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Text Box: New this fall: The Outreach Committee has decided to participate in the Prison Fellowship’s Angel Tree program. The children of prisoners are some of the most overlooked members of our culture. Participating in Angel Tree is a way to lovingly answer the biblical call to minister to the “least of these”. A prisoner who participates in Prison Fellowship submits a request for his/her child to receive a gift. The church contacts the home where the child lives to verify the appropriateness of the prisoner’s gift type selections and creates actual gift suggestions. Then volunteers purchase the two gifts – one new toy, or other fun gift, and one new article of clothing- each $15-20 in value at the retailer of their choice. When the gifts are delivered a gospel presentation (age appropriate) is made. The Outreach Committee would like one or two people (who are not members of the committee) to volunteer for a sub-committee to organize the program here at Lycoming Centre. Please contact Jim Redka or Barb Albert if you have a time in September and October to help. We will have an Angel Tree on display in October with the gift requests and the entire congregation will have the opportunity to “bless the least of these”.

Text Box: Henry Davis contacted us recently to tell us that he and his family will be staying in St Croix this fall and winter. Henry will be taking a leave from his work in Caracas, Venezuela in order to reflect and regain perspective on his work; while Maria and their children gain the opportunity to go to school in a Christian day school on St Croix. News from Venezuela continues to report pressure from the national government to have their schools teach the socialistic philosophy of their national president, Mr Chavez. Stress while living in Venezuela is intense in many ways for the Davis family. Henry assures us that other WYAM staff will keep the work in Caracas active. Pray for Henry, Maria, Padaya and Abigal. Camp Susque staff report some decrease in attendance this year as well as some financial stress. Pray for their entire staff and for the continued upkeep of the grounds as well as the ministry of this well-loved camp in the lives of the campers and attendees of other programs throughout the year. Heritan Lamar continues to struggle with problems of gaining a reliable water source, continued staffing problems, struggles with the various levels of governmental requirements and continued personal health problems. He is hopeful that the hostel can purchase an adjoining piece of property which would insure a better supply of water for the school. We continue to collect personal hygiene items for the Shepherd of the Streets in the storage box under our bulletin board in Taylor Hall. Please bring in items such as soap, shampoo and conditioner, towels and sheets [single bed size], toothbrushes and paste. In October, we will switch to collecting food for the Hepburn food bank up until Thanksgiving. Please give what you can. This year, we intend to bring our Outreach Budget to the annual congregational meeting in October. We are thankful for the giving toward our missionaries this year and happily report that we have taken in a bit more than we had budgeted year to date. We will be actively considering increases in support for some of our current missionaries and are actively considering one possible addition to our missionary family. Our committee does correspond and speak with most of our mission families on a regular basis as we endeavor to maintain a relationship with each family in addition to providing financial support. If any non-committee member has opinions regarding any of our missionary’s support level, please do let me know by the end of August. Our committee is considering major projects for the upcoming year as well. We would like to host either a training seminar regarding personal evangelism or one teaching about current and future missions around the world. We also would like to plan short term mission opportunities for groups from our congregation. We are looking for other members of the congregation who would join us in planning and implementing these projects. Won’t you consider helping out.