St Andrews Service Worship

This was on the front page of the Tucson newspaper this morning!  Sorry, that is best the pictures downloaded for me but they were full sized in the paper.  What a nice story about our church and what we have been up to with our "Service Worship".  It is so great and we truly all are more blessed by going out and serving than we bless others, I am sure.  More pics to follow about what Will and I did.

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Service Worship Sunday

 

St. Andrew's trades regular worships to perform service for the communityBy Patty Machelor Arizona Daily Star Arizona Daily Star

7 hours ago  •  By Patty Machelor

Interested in joining St. Andrew’s efforts? Contact RuthAnn Smithrud at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church at 297-7201 or email her at rsmithrud@standrewspres.com.

When this northwest side church trades its Sunday worship for a service worship, paint cans get popped open, trash gets picked up, and lunch sacks get filled for children in need.

It’s a big dose of loving care for a community with big needs.

It’s also a trend congregants at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 7650 N. Paseo del Norte, hope catches on citywide.

So far, St. Andrew’s volunteers have given more than 2,100 hours of community service to Tucson through their first three service worships.

“There is a movement in our city of churches truly wanting to live out their faith in tangible ways,” said St. Andrew’s Rev. Jim Toole. “As we are spiritually renewed, transformed and restored by Christ, then we feel called to be restorative change agents in our community.”

Toole said their goal is to hold four service sessions each year.

“The other hope is that some of our members will discover passion with a particular organization and then be a regular volunteer,” he said. “There have already been a few folks that now are volunteering on a regular basis with the organization they served on service worship.”

For their first service worship in September, St. Andrew’s had more than 500 people volunteer — greater than 70 percent of the congregation — and more than 900 volunteer hours were performed.

Volunteer Kevin Oxnam said they wrote 110 letters to deployed troops, made and delivered 200 sack lunches, donated more than 700 food items to elementary students in need, stuffed 242 bags of food and toiletries for the homeless, made 39 blankets for Project Linus, and created 60 activity bags for the Ronald McDonald House.

They also spread eight tons of gravel at another church, filled 10 bags of trash and a pickup truck at a school cleanup, and assembled more than 400 boxes for Operation Christmas Child.

The idea to cancel regular services and instead do work began in early 2012, Oxnam said, when St. Andrew’s put together a team to determine a new ministry.

“We interviewed many people and organizations in Tucson to better understand the needs,” he said. “We finalized on a new mission area we call Faith That Works.”

Faith That Works includes three mission priorities: service worship, mobile units and partnering regularly with other churches and organizations.

The church recently purchased a mobile unit to provide showers for homeless people.

St. Andrew’s is also now partnering with other local churches, such as the First Church of God, across the street from Amphitheater Middle School, and the Good News Community Church, 701 W. Glenn St.

Oxnam said they learned about service worship from his son’s church in Cupertino, Calif., where the concept has already been in place five years. (Learn more at serviceworship.org)

“This really has generated an awful lot of enthusiasm,” Oxnam said. “We’re hoping other churches will do it, too.”

RuthAnn Smithrud became the church’s outreach director in January after joining St. Andrew’s in the fall. 

Smithrud spent her time Sunday preparing food totes for children.

“We’re the ones that are blessed when we help other people,” said Smithrud, who taught first grade in the Amphitheater School District for 27 years before retiring 18 months ago. “It’s honestly life-changing. There’s a lot of struggling families right now, in all walks of life, and I feel we can’t afford to sit in churches anymore.

“That’s not what it’s all about.”

Celebrating a birthday

It was Will's birthday today.  He decided at the last minute that we should do something sorta special.  We started calling the B & B's in Madera Canyon and found an opening.  The one we REALLY wanted has a two night minimum this time of year but we didn't want to be gone that long so we took a second choice, Madera Kubo.  Lets just say it was an "eclectic" little cabin, not the ambiance we would have preferred but it turned out just fine and we had a good time. Heated with a wood burner and was nice a cozy warm.  Left for Madera right after church yesterday and checked in early afternoon. 

Spring has come to Madera, its one of our favorite local birding spots and Kubo was a great place to start.  Hummingbird feeders are all over so we could sit on our little patio, or the little garden and watch them.  Broadtailed and Magnificent were the most numerous.  The Magnificient lives up to its name, and is the biggest hummer of all the North American species. No mistaking it.

Male and female Boadbilled with their distinctive red bill.  Only found in higher elevations in canyons around southeast Arizona.

Best picture I could get of the Magnificent, his wingbeats have a distinctive low pitch.

Wild Turkeys on the road next to our cabin.  Three males in breeding plumage with their tails in full display all trying to get the attention of one very uninterested female.  What was really interesting was to watch the flock of turkeys fly up into the branches of trees just as it was getting dark.  I had no idea that they roosted in trees, and certainly had no idea that they could actually fly their big hulking bodies up high into trees!
   Got up this morning, had our breakfast and then hiked and birded 5 miles to Josephine Saddle.  Great hike up canyon.  We were home again mid afternoon. 
   Nice way to celebrate a birthday together!  He's not saying---but he's 69!  Happy Birthday, sweetheart!

