Posts Categorized: Disaster Response

OGHS: Building Connections to Last… Advocating for Environmental Justice

What does July 16 mean to you? If you are part of the Navajo nation, or have connections near Church Rock, New Mexico, that date might stir a heartbreaking memory of a preventable disaster that continues to have disastrous impacts. Over 40 years ago, the earthen dam of a nuclear waste disposal pond broke near… Read more »

OGHS: ‘Unstable Connection …’

Those two words have taken on a deeper meaning in the past couple of years, haven’t they? For many, the words “unstable connection,” “weak connection” or worse, “lost connection,” are synonymous for an online meeting that has become frozen or dropped off. These dreaded words, popping up on a phone or computer, mean whatever is… Read more »

Becoming Flesh

By Rachel Yates We marked each Sunday in our Advent season with God’s promises for hope, peace, joy, and love.  We lit candles at church or in our homes as tangible signs of these promises fulfilled in Jesus Christ. For many of us in Southeast Wisconsin, however, these promises have felt hollow or distant.  Our… Read more »

Peace & Global Witness: The Light Shines On

Have you ever felt so far from God’s peace that you couldn’t even imagine it? Natalie Pisarcik testified during Sunday worship in her home congregation, First Presbyterian Church of Boonton, New Jersey, that she was in that place. A place so dark that she was ready to end her pain. Ready to take her own… Read more »

OGHS: Because We are the Church, Together

Life during COVID has been challenging. That feels like an understatement, right? At times, we have all felt disconnected, confined. Missing family, missing friends. Lonely. Worried about the groceries holding out. Unsure of what the future may hold. Imagine feeling all of those things but living in a place or in a situation that was… Read more »

OGHS: Because Water is Life

When Manuel Nazario casts his net into the water these days, his catch is far less plentiful. In the remote area of Bolivia near the Paraguay-Argentina border, Manuel and the members of his indigenous community are finding that fishing, their traditional livelihood, is now in severe jeopardy. The Capirendita (pronounced CAP-IR-EN-DITA) community is grappling with… Read more »

OGHS: Because We See

The pandemic has stretched the Church in many ways — but we are still very much … here. Although it was surely hard at first, we have expanded our thinking, and our doing, in new and innovative ways to close the distance, and be together. We have continued to worship. We have continued to build… Read more »

Celebrating the 2021 One Great Hour of Sharing with Our Youth

Engaging the children of your congregation with the four churchwide Special Offerings has never been easier or more important, whether you are engaging them in-person or virtually. There are numerous ways children can connect with One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS), including the engagement placemat and fish coin banks that often arrive in your standing… Read more »

Peace & Global Witness: Peace in the Midst of War

“In a war zone, everyone is a target.” During this Season of Peace, we are reminded that peacemaking is active not passive, doing not waiting. Jaff Bamenjo (BA-MEN-JO), the coordinator of the Network for the Fight Against Hunger in Cameroon (RELUFA) and an International Peacemaker, has a very clear understanding of why this is important…. Read more »