- Nancy and Bob Wagoner

As was mentioned during a recent Sunday service, members of Trinity will again be participating as part of a mission service team to Guatemala under the auspices of The God's Child Project. The inter-denominational team is currently being formed and will include members of multiple St. Louis churches who have been before, as well as those who will participate for the first time. The dates of the 2010 trip are Tuesday, February 23 through Thursday, March 4.

During the 10 days in Antigua, the old capital of Guatemala, the team will be building simple homes (no previous building experience required !) for families whose children are involved with the educational programs provided by the project. In addition to the building effort (supervised by local foremen who know all the details about what to build and how to build it), team members will also have the opportunity to experience other aspects of The God's Child Project, including clothing distribution, the homeless shelter, and the malnutrition center. Living with local families as well helps to provide each participant with a more complete picture of life in this struggling Central American country.

If you have any interest in making this exceptional journey, any of the Trinity participants (Pat Courtney, Dayna Early, Nancy and Bob Wagoner) would be glad to answer any questions you may have. I think all would describe this trip providing service to our Guatemalan brothers and sisters as truly a "life-changing" experience! If you feel "the call", please don't hesitate to inquire....you won't regret it. For those who want to support the project but don't feel able to make the trip, we will notify you of potential items that can be donated that we can take with us for distribution to the families.

• Person to pick up food from the STL Area Food Bank in Earth City and deliver it to church about every 2 to 3 months. (not Boy Scout food) Food is preordered by Stacey and will not be large quantities.
• Person to travel to STL Area Food Bank in Earth City to help Stacey load 50 cases of Boy Scout food once a month - Nov. - March. A typical trip includes arrival at the STLAFB around 10:00 a.m. with loading taking about 20 minutes.
• In 2010: Shoppers, Baggers, Wednesday workers, Boy Scout food sorters

Please contact Stacey with your questions: carmans@swbell.net

Teacher Anna Moffatt Gardner-Andrews works in the St. Louis public schools and needs our help purchasing or donating 22 pencil pouches for her students who cannot afford them. Can you help?

Anna: agardnerandrews@yahoo.com

- Rev. Julie March, Minister of Equipping

- Liz Nelson, Church Administrator

Imagine what it's like for clients of our food pantry to receive fresh bread and bagels from the Bread Co., along with their staple items. We have the opportunity to offer them fresh, high quality items left over from the Delmar Bread Co. two times a month if we partner with Grace & Peace Fellowship Church on Delmar near the Central West End to take leftovers off of the Bread Co.'s hands weekly.

G&P Fellowship is cutting back on it's pantry and can no longer accept the Bread Co.'s weekly donations, so they would like us to accept them the weeks they are closed. We have been receiving the church's weekly donations for the last two Augusts and know how much our clients look forward to the bread. Here is what we need from Trinity members:

1.  a volunteer or volunteers to agree to pick up the 5-8 large trashbags full of food every other week (3 weeks if it is a 5-week month). Pick up is just before 9pm on Tuesday nights at the Bread Co. in the Delmar Loop. It takes 15-20 minutes to wait for bagging. We can divide this job between multiple people during the month if need be.
2. Volunteers to bag the bread either Tuesday night at church or Wednesday morning before the pantry starts at 1pm. This can be the same person as the one picking up or another volunteer. A church key would be given to you.

With a commitment of once or twice a month by you, we can increase our Food Pantry offerings at no cost to us. Please let me or Stacey Carman know if you are interested.

- Pat Gibbons

Trinity will participate in sponsoring and building a Habitat for Humanity house in 2009. We will be part of a group of six Presbyterian Churches named WCC - Presybterian Churches. WCC stands for "We Construct Community." The churches are Bonhomme, Kirkwood, Ladue, St. Mark's, Trinity, and Webster Groves.

Dates for us to work are already set. They are: July 10,11,12; August 8, 21,29; September 26; October 17. Support this effort with your work, your financial contributions and your prayers. Contact me (pcg@wuphys. wustl.edu) for further information.

Trinity will participate in sponsoring and building a Habitat for Humanity house in 2009. We will be part of a group of six Presbyterian Churches named WCC - Presybterian Churches. WCC stands for "We Construct Community." The churches are Bonhomme, Kirkwood, Ladue, St. Mark's, Trinity, and Webster Groves.

Dates for us to work are already set. They are:

May is the time for us to raise the funds we hope to contribute to sponsoring the house. We have committed to try to reach the level we reached last year, $5,000 toward the project.

Please contribute by putting a check in the collection with "Habitat" written on the memo line, or sending a check so written to the office.

- Dave Nelson

Starting last month Trinity became a distribution point for Fair Shares, our local Combined Community Supported Agriculture organization. Founded by sisters Sara Hale and Jamie Choler, non-profit Fair Shares started operations last April and several Trinity families have been participating.

