 Greetings Prince of Peace members and supporters!
We want to take a moment to thank each and everyone of you who have taken the time to respond to this year’s Pledge Drive. Thank you! You are doing great! So far we have responses from 41 households, both by mail and over the Pledge Form. Yay! This is a wonderful start; let’s keep that momentum going! If you have not been able to share a pledge yet, you should be receiving a letter from the office this week to help in that process. Or you can click this link to our Pledging webpage for step by step guides. Every pledge matters: Historically, roughly 75% of Prince of Peace's income is through member (and guest) donations. The remaining 25% of our income is largely comprised of “Building” or “Property” usage. With lock down orders many individuals and organizations that would have rented our facilities haven’t, and therefore our income from “building usage” is down significantly. Your pledge - whatever its amount - helps us create a clearer picture of our financial situation looking into 2021. 2020 was an unsettling year. And even with the good news of medicinal progress, things will not immediately stabilize at the strike of midnight. However, the more we can help each other, the better we will all make it through these days - and maybe even come out with a deeper connection to Prince of Peace and each other. Again, thank you for your support. We are grateful. Stewardship Team  Are you missing the organic normalcy of church gatherings?
One of the gifts of church and coming together for in-person anything was always the relationship strengthening, the ability to communicate and share about our lives and what we are all engaged in as a church community. We know that at least half of our church community will not be ready to gather in person until we have a vaccine or clear treatment for this virus. As your church leadership, please know that we respect that. But we also know that the length of this isolation is difficult for all of us and hard on our church community. To address this, a new idea for gathering has bubbled up! A few of our members suggested that we offer monthly “Townhall meetings” via Zoom. The goal of these gatherings will be:
Our first Zoom Townhall will be Sunday the 15th at 5:00PM. Link will be in the Weekly E-notes and on our Facebook Page. As always, if you can’t connect or are unsure how to use Zoom, please reach out to us! We have two iPads that were donated to the church that we would be happy to share with anyone who needs it. As always, PoP Community, we look forward to the day when we can gather safely in person. Until then, we continue to try new and different ways to keep us connected to God, one another, and our neighbors.  I am sure this comes as a shock to no one, but I am the rule enforcer and the (eh-em, sheepishly admitting this) one who yells the most in our family. Pr. Nate is the calmer and much more patient parent of the two of us. A few months ago, I was stomping around the house frustrated about the toys everywhere and the general mess of the whole world and started giving clear and direct instructions on “cleaning-and-picking-up-and-no-tv-until-this-is-done!” At one point into my tirade, Pfeifer looked up at me and said very directly “Mom, I don’t like your mad-itude right now.”
Boom, my heart dropped. With a simple made-up word my 5 year old pulled me right out of my spinning emotions and reminded me where I was and who I was talking to. Perhaps you are much more emotionally stable than I am, but maybe some of you can relate to the ways it is so easy to be spun up by the anxiety, stress, and uncertainty around us…and then bring it home to our families, work settings, or to our on-line interactions. In this month of November, I invite each of us, all of our church community back to the ancient practice of gratitude; cultivating a grateful heart. The way to do this is simple but does require intentionality…it means being careful every single day, to speak a word of thanks to those around you, spending time each night/morning sharing what you are grateful for. Texting or calling people unexpectedly and telling them a story from the past of which you remember and are grateful. Writing letters to people in our church community who you know are in need of some encouragement. For all of us on social media, it can include posting a picture or word of gratitude for the small things around you that bring life, joy, comfort, or hope. Each week of the month of November, we will post prompts and suggestions on our Facebook page to help you along the gratitude journey. We deeply hope that you will take part in this! It is my conviction that one of the ways we can heal as individuals, communities, neighborhoods and a country is by cultivating gratitude. Yes, even when the world seems terrible and the end is nowhere in sight…we can still, as Paul reminds us in Philippians 1, find that God who had made us God’s good work will not abandon us. With Thanks for each of you and the gift it is to be in community with you, Pastor Sara Family Supportive Housing Fundraising Event: Check out PoP's Volunteer of the Year Award10/26/2020  Family Supportive Housing of San Jose, often called "The Family Shelter" has been an agency Prince of Peace has supported in multiple ways over the years. This includes our Kids to Camp fundraiser and quarterly meals for shelter families. During the pandemic our liaison to the Shelter, Cathy Schroeder, encouraged us to do more including donations of needed supplies and weekly lunches. Prince of Peace continues to deliver!
Prince of Peace would love to have a large showing of support at the event. Like all things 2020, this fundraiser will be a different version of it's usual form. That's ok because it will be on-line, allowing many more people to participate! In fact, you can show your support and participate for FREE! Register by the end of day today, Friday, October 23, to be entered in the raffle. Register for the event HERE. A donation is not required to participate, but is always welcome. You will also have the option of purchasing a soup dinner, delivered to your home, that you can enjoy during the event. $75 includes dinner for two with choice of three soups, freshly baked bread from Roma Bakery, and a bottle of fine wine from Bert George of Joseph George Wines. The 15-mile delivery area covers most of the South Bay. If you have been looking for some good news and hope this autumn, you will find it here. Sign-up now and share some Peace! Prince of Peace has a Mom's of College Age Kids group that meets monthly to share information, experience, and support with Mom's who are transitioning their children into the next phase of life. Once you have a child in late Junior year, you are invited to join the group. Moms are happy to share their experiences in navigating applications, community college, acceptances & declines, gap years, mental health of both young and adults (and their parents) through stressful transitions.
Often the group gatherings are just social hours and check-ins, but every year they create fall care packages for all of the current young adults including those away school and those living at home. This is a tradition the group did not want to loose during a pandemic. Of course the Mom's found a way! Boxes were packed out doors. Each Mom brought one item for all 23 boxes. They took turns adding the item they provided to all the boxes, then spread out in the lawn for a check in. Contents included some of the standard items like candy and stress balls. There were also special pandemic items like hand sanitizer and cloth masks (made by a Mom whose kids are not even near college yet). It was truly a community effort. The kids living at home got hand delivered boxes and the out of town boxes were mailed curtesy of Thrivent Action Team funds available to Thrivent members. The boxes have arrived in locations across the country. All appreciate the gesture of love & support from their church home. |
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Office HoursNo regular office hours due to mandatory self-distancing.
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