Sunday Services - 10:00 a.m.
Our Worship Services in March will be devoted to the religious motif of healing: fostering relationships with other humans, animals, and the natural world.
March 5: "Words Heal, Words Hurt" Rev. Tom Owen-Towle
The month of March will be devoted to worship services focusing upon the religious motif of healing: fostering healthier relationships with other humans, animals, and the natural world. We start with what the Buddhists call "right speech."
March 12: "The Souls of Animals" Rev. Tom Owen-Towle & Pilar Placone-Willey
We will engage in a worship service where we bless our animals and are blessed by them.
March 19: "Return To Eden" Barbara Gates
Barbara will discuss how compassionate consumer choices can heal our world and our spirit.
March 26: "The Healing Power of Natural Places" Rev. Tom Owen-Towle
We will focus, as Springtime arrives in blossom, upon the grounding serenity of nature in our spiritual lives. The peacefulness of the wild.
April 2: "The Theology of Play" Rev. Tom Owen-Towle
This will be a celebration of being playful creatures in all realms of human existence no foolin'!
Ministerial Musings Rev. Tom Owen-Towle
Real generosity toward the future lies in giving our all to the present.
Albert Camus
You have every right to be jubilant right now, for you've sealed a decision of historic proportions for all Summitarians: those of blessed memory upon whose shoulders you sit, current stakeholders, and countless freethinkers who will be joining us in the seasons ahead.
Heartiest congrats to those who exercised your rights of voice and vote on the 12th. Special appreciation to Pilar Placone-Wiley and her New Home cohorts, for the Board under Jeff Garvey's leadership, and for all Summit partisans who enfleshed bold leadership at this critical time. I personally thank you.
And we've only just begun. In the ensuing months, other litmus tests loom large. Escrow arrangements will be completed; our annual and capital fund drives will be launched; and space utilization issues must be tackled. Plus, we're going to have to learn how to live together in our own home rather than someone else's abode for the past 18 years. Some skills are transferable, but additional ones will be required when we worship on June 11th in our new home.
Clearly, we're up to it. Leadership stands ready, morale is sturdy, and we're propelled by a stirring vision to become a beacon of liberal religion in Santee finally situated in East County. I can't imagine a more exciting time to be a Summitarian than right now. We're not just living history; we're consciously shaping it.
Conventional wisdom states that a church doesn't really exist in the eyes of the world until it owns an address. Now we can reach out to our geographical and spiritual neighbors to build compassionate coalitions. Now visitors can more easily find us. Now our offspring can feel they belong somewhere; so can we adults. Yes, we'll encounter problems, but they'll be good ones soul-sized challenges.
Now that we've thrown our hat over the wall, we need to follow it. Let's not linger in what-ifs or sentimental bygones; it's time to forge a future of which we can be religiously proud. Let's dwell in faith, growing wings as we soar ahead.
We've delegated Board members and committee leaders to get things done. It's our democratic role to offer input, but let's empower these folks to act on our behalf. Let's give them our unwavering support. As we evolve from a family-size parish to a programmatic one, trusting our leaders will prove essential. And yes, when our turn to lead comes, we'll covet the same respect.
I exhort Summitarians to be courageous and bold adventurers. Surely, one step at a time, but don't resist taking the necessary steps. Zen Buddhist savvy signals the right pace: "Hasten slowly!"
It remains my deep privilege to be your ministerial companion through this wondrous interval. I stretch myself into the unpredictable days ahead and make one thing predictable for you: I will accompany you, every step of the path, in foul and fair weather until my ministry is surrendered into the capable hands of a colleague.
WHAT WE'RE UP TO IN CHILDREN'S R.E.:
We're exploring Buddhism. Highlights have included a visit by the high schoolers to the Hsi Fang Temple in University Heights for an introductory talk and an hour of walking, standing and sitting meditation. The younger and middle classes have learned about the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, and Phillip Chan spoke with them about Zen and introduced them to sitting meditation. Next we'll consider the Buddhist use of stories to teach compassion.
