Our service project this year will again be on meeting the needs of the hungry.  We’ll be collecting canned foods (undented), boxed cereals, rice, pastas, peanut butter, tuna, and juices (no glass please).  Our donations will go to St Luke’s/St Paul’s Episcopal Church Food Pantry in Bridgeport.  Each day everyone at Shake it Up Café  will bring in non-perishable items to help build our wall of food on the café stage.  We’ll measure it every day to see how high we can build it before it’s taken down for the Pantry.

Here are some reminders as you get your child / children ready for VBS:

• Dates:   Monday – Friday, August 22^nd – August 26^th
• Location:  Trinity Episcopal Church, 651 Pequot Ave, Southport
• Times:   9:30am – 12:00pm, Tuesday – Thursday
• 9:15am – 12:00pm, Monday (come early via Red Doors)
• 9:30am – 11:30am,  Friday (Closing program & picnic)
• First Day Sign In:  Sign in your child with the staff at the welcome table (come through Red Doors)
• Each child will receive a VBS t-shirt, their Café Team assignment, and a music CD (one per family)
• Sign In:  Please arrive on time (by 9:30am) every day (T-F) and sign your child in with the Café Team Leader.  Please give the Team Leader any information about dismissal changes.
• Dismissal:  Will take place from your child’s last rotation room at 12:00pm.  Please check your child’s Café Team list (posted in Parish Hall & by Red Doors). No child will be dismissed until their parent/guardian signs them out (if the child is leaving with anyone other than the parent/guardian, i.e. playdate, carpool, please give the café leader a note).

What to bring to VBS each day?

• Nut-Free Snack: please send your child in every day with a nut-free snack and drink.  Label all snack bags and containers.  These will be placed in your child’s Café Team basket each morning.  They will not be refrigerated, so please plan accordingly.  On Friday we will offer Goldfish and other non-nut-based treats with apple juice.  If you’d rather your child not have this, please let me know.
• Shoes not Flip-Flops:  for your child’s safety.
• Non-perishable food: for the service project / Food Pantry (and our food “wall”)
• A smile!  Once you start, it’s contagious and everyone can’t help but follow on!

We will be having a closing program and picnic that everyone will want to attend!  It’s an opportunity to have the young chef’s in training share with you some of the fun things they’ve learned and the songs they sang.  It’s also unique this year in that we’ll be honoring Wendy Steinfeld for her marvelous work in developing all our Sunday School programs, our vacation bible school programs, creative movement and just her overall amazing, joyous service to all our children, friends, and family over the past 11 years here at Trinity Church.  We are so grateful to have had her touch our lives.  We’ll be saying a few words at the closing of the final program and giving her a couple of nice momentos as a thank you for all she’s done.  More details about this Friday program and family picnic will be coming soon.  Please watch your e-mail for updates.

We still have a few more VBS openings if your children have any friends that are interested in joining the fun!  I also am looking for one more adult volunteer (or perhaps two that could share the week) to staff the “snack” rotation area.  It takes the least amount of preparation, and you’d have a teen helper.  Please let me know if you or someone you know would be interested in staffing this important rotation for the chef’s in training!!

Nest week, we’ll be ready to Shake it Up!!!  Please don’t hesitation to contact Lead Chef Janet Souza if you have any questions or concerns. She can be reached on her cell at 203-610-3425 or at Trinity at 203-255-0454 x309.

Since 2000 Trinity has maintained a mission relationship with the San Lucas church in a small village near San Pedro Sula, Honduras, sending teams to work on various construction projects that include building a road to the church, constructing latrines, interior walls, steps, and a water tower. In addition Trinity has since 2002 consistently supported scholarship students with funds for their middle and high school years.

In 2008 Trinity began funding a health infrastructure project of fuel-efficient stoves, latrines and cement water containers that accommodate 500 people in the village of Corralitos near the larger town of Copan in northwestern Honduras, a jaunty 3 ½ hour ride into the mountains from San Pedro Sula. A mission team from Trinity worked with homeowners in the spring of 2008 building water pelas, in 2009 building 13 latrines, and in 2011 building 11 stoves, 5 latrines, 4 pelas, a cement floor and moved materials for 10 pelas. The teams also initiated a scholarship program in the village furthering our relationship with students from both Corralitos and San Lucas.

In addition, through the parish’s generous support of chili and bake sales in 2011, we were able to bring school supplies, games, books and basic toiletries to the many families in Corralitos.

We experienced the grace of Jesus Christ all around us as the Hondurans were as generous with us as we were trying to be with them. Friendships were made. Good work was done. And faith was deepened. All around.

