Old Business

We discussed the distribution of the 10K race monies and updated the information on the new organizations that are under consideration for receiving funds.

Joan Law spoke about Hope Walks.Hope Walks supports orphans in West Africa and the Congo whose parents and relatives have died of AIDS. It donates money to foster parents in support of the orphans. The goal of Hope Walks is to raise awareness of these vulnerable children and to raise funds to support and educate them. It is an organization strongly affiliated with Global Strategies, Dr. Amani's organization and Joan recommended that we contribute to it.

Mary Ellen spoke about the Fistula Project that supports women in Ethiopia "with a horrific medical condition called obstetric fistula, that dooms women to live as outcasts." Fistula is an injury caused by long drawn out labor. After further investigation Mary Ellen felt that because the organization was supported by celebrities such as Ophrah Winfrey that it already had very effective public relations in place and was on a solid financial footing and may not need our help. Jackie also pointed out that 20% of the money was going to administration and fundraising.

Stephen spoke about the four Fiji Island High School students who were requesting $240 each in order to pay their secondary education fees. Connie Durant knows the students and their family situations and says they are wonderful people. Stephen spoke about how great it was to have far-flung members of the church bringing these needs to our attention. Another member of Skyland is already supporting two students and Stephen recommended that the race monies would support the other two.

Mary Ellen then spoke about the Amani Pastoralist Project in Kenya to build a well for the community. Jinn Easterday, another Skyland Church member, brought this project to our attention after she had visited the community. She reported that all the funds had been raised to buy the pipes for the well. Jinn said that the group in New Zealand was so successful that they were going to help the Kenyan community build a school and supply it with books.Mary Ellen recommended that we consider contributing to the school building project.

Joan then read from an email from Padhu at the Anadon school who was studying hard and has been accepted to the seminary school in India that he wished to attend. He is very grateful to the members of Skyland Church for the financial support we have given him.

We then voted to support three new projects: the Amani Pastoralist project for building the school in Kenya, the Fiji Island High school students, and Hope Walks. We then voted to appropriate monies to the following projects and organizations.

We then decided to hand out the following document which shows the distribution of the Skyland Run Race Money for 2006.

DISTRIBUTION OF SKYLAND RUN RACE MONEY 2006

Hunger –

Valley Churches United 500

Heifer Project 600

Pastor Discretionary fund 78

TOTAL 1178

Homelessness –

Habitat for Humanity S Clara Co. 400

Habitat for Humanity S Cruz Co. 400

Homeless Garden Project 100

Rebele Family Shelter Santa Cruz 300

Innvision 200

TOTAL 1400

Justice –

Bread for the World 300

Amnesty International 300

Anadon India Student Fund 300

TOTAL 900

Education –

New Horizons School 300

Foundry School 300

Anadon India Student Fund 300

Fiji Island HS Student Fund 480

Kenya Classroom, Child Fund 160

TOTAL 1540

Chaplaincy –

Lucille Packard Ministry 250

United Campus Ministry 300

TOTAL 550

Community –

Loma Prieta VoL Fire Ftrs 150

Lakeside School 150

Lexington School 150

Loma Prieta Home & Sch 150

Loma Prieta Ed Fund 150

TOTAL 750

Health Ministry –

Global Strategies 400

Hope Walks 200

TOTAL 600

Grand Total 6918

We decided to assemble the Giving Booklets after church on Nov. 5. Nancy Jo Lopp did a beautiful job printing the covers and we thank her very much.

New Business

We will describe the purpose of the migrant workers kits on Nov. 5 and hand out ziplock bags with lists of items needed. We will get Janet Davis's input on this.

Mission Sunday will be Nov. 19th. We will hand out the Giving Booklet on that Sunday. We will put the Distribution of Skyland Run monies document inside the booklet. Stephen will highlight some of the organizations in his sermon and the Words for Children. He will especially talk about new projects that we are supporting like the Fiji High school students and the personal global connections that our church has.

Stephen will also write an article for the November newsletter about Giving.Mary Ellen will write about the Amani Pastoralist Project for the January newsletter and Joan will write an article about Hope Walks for the February newsletter.

Stephen encouraged us to consider hosting a showing of the film "An Inconvient Truth". We discussed the logistics of doing this on the evening of Nov. 12.

Joan Law invited us to her house for the next meeting on November 28th at 7:30PM.

Edit | Back