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Micah 6 Ministry
By all accounts, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, better known as welfare reform, has moved large numbers of people from the welfare rolls into the labor market. Supporters tout this as proof of welfare reform's success. Critics, claiming many former welfare recipients have not escaped poverty, argue that welfare reform simply created a system of income transfer whereby people who once received poverty-level assistance from the government now work 35 to 40 hours a week to earn a poverty-level income.
A 2000 Urban Institute Study estimates that one in six non-elderly Americans live in families where adults work at least half time and family income falls below twice the federal poverty level (the poverty level was $14, 259 for a family of three in 2,000). While these folks don't officially live in "poverty," the lack of employment benefits coupled with high housing, transportation, and child-care costs place them in a class called the "working poor." A 2000 Department of Labor report estimates that 8.5 percent of American families with children under 18 are "working poor."
Closer to home, the 2000 census report states that over 80,000 residents of Travis County live below the federal poverty income guidelines, giving Travis County a poverty rate of over 12%. The Texas Department of Human Services estimates that up to 200,000 people classified as working poor live in Travis County (defined as a family of four living at or below $35,000 a year in 2001). According to the Austin-based Community Action Network's 2001 report entitled, Urgent Issues Action Plan, "persistent poverty, combined with steady increases in the cost of living have increased the demand for affordable housing, education, job training, basic needs, health care, and all human services. The economy is now slowing, and if this continues, the number of people needing these services will only increase."
The University-area churches can testify to the local demand for basic needs. Most of the people seeking help from the area churches are looking for food, clothing, and/or rental assistance. Many of them are not the down and out homeless that frequent the Salvation Army or the Austin Resource Center For the Homeless, but the working poor or the poor who've recently lost their jobs.
Micah 6 is the organizing effort seeking to coordinate the nine University-area churches' response to the poor in our community. The church's include our own, University Baptist, University Presbyterian, University Methodist, University Christian, University Ave. Church of Christ, First English Lutheran, St Austin's Catholic Parish, and All Saints' Episcopal. Matt Blackstock and I represent our church on the Micah 6 Board. The Board's first big project is to create a consolidated food pantry that all nine churches will support with finances and volunteers.
Until recently, Micah 6 acted in a rather informal manner, but it now has a set of Bylaws and it's seeking a more formal commitment from the nine area churches. At this point, the commitment involves signing a covenant, a copy of which is included in this edition of The Visitor. Most of the nine churches have taken whatever board and church vote actions they've needed to sign the Micah 6 Covenant, thereby officially joining Micah 6. At some time in the near future, our church will have to make a formal decision regarding our membership in Micah 6. Now that we have a Christian Outreach Committee, that Committee will be responsible for presenting a proposal regarding Micah 6 to the church.
My hope is that our involvement in Micah 6 will not only enable us to more effectively respond to the needs of poor people in our community, but that it will move us to take a greater interest in the dynamics and demographics of poverty in our city and county. If we are to have a strong and vibrant healing ministry in our church, a concern for local economic justice could be a key component of this ministry.
JULY BIRTHDAYS
1 John R. Gage
2 Enid Ross
4 Kay Lewis
5 Ellen Ryan
7 Sarah Murphy Sennour
David Pinkard
8 Julia Adams
9 Betty Phillips
11 Katlin Lemley
15 Jonathan Ashton
17 Andy Ross
19 Joseph P. McMillan, Jr.
21 Chester Rosson
23 Gary Barrett
Chester Rosson
24 Brenda Tingle
26 Eric Deisler
28 Doyal Pinkard
Andrea Putz
31 Lillie Kate Webb
AUGUST BIRTHDAYS
5 Sharon Brown
6 Steven Hawes Domingue
10 Debbie Catherine Sennour
11 David Ross
Marty Gooding
13 Sarah Ashton
18 Marilyn Jordan
19 Stan Miles
21 Loretta A. Lewis
22 Cecile L. Ervin
24 Mike Ross
26 Travis Moore
THE WOMEN'S BOOK CLUB
has chosen its selections for the next few months.