And Service Be Our Prayer:
Hygiene packets: In early March, all of our children can lend a hand in assembling hygiene packets for Crisis House, in conjunction with the Social Action Committee.
Stewardship project recaps:
Summit kids CAN: The younger class contributed nearly $30 to our new home with the proceeds from collecting and recycling cans. Special thanks to Jordan Graham and Ryan Beauchamp. (Thanks also to Rex Graham.)
How does our garden grow? Thanks to our middle class for their hard and beautifying work on the garden patch at the lodge. (Extra thanks to the green thumbs of Mary and Joe Braunwarth and Jim and Barbara Gates.)
The coffee ballet: Thanks to the high schoolers for the terrific spread of refreshments and good coffee on January 29.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Invite young friends and relatives to Summit!
Consider working with one of our classes one Sunday (lesson plan provided ahead of time).
THANKS VERY MUCH to our recent R.E. volunteers: Ed Davis and Sylvia, Jim Gates, Barbara Gates, Ed Henry, Phillip Chan, Leslie Robard, Juli Graham, Teresa Palombo, and Viraj Ward.
Connie Henry, Acting D.R.E.
(619) 460-4794 / conniehenry@cox.net
Service Project Suggestions
If you have any burning ideas for Covenant Group service projects, please send them to Harriet Nissenbaum: phone 463-9437 or email HTBaum@cox.net.
Sunday Morning Meditation Offered at 8:00 a.m.
The Rev. Frank Placone-Willey continues to lead a meditation session from 8:00 9:00 a.m. each Sunday morning at the Masonic Lodge before the service begins. The group focuses on mindfulness practices and receives training on topics related to these practices. Those who choose to may also assist in setting up for our 10 a.m. worship. If you have questions about this new group, please contact Frank at work at (619) 889-0312.
Widening Our Circle
News from Summit UU Fellowship's
Combined Campaign Committee
We're Moving Ahead!
As many of you know first-hand, on February 12, 2006, the congregation made an historic and courageous decision to move forward and purchase its first real home and establish a dynamic presence in East County. Summit UU Fellowship voted unanimously in favor of four major issues on the ballot, with a handful of abstentions. The results reflect 84 ballots cast, out of 104 members able to vote.
There were tears, shouts of joy, and celebratory hugs after the vote totals were announced. Summit's leaders are now taking the steps necessary to acquire the Santee property. We expect to close escrow on April 28, 2006. Meantime, the excitement and anticipation within our caring community are palpable. There is a momentum building. We need you to sustain it. We are truly "widening our circle" and preparing to launch our capital fund drive on April 29. We want you to be with us every step on our new path.
The Story Behind "Widening Our Circle"
Why "Widening Our Circle" as a theme for Summit's capital campaign? We had other great ideas, including a gardening theme. But we settled on this because growing our congregation -- widening our circle -- is essential if we're going to support a building of our own. Also, a widening circle implies reaching out, being inclusive and welcoming. And it lends itself nicely to imagery, like the Summit logo inside of widening circles that you see on all the capital campaign materials. Finally, there was a bit of synchronicity or serendipity involved, when we had a visit from UU troubadour/poet/storyteller/artist Ric Masten who shared with us his lines:
...a pebble does not enter a pond
without a ripple moving out
and in time touching
every single shore
we are all, every one of us,
in this thing together.
We think of the "Widening Our Circle" motif as representing this idea -- the Summit logo in the center is like the pebble. The rings surrounding it are the ripples moving out, touching and involving and welcoming an ever wider circle. And then of course, as Ric says, "We are all, every one of us, in this thing together." What more fitting notion for our present endeavor
than this?
- Diane Slagle
Communications Team
(Editor's Note: We are very grateful to Diane's husband, Jack Slagle, for creating the "Widening Our Circle" logo for use in Summit's combined campaign materials. Thank you, Jack!)
Campaign, New Home, and Comprehensive Planning Leadership
Welcome to
The Bulletin Board!
For important tid-bits we don't want to miss.