On behalf of its shareholders, Fair Shares contracts with local food producers, such as farms, dairies, orchards and bakeries, and distributes a mixed assortment of fresh, local food to its members each week for a set fee. It's like a trip to the farmer's market in one stop, at a predictable price. This system also allows the producers predict their sales for the year more accurately and guarantees them a more reliable income stream that compensates them at a fair rate.

Prior to moving to Trinity, Fair Shares was distributing members' weekly food shares from a garage located down the alley from Trinity, which was less than ideal, particularly in Summer and Winter. Jim Person and Diane O'Brien, who have been participating in Fair Shares since its inception, saw an opportunity for Trinity to forge a bond with another progressive organization concerned with social justice. If you don't see how locally-sourced, responsibly-farmed food is a social justice issue, feel free to talk to me.

Since it started using our space, Fair Shares has been contributing food to the Winger Food Pantry at Trinity. Membership in Fair Shares is currently full, but our family was able to get started this month by splitting a share with another participant. If you are interested, you can sign up for the waiting list, or learn more about Fair Shares, on its website: http://www.fairshares.org.

For many years, Trinity's local mission giving has supported the International Institute of St. Louis. George Philips recently received the following information about one of their programs:

Our Discover St. Louis program provides the opportunity for new and recent refugee arrivals to find and explore cultural resources on their own. We introduce them to the sites by giving them a chaperoned experience, and all of the information necessary to return on their own. This is important not only because our clients will continue to have limited funds in their first years here due to entry level wages, but they also benefit from the trips from a mental health standpoint; so many of them have been deprived of positive experiences for so long.

Additionally, the trips provide the opportunity for new Americans to interact with their St. Louis neighbors. Community Volunteer Chaperones accompany the refugee families throughout the experience, to help them practice their English and gain confidence in their interactions with native speakers.

For our Discover St. Louis trips, we arrange a school bus or tickets for public transportation to and from the cultural experience (i.e., the zoo, art museum). Your [congregation's] support would offset the transportation costs for our excursions. The best part of supporting this program is the opportunity for your congregants to have a 'hands-on' experience themselves by volunteering for one of our Discover St. Louis events! If they are interested, we can keep them informed of upcoming opportunities to participate.

If you would like to know more about this opportunity, contact Kate Howell, Community Relations Manager, International Institute (314-773-9090 ext 189).

- Stacey and Chris Carman

The Winger Food Pantry was a very busy place over the summer months. In June the pantry was the lucky recipient of boxes of Pepperidge Farm cookies and crackers donated by Sue Smorodin, a member of the OASIS band that practices at Trinity. We also received bread baked by the St. Louis Bread Company from Grace and Peace Fellowship Church in the Central West End. Grace and Peace hosts a food pantry weekly during the school year months but only once a month during the summer months. Fortunately for our clients, Grace and Peace chose to continue receiving the bread weekly during the summer and delivered it to us for our use. Our clients really appreciated this extra treat!

In addition to the food donations, the pantry also received labor donations. Pamela Bruns and her children, who take musical instrument lessons at Trinity, volunteered their time as substitute baggers this summer. The use of the church facilities by outside groups has really paid off big for the pantry this summer.

As we all know, the economic downturn over the last couple months has really affected many people from all walks of life, but those who visit our pantry are some of the most affected. During July we had 70 individuals visit our pantry which helped feed 147 family members. In August those numbers increased to 95 individuals who visited the pantry, helping feed 215 family members. Thank you to the Trinity community for your support of this wonderful mission.

A special thank you to our shoppers - Jane Gibbons (January through March) and Vickie Jeter (July through September) - and our baggers, Joanne Roman, Emily Kelton, Kim Behren, Polly Brown, Elaine Pontious, Anna Gardner-Andrews, Tina Newberry and family and Norma Vavra and Wally Klein. If you would like to get involved with the pantry, consider becoming a bagger for November. It only takes approximately an hour to an hour and a half of your time once a week. Please contact Stacey at carmans@swbell.net if you are interested.

We have a number of ways in which we can minimize our footprint in the world at Trinity--recycling, energy changes (light bulbs, heating/cooling), eco-palms, paper consumption, etc. Especially now that we have our report of recommendations from our recent energy audit, the time is ripe to develop this Team idea further (a handful of members have been discussing this since the mission fair last fall). If you are interested, please let Liz know in the office.

-Rev. Julie March, Minister of Equipping

Do you like to dig? How about making a beautiful garden? Join the Trinity Green Team, a part of Trinity's Equipping Ministry, as we beautify our east lawn and gardens, cleaning them up and replanting so that we will present a welcoming and peaceful face to our neighborhood. Call Julie March or Diana Gray for more information.