July is SEABISCUIT
August is THE CORRECTIONS by Franzen
September is THE WAY I FOUND HER
October is THE HANDMAID'S TALE by Atwood
November is ANGLE OF REPOSE
December is THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Kidd
January is PEACE LIKE A RIVER by Leif Enger.
We're Renting the Third Floor!!!
In anticipation of renting the third floor, we will remove all items from there. Please call Trish if you have an interest in helping remove items OR if any third floor items belong to you so you can arrange to collect them.
Personals
by Pat Oakes
It was a great joy for one and all to welcome Carol Barrett back to the fold in Austin On Sunday, June 15th.. She has been in Berkeley, CA. almost exactly 2 years. She was working in city planning there and was finding it more and more frustrating. Her husband Gary stayed here for his job, and even though their son Andrew is a student at Berkeley, Carol says, "I missed Gary, I missed Central Texas, I missed you all--and those people (in Berkeley) are NUTS!" Carol is back in Central Texas as the Director of Planning and Development Services for the city of San Marcos. She will be commuting to San Marcos and will enjoy seeing her husband Gary and son Craig on a more regular basis. Craig graduated from UT last year and is working in Austin and living at home while saving up money for THE car.
Jamie Adams graduated from Huntington-Surrey High School as Valedictorian. His grandmother was here from East Texas, as promised, and sat through the entire six hour graduation with no complaints. The procedure is that each of the 26 graduates was called to the front of the church and praised by at least one (or more) teachers or friends. The "no complaints" part is a lie says Michael. "Many people from the church were there and there was not a non-whiner in the bunch, including the proud parents. Still, a good time was enjoyed by all." Jamie said it was a little like being at one's own funeral without having to go to the trouble of dying first. Jamie heads for Rhodes College in Memphis in August.
Now, the maternal grandfather (from Dallas) is visiting for a few weeks, to catch up on family and have his other cataract removed. Michael and Jamie are very handy, but the cataract surgery is being done by a doctor.
Rizer Everett reports that on June 9th (his 87th birthday) he and his friend Doris Tyler drove to the Nimitz Pacific War Museum in Fredericksburg. There they were impressed with the exhibits, maps, dioramas, planes and ships, and the recorded lectures of the sea and island battles in the Pacific, and they strongly recommend the museum as a place to take visitors. The ExxonMobil Retiree Club meeting for June was held on the 11th at the Dell Jewish Community Center. Johanna Householder and Rizer enjoyed the visits with club members and the good BBQ luncheon in the main salon at the Center.
Mary Sinclair and Richard Jackson attended the 80th birthday surprise party for Mary's mother Joyce Sinclair on June 8th at the Hamilton Yacht Club in Hamilton, Ontario. About 30 family and friends came together for what was billed as a family birthday party to celebrate a number of birthdays. The surprise guest was Joyce's brother Eddie who flew over from London, U, for the event. Joyce was very excited about this family event, not realizing until the moment she walked into the room that it was for her alone and had taken over a year of planning by her five daughters. In the weeks before the party she had even begun to invite a few friends who already had been invited by the five daughters and who knew that it was for her alone. No one spilled the secret. Mary remained in Canada for an extra week to take Eddie to see the sights.
Marilyn Gaddis and George Carruthers attended his Stalag Luft III Reunion in New Orleans May 29th - June 1st. There were about 250 survivors and families in attendance. Stalag Luft III was a German prisoner of war camp for Allied airmen. George was interned there for 21 months after being shot down over the Paris area, July 14, 1943 - Bastille Day! Special guest at the reunion was a young man from Holland whose hobby is studying and collecting memorabilia about Stalag Luft III. He had brought along his albums of pictures and maps of the camp which was located near Zagan, Poland. At the reunion, he interviewed and took pictures of all of the survivors. The group toured an old mansion and the World War II Museum. The Reunion Committee told everyone to "Stay Alive Until 2005" for the LAST reunion which will be held in Tucson! (Editor's note: I found a lot of information of Stalag Luft III by searching the internet. Now we just need to talk to George and find out his experiences.)