SUUF Congregational Meeting
February 12, 2006
This was an historic vote for our congregation. It is with great pleasure that I report the outcome of our vote as announced at the meeting by President Jeff Garvey. There were 10 absentee ballots submitted. All measures passed
1. Summit Unitarian Universalist Fellowship should initiate a three (3) year Capital Campaign to finance the acquisition and move in costs for our new home.
2. Approve a Capital Campaign goal of raising $600,000.00
3. Proceed with the purchase of the property at 8778 Cottonwood in Santee for the amount of one million, three hundred thousand dollars ($1,300,000.00). Additional move-in costs for furniture, signs, etc. of $50,000.00 and bridge loan financing costs of $30,000.00 will bring the total needed to $1,380,000.00.
4. Approve the Ten-Year Comprehensive Plan dated February, 2006.
Respectfully submitted,
Patricia Summers, Secretary
Ecumenical Communion
These services are held monthly at First Church in San Diego. For information regarding UU Christian Fellowship activities please contact Michelle McCarter at 619-275-2844.
Women's Hiking Group
Come hike to the SUMMIT of Cowles Mountain each Wednesday morning at 8:30 a.m. with the Summit Women's Weekly Hiking Group. For info, contact Toni Rogers at tonir@cox.net.
Please contact me with any questions, concerns or ideas:
Social Action Corner
Hygiene Packet Items
Thanks to everyone who picked up a valentine to provide items needed to make hygiene packets for the homeless. (And a really big thanks to those who took several valentines!) Don't forget to bring your purchased items to church this Sunday, February 26. They will be collected during the service. The Summit children will assemble the packets and Crisis House will distribute them.
Committee News
We want to welcome Vic White as a new member of the Social Action Committee. Vic has past experience in social action at First Church and his help and ideas will be appreciated.
Summit's Social Action Committee will delay beginning any new and involved projects until the move to our new home is complete. By then we hope to have found ways to become supportive and involved in our new community.
Please join us at our next meeting on Sunday, March 19 at 8:30 a.m. at the office.
How can you help Summit's efforts in social action?
Financial Don't forget to put an extra dollar in the plate on March 5 to support our Esperanza student. Esperanza is a school that offers enrichment and teaching hours beyond what is found in the public schools. It is located in a very poor neighborhood in Tijuana.
Goods The Social Action Committee will be collecting canned and dried goods for Crisis House in May. Watch for details in a future newsletter.
People Power Summit will again be helping St. Dunstan's in sheltering and feeding the homeless as part of the Interfaith Shelter Network on March 2nd and 9th. Thanks to all who have signed up to make food and chaperone. And thanks to Kathy Radinovsky for taking on this project.
Support Fair Trade Coffee
You may have noticed Barbara Gates selling coffee and chocolate at church on certain Sundays but you may not know the reason why. She is selling products from Fair Trade.
Although one fifth of coffee is consumed by Americans, few people "realize that agriculture workers in the coffee industry often toil in what can be described as "sweatshops in the fields." Many small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are less than the costs of production, forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt. Fair Trade is a viable solution to this crisis, assuring consumers that the coffee we drink was purchased under fair conditions. Fair Trade for coffee farmers means community development, health, education, and environmental stewardship."
Margo Mariana
New member Margo Mariana was born in Juneau, Alaska, and as a child moved frequently to stay with her father, who was a member of the U.S. diplomatic corps and sent to places many of us have never heard of. As a adult she lived in the Boston area, having gotten a BA in history at Colby College in Maine and an MA in psychology and education at Boston University.
Although brought up as a Catholic, Margo developed an interest in Eastern religions and the use of meditation. In her meditation groups and similar studies, she rubbed elbows with a number of New England Unitarians and as a result joined the First Unitarian Church in Belmont, MA. When she decided to move to the San Diego area to stay with her sister-in-law in La Mesa, she caught the Belmont minister coming out of his office and asked if he knew anything about churches here. "Why, yes," he said. He offered her a copy of our newsletter, Scene at Summit, which he happened to have in his hand, and explained that our minister at the time, Rev. Ned Wight, had served as an intern in the Belmont church.
