How Can I Keep From Singing?

Today's daily UCC prayer has that title.  It is the song that Chuck sings at the beginning of one of our services. (Click on the link in the prayer ).  It should also be my moto since I love to sing.  I am very upset when I have a cold and can't sing well.  I come to church to sing and I have learned a lot of scripture by singing it.  I have been that way since I was a child and have sung in senior church choirs since I was sixteen.  So here is the prayer. 
As advent turns into Christmas keep on singing the praises of our Lord and all through the year.


"How Can I Keep From Singing?"

Psalm 89
"I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever."

Reflection by Talitha J. Arnold

"My life flows on in endless song," affirms an old hymn, "above earth's lamentation. . . .
I hear the real, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing;
It sounds an echo in my soul—how can I keep from singing?

 - Gelineau

"The Christian faith was born singing," Joseph Gelineau wrote, "and it has never ceased to sing." That is never more true than in Advent. When pregnant old Elizabeth greeted her pregnant young cousin Mary, she threw back her head and sang, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." When the angel announced to the shepherds the birth of that child, a heavenly chorus joined in on "Glory to God!" Our carols, from "Joy to the World" to "Good Christian Folk, Rejoice!" echo those songs of joy. 

But as Psalm 89 reminds us, we are called to sing of God's steadfast love forever- --in good times and hard.  So with our joy, we also sing our longing, "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," and our wondering "What Child is This?"

Like the Psalmist, we sing our faith in the One whose love is steadfast, in every season, every time, every joy, every sorrow. The One born "in the bleak midwinter long ago." Born into the "hopes and fears of all the years." "Born today"—and every day.

How indeed can we keep from singing? 

Prayer

In this season and every season, O God, help us to sing your steadfast love forever. Amen.

About the Author Talitha J. Arnold is the Pastor of the United Church of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Copied from the UCC daily prayer e-mail.

Jeannette Brown
Choir member
UCC Representative.

Mission 1 Repreive.

You can't get away from hunger.  If you listen to as much TV news as I do it is always there. ( Have the TV on in the background because of tinnitus).  So ABC News has a program in which you can donate help the hungry called Feeding America.  It was the Thanksgiving news.

In our family we only hosted my extended family, my neighbor and three of her six kids.  We had hoped her son with come.  He is 16 and we bought enough food to feed him!  In fact he had planned to eat at my house and his girl friend's house, but he did not make it to my house.  We wanted to invite, and we did invite people who needed a dinner, but they did not come. Some of the leftovers went to my neighbor yesterday.  She is not proud and young enough to be my daughter (46).  So her kids are my honorary grand children!  Yeah!

The reason for this blog today is that the director of Bread for the World was on "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly" today. Combating Hunger. This is a PBS program on Channel 13.  It will be rebroadcast on Sunday afternoon ( November 27.) if you want to see it or else follow the link to see it online.

As I said I will be collecting food monthly.  Next collection date December 13.!  I will take it to the Somerset county food bank on the Monday after that.

Jeannette Brown
UCC Representative

Mission 1 Letter from UCC General Minister

Geofry Black the UCC General Minister posted a letter about Mission 1.  I have copied it below:

Dear Friends,

I believe Mission: 1 will change the lives of individuals and families throughout our nation and around the world through direct food aid, program grants, improvements in governmental policy on foreign aid and local efforts to combat poverty. Our lives will be changed in the process, as our awareness of poverty-related hunger increases and our resolve to advocate for change in government policy grow ever stronger.

It is about this opportunity that I am writing you today. If we are going to meet our ambitious Mission:1 goals, we need the involvement of the whole United Church of Christ. Over the next nine days you are going to read stories of wonderful efforts undertaken by our members, our congregations, national ministries, conferences and associations, colleges and seminaries. What will your story be?

This Sunday, I hope you and your congregation will join together with faith communities across our nation to write letters, collect food and take up special offerings. It is our collective action that will make the difference. This coming Sunday, November 6, will be our only Sunday during Mission: 1 -- I hope you won't let this special opportunity pass by.

I believe we will reach and even exceed our goals. Together, let's work hard, pray fervently, give generously and write passionately, all to the glory of God. Let's see what God will do with and through each and all of us as we seek to serve God in Jesus' name.

Blessings,



The Rev. Geoffrey A. Black
General Minister and President

Mission 1 e-mail from Dr. Black
Jeannette Brown
UCC Representativ

Mission 1 Send a letter to Congress

OK This is day five of Mission 1.  I know we got side tracked because of the October snow storm, but we can play catch up.  Also we are extending the program until November 13 because of the school holiday.  Remember hunger does not take a holiday.  People have to eat every day at least three times a day.