On Memorial Day weekend, Lisa Kirch's dad came down with a terrible case of pneumonia. He spent nearly a week on a ventilator in the intensive care unit of a hospital, and they all thought he was going to die. They tested him for both SARS and Legionella. He was in Maracaibo, Venezuela visiting her sister, Sylvia, and her family. He caught a more ferocious version of what Sylvia and her daughter had. Sylvia and her husband Dave transferred to Maracaibo from Bangkok in February. The visit was a homecoming of sorts for her dad: both of her sisters were born in Venezuela, and he spent his last years with Gulf Oil in their Caracas office. Lisa doesn't know when he'll be coming home. He has round-the-clock nursing care and a physical therapist who comes in every day, and he won't be able to get that kind of care up here. Lisa and Sarah were the official family representatives at a cousin's wedding in Little Rock. It was an evening wedding, and Sarah borrowed her mom's silk stole at the reception to help her achieve the goal of looking as grown-up as possible (she's 7): "Do I look like a teenager?" she asked. What she looked was small, especially dancing with her first cousin once removed, a more than six-foot tall Methodist minister. But they had a grand time!
Fran and Rambie Briggs enjoyed a visit in Graham, NC, with Jonathan, Bethany, and Margit over Mother's Day weekend. Besides celebrating Mother's Day, they attended Margit's ballet performance and saw the Burlington Day School play "Scheherazade" (both performances). Bethany directed and Margit sang and danced. From there they flew to Biloxi, MS, for a week. Fran attended the Back Bay Mission board meeting and wants to let everyone know that the mission is doing lots of good things, thanks in part to contributions from you. She has a special video to show sometime after church. The Briggs also enjoyed catching fish and visiting with friends while in Biloxi.
Janna Rehbein, a frequent visitor at the church this year, has been helping with a documentary on German photographer Hansel Mieth who worked for Life Magazine in the 1930's. The English version of the documentary already showed on KLRU, but Janna did the German voice-over for German version. She has been working with award-winning UT producer and teacher of documentary film Nancy Schiesari (Editor's note: check the internet to find out more about Hansel Mieth--an overlooked hero of documentation of the 1930's in America). Or even better, ask Janna about her work and about her master's degree work which was concerned with the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII.
John Towery is feeling real relief these days. He had been having severe problems with his hip for almost a month. He was afraid that he was headed for a hip replacement (Eleanor has had both hips replaced in the past few years), but got the good news from the orthopedist that it was just bursitis and that it could be treated with anti-inflammatory drugs. He is already feeling better and hopes to be back on the tennis courts soon.
Lana Harris and Scott Duff are the proud parents of their third child and second son, Brian Christopher Duff, born on Mother's Day. All are doing fine now, but Lana got an infection in the hospital and had to go back for a few days (taking Brian with her). Brian's siblings are Kayla, 6, and Alan, 3. As of mid-June, grandmother Bee Harris Weiss was doing OK with her treatments for lung cancer. She had completed the first round of chemo and was scheduled for another series of tests to see what progress she is making. She is feeling tired, but is doing relatively well. She manages to work in her yard some and she and Milt are looking forward to a trip in the near future.
Gail Christeson will be chief scientist on a research vessel studying the seismic structure of oceanic crust in the Pacific Ocean.The ship will leave Panama July 6, and will return July 28.The location of the experiment is a place called Hess Deep,a region where the crust has been ripped open and the oceanic crust is exposed. In 1999, Gail went down in a submersible to 2000 meter depth to look at the observed geologic structure; this cruise will acquire seismic data at the same location. Anyone interested in following the cruise or sending questions to the scientists aboard the ship can visit the web page - a link should be available at: http://www.ig.utexas.edu/spotlights . Husband John Goff will be holding down the fort at home with Cameron and Megan.