The group came back on fire and ready to continue the mission. Specifically to:

• Continue with hands on projects that improve the health of the people in the area around Copan where we have built roots as a parish
• Plan a mission trip every two years with enough time to fundraise for project costs, educational supplies and travel costs so more can join us. We especially invite confirmands to consider this trip as part of their service preparation.
• Lead a used tool drive for to either send down in the coming year by container or bring down in 2013.

There is much to share of our adventures. We invite you to read our reflections on the Trinity website and view all of our pictures. And we invite all teens and adults who are interested to consider joining the next group in 2013.

For those who don’t want to travel, there is great opportunity to support our mission work or the Trinity Honduras Scholarship Fund through donations.

Please take a moment to read all of the individual reflections of the 2011 group, including Judy Proctor’s very moving account of our Scholarship Fund come full circle and paying off dividends to the people of the Copan region. You’ll see that it doesn’t take much money to make a difference in someone’s life in Honduras.

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Marcos Leon Perez – A Trinity Scholarship Success Story
By Judy Proctor

In 2009 at the end of our work in the hill town community of Corralitos, our new friend Father Arnaldo Metia came to us with a request. Would we sponsor Marcos Leon Perez in his last year of high school which included a teaching degree?  Sponsoring students in this area would be a new outreach for Trinity and one with potential snags. Father Arnaldo didn’t speak English and probably had limited access to a computer. Who knew if the money would actually reach Marcos?  But with Chloe and Jill Walker’s translations, Trinity’s Honduras Scholarship Fund took the plunge. Then two years of silence.

But what a celebration on our return. Not only had Marcos completed his schooling, but he was a teacher, the head of a small elementary school. And he had stayed in the area, where these rural poor so need education and the rooting bonds a school provides to a community.

Marcos’ father, Don Adan Leon, approached Heidi and me with the happy news. Would we come to his house after lunch?  He and his wife wanted to thank us. Don Adan is the lay pastor of the small Episcopal Church in Corralitos. He is well equipped spiritually to lead the congregation. Tall, thin, standing erect, he is elegant, a gentleman and exudes integrity, honesty, inner peace and a life of hard work, committed to his wife, family, community and Christ. His shirt and blue jeans are clean, press perfect (no irons in sight) and with his classic ten-gallon Honduran hat, he could have walked off a movie set if it were not for his missing front teeth. The lack of dental care (brushes and toothpaste) is no match for the onslaught of Pepsi and candy.

Heidi and I follow him to his house, which is just as tidy and straight-forward as he is. We have soda. We look at Marcos’ graduation photos. We meet his younger boys of the six in their family. Heidi takes pictures in the sun. Then pictures in the shade. Don Adan and his wife Maria look us straight in the eyes right to our souls and says “Gracias.”  Heidi holds her hands out for a spontaneous prayer. She prays in Spanish, Don Adan and Maria start praying simultaneously; I start praying too. I hear lots of thank yous to God, Trinity Church, Heidi, me. We pray for five minutes and I’m crying. It’s a powerful experience where the Holy Spirit has graced us all. What an unexpected thank you and deepening of faith.

With the stunning success of Marcos’ sponsorship, Trinity’s Honduran Scholarship Fund Committee has moved forward identifying other worthy students. In our next trip to the area, scheduled for 2013, we pray for equally fine results. If you would like to support this effort simply write a check to Trinity with Honduras Scholarship Fund in the memo.

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By Nancy MacPherson

With each trip that I have had the privilege of participating in I grow more and more fond of the Honduran people. They are kind, gentle and truly loving and generous. They leave a lasting impression.

The time spent with Elizabeth was not only good for our relationship but good for each of us personally. We are so fortunate here in the United States, in Fairfield, Conn., especially. Seeing how the Honduran people live makes us realize how much excess we have in our lives and what we really need and don’t need for survival. Our lives will forever be altered because of our experiences in Honduras.

The time spent with members of our congregation and our new friends from Trinity Lime Rock was very special. We will always have these memories and moments of reflection to bring smiles to our faces. This was a trip full of many firsts for me personally. I am a better person as a result.

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By Steve Van Fleet

This trip met expectations in many ways in terms of providing good insight and education for Sydney about how things are different and not at all like she’s used to, not just from a living standard standpoint but generally how people view things.

It reinforced my belief that people are still people no matter where in the world or their economic outlook–they all love, have problems, love and want better for their children, are searching for something more important in their life spiritually, like to laugh and are generally social beings.

Though I’m sure the people appreciate our help and we have a positive impact its fairly insignificant to what could be done. That so little money can go so far. That $120 can send a child to school for a year, when I think about how easily that money is spent on things here and the limited value received.

