February 2021 Cross Currents

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CROSS CURRENTS

Love Our City On February 13, our Youth Ministry will partner with Northminster Presbyterian Youth for an event called Love Our City. Tucson has been greatly impacted by COVID-19.

By using Northminster's already well-known food pantry, we can provide packaged food and essential items, in the hopes of blessing more than 600 local families. If you know of families who could use some extra help in these tough times, please send this information to them.

IN THIS ISSUE

SPREAD THE LOVE BLESS OUR CITY

CHRISTMAS MISSION If you would like to help support this event, we are taking donations of toilet paper on February 3 and 10 at the drive through Chat & Check-In to be added to donation boxes. We are also accepting donations for Community Renewal as a part of this event as they have a surplus of requests for rent support. Feel free to write a check to St. Andrew's Youth Ministry and place Community Renewal in the memo line.

PROJECT UPDATE

CHANGE FOR CHILDREN

Sign up and learn more at sapctucson.org/youth. For questions, contact Tim at tchristian@sapctucson.org.

LENTEN BLESSING

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Amphi Clothing Bank Amphi Clothing Bank needs your gently used kids' clothes.

Have you cleaned out your children's closets during COVID? The Amphi Clothing Bank can use those gently used clothes to share with other students in the Amphi School District. Sandy Kreamer will come by your house and pick them up and bring them to the Clothing Bank. To donate, email sandrakreamer@gmail.com. Learn more at amphifoundation.org.

PHOTO BY MARTIN R. SMITH

Spread the Love!

Happy Valentine’s Day! We all need a little extra love this year so let’s brighten the day for our health care workers! We will be making valentines for Northwest Hospital as well as Oro Valley Hospital! Our elderly need some encouragement as well so we are partnering with New Life Bible Fellowship to make valentines for the elderly in Park Avenue Care Center and Sapphire Care Center. Both of these facilities have low-income clients.

We will also be helping our youth with their “Love Our City” day on February 13. They want to bless 600 families in Tucson! We are going to help them out by collecting toilet paper on our drive through Chat & Check-In days, February 3 from 9:30 am - 11:00 am, and February 10 from 9:30 am 11:00 am and 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm. Please sign up to help spread the love of Jesus in a time when we all need Him the most!

Sign up at sapctucson.org. Questions? Contact RuthAnn at rsmithrud@sapctucson.org. Thank you!

SEWING & KNITTING FOR MISSION GROUP To all of you who donated items to the Sewing and Knitting for Mission group, a hearty thank you!!! All items donated before the deadline for Adopt-a-Family were given to that effort, and the items donated too late for that were donated to Aviva Children's Services. The prayer shawls, of course, are in the closet in Omega, ready to be given by pastoral staff to those who need them. Now is the time to start thinking of the next

holiday season! Hats, scarves, and other warm items are always needed, as are baby and preemie items. Baby items will be quickly donated, and most other items will be stored until fall. Just leave them in the Church Office with my name, Joyce Wilson, on them, or call me for pickup. Again, thank you so much for your generosity in the past year. Contact Joyce Wilson at 520-909-2938 or at josieshmoe@comcast.net.

Christmas Mission Project Update Congratulations St. Andrew’s!!! Thanks to your generosity, we have collected just over $30,000 for the Navajo Nation Water Project with DigDeep!

As you may recall, DigDeep installed water totes due to the COVID virus limiting their ability and access into the homes to do the installation of the cisterns and associated plumbing. They had a goal of installing 1,000 water totes across the Nation and to date have done about 750. Additional funding has already been allocated for a good portion of the remainder of the project so we will be moving forward with a three-part plan because of God’s abundant financial blessing from our church: $10,000 will go toward the purchase and installation of the water totes and water delivery for six months.

We will fund the installation of two cisterns and associated plumbing, solar, and pumps. The cost for completed cistern and plumbing for a singlefamily unit is $4,500.

We will use the remaining funds to help with the upkeep and repair of the several water trucks that they use to deliver water to all those residents without direct access to water. All of their trucks are older and with rough roads, they require a bit more maintenance than an average vehicle. (They are all Native American drivers from the Nation).

Thank you for being a part of this amazing blessing from God! We will keep you updated with progress and pictures!

Change for Children It's time for Change for Children! Join us during Lent again this year, as we collect our change to support our mission in Zambia, with Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE). Last year our goal was to raise $10,790 to help orphaned and vulnerable children attending ACE’s FaithWorks schools. The funds raised were to place textbooks in the hands of 2,000 children who would otherwise miss out on school due to hunger, loss of family, or intergenerational cycles of poverty.

Even with COVID-19, we were able to raise $7,400 of our goal, providing textbooks for about 740 students. Thank you for helping us! This year our goal is to raise $10,000 to complete our goal of putting a new textbook in the hands of all of the FaithWorks students.

On February 14, ACE will be our Moment for Mission, and we will start collecting change at that time through March 28. Once St. Andrew's is open again for In-Person Worship, we will have a table available for you to pick up a basket and drop off your donations. In the meantime, check donations can be mailed to St. Andrew’s with Change for Children noted on the memo line. If you would like more information about ACE, please feel free to inquire at our table or check out their website at childreneverywhere.org.

