Thursday, February 25, 2016

Odd Happenings on Rodeo Day

Ever wonder what goes on at St. Michael and All Angels on those rare days when there are no services, no school, and the church office is closed? One might think that the property would be deserted, but today, at least, it wasn't the case!

In front of the church, Junior Warden Howard Cresswell, Proscovia King and Shigeko Hsieh were cleaning out storage areas.


And look what they found!



Remember this? This sign is left over from the English Faires, held at the church in the 1990s and a few times since. Our last English Faire was in 2010. The sign is going to go away now. (Aww!)


Meanwhile, what's happening around back? Who are these people? The Senior Warden knows! And so does the Junior Warden!


Believe it or not, it's a film crew, setting up to film a scene about a disabled veteran for a music video.


Inside the church, crew from Monsoon Production Services is setting up to film,

Just as things seemed to be settling down, UPS delivered a box for the school, and several people showed up hoping for bags of food, which they received. And then!  FedEx turned up with a gift box for John Smith. John Smith? Father Smith is in Guatemala! And the box is marked "perishable!"


Thank you, Father Smith! I'll just be keeping these for you... in my refrigerator. Until they've been eaten. Happy Rodeo day!

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Announcements for Week Ending February 28, 2016

Parish Life is going Italian! Join us on Thursday, February 25th at 6:30 pm at Dolce Vita, 7895 E. Broadway (NW corner of Pantano and Broadway). Buon Appetito! (sign up sheets in back of church) _____________________________________________________________________


Family Game Night at St. Michael's sponsored by The Family Mass. Friday, February 26th in the Smith Parish Center, 5:30 to 8 pm. If you are missing the fun and friendly challenge of board games, then come to our second Family Game Night. All are invited, families, friends or just yourself. Who knows, you may make some new friends!
 Bring cash for the pizza, (or a bottle of soda or box of cookies) to share round. See you there! ____________________________________________________________

March 17th ~ POZ Café Luncheon.



St. Michael's is once again participating with 2 other churches and TIHAN in putting on the March 17th POZ Café luncheon. We have been asked to donate 40 rolls of paper towels, 80 boxes of Kleenex, and 320 disposable razors. These items will be put in the care packages that are given out at the luncheon. The razors and Kleenex can be purchased at the Dollar Tree for a dollar. Please help us fill up the chest in the back of the church. Cash donations to buy these items are also welcome. We need 6 volunteers to help the day of the luncheon, March 17th; time is 8:30 am to 2:30 pm. See Dianne Gundersen or Diane Tyron for details. ______________________________________________________________________

~ You are Invited ~ Please join us on Thursday, March 10 at 5:30 PM in the Smith Parish Center as we enjoy a meal with our friends for the Islamic Center of Tucson. (reservation sheets in back of church).
 _____________________________________________________________________

Guatemala Countdown: Is this the fast that I choose? What happens with Lenten discipline in a country where, for much of the rural indigenous population, almost every day is a fast not of their choosing? This much I can say: It's not about food. Isaiah 58:6-12, frequently quoted, adds (v.10), "If you pour yourself out for the hungry / and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, / then shall your light rise in the darkness /and your gloom be as the noonday." I leave tomorrow for Guatemala, joined by RN Dorothy Chao of Samaritans (second Project trip) and RN Lahna Chaffee of Green Valley. We’ll travel with Fr. Smith and Terri to Nebaj to meet local health workers and distribute supplies (among other activities). Dorothy and I will continue with health promoters to more remote communities, while Fr. Smith, Terri, and Lahna head for his church in Antigua. We will keep you posted.

What you can do: Right now, include prayers "For Travelers" (BCP p. 831), "For the Oppressed" (p. 826), and "For Towns and Rural Areas" (p. 825) in your Lenten devotions. Just add "and other lands" everywhere the prayers say "this land," and after "especially," add "those in the Ixil Area." Think about joining us, even for a few days, in May and June. -- Ila Abernathy

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Questionnaires for This Sunday!


Did you get your questionnaire? Have you filled it out?
-- A questionnaire from the nominating committee has been mailed to the entire congregation. If per chance you have not received a questionnaire in your postal mail​,​ there will be questionnaires available in the back of church, this Sunday before the 9:00 AM Mass, to complete and turn in. Or simply contact the parish office ~ 520/886-7292

​Thank you for your consideration in this important matter.​

Peace,
Nancy

Remember, there is only ONE mass this Sunday! It's at 9:00 AM on Sunday, 21 February.  Following it will be an all-parish meeting in the Smith Parish Center to share your wishes on the new Rector. The Nominating Committee will conduct the session with coffee and refreshments – an extended coffee hour.   Bring your wishes prayerfully and help shape our future together. Please do not miss this opportunity!

