DHS Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan Resources

• The Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan Guide supplements the Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan Video.  Together, they create a virtual training tool designed to help develop an organization’s Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan.
• The Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan Video describes the fundamental concepts of developing an Emergency Action Plan (EAP) for an active shooter scenario. This instructive video guides viewers through important considerations of EAP development utilizing the first-hand perspectives of active shooter survivors, first responder personnel, and other subject matter experts who share their unique insight.
• The Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan Template is a fillable form useful in documenting an organization’s Active Shooter Emergency Action Plan.

Security of Soft Targets and Crowded Places Resource

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2020 Oberammergau June 6 – 17, 2020
Especially designed for: Pinnacle Presbyterian Church Scottsdale, Arizona
Dr. Michael Hegeman will be  Tour Host
With optional 5 Day Extension to Switzerland: June 17 – 21 Space is limited to 50 people. Must Deposit by January 15, 2019 to confirm your Passion Play tickets!

Oberammergau Flyer – Berlin, Leibzig, Prague, Munich Oberammergau – Pinnacle Presbyte…

Scripture tells us “The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you keep and back by fraud, cry out and the cries of the harvesters have reached the aears of the Lord of hosts.”(James 5:4) 

In the food production chain today, some of the hands that bring our food to the table are hidden.  In the United States today there are between 2.5 and 3 million farm workers.  Agricultural labor includes planting, cultivating, harvesting, and preparing crops for market or storage.  Farm workers are usually employed by growers and/or by crew leaders, who serve as intermediaries between growers and workers.  500,000 of these workers are children. This is made possible because the Fair Labor Standards Act allows children as young as 10 to work in farm work under certain conditions and with their parents’ consent.  Although farm work is considered to be a dangerous occupation, farmworkers are largely exempt from most federal workplace safety regulations.  They are also typically less protect or excluded from other employment-related protections at the state level including state minimum wage laws.  The mean and median incomes for agricultural employment are in the range of $15,000 – $17,499.

What can we do to support justice for farm workers?

• Be aware of the issues – locally and globally
• Support worker advocacy organizations such as the National Farm Worker Ministry
• Learn about the Equitable Food Initiative.  Purchase EFI label fresh fruits and vegetables at participating Costco and Whole Foods Market locations.
  BULLETIN INSERT COPY farm workers rights – March 2019 – bulletin length

Further Information

• National Farm Worker Ministry http: //www. nfwm.org
• WHEAT wheat@HungerHurts.org
• Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) https://ciw-online.org
• United Farm Workers https://ufw.org
• Arizona Interagency Farmworkers Coalition aifc.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO OFFER THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS, CONTACT:

Phebe Packer phebepacker@cox.net

To help PCUSA pastors address the growing financial challenges to ministry, the Board of Pensions has developed Healthy Pastors, Healthy Congregations.  This initiative, designed to help ministers and congregations work together for financial stability, provides education and financial resources. This program combines pastor and congregational leader education with grants up to $10,000 to qualifying pastors.

Program Components

Congregational leader education:  Session and Personnel Committee members and other congregational leaders, along with their pastor commit to a two hours session on A Theology of Benefits Bible Study/Financial Realities of Pastors.  (Note:  This component will be led by Clayton Cobb, your regional Church Consultant, during the education portion of the August joint Grand Canyon/de Cristo Presbytery meeting on August 24^th.  This will the only time this will be offered in 2019)

Pastor education:  Pastors commit to 2.5 hours of online training on Personal finance lessons and Terms of Call lessons.  After this grounding the pastor will receive financial counseling through with Ernst & Young at no cost.

Financial grants to pastors:  a one-time grant of up to $10,000 is available to eligible pastors after the pastor and congregational leaders have completed their educational sessions and the pastor has received financial counseling.  The grant may be used to reduce or eliminate pastor’s educational, credit card, or other debt, or to boost personal savings in the Retirement Savings Plan, a 403b plan.

Pastor Eligibility

To qualify, the pastor must

• Be enrolled in Pastor’s Participation in the Benefits Plan
• Have a total household adjusted gross income of less than $118,200 (twice the medical salary for congregational ministers)
• Have a total net worth of less than $250,000 (excluding the value of home and auto)

To get started

To learn more or take the next step call 215-587-7219, or email hphc@pensions.org.