We know now why Hemingway found the title of his book so appealing. He had suffered through the hot African summer in the valleys below the mountain and needed a respite! Twenty-one valiant, (but not heat-resistant) CCA members know what he endured. They fought the heat and the humidity of Mt. Bonnell to successfully complete one more quarterly, Adopt-A-Park, clean-up. They refurbished the flower beds, picked up the trash on the trails, swept the litter from the stairs and walkways, and restored the parking areas at the base of the Park. Amazingly, the task was completed in record time. They were done at 11:06 AM and, thanks to Brita Jenquin, all enjoyed a nice lunch before returning home.
We are grateful to the hardy Mt. Bonnell volunteers who were: Vic Appel; Matt Blackstock; Kathi Foster & Ashley Rendon; John Goff & Gail Christeson, Cameron Goff, Megan Goff; Richard Jackson; Brita Jenquin; George Lemley, Jeffrey Lemley & Junior Bowles; Ricky Masters; Liz Nash, Becky Nash; Doyal Pinkard, Tommie Pinkard; Jaana Rehbein; Jim Ross; Suzanne VanderPoel. We are especially indebted to Vic Appel, coordinator of the effort and conceiver of the Adopt-A-Park idea. He is stepping down from this responsibility at the end of this month.
The next Adopt-A-Park clean-up day will be Saturday, September 20, 2003 from 8:00 am until 12:00 noon.
What does our church need to learn? What ideas and debates will inform us as we take on Tom's challenges of creativity, healing, and evangelism? At its June meeting the Board of Christian Education took up these questions and started planning classes for the fall.
Led by Superintendent of Christian Education John Burlinson the Board selected a new curriculum for elementary, middle school, and youth groups. It includes a great selection of hands-on teaching ideas, a labyrinth-building project, and studies of controversies in Bible history.
When the Board meets again July 20 after church (all are welcome to attend) we will wrestle with adult education priorities and an accompanying budget.
Current programs in development:
_a 6-week study of healing, led by Seton Medical Center Chaplain Enid Ross,
_a forum on local and global issues of peace and justice, led by Richard Jackson and seminary professor Whit Bodman, and
_a congregation-wide book discussion -- to include e-mail discussions for those who can't find time to get to a meeting.
Above all we want to find a variety of programs, times, and dates so that everyone can study and reflect on our individual and congregational beliefs and actions. Give us your ideas and preferences!
John Burlinson, Marilyn Vache', Robin Chapman, John Goff, Lisa Kirch, Julia Deisler, and Tom VandeStadt
Outreach Alert
The "Front Porch" Ministry
The Christian Outreach Committee seeks interested members to begin a "Front Porch" Ministry to the homeless youth who sleep on our front porch at night. Participants will gather at church at 9:00 AM to get the youth up and moving with assistance from Jay and Tom. The youth will be invited to use the rest rooms, and provided with the materials they need to clean up the courtyard area. This could give church members a half-hour or so to interact with the youth on an informal basis. Participation can be as frequent or seldom as you are comfortable with. In August we plan to host a session with John Whipple, the LifeWorks coordinator, who will provide information and training needed to ensure success of this ministry. The Outreach Committee sees the wakeup call as an informal but critical first step in a Front Porch Ministry: developing a relationship with these youth. Where the ministry develops from there will depend largely on how well that relationship goes. Those interested should contact Tom Vandestadt.
Mt. Bonnell Cleanup Coordinator Sought
The Mt. Bonnell Adopt a Mountain Park Project has been a popular ministry for our church. Vic Appel has been coordinating the cleanup effort since its inception, but is now looking for someone else to take over the reigns. Vic has put together a detailed description of the background and operating procedures for the project, to help whoever comes next transition into the role. If you are interested in helping to coordinate the Mt. Bonnell ministry, please contact Tom.
A Review of Mission Giving
At our June meeting, the Christian Outreach Committee began a process of reviewing our church's discretionary mission giving. With our limited resources, we seek to insure that our mission giving provides support for the primary outreach goals of the church. The lion's share of our giving goes to community organizations that we have or have had some association with. These organizations either provide resources for our outreach ministry, or help provide us with a voice in our community both locally and broadly. Next year we will seek to substantially increase our giving to Micah 6 as it begins three-day-a-week operation of a food pantry - to perhaps $2000 or more year, which will primarily go toward purchasing food from the Capitol Area Food Bank. The Committee is considering a recommendation to drop Austin Interfaith from our mission giving, primarily because we are no longer involved in that organization.