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

Parish Summit - One Service on February 21

Hear ye!  Hear ye!

There will be only one Mass at 9:00 AM on Sunday, 21 February.  Following it will be an all-parish meeting in the Smith Parish Center to share your wishes on the new Rector. The Nominating Committee will conduct the session with coffee and refreshments – an extended coffee hour.   Bring your wishes prayerfully and help shape our future together. Please do not miss this opportunity!

Monday, February 08, 2016

Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and More

You are invited to join us for Shrove Tuesday ~ Pancake Supper.  Tuesday ~ February 9 from 5:30 ~ 7:00 PM.  Pancakes are provided, however, please bring “side dishes to share” bacon, sausage, fruit, juice and anything else you would like to share! (Sign-up sheets in back of church.)

Ash Wednesday Services
9:40 AM  - Upper School Mass (transposed from Thursday)
12:10 PM -  Mass with Distribution of Ashes
7:00 PM - Mass with Distribution of Ashes

Parish Life is going Italian!
Join us on Thursday, February 25th at 6:30pm
At Dolce Vita
7895 E. Broadway (NW corner of Pantano and Broadway)
Buon Appetito!    (sign up sheets in back of church)

March 17th ~ POZ Café Luncheon.
St. Michael’s is once again participating with 2 other churches and TIHAN in putting on the March 17th POZ Café luncheon.We have been asked to donate 40 rolls of paper towels, 80 boxes of Kleenex,and 320 disposable razors. These items will be put in the care packages that are given out at the luncheon. The razors and Kleenex can be purchased at the Dollar Tree for a dollar. Please help us fill up the chest in the back of the church. Cash donations to buy these items are also welcome.
 We need 6 volunteers to help the day of the luncheon, March 17-time is 8:30 am to 2:30 pm.  See Dianne Gundersen or Diane Tyron for details.

Important!
A questionnaire from the nominating committee has been mailed to the entire congregation. If per chance you have not received a questionnaire in your postal mail please contact the church office by phone, 886-7292 or get in touch with Nancy Vernon by email: nvernon@stmichael.net. Thank you for your cooperation in this important matter.

Heart of St. Michael Dinner



You Are Invited to Attend
St. Michael's 14th Annual

Heart of St. Michael
Heart of St. Michael Dinner 

Honoring those who have made bequests to
St. Michael's during the past year.


Saturday, February 13, 2016 at 6:00 PM

IMPORTED and DOMESTIC CHEESE and CRACKERS

Presentation


TWO HEART SALAD
Artichoke Hearts and Hearts of Palm
Served with Mixed Greens and Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette

DUET FOR THE HEART
Seared Chicken Breast with Smoked Shallots Buerre Blanc Sauce 
& Grilled Boeuf Medallions with Port Demi Glace
Served with Whipped Duchess Potatoes and Haricots Verts

SWEET HEART
Petite Cut Lemon Bars
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Champagne Toast
Cranberry Apple Cider, Coffee and Water
(or bring your own favorite beverage)

$30.00 person
Reservation sheets in back of church. (or simply call the Parish Office to make your reservation)

Invite a friend, choose your table, make your reservations and join us for a delightful evening with good friends, food prepared by Chef Andy Bruno and lively conversation!

A bequest to St. Michael's is truly the gift of a lifetime. Please consider remembering St. Michael's in your will of estate planning.

Thursday, February 04, 2016

Guatemala Project Briefs

February 3, 2016



VISIT COUNTDOWN, February / March Delegation and team work
Leaving Tucson February 22 --
Coordinator Ila, and retired RN Lahna Chaffee
Leaving Tucson February 23 -- RN Dorothy Chao of Tucson Samaritans, and writer / St. Michael’s Vestry member Reed Karaim.
Meeting us in Guatemala
 -- The Rev. John R. Smith and spouse Terri Smith.
Return to the U.S. -- Reed returns March 2, Lahna is with the Project until March and then with friends, and Dorothy and Ila return March 10, after whirlwind visits to multiple locations.