A new team is forming, and you are invited to join! Trinity has been committed to Peacemaking for many years, and the new Peace Prayer Team will continue this tradition with weekly peace prayers in worship. To join this team, get in touch with Julie or team members Jane Rand, Anna Gardner-Andrews, Luise Hoffman, Jan Schulte-Glad or Stacy Shupe.

Join Equipping Ministry as we learn more about spiritual growth, discipleship and faith, and where each member of the Body of Christ at Trinity Presbyterian Church becomes Christ's disciple in the world.

Have a favorite meal you like to share? Enjoy helping others with short-term special needs? Part of the ministry of Trinity's Deacons is to offer a meal for individuals or families during times of special need, such as illnesses or births. We'd welcome assistance from anyone in the congregation! Help can be provided in one of two forms: 1) Preparing a main course that can be frozen and kept at Trinity to help fulfill emergency needs, or 2) Offering to be contacted when an opportunity arises to prepare a meal and deliver it to a family in your area. Darrell and Karen Mayberry serve as meal coordinators for the Deacons. Please contact them for more details at karen.mayberry@usa.net if you'd like to help in either of these ways.

Do you like to shop? Well, then, do we have the opportunity of a lifetime for you! You can shop till you drop for the Winger Food Pantry in May and June. Don't hesitate. Call now for this wonderful opportunity. Contact Stacey Carmen to get all the details.

Shop from Home: If you would rather shop from home for the food pantry, try this on for size! All you need to do is set up an Amazon account through their program called "Subscribe and Save". They will process the order for the food pantry, charge your credit card and ship it directly to us. There is no charge for shipping and there is a 15% discount. You can set it up to automatically order as often as you like. It's that easy. Thanks to Lisa Bernhard for this tip. Contact Stacey Carmen or the office for a list of items we need for the pantry.

The Mission Fair Team - Our latest Mission Fair, Trinity in Action, was a great success, and we are already planning an expanded mission event for 2008. Get on the bandwagon now to help us spread the word about mission in our church and community. Call Dave Nelson or Lisa Bernhard for more information.

A New Habitat for Humanity Building Project - 2008 is the year for Trinity to help build another Habitat House. Do you have building skills? Can you paint? How about sweeping? You are needed to work and/or donate funds to build a house for a family in need of a home. Pat Gibbons can tell you all you need to know.

Invite Your Friends Into Ministry - Do you like to talk to people about their gifts and passions? Would you like to be interviewed? The Ministry Discovery team wants to meet with all our members to discover where they can serve God through the Church. Call Norma Vavra or Julie March to find out more.

Friendship and Fellowship - We have so many good events at Trinity that bring us all together for fellowship, sharing, and working together. Join the new Events Coordination Team to help coordinate these events as we build the Body of Christ together at Trinity. Contact Julie March or Lisa Bernhard to get involved.

The Green Team - Flowers, plants, trees, bushes and gardening, we do it all. The Green Team needs your enthusiasm and time to insure that our beautiful sanctuary is adorned for worship, and your green thumb to create lovely flower gardens outside the church. Luise Hoffman and Diana Gray are in charge of this team. (See below.)

The Equipping Ministry Team connects people to the ministries they love. We hope you will hear God's call to service as we "equip the saints for the work of ministry to build up the Body of Christ," which is all of us, right now, at Trinity Presbyterian Church.

In 2007, the "Three Amigos" (George Sallwasser, Bob Little and Tom Wilhite) spent nine months and multiple visits crawling into nooks and crannies, taking pictures and notes, deciphering ancient architectural drawings and dodging icky stuff (don't ask what's in that bell tower!) to create a professional and comprehensive "state of the building" report on the interior, exterior and bell tower. They have provided the Church with an incredible gift - information about the health of the building so we can be proactive and wise in our prioritization of projects and development of a long-range plan for the care of the building.

Their report can be viewed at http://www.trinityucity.org/RepairRecommendations.html.

If there's a job in the list that you're skilled to help with, please contact the Church Office.

The babies of Trinity would love to play with you while their parents are studying or worshipping. If you are called to this ministry of love and are available on the rare fifth Sunday (December, March) please call the church office and we'll let the babies know you're coming!

- Liz Nelson

Have you considered counseling to help sort out concerns, but aren't sure where to start? Have you been searching for resources to help alleviate a care-giving or elderly housing issue? Have you wondered how on earth to navigate the community resource system in St. Louis to find programs and services to address unmet needs? When I joined Trinity's staff as Church Administrator, I brought with me resource materials from my training and experience as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Our church community supports its members and one of my joys is being able to share this information with those who have voiced a need. I am happy to provide ideas and resources when asked, as well as connect you with Deacon support or the guidance of Nancy Wagner's spiritual formation, if wished. I am also planning on expanding the small resource center housed in our library. This Body of Christ is full of people of great compassion and knowledge, so please add resource materials to the library collection if you have them!