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So Many Moments to capture…
By Phyllis Schneble

Concepcion, the “Parish Leader” who wears the garments of a priest, leads the flocks of 7 churches and tirelessly inspires with song, prayer and devotion yet is not ordained because the Diocese of Honduras can not pay him a thing.

Little Franklin who hid behind his tia the whole first morning we were building the estufa in his kitchen, yet tromped all the way down to the town center with his tio the second day specifically to get a hug from Lucy at lunchtime.

Anna Maria, the young woman who has a lot going for her, as she smilingly sold us jewelry in the joyeria each afternoon with the ladies beading around the table, as she cajoled us into making new “orders” for each following day  — keeping them all in business, as she climbed the mountain to visit with Margaret and me as we built the foundation for a pila at her brother’s home, as she led the congregation from the altar in song at our final church service, and as she thanked me for the money I pressed in her hand and despite me insisting it was for her she effusively told me her plans to use it for the children she teaches in Church School.

Trini, the lovely young woman with the easy smile at Don Udo’s who doled out our beers and soda pop and made us our fruit smoothies when we piled in dirty and sweaty each afternoon, who served us our dinner in the evening, and who checked on our last call before she left late at night down the rutted dirt streets out to one of the small villages in the mountain for her 30 minute walk home in the dark. And her grateful yet sweet insistence that she couldn’t accept a ride home because her 2 other friends walked with her halfway but then went their separate ways and her concern that if we drove her we’d never find our way back.

The powerful hugs from complete strangers during the sign of peace at every service we attended.

The surreal and insightful conversation with a total stranger  (Arnaldo, our skilled worker) completely in a foreign tongue about the lovely qualities of my daughter with whom he’d had the pleasure of working with the previous day.

Ted making a wide circle around the mangy and growling dog our first morning as we lit out for our faraway work site, and Ted going right up to the same dog at lunchtime and growling back at him – how quickly we lose our inhibitions and adjust.

Olivia and Sydney counting out barrel of monkeys in Spanish and English with a chorus of enraptured and bemused young children.

Elizabeth getting mobbed by children whenever she opened her backpack because they knew she had goodies and would giggle. And Olivia, right next to her, authoritatively telling them in Spanish to form a line or they wouldn’t get anything and them getting right in line.

Steve Van Fleet lying on the top of an SUV loaded with cement blocks, bags of concrete and more as Father Nicholas gassed it up the mountain.

Nick looking pretty cool on the back of Olman’s motorcycle even if he did have to finally grab his waist or fall off.

Nancy and her peanut butter and nutella – even halfway down the globe!

Steve Chandler and his Santa load of soccer balls lighting up the faces of many grateful kids.

Nick and his embarrassing little baggie of soda when he couldn’t afford the bottle.

All memories that will last a lifetime.

Can you spark creativity and out-of-the-box thinking in a rural setting? That’s what the goal was for the Vestry retreat at the Incarnation Center in Ivoryton this past weekend. About an hour from Fairfield, the center gave the group an opportunity to meet without the distractions of every day life.

I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to the trip. The idea of being trapped in what essentially would be a dorm room—and sharing a slightly scary-looking bathroom—off a main meeting area to “talk church” really didn’t sound like my cup of tea.  I could think of a million other ways to spend my time.

But while I went in negative, I came out positive. We spent most of Saturday and the better part of Sunday discussing ways to improve an already healthy and thriving church. We juggled ideas about what could further our sense of community and fellowship. Our conversation hinged on what is Trinity’s passion and purpose. We all had our own ideas, none of them the same but equally important.

As a group, we got to know each other better. (And certainly, bonding over a few cigars and some Port at 1:00 a.m. on the back deck didn’t hurt, either.) We ate our meals together. We hiked trails together, all the while discovering things about each other we never knew.

And most importantly, we prayed together. There was a small chapel on the premises. Sunday morning at 9 a.m., we huddled in the tiny church with a wall of windows overlooking the woods. With a cup of leftover wine and a hunk of baguette from the evening before, we had communion. It was rustic and makeshift. But I imagine it was a whole lot closer to the original Eucharistic celebration than the ritual we perform every Sunday.

We sang together. We held hands. It was the most intimate experience I have ever had with a group of people who weren’t blood relatives. For the first time in a long time, I felt close to God. And I don’t mean that in a holier-than-thou, near out-of-body experience kind of way. I mean it genuinely and sincerely.

Sometimes you find God when you’re not looking for Him.

Fortunately this conference had been scheduled in Ridgefield.  The Jesse Lee Church has offered us space so that we can have our own time together at lunch and with our clergy.  Space is limited and we need to get our numbers to them as soon as possible.  Let me tell you my experience with Nigel at a service he held at Christ Church, Greenwich.