I thought I was going to have to give you the information about your congress people for the letter writing campaign and today I opened the UCC website and voila the letter was written for me.  Not only is the letter written but if you put in your name and address the system knows who your congress people are and then you just click send letter and it is gone!  Yeah! Here is the link to the Mission 1 letter website. Mission 1 - Letters

So everyone should be able to do this either at home or in the computer room of the church.  I will write a draft letter and print it on paper for those of you who prefer not to send by e-mail.  I will have this ready for you next Sunday November 13 when we will be donating food.

I also would like you to submit pledge cards to pledge to either donate food to the food bank all through the year or participate in the Check Out Hunger campaign at your local supermarket.  I posted the ad from the Food Bank next to the Mission 1 poster.  As I said before hunger does not take a holiday.

The pledge cards will be ready next Sunday November 13 as well.  Remember bring food and a friend to church on that Sunday.

Jeannette Brown
UCC Representative.

Mission 1. The collection begins!

The boxes are out in the atrium.  I hope you are beginning to gather your food for the Food Bank.
Sunday October 30, Diane Riley, Director of Advocacy of the Community Food Bank will talk to us about Hunger in America.

I have started shopping for food and for donations to the Food Bank.  I bought some Peter Pan Peanut Butter in a plastic jar, (remember no glass jars) and grape jelly also in a plastic jar.  You can tell the jar is plastic if it gives when you push against it.  The Peter Pan Peanut butter had a code on it for a contribution from Conagra for Child Hunger Ends Here.  I went online but their contribution had ended in August but that also means I bought the peanut butter before the price hike!
I went to the website of www.childhungerendshere.com and I found out a lot of information about childhood Hunger. It also links with Feeding America which also has a lot of information about hunger including a call to reach out to Congress just as the UCC Mission 1 site does.

The third component of Mission 1 is donation.  It can be a donation by the Board of World Fellowship to represent all of us.  But it can also be a donation of money that you make when you buy food, which I did recently.  Look for the colored Community Food bank cards that are at the checkout.  They are for $1.00, $2.00 and $5.00 denominations.  You will never miss that money and you can do it year round instead of once a year.  Hungry people don't suffer hunger only one time a year so we should make sure the Food Bank has food year round.

There are other programs beside the Food Bank that feed the hungry.  Some groups are soup kitchens or food and clothing distributes like FISH in Dunellen.  I found out recently that the food pantry of FISH is low.

Shoprite of Hillsborough  New Jersey the town where I live is collecting money through
 Partners in Caring  Fighting Hunger in Your Neighborhood.  Mine is not the only Shoprite that is participating in this program. Other grocery stores like Stop & Shop have wipe out hunger programs as well

So let's make this a year round event!

Mission 1 Cost of Peanut Butter going up

"A staple of school lunches nationwide may soon be in short supply and what is available will cost more, the result of good cotton prices and bad weather, according to an article on the website Harvest Public Media. 

"We have quite a peanut shortage this year," agricultural economist Tiffany Arthur is quoted as saying. Arthur works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, which makes emergency loans to farmers. "Things are snowballing and prices are sharply rising.""

The shortage also comes at a tough time, Arthur says, adding that peanut consumption normally increases during hard times, like now. Since the recession started in 2008, peanut butter consumption has jumped by 10 percent, the USDA says. Peanut butter consumption usually goes up just 1 or 2 percent in a regular year.

Source: harvestpublicmedia.org/article/787/pricier-pbjs-forecast-thanks-peanut-shortage/

Why do I feature this article?  You can probably afford to pay the increase in cost to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for your children's lunch box.  But think of the people who live in poverty as the article above says peanut butter consumption goes up during a recession since it is a cheap source of protein.

It is one of things on the  list that the food banks want.  But if you decide to donate peanut butter make sure it in unbreakable plastic containers.  Also since we want healthy food make sure that the oil and sugar content is low which makes it even more expensive.

 Here is the list of the most wanted items for the food bank.

Peanut Butter (no glass please)

Jelly (no glass please)

Canned Meats (tuna, chicken, ham)

Canned Vegetables

Canned Fruits

Pasta

Pasta Sauce (no glass please)

Cereal

Rice

You may start bringing food to church and place it in the boxes starting the beginning of November.

Remember November 13 is the big food donation day.  Bring food and a friend to church on that day.