 

 

 

Fun weekend

We had a fun weekend.  Will and I spent Friday at the 4th Avenue Street Fair.  Usually really crowded and we were geared up for lots of people but wasn't too bad.  Maybe everyone waiting for weekend, or maybe everyone stayed home to watch Arizona's basketball game--which they won, by the way.

And then today I helped with "Empty Bowls" at Interfaith Community Service.  Several pottery studios, cooperatives, and individual potters made and donated bowls for the event.  With their ticket, everyone gets to pick out a bowl and then sample soups and other food items donated by local restaurants.  The empty bowls is symbolic of the needy people ICS serves in Tucson.  It has become a great money raiser for ICS and this years event sold out.  We had over 1000 bowls donated!  Lots of good food, and some really nice bowls, each one hand made with care.

 

Whats blooming

We spent a pleasant day on Monday at the Desert Museum.  Needed to go out and see what is blooming and we found plenty.

Like this big Yucca, with is also sporting a Cactus Wren singing his head off.  Several Cactus Wrens were building nests and also very vocal.

This huge Agave is breaking into bloom.  It was noisy with bees. These things grow inches a day to reach their maximum size in just a few weeks.  Also, once they bloom like this, they die.  The dried stalk can stand for years as a sentinel in the desert.

Prickly pears are just starting.  Mine at home have a ways to go before they bloom but this beauty has a head start.

Hedgehog Cactus blooming in pots.  This is usually the first one we see blooming around town. 

 

Tucson Festival of Books

I was just one of literally thousands of people who took in the two day Tucson Festival of Books this weekend at the University of Arizona campus.  It is my time. I love every minuet of it.  Lectures, author panels, readings, poetry, workshops, vendors, food, and every genre of literature showcased. 

The newspaper said officially that 120,000 people were there.  The streets were crowded but most disconcerting (if I must complain) is the time one must stand in line in order to get in to see the speaker you want to see.  Longest I stood in line was 1 1/2 hours.  If you don't line up early at the venue you will not make it in.  They have 5 time slots thru out the day and the days of leisurly making your way from one to another is gone.  You have to skip every other one to give yourself the time.  But you do meet interesting people in line--and with lots of time to chat, book lovers all, sharing tips and quips.

Rebecca Eaton, Executive producer of Downton Abbey

The best and highlight was a "conversation" with Richard Russo, "(Elsewhere")  and Luis Alberto Urrea, ("Devils Highway" "Hummingbirds Daughter".)

And Arizona natives, Nancy Turner ("These is My Words", "My Grandmothers Quilt" ) and now "Resolute" which is a real departure from the kind of thing we love her for.  And Bonnie Marson, "sleeping with Shubert."

Cousins!

Will and I drove up to Florence, AZ today to catch up with a Cousin that we have not seen in at least 15 years. . .neither of us could exactly figure out for sure when we saw each other last, but absolutely much too long.  One of those "small world" events brought us together--someone knew someone who knew they were in Arizona for a short time--too hard to explain but am surely glad it worked.  Cliff and I spent so much time together growing up, he was a huge part of my early childhood.  So many memories to share. . .and get details straight . . .lots of laughs.  Loved seeing them.

Cliff and Sharon Perkins from Fort Dodge, Iowa.

My eyes aren't really shut, I was looking into the sun. . .ok, they were shut!

Larry and Marlene

Long time Minnesota friends, Larry and Marlene stopped to spend the weekend with us while traveling from visits in California and other Arizona points.  We enjoyed the warm southwest sun with a day out visiting various Garden Railroads in town during thier annual open house.  Was SO good to see them, visited non stop for two days.  

We wanted to show them the "real Tucson," so we had to stop for a Sonoran Hotdog.  

Hated to see them go!

Tucson look for old church pew.

We have had this (cut down) church pew for I bet, 30 years!  Came out of Grace Church in St Paul, when they replaced their pews with chairs.  It sat on our front porch in Minnesota and then we brought it down here and put it by our front door again.  Well, today it got a new Southwestern look!

Will sanded and painted it, looks really festive!

Bar fight?

No, I wasn't in a fight, my black eye is result of a little surgery I had on my eye lid to remove a small basal cell carcinoma.  I actually have had it for years but doctor decided it was time to take it off.  Two day out patient procedure, removal one day and reconstruction next by plastic surgeon.  Yesterday was the worst day ever as there are stitches on the inside where they had to reconstruct one wall of the tear duct.  It absolutely felt like something lodged in my eye.  Much better today, still scratchy but not the excruciating pain I experienced yesterday!    

  I think I am going to live!