Firmer Foundation Update Family Ties that Bind Rock the Block with Habitat All Saints Calendar

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1 May, 2016 Rector's Message Children's Corner Youth News Adult Formation Firmer Foundation Update Family Ties that Bind Rock the Block with Habitat All Saints Calendar Rector's Message Love Heals, and Becca Stevens Shows Us How By Kit Carlson All Saints Rector All Saints is honored to host the Rev. Becca Stevens as our preacher at both services on May 8, and also at our adult forum that follows worship at 11:30 a.m. Becca is an Episcopal priest, an author, and founder of Magdalen and Thistle Farms, programs that help rescue women from prostitution, trafficking, and addiction. She is a nationally-known speaker, named by the White House as a Champion of Change, and named 2014 Humanitarian of the Year by the Small Business Council of America. She has appeared on CNN, ABC, and was included in a documentary on PBS called A Path Appears. She is an extraordinary woman, working to help suffering women to discover their own ability to be healed, whole, and extraordinary. We are fortunate to be able to welcome her to All Saints because of two other extraordinary women: Jodi Flanders, an All Saints member, who has volunteered her time to work with Becca's programs in Nashville and Mary Sharp, Sr., a life-long advocate for justice, whose memorial Speaker's Fund is supporting Becca's visit to us. One of the survivor leaders from Thistle Farms will be with Becca to share her story of liberation and new life, too. This is going to be a powerful morning, and it is a way to honor all women on Mother's Day, as we learn more about how women are enslaved by addiction and trafficking, and how they have been freed by the work of Becca Stevens and Thistle Farms. Becca Stevens believes that "Love is the most powerful force for world change." Jesus taught that very same truth. Join us on Sunday, May 8. Bring your friends and neighbors, too. We will be reminded again of the core message of the gospel, the message of love. And, as the Thistle Farms motto reminds us: Love Heals. Kit

2 Children's Corner By Becky Beuregard It s hard to believe our Sunday School year is coming to a close! We will finish our Servants of God unit on May 15 th. Sunday, May 22 nd will be our "Sundae Sunday" celebration that ends the Sunday School program year. We will also recognize our Sunday School teachers in the service that day. I d like to extend a huge thank-you to our teachers this year: Ellen Armentrout and Matt Penniman in the preschool class, Jocelyn Hayward and Alec Hegg in the Kindergarten-2 nd grade class, and David Wisner in the 3 rd -6 th grade class. Also many thanks to the helpers that have stepped in along the way: Kevin Elliott who helped often throughout the year in the 3 rd -6 th grade class, Janet Elliott who skillfully shared many Godly Play stories with our younger classrooms, and Susan Gisholt and Jen Shaw who stepped in when we needed extra helpers or substitutes. Your service is much appreciated! Save the Date for our Vacation Bible School program: Under Construction through Habitat for Humanity. It will be held 9am to noon Monday, July 18th through Thursday, July 21st for children in preschool through sixth grade. Please watch the announcements for more information. There will not be a Family Fun Day in May but please watch the announcements for information about our June Family Fun Day! Youth News By Laura Kuntz EYC NEWS: May 1 st Meet at church and walk to Patriarch Park. We will leave by 6:05; meet us at the park if you're running late. We can play frisbee or other sports and/or bring blankets for sitting. We will end with compline in the park before we walk back. There will be an awesome backup project if it's raining! May 8 th Rain date for the park OR we will do the awesome project this week. May 15 th Regular place and time: the Undercroft from 6-8 p.m. May 22 nd Meet at Mt. Hope Cemetery at 6:00 and pick up at 8:00. We will be exploring the cemetery and talking about what our faith shows us about both life and death. Parents can stay if they would like. May 29 th End of the year party! June 5 th We will have EYC for those who aren't busy studying for finals. Summer plans are in progress. We will find ways to get together for service and fun. Please contact Pastor Laura with ideas or questions. Pastorlaurak@gmail.com