Arriving in La Mesa, she was astounded to find that Summit was the closest UU congregation, and that, although Ned had just left, she felt comfortable with the rest of us.
Margo started her professional career by teaching emotionally disturbed children, then branched out into working with people of all ages, singly or in groups. Her technique uses an integration of spiritual and psychological factors. She also has a clairvoyant intuition which tells her of a client's medical problems, and although she is careful not to practice medicine, she is able to recommend that the client go to a doctor or other practitioner who does.
Aside from her work, Margo enjoys writing poems and hiking or traveling to places where she can be in a natural environment shared by animals. She also likes attending plays, both on stage and on film.
On the other hand, she dislikes any activity which involves mathematics. And she can't stand people with cell phones who discuss their intimate personal problems in voices that carry to innocent bystanders.
ATTENTION
Editor's Corner
The April edition of The Scene at Summit's deadline will be:
Mar. 20 Deadline/ Mailing Mar. 23
ATTENTION PLEASE!
If you are able to help set up chairs and tables for Sunday Services on the 3rd or 4th Sunday of the month, please contact Teresa Palombo at 619-596-8105 or tsppalombo92071@yahoo.com. Some of our devoted helpers are moving and so ending their duties. Many thanks to Judi Bonilla and Alice May for their recent help. We wish them well!
Lunch Bunch
If you are still hungry after Sunday service, you are invited to eat and visit with the Lunch Bunch. On March fifth we will be at Tio Leo's, 6333 Mission Gorge Road, San Diego, phone 280-9944; on the twelfth at Mimi's, 9812 Mission Gorge Road, Santee, phone 562-2644, on the 19th at Family Chef, 6155 Lake Murray Boulevard, La Mesa, phone 466-6676. Then last chance we'll go on the 26th to Applebee's, 107 Fletcher Parkway, El Cajon, phone 593-3066. There is no Potluck scheduled at the Lodge in March.
New Member Orientation will be held on March 26, at noon, following the service and circle discussion, for those who have expressed an interest in becoming members of Summit. Representatives of various committees will be there to discuss the functions of their respective committees.
On April 2nd there will be a New Member Ceremony to welcome new members.
Thank you, Membership co-chairs,
Elaine Harper & Joan Chan
An Honoring Fund has been established to accept contributions to celebrate moments in our lives such as weddings and to commemorate deaths of loved ones. Thank you to Rod and Barbara Orth for their gift in memory of Mike Evans, a long time member of Summit.
The Greeters at our Sunday Services are requesting Members to wear their name tags to church so they can tell you from the visitors.
Chalice Lighters is an organization dedicated to supporting and encouraging growth of Unitarian Universalism in the Pacific Southwest District by providing resources to congregations through the distribution of grants. Congregations with 15% of their members participating in Chalice Lighters can be eligible to receive such grants. If you are interested in joining in the support of UUism, applications to Chalice Lighters are available at the church and the office. For those unable to get to either destination please contact Linda Peck at 619-463-4676 and she can mail or email an application to you.
Keep yoUUr fires burning!
We have Birthdays!
The stork was busy again in March. Summitarians and friends born that month include James Dowdy on the first, Bob Moore on the second, Stacy Scott and Anna Simpson on the third, and Sally Gross on the fourth. Mary Palmer came along on the sixth, followed by Harriet Wright on the eighth, and Marissa Henry on the ninth.
The stork skipped the 11th, but brought Jim Gates on the 12th, carefully skipped the unlucky 13th, and brought Hal Summers on the 14th, Barbara Perry and Carol Straubinger on the 18th, Nicholas Orr on the 21st, and Sonia Rodriguez on the 25th. After that, he rested his wings.
If your name should be on this list but isn't, please call Bob Moore (phone 465-0501) or e-mail robeveret @aol.com, so he can update the records.
