• Use it or lose it!
• Keep moving
• Challenge your brain
• Lower your risks
• Stay connected

• Never act your age!
• Wherever you are...be there
• Find your purpose
• Have children in your life
• Laugh!

Thirty-six leaders and students from CRASH ministries had an amazing outdoor experience at their fall retreat. On Friday evening, teens, their friends and leaders headed east to Amelia, Ohio, for what would be an incredible weekend with God and each other at Woodland Lakes Retreat Center. They were blessed with a weekend of beautiful weather as they played, worshipped, and experienced God together.

Some of the highlights of the weekend included: creative and mind-bending team challenges; exciting, fast-paced group games, quiet, introspective “worship experience” stations, and community-building times of worship. Pastor Drew Smith drove out on Saturday to speak to the group and serve communion.

The weekend finished with a Sunday morning service followed by the last of seventeen team challenges - pumpkin-chucking. It was a great retreat! Thank you for your support and prayers.

We are all familiar with the terrible tragedy at Ft. Hood when on Nov. 5 thirteen soldiers were shot to death and twenty-nine others wounded. Our own PCUSA Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has been involved in the response - right from the beginning - along with other Christian organizations.

PDA Response
Leadership from the Mission and Grace Presbyteries have been in conversation with pastors and congregations of Presbyterian churches in the area. PDA National Response Team member (NRT) Harvey Howell is providing assistance to the presbytery.

Grace Presbytery has requested PDA assistance in the form of a Disaster Crisis Team. Three members of the PDA National Response Team (NRT) Rick Turner, Tim Stover and Laurie Kraus have been deployed to provide this assistance.

A retired chaplain from a church in Grace Presbytery will also be assisting in the response.
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(PDA Response to Ft. Hood continued)

Community Response
The Military Chaplain Corps has the on-base response well coordinated. They have expressed concern to help support the surrounding communities where prayer meetings are ongoing.

San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center and Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple have drawn the entire central Texas area into the medical response for victims of the shooting.

Preliminary Assessment of Need

• Spiritual and emotional care for responders, congregations, pastors, and community
• Ongoing emotional assistance
• Communication between military chaplain teams and faith-based organizations
• Via pre-established San Antonio Voluntary Organization Active in Disaster (SAVOAD) relationship, PDA and the Command Chaplain for US Army North (USARNORTH) at Fort Sam Houston, Texas have shared the concern for the communities of Copperas Cove and Killeen

Please lift up in prayer the Fort Hood community and the surrounding communities. Also pray for members of the U.S. Armed Forces - both those actively serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere.

~adapted from a report from NRT member Elder Harvey H. Howell

Hunter Wade has studied piano with Rita for twelve years and with Michael Chertock for the last four. Even though Hunter is only fifteen years old, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in New York on Sept. 30, 2006. He also performed on Sept. 29, 2007 as the silver medalist winner in solo and concerto events in the World Piano Competition. He most recently performed at Carnegie Hall on May 17, 2008, as a winner in the American Fine Arts Festival.

Austin Wade, Hunter’s brother, is thirteen years old. Austin has studied piano with Rita for ten years and with Michael Chertock for the last three years. He had his debut performance at Carnegie Hall in New York as a winner in the American Fine Arts Festival. He also received Honorable Mention in the 2007 World Piano Competition at the Aronoff Center for Performing Arts two years ago.

The Grand Opening of Engine 51's new firehouse in College Hill will take place Mon., Nov. 16 at 10 a.m.

The firehouse on Llanfair and Hamilton [opposite our church parking lot] will be the neighborhood's newest, most exciting building, and the first new firehouse in College Hill for almost a century.

Local politicians, dignitaries, and others are expected for the grand opening which will include tours of the "green" building and a cookout.

The building’s architecture has met LEED’s silver standard. It has been designed to take advantage of natural lighting. It has rain gardens, pervious pavement (which is porous and allows rain to seep into the ground beneath), a rain water collection tank that will be used to fill the fire pumper truck, a vegetated and reflective metal roof, and decreased usage of water by way of low flow plumbing fixtures. The new location will also allow the firefighters to interact more with College Hill residents, and it certainly enhances the appearance of Hamilton Avenue.

~ from the College Hill ENewsletter

There are over two million orphans in Uganda, a country the size of Oregon. The reality of that number is overwhelming, but ultimately what led us on our journey there. Through different events in our lives, we, as friends, ended up on the same page, asking “What can WE do?” We all felt called to Africa, for different reasons. God opened the doors to Uganda quickly, and it became clear that was where we were supposed to be. Uganda is a country that has been ravaged by war, AIDS, famine, drought and floods. The need there is bigger than we could ever imagine, but so is the hope. The desire to succeed is in the eye of every child you see, young and old.