3 Adult Formation We continue our Easter season exploration of the Servants of God throughout the month of May, with these offerings: May 1 st All Saints parishioner Dr. Jodi Flanders is going to tell us about her experiences at Thistle Farms, where she assists the Rev. Becca Stevens in her work with women who have been victimized by the sex trade in this country. Rev. Stevens will be visiting All Saints next Sunday to speak about this topic. May 8th The Mary Sharp, Sr., Speakers Fund brings us the Rev. Becca Stevens, a servant of God whose work at Thistle Farms with women leaving the sex trade is The Good News in action. At Thistle Farms, these women are learning to run a cosmetics business on site, and they receive other assistance in reorganizing their lives. Rev. Stevens will discuss the reality of human trafficking in our society. This forum is open to the public. Please bring a friend or neighbor. May 15th All Saints is pleased to welcome Aida Cuadrado from Action of Greater Lansing, a Hispanic woman of great faith and action who will share with us about the needs that she confronts every day in our community. Another servant of God at work in our world. May 22nd "I Mean To Be One Too!" Pastor Kit will lead this month's "Coffee Talk with Jesus," focused on all of us, dealing with the question of how we too can be servants of God, here in East Lansing in We all know or have known people that we recognized clearly as servants of God, but perhaps we feel that calling is beyond US. Let's discuss this with our pastor. May 29th Memorial Day weekend. There will be no Adult Formation program on this Sunday. Summer Reads Consider reading one (or more!) of these books, chosen for summer reading, then meet with others for discussion on a date convenient for the group. Do your browsing on May 15, 22 and 29, when the books will be available at coffee hour for you to look over: The Holy Trinity and Law of Three, by Cynthia Bourgeault The Practice of the Presence of God, a spiritual classic by Brother Lawrence The Secret Chord, (a novel about King David) by Geraldine Brooks Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond

4 Firmer Foundation Update By Bill Murphy Firmer Foundation Projects Planning is underway to implement the next round of Firmer Foundation Capital Campaign projects, slated for July. This work will be primarily exterior, focused on the Abbot Road parking lot. Specifically, necessary and overdue maintenance work on preservation of the asphalt will occur filling cracks with tar and sealing the blacktop with oil, which slows the inevitable drying and cracking process. This sealing will likely require new line painting. Because of the swampy substrate our parking lot is constantly settling, causing extensive cracking. The many cracks, of course, allow water to seep below the pavement, causing even more damage during freeze and thaw cycles. This reality makes routine preventive maintenance all that much more important. Beyond critical routine maintenance there isn t much that can be done to prevent these problems short of installing a new lot, with an extensive drainage system along with a new solid subsurface underlying the pavement. Someday. Perhaps the 2025 Capital Campaign. The second significant improvement in the lot will be a drainage basin installed in the far northwest corner, at the north driveway. We re all familiar with the substantial water ponding that occurs there due to the presence of a low area. While doing street and sidewalk upgrades last summer, the city of East Lansing installed a drain pipe under the sidewalk extending onto our property. They ve authorized us to hook into the drain pipe, which connects with the city s storm water system, to remove water so it no longer floods that sidewalk and driveway area. The asphalt in that area will have to be replaced because of damage caused by the standing water. Finally, the old inefficient 1970s era parking lot light fixtures will be replaced with high efficiency fixtures. The existing units are costly to operate and maintain. The bulbs burn out quite frequently, costing a couple hundred dollars for each replacement due to the cost of the bulbs and the need of a cherry picker boom truck used to replace bulbs. We will likely qualify for an energy rebate from BWL for the new energy efficient fixtures (likely LED bulbs). Inside the building, we are going to replace the sidelights that spotlight the pulpit and baptismal font areas. The existing fixtures are not only very costly (due to expensive and high energy use halogen bulbs) but they no longer function properly and cannot be fixed. Thank you for your continued support of this very important parish program! Future generations of Saints will thank us for our stewardship.