The Committee also discussed our giving to educational causes. We are concerned that, in giving directly to the general funds of UCC seminaries and Huston-Tillotson College, we are not having much of an impact. We discussed the possibility of redirecting those monies into a scholarship fund, which could be used to directly support seminarians with some connection to our church, and/or set up a direct scholarship fund with HTC.
The Committee also discussed dropping Eden Home from our mission giving, as our involvement with that organization has also petered out.
An annotated list of our church's current discretionary mission giving follows. Comments on our mission giving are strongly encouraged - please send to John Goff at goff@ig.utexas.edu.
The Congregational Church of Austin's Discretionary Mission Giving for 2003
1) Community Organizations
Austin Area Interreligious Ministry - $600
This Austin-based ministry is comprised of representatives from a variety of faiths, from Christian to Jewish to Muslim to Hindu to Ba'hai to Buddhist. They attempt to create opportunities for dialogue among the faiths. They turned out to be a valuable asset when it came to promoting dialoged with local Muslims after 9-11, but they were pretty quiet during the Iraq situation because different people in AAIM were had very strong feelings in support of and opposed to the US action. They also have several other projects, like hands-on-housing and a mentoring program. Tim Tutt, the other UCC pastor in Austin, is on now on their Board.
Austin Interfaith - $300
Associated with the Industrial Areas Foundation, Austin Interfaith is arguably faith-based community organizing at its best. It helps people identify issues that impact there daily lives (identify their self-interest), analyze the power relations that impact their lives (corporate, government, local business, gangs, police...), then organize their own power to achieve the results they want. Austin Interfaith is strongest in East Austin.
Back Bay Mission - $500
The crown jewel in the South Central Conference as far as mission outreach is concerned. Located in Biloxi, Mississippi, they host a variety of work camps for churches from across the country, they provide trainings on how churches can effectively organize for mission outreach. Tom is planning to attend a BBM seminar in October to learn more about organizing work camps.
University Area Partners - $100
A partnership that brings together local merchants and business owners, and at times, city representatives (police, public works, city planning) to discuss issues impacting them. The University Churches are invited but often unrepresented. Our church is occasionally represented.
Texas Impact - $100
A faith-based advocacy organization that studies political, economic, social, and environmental issues in Texas. They provide educational forums to churches, and they advocate for justice on a number of issues (state budget items that impact the poor; what kind of car would Jesus drive?).
Micah 6 - $400
The on-going organization of the nine university-area churches to coordinate our direct service provision to people in need, and to make our justice advocacy ministry more effective. Goals for this year include participation in freeze night ministry, and opening a centralized food pantry.
2) Education
Regional Seminary Support - $500
This supports the three regional United Church of Christ Seminaries: Chicago, United, and Eden.
Huston-Tillotson College - $500
Sponsored jointly by the UCC and the United Methodist Church, HTC is an historically Black school that our church has supported financially at least since the era of Civil Rights activism. Several of our members are or have been personally involved with the college, and are strong advocates for the institution. Joe McMillan is past president; Rambie Briggs and Nodie Murphy are currently trustees; Nancy Brown is a graduate, and her husband was a faculty member there; another former president, John Q. King, has been an associate member of our church; our favorite visiting soloist Melanie Wilkinson is also a graduate.
3) Other
Eden Home - $100
Eden Home is an elder care home that the UCC has some affiliation with. First Protestant Church in New Braunfels has been the driving force behind Eden Home, though EH's charter calls for some board members to be drawn from other South Central Conference churches. When FPC left the UCC a few years ago, UCC representation on the Eden Home board (and therefore its voice in shaping Eden Home policies) effectively shrank. For that reason our Trustees reduced financial support for Eden Home this year from $500 (which had been our church's customary annual gift) to $100. Several of our members have been board members at Eden Home.
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