GOOD NEWS from Guatemala and the Equipo de Salud

DepoProvera order
 -- Using Project grant money, health leader Domingo Alvarez arranged the at-cost purchase, through the NGO Wings / "Alas," of 200 units of the 3-month injection preferred by many rural women and no longer consistently available through the Health Ministry. That’s 200 women who will be able to continue family planning for another 3 months, particularly important as the Zika virus enters the region (see "Zika" below). More Depo is needed. Equipo de Salud estimates last year were that, for all 22 CPR communities, 383 women were using this method and would want to continue. Once we see how this distribution fares, we will order more if necessary, again using Fowler Fund and Arizona Diocesan Millennium Development Committee grant monies.

Cooperation on the order, and costs
 -- A member of St. Alban’s, the tiny English-language Episcopal mission Fr. Smith shepherds in Antigua, first suggested we contact Alas ("Wings" in Spanish). This non-governmental organization focusing on family planning does not work in the areas where we go but agreed to special order at their low cost (about $3.33 per unit). We asked if it would be all right to make a small charge, so there would be money with the local health workers to buy more needed medicines. ALAS administrators indicated that they never give away medicines and ask Q15 from patients (around $2 for 3 months’ protection), exactly the sum the Equipo de Salud was mentioning. People are very poor, but this is not unreasonable, especially considering the health and monetary costs of pregnancy. And people value what they pay for.

The attachment includes a photo of a vinyl sign the Equipo de Salud and we designed for use last year in our "giras" (circuits), made in Guatemala City through Domingo’s contacts for a big $7. Consults and our tests, free. Medicines and supplies from the U.S., free. Medicines the Project buys in Guatemala, reduced price, with funds staying in the community to support the little local "clinics" (one visitor said better to call them "health huts," as they aren’t clinics as we know them).

St. Alban’s plans to host
one or more of the Equipo de Salud before we arrive, so they can begin to know the Project, the communities, and the needs. Thank you, St. Alban’s.

Welcome to Magdalena Chavez
, Community Tesorito, who replaces Berta Sic? as liaison in the capital and her community, where her father Gabriel has long been an active health promoter. Magdalena has nurse training (like an LPN) but no regular work. When I talked by telephone with Domingo and her last Saturday, she was learning from Domingo how to maintain fiscal accountability for Project expenditures of money -- not simple, given individual receipting for uses for emergency transportation and for small payments to upwards of 25 rural health workers.

When in town, Berta still stays at the house in Mixco where CPR offices are located, but now that she has a "real" job in social services, she is frequently in other parts of the country. We miss her.

ON ORDER for the February - March visit: Fourteen otoscopes (for checking ears, but with other uses) from Cascade Health Care Products, Portland, Oregon, a midwifery supply that gives us a sweet discount. We’ll keep one for team use and distribute the others to health promoters, who were begging for this basic tool last summer. We’ll also order more hemoglobin test cards, pregnancy tests, prenatal and children’s vitamins. Cheryl Meyers, who takes our orders at Cascade, has her own small education project in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. To learn about that, go to www.kawangwarekids.org, or on Facebook, Kawangware Kids.

ABOUT ZIKA: The CPR-Sierra communities where Chikungunya arrived with fury last year are also at risk for Zika, which may well cause severe birth anomalies like microencephaly. Primarily, these are El Triunfo on the Pacific coastal plain, and Tesorito, in the "Boca Costa." I asked Magdalena Chavez if Zika had arrived in Tesorito, and she said yes, but with a qualifying lift of her voice, appropriate since a firm diagnosis requires lab work. Chikungunya (in terms of joint pain, something like classic dengue on steroids) was a major problem last year, so one can expect Zika and attendant worries about birth defects. Thank climate change. Danger will be greater after late May, when the rainy season starts.

Why all the attention in the popular media? Word Health Organization [WHO] predicts a global epidemic. Hesperian Foundation has rushed out a brief teaching sheet on Zika in English and in Spanish, which I forwarded to Domingo. We’ll also take copies to use during the visit. If you want to check it out, go to www.hesperian.org and click on the appropriate link. Worth reading.

SUMMER PLANS
Teams for June and July, 2.5 to 3.5 weeks, moderate to very strenuous, depending upon communities. E-mail if you are interested, and we will share information as it develops, plus application and lots of detail. Expect meetings re definitive plans after mid-March. Health professionals, generalists, and really flexible people, respectful of indigenous cultures, most welcome. Spanish helps.