Circle of Hope Daily Prayer 2013

It is encouraging to hear how people are experiencing Circle of Hope Daily Prayer! Already this year we have spent some time in Matthew (and many people have jumped on that bandwagon and saturated themselves with Matthew). We were lead through our network vision statement last week. Today we have our first encouragement from the Old Testament -- such days will be sprinkled throughout the year. Plus we have had a couple of opportunities to visit the site where we store encouragements to celebrate our spiritual ancestors and the Christian calendar.

If you get a look at each day, you will receive a broad and varied set of Bible studies and suggestions that lead to spiritual growth and action. We hope it will give you another excuse to spend some quality time with God each day. That "we" are the fifteen people serving you by considering what we all need and leading in study, prayer and action.

Whether you got engaged on January 1st or not doesn't matter. You can pick up any time you want and join in with us on this common journey in Christ.

Take Back Vacant Land leads us to fight unjust laws

For the last year, some of us have been representing Circle of Hope in a coalition engaged in a campaign called Take Back Vacant Land. We gathered that energy and formed a team!

A land bank bill has been introduced to City Council by Maria Quiñones-Sanchez (of the 7th District) that puts the city's owned land into a bank that can be used by individuals. The campaign we’re involved in is lobbying City Council to make sure this potentially great bill has rules in it that allow for community control so that the land can be used for things like green space, urban farming, affordable housing, and good businesses. Right now, we are trying to line up enough votes that support our amendments to the bill--they basically surround making sure that there is legal criteria that represents the interests of the residents in the neighborhood as well as putting community members on the board that decides what the land is used for. It is our goal to accomplish this by the end of 2013.

Check out more on the team's page.

Introducing the Housing Share!

We want to introduce you to a new resource this year. It's called the Housing Share. You can find it at circleofhopehousing.wordpress.com (and also above under the "Connect With Us" tab). We think we're responding to a need that we've repeatedly heard. Its purpose is as simple as it sounds: we want to compile available housing options in our Network and give you one place to access them.

We want to help people find housing in our community to better serve Jesus and work toward our common goals and mission. We understand that many people move to our area and look for homes with other community members or with trusted friends. It is often difficult to sift through an onslaught of Emails and Craigslist postings. The housing share is designed to help you find a place to live.

We want you to be able to list available rooms, apartments, and homes available for rent or sublet. You can navigate through available listings on the left sidebar.

Its riding on the coattails of the success of our Jobs Share, so it functions similarly. To post an availability or a request, please Email housing@circleofhope.net. We’ll review it and post it as soon as we can.

Martin Luther King Day of Service

Our Compassion Core Team has give us many options for how we can srve this weekend! Check them on on the page they set up just for us. [LINK]

Compassion in action

Circle of Hope is getting to know our homeless brothers and sisters in Camden. Last month, our own Homeless Connections Team gathered about 25 coats and 50 blankets which got distributed to the two tent cities in downtown Camden. We also collected about a dozen 30-gallon bags full of clothes and shoes for those displaced by Hurricane Sandy. They were sent through a local church to shelters in Atlantic, Burlington, and Camden counties.

Jesus Doesn't Sleep on Racial Reconciliation

On Saturday, January 12 our Church Planting Core team is hosting a seminar at Broad & Dauphin from 9-11am:  "Jesus Doesn't Sleep on Racial Reconciliation and Neither Do We."  Our friend Drew Hart is leading us, and all are welcome.  The seminar will be the first in a series of every-other-month opportunities generated by our 2013 goal to learn from the wise voices in our region.