Our trip took us to six orphanages and carepoints, where we were able to provide for practical needs (food, medicines, mosquito nets, etc) and emotional needs--play, love, laughter and FUN! We spent eight days loving on children that don’t receive that on a daily basis like our children do. We saw hard, painful things. But we also saw beautiful example of God’s promise to never leave or forsake us. These children, who we came to “help,” ended up helping us more than we could have ever imagined. We cannot wait to share this journey with you!

~ Dan and Sarah Smoker and Ben and Amy Savage

Camp S’More on Oct. 21 and 22 was a gift to all of us. It was the kind of camp of which we dream. The weather was wonderful. The trees were full of color and beautiful. The teachers were outstanding. Camp S’More never had it this good!

Douglass School and Pleasant Hill Academy were there with a total of 68 students and 8 teachers. We also had our high school students there to assist. LaSalle sent ten guys, and McAuley sent 10 girls. They do so much for the campers. The kids really loved them and did not want them to leave. They hung on them, hugged them, and begged them to stay longer. The high school students loved it!

Cedric Lowe was with us and awesome as usual. When he had the kids try to rap using lyrics from children’s songs, the teachers started doing it too. The kids laughed and loved every minute of it. The teachers were excellent performers. Wally Bolduc led games with a parachute. The kids loved running under and around it. He also had a pie-eating contest during Jr. Olympics. The campers laughed and shouted when the teachers started participating.

Our cooks outdid themselves again. Bob Faul, Roger Williams, Roch Oberding and his fiancée Pam, Susan Koch, Jerry Berleman, Jerry Dwyer and Bill Stothfang did an awesome job. The kids loved the food and wanted to take our cooks home with them!

Fishing was excellent. Jack Young, Bob Corson, Dennis Powell, and Todd Cutter were our leaders. They really enjoyed seeing the excitement of the campers when they caught a fish.

Jen Molnar acted as our naturalist. The kids loved their hikes through the woods. Agent Zint, Karen Lane, Ralph Williams, and Ed led the Choices program. It was powerful. Bev Graves was there with her guitar to teach songs. Bob Cload did craft activities with the kids. They loved having a contest with the airplanes they made. We also had a great group of people there just to spend time with the campers and demonstrate God’s love for them. They were Ron Wolf, Bob Wade, Lamont Houston, Bill Wooten, Ali Wiers, Denise Koch, Chris Knueven, Gwen Spindel and Mike Wagner.

The teachers were magnificent. They led the campfire and did a nice job singing and getting the kids to sing. The two schools blended together well. We roasted hot dogs and ate s’mores - of course! Everyone involved in this camp felt truly blessed. The helpers were still talking about it on Sunday. What a gift!

Next Camp Dates: Wed., May 12 and Thurs., May 13, 2010
If you want to participate, give Karen Lane a call (541-5676, ext. 167).

“…God (is) calling us to serve, certainly, but calling us first and last to stay as close as we know how to the One who has chosen us, to stay as close to the light as we can, so that our witness is not a matter of performing tasks or playing roles or meeting expectations but of remaining in white hot relationship with the One who is able to make epiphanies out of all our days.” ~ Barbara Brown Taylor

Annette and I have retreated together several times over the years, and I’ve watched the way she rolls out of bed directly into a time of prayer – no leisurely wake-up with a cup of tea and the newspaper for Annette – her first thoughts are of her God. As the day progresses, words of praise are often on her lips – “Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful day!” “Praise you, Lord!” “Yes, Lord!” “Alleluia!”

With Annette, tasks are not obligations so much as little (or big) adventures. Writing a ministry brochure? Let’s do this together and have fun! Planning a three week mission trip to Uganda? Let’s sit down together in prayer and listen to what the Lord has to say. Building a mission house as a Bridge for Peace to the nations? Let’s hire God as architect, planner, and supplier of all of our needs.

No wonder I wish Annette lived close by! Her zeal for the Lord spills over, touching everyone around her. She radiates the light and love of Jesus wherever she goes. When I’m with Annette, I, too, walk in the circle of God’s light.

Dear Lord, help me choose to draw close to you – to stay as close to your light as I possibly can. Help me overcome all the distractions calling my name, that I may live in white hot relationship with you. Let me, like Annette, be a sparkler for you, radiating your light wherever I go this week.

Matthew 25: Ministries wants to team together with runners to provide hope and help to some of the 129,000 people in Ohio who go to bed hungry every night.

Their fourth annual Fighting Hunger 5K Race will take place Sat. Nov. 7 followed by a week-long food drive to support food pantries and shelters in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Participants are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items to the race or the food drive, and all proceeds from these events will go toward Matthew 25: Ministries’ work with the poorest of the poor in Greater Cincinnati and Appalachia, our military overseas, the American Indians and in more than 35 countries around the world.