Automatic Contribution Option
NOW Available
Now there is an easy, convenient and painless option for making your Summit pledge payments. Auto Contributions allow your payments to be deducted automatically on a schedule of your choice -- monthly, quarterly, etc. Our Treasurer John McQuaide has the new "Auto" Contribution forms together with a cover letter explaining this program. The forms will also be available for pickup at the Summit office. Or you can call Linda Peck, 463-4676, and request that a form be sent to you which you can fill out and then mail back to the office.
Show Your Caring with Your Cooking
SUUF will again join 130 congregations with the Interfaith Shelter Network that work together to provide shelter for homeless individuals and families. With St. Dunstan's, our job is to provide chaperones and meals for two Thursdays, March 2nd and 9th. If you can help provide casseroles, salads, or desserts, please contact Kathy Radinovsky: email kradinovsky@aol.com or phone 619-426-6538. WATCH for the Sign-Up clip board with a bright bow at Sunday services by the refreshment table. Kathy will be out of town some so she will make this available for needed volunteers.
- Kathy Radinovsky
Covenant Groups
New Covenant Groups for 2006 will be starting in March, so there will be sign up sheets available after church on February 26. Groups meet at different days and times in private homes. It would be great to have even more Summitarians become part of a Covenant Group and share their thoughts and feelings and fellowship with others.
Pat Bryning, Coordinator,
Covenant Group Facilitator
Leadership Training School
The San Diego UU Cluster invites anyone interested in learning skills and new information at their 2006 leadership training school scheduled for March 30 to April 2 at Mission San Luis Rey. UULTS will start Thursday evening at 7:00 pm and run through Sunday at 5:00 pm. Tuition is $420 if paid by Feb. 1, 2006. After that it increases to $450. Tuition includes three night's accommodations (Thursday, Friday, & Saturday) and 8 meals (3 meals the first day, 3 for the second day, and 2 on the last day). Materials are also included. Evening meals are not covered for Thursday or Sunday.
Some scholarships are available. Each participating congregation pays a $225 church fee for any number of attendees.
For more information contact Bob Northcutt at 858-592-0217 or email at BobNorthcutt@yahoo.com.
Potlucks!
All Fellowship Potlucks will be held right after the service on the following Sundays.
April 2, and May 14
NO Potluck in March
Hot food can be kept warm in the ovens and cold in the refrigerators. Coffee, tea and juice will be available. Janet Dixon is looking for volunteers to help with set up and clean up. Please let her know if you are willing to help.
Pam Williams
New Summitarian Pam Williams was born in Haverhill, MA, a hotbed of Unitarianism. However, she attended her parents' Congregational church until she married, moved to North Carolina and became a UU there. After a couple of years, they moved to Oklahoma City, where she got a BS in Mathematics at the University of Central Oklahoma. She worked several years as a statistical analyst for the State of Oklahoma. At the same time, she raised two sons, both now full grown but unmarried. [One is gay: Pam doesn't know what the other's excuse is.]
After the death of her husband in 1989, she moved to Encinitas, CA, and joined the San Dieguito Fellowship there. In San Diego County she has worked as a realtor and as a traveling salesperson, along with her Significant Other, John Sapp, for an outfit called Gem Fair. Now she has semi-retired. She has a home in Spring Valley and John has one in Oregon, so they are snowbirds of sorts.
San Dieguito is a long commute from Spring Valley, so Pam attended First Church of San Diego for awhile, but there she did not feel committed only crowded. She hopes to do better in Summit, where she intends to become fully committed.
An outdoors person, she enjoys gardening and various other forms of communing with nature; however when indoors she likes to do her own cooking.
She tries to keep her house clean and neat, but admits that she does not enjoy doing it. Nor does she enjoy those who wish to push their ways upon her.
Welcome, Pam! Summit needs people like you who are ready to become committed.
Within the Congregation
Our thoughts are with John and Maria Duffy as John undergoes testing for possibly more surgery. Lynn Nelson requests to be remembered in our prayers as she looks for a new home and full time work in Prescott. Congratulations to Fran Spevak on the arrival of her first grandchild, Mary Elizabeth.
