St. James Day

Sunday, July 25, was St. James Day. St. James the Greater is the saint for whom our church is named, so we celebrated with a great day of worship together. During our worship hour, we read the story of this fisherman, this brother of John and son of Zebedee, who was called to leave his boat and follow Jesus. We also talked about the symbols surrounding the story of St. James the Greater, which include the sword and the shell. Each member of St. James took a shell to the font in honor of James and as a sign of all laying down their own lives to follow Jesus. Just as Christ took this fisherman, James, to be his servant, teaching him how to be humble and faithful, so too, may Christ take us and show us how to serve faithfully.

Following Christ

The youth at St. James work together each month not only to keep our food pantry stocked, but also to pack bags of food for all the hungry people who come to our church.

Soon, our God Rockz kids, (elementary and middle school kids), will be adding their gently used clothing to the pantry to be handed out to people who are in need in our community. The young people at St. James love following in Christ's footsteps and helping others!

Healthy Heart And Soul

This Monday evening at St. James, we welcomed Jamie Thomas, a registered dietitian with SCDHEC and Harvest Hope Food Bank, to discus simple ways to improve our health through diet and lifestyle. This interactive nutrition class taught us about food groups, portion sizes, fiber, fat/sugar content in foods, and much more. Each participant went home with a Healthy Heart and Soul Cookbook, a pedometer, and nutritional information. As Christians, we know that God wants us to be faithful caretakers not only of this earth which He has created and our neighbors all around us, but also of the bodies He has given us. May God continue to guide us to make more healthy choices in our lives.

Word from Tanzania

2:45PM: I just got off the phone with Carolyn. They were in the process of making 300 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for Bible School, which is tomorrow. She said everything has been going well. They will be leaving the village early Tuesday morning to go on their safari and start making their way back home. I asked her about the weather and she said it has been in the 40s at night and 70s during the day. Sounds like they are having a great time!

Blessings,
Adam

Update from Tanzania

Carolyn called me around 2:30PM (9:30PM Tanzania time). They're having trouble with the internet, so one of the members of the team let Carolyn use her satellite phone. They arrived in Mgoyo on Sunday safe and sound. Yesterday was a rest day for them after 4 days of traveling. Today they dedicated the "St. James House." The house is nearly done, and the Bishop said he hopes it will be completed by Saturday. Carolyn and Lisa met the family that will be living there. Part of the team held a dental clinic teaching around 200 children how to brush their teeth. Carolyn and Lisa have been spending a lot of time with the local children. One of the things they will be doing tomorrow is attending a school uniform dedication. Hopefully they'll get the internet issues resolved soon so Cathy M. can send a full update.

Blessings,
Adam

Our Missionary Team Has Made It to Tanzania

Here's an e-mail received from Cathy, the team leader, around 11:30AM:

Greetings Everyone! This is a note to let you know that the Mission 2010 team has made it to Dar es Salaam. We all traveled well. It took us 32 hours to get here. We were delayed leaving Washington and Addis Ababa. Welcome to Tanzania. All of our luggage made it as well. Mary was at the airport to greet us and she will travel with us to Magoye. It was really good to see our drivers. Brighton Killewa came down from Arusha to greet us as well.  We are preparing for dinner at 7PM. We will begin preparation to leave in the morning at 8AM. I will try to send a message when we get to Iringa.

Love to all,
Cathy