We have a week to go on our Heifer mission project and we are over half way there, having raised $2, 664.66 — a testimony to faith and hard work in a church of our size. Now it is time to share Iris’ vision and our story with a broader audience and to invite others to partner with us! We have one of every animal on the ark. lets see if we can get the pair!
Below I include our fundraising letter. My hope is that we would all personalize it (feel free to edit as needed) and send out via facebook and email to our respective networks. We now have a link for online donations through the secure heifer website.
Also I invite everyone in the CitC community to prayerfully consider making a donation– whether a first donation or a second “extra mile” donation to help us fill the ark.
Sunday please join us for a special service as we bless and send forth the mission team and also say goodbye to Adam and Stephanie as they leave for New York.
peace,
Courtney
June 29, 2011
Dear friend,
Church in the Cliff is raising funds for our summer mission project with Heifer International and are reaching out to our friends, neighbors, families and broader community to help us buy an Ark. We are a small community and each year we support a mission project as a way of recognizing the child/children who are coming of age in our community. This year we are inspired by Iris, age 13, quoted below:
I chose Heifer as a mission/fundraiser because we’re not only helping people in a developing country by giving them the gift of animals but we’re also getting to experience what they experience and have a fun trip together as a community. I’m looking forward to the trip and getting to know the other people going better. I’m excited about getting to experience surviving on our own in a difficult situation and getting to take care of the animals.
Iris has recently stepped from childhood into her teenage years yet retains a heart as wide and open as the sea. And she instinctively gets what so many of us learn to forget: that God is not only manifest in our relations with other people, but rather God is alive and accessible though all of creation—especially animals we interact with on a daily basis.
Iris’ vision leads us into a partnership with Heifer International—a grassroots organization that empowers families to feed themselves and lift themselves out of poverty through the donation of quality livestock and training. This is a special kind of summer mission project—rather than fundraising for a whole group from our community to travel to another site to do mission work, each of the participants are totally paying their own way to go to Heifer Ranch July 8th-11th. Heifer Ranch offers a unique program called ‘Global Village,’ an experiential learning opportunity in which nothing – shelter, food, water or cooking fuel – can be taken for granted.
Participants prepare a meal with limited resources and sleep in simple housing. Heifer Ranch is also a farm complete with gardens and animals including water buffalo, camels and traditional farm animals such as pigs, goats and more. Iris and other participants will learn more about the issues surrounding hunger and poverty, Heifer’s sustainable solutions and what they can do to help.
By paying their own way on the trip, our youth hope to encourage our community to channel our fundraising efforts directly to support poor families around the world. Specifically, Iris’ love of animals has inspired us to take on Heifer’s ultimate challenge: raising $5,000 to purchase a Gift Ark. This gift provides livestock—two of each of pigs, cows, trios of rabbits, donkeys, beehives, sheep, llamas, flocks of geese, goats, oxen, flocks of chicks, trios of ducks, trios of guinea pigs, water buffalo, camels, pigs and training for struggling families worldwide.
Please join us on this journey and help us buy an Ark in honor of Iris! Our youth have been so active this spring : staffing tables at community events and educating countless people about Heifer’s grassroots movement to end hunger. They also have crafted and distributed numerous thank you gifts for donations including crocheted heart coasters and hand-drawn note cards with animals from the ark. Church in the Cliff community members (including Iris’ parents) have also rallied to the cause: hosting a concert/fundraiser, making and selling tee shirts and donating generously toward the Ark. We are over half way there, having raised $2, 664.66 so far! We have a week and a half until the trip and we are so excited about this opportunity to fill the Ark.
Our goal is to wrap all the resources we can find around Iris’ tender call to action—trusting that her simple vision, of a world where struggling families have the chance to feed themselves and their children and lift themselves out of poverty, is indeed God’s own dream for our world.
Please give as you are able—either through this secure link or check, made out to Church in the Cliff with “Heifer” in subject line and mailed to PO Box 5072 Dallas TX 75208.
Peace,
Courtney
Also, if you live in town, join us for the final tally at our “Land the Ark” party on Thursday July 7 and enjoy local barbeque, home brew, and home grown watermelons. 6:30pm. 310 S. Windomere Dallas 75208
Board Nominations
It has now been a full two years since the transition team established the current Board of Directors, which means that Ross, James and Kristin have completed their two-year volunteer commitments. Much has been accomplished in the life of this community over the last two years, and yet the work does not end here. With the departure of these three, in addition to the vacant treasurer position, we have a great need for four individuals from our community to step up and volunteer to fill these leadership roles. Pastor Courtney and each of us on the Board ask you to prayerfully and thoughtfully consider whether you may be called to church leadership.
According to our by-laws, the purpose of the Board is to engage in broad stroke planning, ensuring a shared vision among members. The Board is responsible for developing an annual strategic plan, an annual budget, and staffing recommendations. In addition, each Board member is expected to serve on at least one committee, and to be a goodwill ambassador to the community. All Board members are asked to commit to a term of two years. The vacant positions are as follows:
Moderator: facilitates Board and community meetings
Treasurer: manages Church assets, develops an annual budget, and provides financial reports
Clerk: facilitates communication with members about Church business, takes notes during Board meetings and distributes them to Pastor and the Board
Trustee: has no additional expectations beyond the generalBoard responsibilities described above
The Board will be receiving nominations for two weeks, fromJune 26 through July 10. Please contact one of us if you wish to nominate yourself or another community member. We will then take one additional week to complete interviews and determine which nominees we recommend to the community for election. We anticipate announcing the final candidates on July 17, and holding the election on July 31.
Each of us is happy to make ourselves available to discuss any questions you have that may help in your own discernment, so please do not hesitate to contact us. It is always exciting to see new leadership take root in a community such as ours. We look forward to discovering who will become our future CITC leaders! And we trust that God will choose you well.
Yours in Christ,
Ross Prater, Moderator
pprate@verizon.net
214-507-3517
Kristin Schutz, Clerk
kristinl.schutz@gmail.com
763-229-8338
James Fairchild, Trustee
jfairchild3@yahoo.com
214-697-6106
Stephanie Maxson, Trustee
tapgaltoo@yahoo.com
214-604-7876