Several of my wife Mary’s friends had invited us to attend.  Healing services are not really in our zone, but we acknowledge the power of prayer and were interested to attend.

As part of the service there is personal prayer time with Nigel.  I followed Mary, ladies first, you know.  When I got to Nigel, I had my arms crossed in good Eastern Orthodox fashion.  Nigel commented, “What are you protecting by crossing your arms?  Did your wife bring you here kicking and screaming?”

That comment and his personal mission statement, “As a drill instructor in Her Majesty’s Royal Marine Commandos, it was my job to teach recruits to kill or be killed.  It is now a privilege to teach people to heal and be healed.  My primary calling is to put people in touch with Christ the Healer, the Lover of souls.”  Should be enough to get you interested, too. See below for more information.

From Fear to Freedom Healing Conference, Fr. Nigel Mumford
April 2, 9 am to 3 pm,
Jesse Lee Memorial Methodist Church
Private Lunch and Breakout for Trinity Parishioners
Please reserve by calling or e-mailing Paul Gojkovich by March 18
203-912-7564 (m); gojkovich@gmail.com
$30.00 Registration Fee Payable to the Trinity Office

Image courtesy of ReligiousIntelligence.org

With the Radical Sabbatical underway, I’m becoming aware that in a few, brief moments my perspective is already starting to shift. I guess this is exactly the outcome that Nicholas expected from our virtual pilgrimage.

My first “a-ha” was during the instructed Eucharist several Sunday’s ago. It was fascinating to hear Dawn’s commentary on the origin and meaning of the various pieces of the liturgy. Such a close “reading” of the service really focused my attention on the words and gestures. I was especially surprised by Dawn’s reading of the breaking of bread. I had always assumed that we were symbolically partaking of Christ’s life. It never occurred to me that we were celebrating our own community as the “body of Christ.”

Then last Sunday I had an opportunity to participate in the Jazz Mass. I showed up for the music. What we experienced was SO much more.

The trial of Simon Peter, and by association, Jesus, was electrifying, thanks to the performances. I loved the fact that we were put in the position of the jury who has to make a decision whether to support the set of principles that Jesus embodies and the Christian community attempts to carry out. Do we have the moral courage to dedicate our lives to the belief that it is only through confession of our fallen nature and Christ/God’s love that we can redeem?  In a world that seems extraordinarily organized around achievement and justification by our works, it’s fundamental question, no?

It was incredibly powerful to enter the unfolding drama at the endplay, as we rose to say the Nicene Creed. The physical act of standing up and speaking your mind was no ordinary gesture under the circumstances. It was a decision, a commitment, a verdict. It took me a few seconds to take that step, as I realized that I was being asked to confirm that I had resolved the issue, come to a decision (much as the foreman stands to render the verdict of the jury), and that I was prepared for whatever judgment might unfold (as I believe we are both defendant and jury in the play of life). Very moving.

Of course, the jazz was incredible. Why is it that this art form makes us so happy?  The whole service, notwithstanding the weightiness of its proceedings, seemed like a joyous celebration of life.

Image courtesy Hugh Smith.

This year, Lent will not be business as usual at Trinity Church. Over the next three and one half months, we will treat ourselves to a unique  experience of encounter and growth. We are going on sabbatical, but we will base that refreshment in Trinity Church. Sabbaticals are about renewal and growth, and each of us is ready for that sort of re-energization.

Our goal is to find and articulate the passion in our lives. This always involves both expanding and intensifying our encounter with God. Throughout February, March, April and May, there will be a variety of opportunities in worship, music, prayer, art, education, outreach and retreat aimed at helping each of us to identify our God-given passion and purpose in this life.

The offerings are those requested by our parish in autumn, and are being organized by a host of parish volunteers. Interested in praying deeply? Curious about other experiences of worship?  Seeking the Divine in art? Hungry for the nourishment of friendship and retreat? Not quite sure what you seek? Check our website (www.trinitysouthport.org), weekly Messenger, and this Spire carefully for offerings. Moreover, join us for Sunday worship when important experiences and announcements will be offered.

My prayer over the next few months is that we will drink deeply of the joy, grace and growth that the passion as persons and as a parish. Then we can deliberately discuss during May and June how to organize our common parish life in ways that ignite our passions into a purpose that animates Trinity’s entire mission and ministry.

By all this we will share in Christ Jesus’ resurrection and become happier, healthier more complete families, women and men. The Radical Sabbatical has begun, taking us back to the basics and into the future. Don’t miss out on observing Lent differently this year and claiming the spiritual growth and treasure that is to come.