The editor would like to request help from regular attenders to the Sunday services and anyone who knows of others in the Summit community that need to be remembered in this portion of the newsletter. Please call Linda at 619-463-4676 or email admin.summit1@netzero.net with information.
Thank you, The Editor
Freethinkers
1st Tuesday March 7, 7:00 PM at the Summit Office. Topic to read together and discuss is an article from Vanity Fair called American Rapture. In Tim LaHaye's best-selling thrillers, evangelical Christians are "raptured" up to heaven, leaving secular humanists to perish in an epic bloodbath. To 70 millions of Americans, that's not fiction. It's a theology that touches the White House and, in the Middle East, could spark the Armageddon its true believers want.
3rd Tuesday, March 21, 7:00 PM at the Summit Office. The paper we will read together and discuss is The Party of Davos from The Nation Magazine. Davos, in the Swiss Alps, is home of the annual World Economics Forum. Attendance is by invitation only, mostly those who own and manage the great global concentrations of wealth. Americans of both parties work "the Davos circuit." According to the writer, the global ruling class depends on US power - which is slipping into crisis.
Join us for provocative ideas and good discussion. Call Wendell Rawlins, 619 644-1963, if you have questions.
Combined Campaign Committee -
Chair
Debbie Wingard
Honorary Co-Chairs
Bob and Dolores Moore
Alumni
Chair: Rod Orth
Ed Henry
Dolores Moore
Carol Rawlins
Communications
Chair: Deena Tuttle
Lisa Garvey (Maps)
Teresa Palombo
Wendell Rawlins (Website)
Brian Scherrer (Org Charts)
Mary Ellen Shu
Diane Slagle
Pierre Vaughn
Events
Chair: Toni Rogers
Joan Chan
Connie Henry
Suzanne McQuaide
Feasibility
Chair: Pat Bryning
Janet Dixon
Jack Shu
Financial Commitment Card Handling
Chair: Mark Wheeler
Financial Commitment Follow-up
Chair: Rex Graham
Pat Summers
Gifts
Chair: Sandy Bernstein
Gwen Baldwin
Suzanne Ghorpade
Katy Orr
Harriet Wright
Gifts Visiting Stewards (as of March 2006)
Gary Baldwin
Laurel Bernstein
Mary Braunwarth
Pat Bryning
Lois Davies
Jeff Garvey
Barbara Gates
Ellen Gifford
John McQuaide
Barbara Orth
Frank Placone-Willey
Wendell Rawlins
LaMar Rogers
UUA Fundraising Consultant
Larry Wheeler
Interim Minister
Rev. Dr. Tom Owen-Towle
Office Administrator
Linda Peck
New Home Committee
Chair: Pilar Placone-Willey
Kay Anderson
Laurel Bernstein
Elly Dotseth
Elaine Harper
John McQuaide
Al Mork
Harriet Wright
Comprehensive Planning Committee -
Jamie Cleland
Jai Ghorpade
Rex Graham
LaMar Rogers
Toni Rogers
(Thanks also to Gwen Baldwin, Joan Chan, and Connie Henry!)
Dear Summit UU Fellowship,
Upon hearing the outcome of the unanimous votes on Sunday, the immediate response I had then is the one I continue to feel today. I feel a deep sense of joy.
Joy for the promise of Summit's future, that Summit will become an even stronger voice that loves and respects it members and reaches out to the needs of the greater community.
Joy for Summit's children as they grow into conscientious and compassionate individuals surrounded by loving and supportive adults.
Joy for Summit's Administrative Staff, for the fresh new space they will have, and the warm and inviting environment they will be able to create.
Joy for our CRE director, Connie Henry, for the space she too will be able to use for herself and organize in a way that will surely expand our Summit children's wings.
Joy for our community to have a sanctuary that has enormous potential to be a welcoming, serene, and sacred environment.
Joy for the sense of ownership that will provide our community a place for all to participate in creating new home that fits our needs while being a place of comfort and beauty.
Joy for the City of Santee, that a beacon of compassion, openness to diversity, consciousness of social, environmental and spiritual concerns has come to their neighborhood.
