the Longmont congregation now are active members of

the Longmont Long-Term Recovery Team, through which their own efforts and resources are multiplied. Rev. King co-

chairs the volunteer coordination team of two different long-term recovery groups. Who knows what lives will be

changed so that when disaster strikes in yet another neighborhood, they are ready to respond and multiply the best

practices and good news experienced through these disaster recovery relationships.

Through One Great Hour of Sharing, you are part of these networks of relationships all along the way. Together, we

are part of God’s continuing and amazing work in the world.

Sharing an Experience of Centering Prayer

Today, I awakened to the morning light with the words "washed in the Light" in my head. As I took in that I had actually slept all night long, not something I do very often these days, I thought about where the words "washed in the Light" had come from. I was immediately back at Centering Prayer last evening, sitting in our peaceful sanctuary, washed in candlelight from our beautiful Winter Feast altar that Mary Lou had so graciously lighted for us. The words, "washed in the Light", came from the prayer I had shared. Patty followed up with the reading of the Bible passage beginning with "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (Light)", which led us into our silent prayer time. Afterwards, we talked about what the reading meant to us as we shared our hearts and thoughts with one another. (We even wondered if the amazing energy of the "12th Man" could be harnessed for a higher good!) During our closing prayer, Mary Lou asked that we all be "washed in the Light" as we prayed for our Debbie, who was absent last night due to illness, for Dick and Doreen, for Deb Hope and Lin, for Mary and Elbert, and for so many others in our congregation and in the world. Patty gave thanks for baby Cora's recovery as we all extended our gratitude to God for the blessings we have been given. Sometimes it isn't easy to go out on a Monday night to Centering Prayer. There are times when I'd rather stay home and do something else, especially if I am tired, or it is cold and dark and rainy. Then when I have an experience like last night, I remember why I go. Today, I am feeling "washed in the Light", and maybe that Light will even shine out onto all those with whom I come in contact, bringing them the same warmth and comfort the Light gives to me. ~Diane Larson

Church Council would like to explain a new bulletin

board you will find in the hallway by the kitchen. It is

titled “Members in Action”. We understand that Church

members are dedicated to passions. After approaching

Church Council and we believe it fits with the vision and

mission of FIUCC, you will be given permission to put up

a flyer, poster, or explanation of your passion. As

people read the bulletin board they will see who is doing

what and if interested, know who to approach for more

information. If you have more questions, you may ask

Moderator, Bill Fox or Vice-Moderator, Carolyn Curles.

Members

In

Action

Mad Woman of Chaillot

Directed by Jerry Abbott

Performance dates have been scheduled! Mark your calendars and invite friends and family! Opening Night Friday, March 7th at 7:30p

Saturday, March 8th at 7:30p Matinee Sunday, March 9th at 2p

Friday, March 14th at 7:30p Final Performance Saturday, March 15th at 7:30p

Bravo to the cast and crew for all your hard work to bring us this production!!

Dear friends,

On March 22nd, I’m chairing “The Big Sports Gig” (http://gigharborfoundation.org/tbsg) a sports

banquet to raise scholarship money for low-income youth on the Gig Harbor and Key Peninsulas

to participate in sports and recreational programming. The evening will feature fine dining,

memorabilia and keynote speaker, former Seattle Mariner pitcher Brian Holman, along with

former Seattle Sounders player Roger Levesque.

Our goal is to raise $20,000 for a new scholarship fund with the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation to

allow hundreds of kids to play sports and other recreational activities that currently are not able

due to their family’s economic hardship.

I’m asking for your help in one of three ways:

1. Buy a ticket for the event or better yet, be a table sponsor and bring seven friends to this

great event: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/555958

2. Volunteer for the event as we need several dozen volunteers.

3. Donate a sports memorabilia or new recreation item to our silent auction (ie. Mariners

tickets, autographed memorabilia, etc)

This is the first year, in what we hope will become a great Gig Harbor-area tradition that will

impact the lives of hundreds of kids in our community and give them the chance to play. Your

help can make a great difference in making it a success.

For more information on the event visit our

webpage: http://gigharborfoundation.org/tbsg/

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/153013588237324/

If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 253-219-8717 or reply to this email and thanks in

advance for helping make this event a success.

-Todd Iverson, Member-in-Action

AT THE CHAPEL ON ECHO BAY…

Saturday, February 15th, 2014. 7 p.m.

SCOTT COSSU PIANO CONCERT

Please join us for a very special

“Valentine‟s Themed” concert with

accomplished Pianist Scott Cossu.

Tickets are now available:

scottcossu.brownpapertickets.com

Ticket prices are $15 for Chapel members

and $20 for non-members. It‟s a

„Valentine‟s themed evening‟ with small

bites, plenty of chocolate, and wine and

champagne will be available for purchase.

Look for a basket at our auction from The Chapel on Echo Bay with tickets to this event and some other special goodies!