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1 Corinthians 13 Bible Study We will be diving into the book of 1 Corinthians 13! What is love and how do we as followers of Jesus show this love to our world today?

Our Adult Discipleship Team will be our teachers. We will have opportunities for teaching as well as discussion and prayer together.

Sign up with Connie at crandall@sapctucson.org.

MOMS Group The Friday Morning MOMS Group started their spring semester on January 22 at 9:30 am via Zoom. They have prayerfully chosen the online study "Jesus Our Everything - A Study on the Book of Hebrews" by LoveGodGreatly.com. All women are welcome to join! Please contact Erica Cornett at cornett0428@gmail.com for more information.

Prayer for Our City and Our Country On January 14, SAPC joined several leaders and pastors throughout the city to pray for our city and our country. Please join us in continued prayer as we enter into 2021.

Lenten Blessing Prepare for Easter and Holy Week by stopping by SW Campus at St. Andrew’s, Saturday, February 13, between 10:00 am - 12:00 pm. We are excited to be here to hand you a Lenten devotional gift bag with items to help you reflect on the season and prepare for the celebration of Easter.

Our team has been planning and praying for you, and we are excited to bless you! Sign-up at sapctucson.org and we will see you that morning.

Any questions, contact Connie at crandall@sapctucson.org. Additional Lenten resources are available at sapctucson.org/adult.

Sermon Series for Lent The church season of Lent (from Ash Wednesday through Easter) recalls times of wilderness and wandering of the Israelites to Jesus’ temptation in the desert. God is always calling His people out of their comfort zones to follow Him. In this season, during this sermon series, we will explore this fact and the truth that as God calls us, He has also promised that He will never leave us.

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Stephen Ministry STEPHEN MINISTRY GOT ME PLUGGED IN AT CHURCH I was a single person when I found out I was pregnant. Then, two weeks later, I was laid off. I didn't know how I was going to do it alone. I made an appointment with my pastor at church and after he prayed with me, he referred me to Stephen Ministry.

My Stephen Minister was amazing! She didn't judge me. She didn't tell me what to do. She just walked with me. She gave me the most precious of gifts - her time. She did not have a lot of it. We met once a week though she lived on the other side of town. She just listened to me and when I asked if I could pray for her, she said, “This is your time. Just enjoy it.” I've always been the person who people came to for help, so this was something new for me.

The day that I delivered Preston I found out that I had been in labor for two days without realizing it. The only person I thought to call was my Stephen Minister who immediately took time from her class to get my bag and meet me at the hospital. She even arrived ahead of my family!

It's just an amazing experience being a care receiver. I think it was a stepping stone for truly getting me plugged into my church. I became comfortable reaching out to those around me when I needed some help and now, I truly feel like I belong to my church family.

Faith Community Nursing: Medical Equipment Loan Ministry In May 2014, we started to offer medical equipment to the community free of charge with no specific return date.

Since St. Andrew’s has no space for equipment, Faith Community Nurse Mary Bauer offered her garage. Each piece of equipment is cleaned and sanitized by Mary. Claud Smith comes as needed to test and make sure the equipment works properly.

Our church’s insurance company requires everyone who borrows to please sign a release form. If we have too much of one type of equipment, then we donate the surplus to World Care in St. Andrew’s name. Our 2020 statistics include serving 26 individuals.

Mary says “I’ve been blessed to meet so many members, friends, and friends of members. I’ve also loaned to eight of my neighbors – one thinks I must have a nursing home. Since we started, 184 people have been to my garage!”

Faith Community Nurse Ministry wants to thank God for all who have donated medical equipment, and we applaud Mary Bauer for seeing a need and stepping forward to meet it.

In Memoriam Neil Opsal | November 24, 2020 Peter Tederous | December 22, 2020 Betty Huitsing | January 12, 2021 Dick Kampa | January 18, 2021 Pete Quick | January 20, 2021

Solar Power at St. Andrew's and Parking Lot Maintenance

Stay Connected /sapctucson

The solar installation is complete and we are producing solar power! Starting in November 2018, we took about a year exploring the options for solar power. Once proposals were received and a decision made, we briefed the congregation in December 2019.

As you may recall, we have a 20-year Solar Services Agreement where St. Andrew’s paid nothing for its installation and is not responsible for maintenance while it benefits some from lower electricity costs and helps our environment. St. Andrew’s will have the option to buy out the system any time after seven years or continue with the 20-year agreement. COVID delayed the project a few months and it was completed

by December 2020.

/sapctucson SAPC Tucson @sapctucson @sapctucson

Our NE and SW parking lot maintenance was delayed until the solar installation was complete. It is important that we keep up with the maintenance to prolong the lives of our parking lots. Both of the parking lots are in need of maintenance and we are saving money by doing both of them together. We now have a contract in place with an expected start date in March or April. We will advise the congregation when we can expect some short-term parking restrictions while our parking lots are recoated and re-striped.

- The Physical and Technical Resources Committee

Financial Update December total revenue

$403,897

Monthly revenue required

345,803

Difference

$58,094

Year to date revenue YTD revenue required Difference

$2,109,358 2,108,676 $682