5 Family Ties that Bind We all came from families. And as much as we love them, we often struggle with them as well. Families stay with us, through our genetic history and also through our emotional history, passing down strength and weaknesses from generation to generation. On three evenings this spring, Pastor Kit will reprise her class on family systems theory, "Family Ties that Bind." It looks at how we function in our family systems, how families work, how we can manage the anxiety and stress of our family settings better. Pastor Kit has studied and worked with family systems theory for more than 15 years, learning from some of the wisest practitioners in this field. Using Biblical and presentday examples, the class helps us think through our place in our families and how to be better parents, siblings, children and spouses. The class will be held from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, May 19 and 26, and June 9. (During the off week, there will be a long term project about your own family for you to work on.) Sign up on the website ( and speak to Pastor Kit if you have more questions. All Saints will Rock the Block with Habitat All Saints is joining forces with other faith communities in the Lansing area to help Rock the Block this summer for Habitat for Humanity. Mark your calendars! From July 18-22, we will send teams to the worksite in Old Town to help fix up and restore houses in an entire neighborhood. This is one of Habitat's regular efforts to empower local homeowners to make affordable exterior improvements to their homes. Each day, we hope to send a team of people to help. Other volunteers can help prepare a lunch, or work with our youth to build window boxes or other projects for these homes. Habitat organizers are working to have one of the days during this week be an Interfaith Work Day, with volunteers from many different faiths coming together to help our community. And at the same time, here at church, we'll be hosting "Under Construction" the Vacation Bible School program provided by Habitat. Our children will be learning about Jesus while also learning about housing needs in our community. There are so many ways to help with this effort, whether you are able to do home improvement work, and even if you need a less strenuous activity. You can commit one day on site, or the entire week. You can bring friends or neighbors to be part of the work teams. You can help provide lunches for workers. You can volunteer with the VBS. It's our hope that this will be an All-Parish Outreach Extravaganza. Start praying now for the homeowners we will support, and pray now for guidance about how you might join in this effort to Rock the Block!

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7 1 8:50a Bells 9a Choir 9a Family Worship 10a Sunday School 11:30a Adult Forum 11:30a Come and Be Fed 5p Vespers ~ May 2016 ~ Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 2 10:30a Babytime 6p Efm 3 10:30a Toddlertime 4 7p Organist Practice 7:30p Debtors Anonymous (1283) 5 7:30a Morning Prayer w/ Breakfast 9:30a Art & Spirit 9:30a Ingham County ISD Play 3p Spiritual Direction 6:30p Bell Choir 7:30p ACOA 7:30p Adult Choir 6 Church Women United 10:30a Storytime 4p String Practice 10a Moms' 7 9a 2016 Ministry Fair 10a AA Saturday 10a Advent House 3p Organist Practice :45a Breakfast 8:50a Bells Rehearsal 9a Choir Rehearsal 10a Sunday School 11:30a Adult Forum 5p Vespers Communion Service 6p 20 s and 30 s 10:30a Babytime 5:30p TASC Teen Advisory Board 6p Efm 10:30a Toddlertime 7p Living with Cancer 7p Conversations that Matter 7:30p Moms' 1:30p Reading 7p Organist Practice 7p Discernment Committee 7:30p Debtors Anonymous (1283) 7:30a Morning Prayer 10:30a ANS Parents' Tea Southern Smokehouse w/ Breakfast 10:30a Storytime 9:30a Personal Needs 9:30a Ingham County Bank Distribution ISD Play 4p String Practice 10a AA Saturday 10:30a ANS Parents' Tea 3p Organist Practice 2p ANS Parents' Tea 6p Outreach Monthly Meeting 6:30p Bell Choir 7:30p ACOA ANS Parents' Tea 7:30p Adult Choir Southern Smokehouse 8a Breakfast Messenger Deadline 10a AA Saturday 8:50a Bells 9a Choir R 10a Sunday School 11:30a Adult Forum 12p WORSHIP AT A "UKE"- CHARIST: 5p Vespers 5:30p TASC Teen Advisory Board 6p Efm 2p TASC Volunteer Meeting 6p Finance Committee Meeting 7p Organist Practice 7:30p Debtors Anonymous (1283) 7:30a Morning Prayer w/ Breakfast 9:30a Art & Spirit 9:30a Ingham County ISD Play 5p CHEA 6:30p Bell Choir 7p Family Systems 7:30p ACOA 4p String Practice 3p Organist Practice 7:30p Coffeehouse at All Saints 10a ANS Graduation :50a Bells 9a Choir 10a Sunday School - 11:30a Adult Forum 5p Vespers 6p Efm 7p Vestry / Parish Council 7:30p Moms' 7p Organist Practice 7:30p Debtors Anonymous (1283) 7:30a Morning Prayer w/ Breakfast 9:30a Ingham County ISD Play 6:30p Bell Choir 7p Family Systems 7p Family Systems 7:30p ACOA 9:30a Personal Needs 4p String Practice Bank Distribution 10a AA Saturday 3p Organist Practice Memorial Day

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