Joy for the heart and soul of the leaders, stewards, old and new members who have made this dream for a new home become realized.
Finally, and most importantly . . .
Joy that the intentional measures all the leaders of this community took to ensure a healthy process, that is, to make sure everyone in the community felt heard and that their concerns were taken seriously and into consideration, I feel most joyful about this. Even though some may not have agreed 100% with this choice for a new home, there was no fallout, no arguments, no bad feelings between members and leaders. We remained a beloved community that can show respect and dignity toward each other, freedom of speech and the right to disagree. This is my greatest joy, and what I will hold in my heart for years to come.
With all this joy, I know there is still greater joy to come!
Pilar Placone-Willey
New Home Committee Chair
SUUF Board of Directors
Notices from Around Summit
Summit's Giving Tree
The money tree on the piano in Summit's office continues to produce rich fruits to be distributed to a variety of humanitarian needs. This month $60 has again been sent to Mercy Corps to help in the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan. At nearly one million square miles, Sudan is Africa's largest nation. Its 40 million people had been embroiled in civil war for two decades. The underlying causes of the violence there are many and complicated. They include battles over land and other resources, long-ago political decisions, ethnic divisions, Islamist power struggles, stratagems in the just-ended civil war and regional instability. Genocide continues in the Darfur region, with over 400,000 black Africans dead, with some 500 more dying every day, and more than two million, many in peril of starvation, turned into refugees as their homes and villages are destroyed.
President Bush signaled a new American commitment on Feb 17 to addressing the crisis in Darfur, saying he would support an expanded role by NATO to shore up a failing African peacekeeping mission there. Mr. Bush also said he favored doubling the number of peacekeepers operating in Darfur under United Nations control, as proposed by the Security Council last month. So far, NATO's role has been to airlift African Union troops into the region.
More than half of Darfur's population needs food aid. The rainy season has begun, meaning that deteriorating road conditions, combined with an already poor security situation, will prevent even more from receiving the assistance they need. The rains also are usually accompanied by an increase in deadly malaria cases.
Mercy Corps is constructing hundreds of much-needed latrines in refugee camps. The absence of even rudimentary sanitation is the direct cause of the diarrheal diseases that threaten lives, especially those of children. Mercy Corps is conducting other water and sanitation activities including animal waste removal and vector control inside the camps. Staff are working with residents to drain pools of standing water near drinking water sources to reduce mosquito breeding grounds, and are providing separate drinking troughs for animals to prevent them from defecating in areas where people stand to collect their drinking water. These efforts are targeted at preventing the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera and malaria, to which the United Nations attributes 15 percent of the mortalities in Darfur. Mercy Corps also provides blankets and plastic sheeting for tents, as well as cooking pots and utensils, soap, straw mats and mattresses. Most people in the camps have lost everything when they were uprooted from their homes; these items allow residents to address some of their most basic needs. Please continue to pin your $1s, $5s or $20s to the tree using the tiny clothes pins provided. You might bring your kids to the office and make a family project out of doing this.
Thanks from the people of Darfur and The Gardener
New Summit
Directories
Are Available
The long awaited and long promised Summit Directory is available at the office at 6062 Lake Murray Blvd., #110, or can be picked up at Sunday services. Members and Friends get the first one free. After that they cost $2.00 each.
Save These Important Dates
Saturday, Apr. 1, 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Stewardship Orientation Workshop (at Mission Trails Regional Park Visitor Center)
Friday, April 28, Escrow closes on our new home.
Saturday, Apr. 29, 5:30 p.m. - Fellowship Celebration at Bard Hall, First UU Church of San Diego
Sunday, Apr. 30, 10:00 a.m. - Commitment Sunday
Sunday, Jun. 11, 10:00 a.m. - First Sunday at our New Home
Rebate Fundraising
Do you shop at Albertsons, Keil's, Ralphs, or Vons? Are your grocery purchases earning contributions for Summit? If not, Ask Fran Spevak (619-469-9836) about Summit's Rebate Fundraising Program or look for a flyer on the information table at church.
