Social Ministry Update | Jan 2025
Happy New Year! We're excited to share our social ministry updates for January:
5th Sunday Letters, January 12th: This is your opportunity to add your voice into "the public square," along with fellow NJLC members and friends, in support of important current issues. (This is New Journey's 4th letter-writing Sunday of the past year, deferred from December 29 due to the Christmas and New Year holidays.) Draft letters are linked and posted on "The Red Door" at church. You do not need to be an Arizona registered voter to sign letters. Options:
Sign letters of support to Senators Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly to urge them to vote against a bill that threatens the non-profit status of social service organizations, churches, and universities based on perceptions that they may have provided support to terrorists.
Sign a letter to Representative Schweikert regarding U.S. arms to Israel and cease-fire in Gaza.
Pick up a NJLC "advocacy packet" and write your own message on these or other topics of importance to you.
Abstain.
Pray.
Family Promise Week is coming, February 2-9, at Fountains United Methodist Church; sign-ups are already underway. New Journey folks can support by bringing some food for dinner (7 spots open), joining a dinner (any evening) to meet the 3-4 families who are staying overnight in Fountain Hills, leading an activity for kids (Friday or Saturday evening), or picking up a basket of linens on Sunday the 9th to wash in the week or so after the families leave (3 slots open). Contact Brenda Galindez, Jane Stoss, or Kris Bartanen to learn more.
Northeast Valley Consortium: Video resource from Christ the Lord's hosting of a book talk on Man in the Dog Park: Coming Up Close to Homelessness. The 14-minute video by authors Cathy Small and Ross Moore is a (mostly) animated insight on stigma and homelessness.
Arizona Faith Network: The keynote speaker for AFN's 2024 annual meeting was Rev. Eugene Cho, President of Bread for the World. If you have not heard him speak (or even if you have been lucky to do so), his dynamic and insightful message is worth viewing here.