Also, see Healthy Pastors, Healthy Congregations at pensions.org, http://www.pensions.org/your-path-to-wholeness/healthy-pastors-healthy-congregations

Or contact Clayton Cobb, regional Church Consultant at 267-844-2411, or ccobb@pensions.org

Click here for a brochure

The effects of Racism on children are many and harmful to them.  To cite a few;  depression, health issues, and school performance.

Louise Derman-Sparks states (Racism and Young Children, What does Research Say?)  Questions and confusion about racial issues begin early.  Though adults often talk about the “colorblindness” of children, the fact is that children as young as three do notice physical differences such as skin color, hair texture and the shape of one’s facial features. (Tatum 1997,p.32)

Depression:  Studies have shown that encountering racial bigotry can lead children to suffer from depression and behavorial problems.  A 2010 study of 277 children of color presented to the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting in Vancouver revealed a strong link between racial discrimination and depression.  Study lead Lee M. Pachter asked the youths if they had been discriminated against in 23 different ways including being racially profiled while shopping or called offensive names.  Eighty-eight percent of the kids said they had indeed experienced racial discrimination.

Health issues:  According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, new research illustrates the unhealthy effects racism can have on children with reported exposure to discrimination tied to higher rates of attention hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) anxiety and depression, as well as decreased general health.

School Performance:  Minorities are suspended more and less likely to be pegged as gifted.  Children of color face bias in schools.  They are disciplined more harshly and, less likely to have access to quality teachers.

It is important for children to have supportive parents, friends and teachers to combat the negative effects of racism.

https:/www.thoughtco.com/childhood depression-serious effects of racism 2834777

Academy of Pediatrics, “Exposure to racism harms children’s health.” ScienceDaily. 4May 2017.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170504083210.htm

ThoughtCo. How Racism Affects Black and Brown Students in Public Schools.

Suggestions for Action in Congregations:  Heighten your awareness to this subject.

http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/Racism&YounChildren-byTheresaLee.pdf

Matthew 5:1-2

            Jesus’ greatest ethical teaching began with seeing. Jesus saw the crowds – for who they were and what they were, in their beauty and blessing as well as their longing and need and fallen humanity. So Jesus went up on a mountainside, where, in Matthew’s Gospel, God-events happen. Jesus sat, taking the posture assumed by a rabbi. Jesus’ disciples came to him, and Jesus began to instruct them about living toward a sacred openness before God.

Download Lenten Devotions 2019 – Printable Booklet format

E-Reader Lenten Devotions 2019 format

How is the Spirit blowing amidst your church? What bit of shelter are you to provide God’s creation? What shade from the sun? What wonder to behold? As we seek together to withstand the howling winds of change roiling through our country, how is the Wind of God helping us to bend but not break, to endure? We, the Church, may not be all that much to look at sometimes, but we still belong to God. How are you being called to blossom?

The work of revitalization continues still, as the need to confront new challenges remains and God’s Spirit never stops leading and guiding. There are seven churches between the two presbyteries who have officially covenanted to participate in the Thrive Project, and still others who, unofficially, are adapting parts of the Thrive Project resources for their ministries. That’s not a huge number, only a bit of leaven, so the question arises: “What about the rest of us?”

Both for those who participate in the Thrive Project and for those who do not, the leadership teams of each presbytery have made available new dollars for new ideas for this new day. The “third season” of the Thrive Project is a season of experimentation and we are encouraging all churches to imagine new possibilities. To help with the process, dollars from the unused restricted funds carried over from the Ignite the Spark! workshops will be offered to churches desiring to try a ministry experiment they would not otherwise be able to afford. Funds are set aside for the churches who have covenanted their participation with the Thrive Project, with remaining funds offered on a first-come, first-served basis. CLICK HERE FOR AN APPLICATION

As we bear fruit, we share the faith with people without hope, we do justice, we practice hospitality, and we are agents of healing. In other words, we are the body of Christ. If the context permits, there will be numerical growth. But no matter the numbers, there will always be spiritual, emotional, and personal growth. When lives change communities change. I cannot think of better leaders for this movement than our older adults.  Registration is $10 per person and will include a healthy lunch.

third thirty flyer