Click here for the Current Smyrna Calendar.

Women’s Fellowship Camp Scholarship Deadline Approaching!

A Camper who wishes to go to Camp Adams can fill out an application for a scholarship of $180 towards the camp cost of $270 (before May 15). After May 15, the camp cost is $300. Completed applications are DUE MAY 10 — send to Levonne Gano, 31025 S Kaufman Rd, Canby OR 97013 A $50 deposit from the camper is required with registration forms. This deposit is nonrefundable. The last day any registration will be received by the conference: June 15.

Applications are available in the Narthex or from Levonne Gano.

Heritage Oaks

The oak trees at Smyrna have been nominated as Heritage Trees by Clackamas County thanks to the efforts of Susan Hansen. There will be a ceremony and awarding of a plaque on Tues., May 11 at 5:30 in the auditorium at 150 Beavercreek Rd., Oregon City. It would be great to have a representation from the church.

---Joel Daniels

Cleanup:

Smyrna Cemetery Clean-up May 22, 2010 9-11 a.m. Volunteers welcome!

New Chairs:

Sit back in comfort to celebrate the addition of new upholstered chairs in Friendship House.  All 100 chairs were delivered on Wednesday,  April 7th and with the help of Chuck and Helen, Rick and Levonne, Rod and Pat, Blanche, Dave, and Joel and Elaine, we got them unpacked and ready for Women’s Fellowship the next day.

  (Click to enlarge)

In addition to Stitch Club giving 30 chairs, all these people made the purchase possible:

Baby Shower!

INNOCENCE IS PRICELESS 

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Andrew standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names and small American flags mounted on either side of it.

The seven-year old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, 'Good morning Andrew.' 'Good morning Pastor,' he replied, still focused on the plaque. 'Pastor, what is this? ' The pastor said, 'Well son, it's a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.' Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.

Finally, little Andrew's voice, barely audible and trembling with fear asked, "Which service...the 8:30 or the 11:00?"

Africa?

When the search committee asked me to consider serving as Smyrna’s settled pastor, I was honored and agreed with two conditions- that everyone understand that I would continue to live in Vancouver, and that I wanted to take every third summer off without pay to travel and do mission work. This summer is my third with Smyrna and as I announced during the sermon on January 24, I plan to spend it in Africa.

I will be working as a non paid consultant with the international relief agency CARE. My work will be to try and build relationships between Village Savings and Loans that CARE has been promoting and local banks. I will be in Ghana for most of the summer. CARE’s mission is to try and reduce world poverty. One of the ways that CARE goes about its mission is by developing micro finance programs. Micro finance programs are small loans that are extended on an unsecured basis to people who then use the loan to build up their farm or business. The loans may be as small as $5 and are usually guaranteed by a group of women (5-10) from the same village. Loans are usually paid back in 60 to 90 days. The loans carry 2% interest a month and have a 98% repayment track record. Some of the members of Smyrna are making micro loans available through the KIVA program.

In addition to the loan program, CARE has developed in Africa a savings program. It might seem strange to want to help people who are living on less than $2 a day learn to save. When you only have $2 and know that next week you might have nothing, savings becomes very important. CARE has developed a Village Savings program similar to Credit Unions in the Untied States, except members of the credit union may only be saving 25 cents a week. The Village Savings are held in a lock box that takes 3 keys to open. The contributions and loans are all done in a public setting. One of the goals of doing everything in public is to avoid any favoritism and to avoid any peer pressure on the people who have the keys to the lock box. You can learn more about the program at www.Care.org and looking under programs/ Access Africa.

While I am gone, we will have a 3rd year seminary student from the University of Chicago (Katherine Raley) fill the pulpit under the supervision of Rev. Lou Wargo, a retired pastor. Smyrna will have the opportunity to help a future pastor learn how to be and effective minister. I also hope to find a mission effort for us to support in Africa- perhaps a school or clinic.

I am excited (and a little scared) about this summer. Thanks for allowing me to be a missionary for Smyrna.

--Pastor Dave DavidAkers@smyrnaucc.org

Olan Mills Photographers at Smyrna

The photographers from Olan Mills will be at Smyrna on May 3 and 4 to take pictures for our new pictorial directory. All 52 appointment slots have been taken. You can still have your picture in the directory even if you don’t have an appointment by submitting a picture of your own. We would love to have everyone in the directory. See Pastor Dave if you have a picture to submit.

Add to this a good sense of humor, a big dose of patience and a dash of humility, and you will be rewarded many-fold.

Thomas Daniels Web Consulting