Jeannette Brown

UCC Rep

Mission 1 Census Data

This is the poster that you may have seen in the hall in Christ Church.  Mission 1 is based on the UCC motto That they may all be one.

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"One in seven Americans are living in poverty, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today -- the highest level since 1994.
But the increase in the federal poverty rate, to 14.3 percent last year from 13.2 percent in 2008, was notably smaller than the 15 percent many experts had been predicting as the country has struggled to emerge from a painful recession.
"The bad news is that poverty is high and it's going up, but not as dramatically as we had feared," said Sheldon Danizger, director of the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan.
An estimated 43.6 million Americans in 2009 were living off incomes below the federal poverty line, or around $11,000 for an individual under 65 or $22,000 for a family of four.
The total number, an increase of 3.7 million over 2008, is the largest in 51 years, since the government first started tracking poverty data. "

The above is a quotation from one of the ABC TV stories about Hunger in America.  For the full article go to   http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/poverty-rate-increases-recession-highest-level-1994-census/story?id=11652753


This is another reason for the need for food. 


Jeannette Brown
UCC Rep.

Mission 1 Hunger in America

When I was at  the UCC General Synod I first heard about Mission 1.  The presentation struck me and also the concept.  So after I left Tampa I was ready to start this program and some churches did.  So in order to be really prepared to launch it now I kept tuned to the media about stories about hunger in America and the world and I was not disappointed.  If you read the daily papers as I do or even if you get your news on line or on television there have recently been a lot of stories about hunger.  Maybe you skipped over them in order to read the "real" news.  But even in the headline news about the economy and joblessness and unemployment and underemployment if you drill down to the human factor you will find people who are either going hungry or eating unhealthy fast food because it is cheap.

This is the idea behind Mission 1.  At Synod there was a fitness drive which was inspired by Michelle Obama  We signed up for pedometers and were asked to record our steps every day.  They handed out information about healthy food and life style.  The church nurses (yes some churches have nurses and they are an organized group) took blood pressures and weight.

Just recently ABC TV Nightly News featured a special on Hunger in America.  It is up on the ABCTV web now.

I will be featureing exerpts from this series as well as information from the UCC in future blogs.  Stay tuned!

Jeannette Brown
UCC Representative,

Mission ! Annonucement

I would like to share with you a very exciting project of the United Church of Christ that will take place next month.  I am doubly excited to tell you about it after that wonderful service that our youth presented two weeks ago  about their mission trip to Nicaragua.  They were wonderful.  They set a level that I hope we all can achieve.

Because on

Nov. 1-11, 2011...  I hope our church will be part of  ONE UNITED CHURCH on a shared mission for 11 powerful days to feed the hungry and confront food-related injustice. 

This is MISSION: 1

•  In 11 days, the United Church of Christ will collect more than 1 MILLION ITEMS

OF HEALTHY FOOD and other household items for local food banks and outreach

services.

Imagine 5,300 UCC churches converted into storehouses of meat and bread, fruits and vegetables, soap and diapers for neighbors in our local communities. Conjure an image of overflowing baskets of peanut butter, cereal, tuna and beans waiting for delivery to shelters and pantries. Envision hundreds of UCC members purchasing pounds of food online for the most vulnerable across our nation and world. 

This is MISSION: 1

I hope to  invite the directors of the local food banks to speak to us about the need.

Another aspect of Mission I is:

•  In 11 days, the United Church of Christ will offer more than 11,111 LETTERS to Congress asking our government to reform U.S. foreign assistance in a way that more effectively benefits hungry and poor people worldwide, helping to provide a major final push to Bread for the World's 2011 "Offering of Letters" campaign.

I will bring in sample letters and e-mail addresses of our congress  people so that you can send them.  For those without e-mail you can snail mail them.

Finally

·        In 11 days, the United Church of Christ will make an extra-special push to gather

 contributions of more than $111,111 DOLLARS for Neighbors in Need food-related ministries, offerings that will be shared for hunger-action purposes with  agencies of justice and compassion throughout the United States.

I am working with the Board of World Fellowship to see if some SOS funds can be used for this purpose.

So this is the charge to you.  What do you think you can do to reach this goal?

  How about 1,111 items of food, for starters? 

I hope that we can engage the community in this effort.  On   Nov 13 we will celebrate   bring a friend to church day.   WE  hope you can bring a friend and some food.

I will be blogging about this all this month and hope to enlist some volunteers in this effort.

In all my years as UCC Representative this is the biggest effort that the UCC has mounted and the first time I have asked  You to  help.

Jeannette Brown

UCC Representative

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