Around Our Network / September 3, 2014

What’s been happening among us? September 3, 2014

We started praying in relation to our conviction: “Generating justice and hope in our neighborhood must be at the heart of us.”cohdailyprayer2014.wordpress.com.

A talented group from Broad & Dauphin led us in a variety show at BW.

Our community had numerous opportunities for Labor Day fun including a BBQ at the Frankford Ave. garden, BW’s Family Potluck, and drumming while giving out schools supplies with The Simple Way.

We deepened connections with caregivers and little ones at our weekly Baby & Toddler Playgroups.

Lauren got FN cells to get school supplies together for a friend who teaches kindergarten at H.A. Brown Elementary in the neighborhood.

The pastors’ answered the question “What’s the point of prayer?” in our weekly videocast
Link here. Would you help share it?

Circle of Peacemakers kept us engaged and learning about the plight of the Palestinians at the screening and discussion of With God on Our Side.

Our blogs were great places for thinking and encouragement

Rod wrote about our desire for ecstasy and Jonny on Jesus staying in community and how He might respond to the trouble in Ferguson, too.

We worshiped God, told the truth and made new friends at our PMs

At the Broad & Washington meetings -- Kirby and his fifth Sunday crew were getting us to go “wild.” The AMA brought up all sorts of good things we are still talking about. There were a whole bunch of people we met for the first time on Sunday.

At the Frankford & Norris meetings -- Our regular teams had the week off on the “5th Sunday” of the month, so Tiffany and Mariko brought together a talented group of women to lead us to worship and get into Psalm 139. Jess Mints finished our dialogue-heavy series exploring the Convictions That Drive Us and Sarah Holt got us praying for women (mostly Yazidi) being abducted and abused/sold by ISIS.

At the Marlton & Crescent meeting -- We celebrated last night in style! Our little BBQ was a great way to end the summer and launch into the next season (even when we had to run inside before the torrential rain)!

At the Broad & Dauphin meetings -- We had a brand new team up! Jonny, Bradford, Jenny, and Jen brought us as we discerned, shared, and confronted where God needs to move in us. We had a rich discussion about reading the Bible too.

Career Day at G.W. Childs School

This past week, Circle of Hope's compassion team, For the Love of Childs, organized several Circle of Hopers to volunteer on Career Day at G.W. Childs School. Megan Rosenbach, the team’s leader, spoke to 4th and 7th graders about working at a non-profit organization that is helping to make Philadelphia a more bike friendly city. Nic Justice talked to a 5th grade class about film making. And LeeAnn Wood got some of her co-workers from Urban Outfitters to speak to the kids about careers in fashion. Ben White (Circle of Hope’s Development Pastor) and Anthony So, a computer/web programmer, were also present at the event. Several other members of the neighborhood group that the compassion team started, Neighbors Investing in Childs Elementary (NICE), also spoke with students about their careers throughout the day! It was a terrific opportunity to inspire children with ideas and dreams of the future.

For more information, visit our compassion teams blog for how to get involved.

A sea of yellow at City Hall

Today, dozens of members of the Campaign to Take Back Vacant Land went to City Hall to offer out "muted" support for Maria Quinones-Sanchez' land bank bill. The bill seeks to put the 40,000 vacant lots in the City into a land bank bill so that neighborhoods can use them for gardening, green space, good businesses, and affordable housing. In part, due to our support, we got a guarantee for a hearing (more details about when soon)! Circle of Hope is a member, through our Take Back Vacant Land compassion team, of the coalition. Rachel Sensenig, Ben White, Jonny Rashid, and Steven Hess were attended.

New Compassion Team focuses on connecting with prisoners through letter writing

There is a new Circle of Hope Compassion Team! The Inside-Outside team plans to pair an incarcerated individual with someone from the Circle of Hope community to engage in written correspondence. They will partner with the Pennsylvania Prison Society and the Chaplain's office at the Philadelphia county jail facilities. The purpose of the team is to provide encouragement and support for the incarcerated individual. Many times people who are incarcerated, especially for an extended period of time lose their close family and friend connections and can benefit greatly from an intentional, compassionate relationship. The second purpose of the team is for the Circle of Hope community to become more aware of the social justice issues entangled with mass incarceration in a very tangible and authentic way. By engaging in the letter-writing program people at Circle of Hope can help to dispel the stereotypes common to incarcerated people and work to humanize the entire situation. Fostering a connection between someone "inside" and someone "outside" can be mutually beneficial and this program holds that as it's final goal.

For more information or to join the team contact Julie Smyth.

Several Circle of Hope members join the school funding rally

Hundreds of protesters gathered on Thursday afternoon outside of Comcast to speak out to elected officials who are not doing what it takes to fully fund Philadelphia Public Schools. The march traveled by City Hall and concluded at The School District of Philadelphia. For the Love of Childs compassion team mobilized several Circle of Hope members to join the rally. Among the group was Tricia Fussaro, a ten-year veteran teacher with the School District of Philadelphia.

For the Love of Childs support has also been keeping Circle of Hope's network updated with developments and action campaigns to support the schools, including calling and meeting with elected officials, writing letters, and circulating petitions. (For more information on yesterday's really visit the Public School Notebook.)

   

Debt Annihilation Team - Another Round

On Monday night, our second round of the Debt Annihilation Team officially commenced. Our first group launched in 2010 with five people - nine lines of credit totaling over $22,000 in consumer debt. With $8,000 of seed money, our plan would save thousands of dollars in interest to credit card companies, expedite freedom from debt, and teach a number of healthy financial habits and understanding through being formed into a little community within our church. This first group, whom we affectionately referred to as the "astronauts," took a lot of risks and courageously demonstrated that our ideas can work. We learned a lot along the way as people grew, their situations changed, and four of the five made it to the finish line and are nearly complete replenishing the seed fund - which will be most of the money we need to prospect for a third group.

Our second group, now underway, is five people again. This time with nine lines of credit and over $26,000 of consumer debt. Our $10,000 seed fund and improved relational structure would save over $7,000 in interest to predatory credit card companies over the next two plus years. After 21 months, the debt will be erased. After 38 months, the seed fund will be replenished for a future group to use. In July, we'll have our first meeting hosted by one of the Group members, a simple meal at their home to help foster love and enjoy hospitality and generosity as part of Christ's antidote to shame and scarcity.

Keep the Debt Annihilation Group members, their Everence-trained coaches, and our administrators in your prayers as we take some huge swipes at bondage while taking strides towards more freedom together.

Free Baby & Kids Goods Exchange

This past Saturday was the Free Baby & Kids Goods Exchange at our Broad & Dauphin congregation. Moms, dads, grandparents, and caregivers all came out and swapped clothing, toys, and other necessities for their smaller loved ones. The previous night was a smooth set-up thanks to the help of several Circle of Hope volunteers. Some of the clothing also came from Circle Thrift which provided an extra boost in the number of items people could choose from.

Interested in the Free Baby & Kids Goods Exchange? Go here!

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.