Guatemala Mission Trip

“Team Fauntleroy” will soon be off to Guatemala to install stoves and water filters in 110 impoverished homes in the Mayan village of Esperanza Blanca Flor.   We have now exceeded our fundraising goals!  Tremendous thanks for the generosity of friends and family of Fauntleroy Church, as well as generous contributions from twelve Rotary Clubs in Western Washington and Los Angeles.  With these excess funds we’ll be able to fund additional needs for the village, including school desks, whiteboards, books for the school library, paint and a tin roof for the school, and various school repairs.  

Seven members or friends of our church will join our team of sixteen people to depart on May 23rd.  We’ll travel to the Hands for Peacemaking Mission House in Santa Cruz Barillas, receive training on stove assembly, and then work in the village for 5 days before returning to Seattle on June 2nd.

We’re grateful for those who have supported us in this journey – it truly takes a village!

Esperanza Blanca Flor

For Our Neighbors at The Welcome Table

Guests come to the free Saturday Welcome Table in White Center for nourishing food, socializing, and whatever is out on giveaway tables. Our Homelessness Task Force enthusiastically supports this weekly community service by enabling members and friends of this congregation to contribute food, volunteer during the meal, and donate these much-needed items that are clean and in good condition:

• camping gear

• linens (blankets, sheets, towels)

• pants

• jackets

• t-shirts (L, XL)

• sweatshirts/hoodies (L, XL, XXL)

• socks

• gloves

• stocking caps

• baby wipes

• laundry pods

• paper towels

• toilet paper

• first-aid supplies

• full-sized hygiene & menstrual products

• cough drops & other cold products

We Are An Immigrant Welcoming Church

Fauntleroy Church has been named an Immigrant Welcoming Church by the national United Church of Christ.  Alki UCC, which has been working with us, is working towards this designation also.  Together, we will be celebrating that honor beginning with a film “Which Way Home” Dec. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at Alki.  What does it take to become an Immigrant Welcoming Church? Here is how Fauntleroy Church became an Immigrant Welcoming Church.  It likely involved you.

It begins with our church services.  How many times has a prayer, a song, a mission moment, or a sermon raised the issue of immigration?  It may have been about the three asylum seeking families we have been aiding, the recent mission trip to Guatemala or the wider challenges of immigration. Michael Ramos of the Church Council of Greater Seattle gave the sermon one Sunday in a program organized by the Worship Ministry that was dedicated to immigration.

The news of our immigration work continues in both newsletters and after church service programs.

Perhaps you attended the trivia night last January or the burgers and bingo event in the spring.  Both were fundraisers to aid our immigrant programs.  We have two funds to assist our asylees with housing and legal expenses and many of you have contributed.

The Second Time Sale has offered donations to the asylee families.  The Advent Giving Tree program has made donations annually.  Many church members bought Peruvian food Sundays through the Rico Peru program established by one of our asylees.  The Christmas Tree Festival last year featured a Peruvian Christmas Tree.

Church governance has been significantly involved including Church Council, Finance Ministry. Parish Life, Worship, Facilities and Christian Education.  So has the Homelessness Task Force.

Eighteen months ago the Outreach Mission was closed by church members with the goal of incorporating missional threads into the entire fabric of Fauntleroy Church.  Immigration is one of those designated threads.

In the next six months the Immigration Task Force, working at times with Alki Church, hopes to sponsor programs that celebrate our role as an Immigrant Welcoming Church.  One of our goals is to celebrate that all our families at one time were immigrants, that this is a nation of refugees, and we proudly are continuing that tradition.  Ultimately both Fauntleroy and Alki plan to develop covenants expressing our commitments to immigration issues.

The Immigration Task Force is always open to anyone interested in helping.  Please contact Bob Wyss or Dianne Sprague.

Guatemala Mission Trip

We’re excited to announce a mission trip to Guatemala, departing Thursday, May 23rd and returning on Sunday, June 2nd! We’ll be assembling 110 stoves and water filters in the impoverished village of Esperanza Blanco Flor, guided by support from the village and local staff of Hands for Peacemaking. We also hope to provide simple toys and school supplies for 135 children. And, we’ll need the support of this whole church to make all of this happen!

The 800 residents of Esperanza Blanca Flor live in 110 homes and primarily support themselves by sustenance farming. Our goal is to supply all 110 homes with $300 stoves that help prevent burns and respiratory diseases, that burn more efficiently to save families time searching for fuel, and that lessen the environmental impacts of cooking with wood fire pits. Please contact Greg Dirks as you consider how you might help either by joining the travel team, getting involved with the significant effort to raise about $40,000 over the next few months, and/or finding other ways to contribute supplies that would benefit these families and especially their children.

Thanks in advance, Fauntleroy Church, for your support on this year’s mission project!

Guests From Guatemala

Next Sunday, Oct. 22, the National Director of Hands for Peacemaking, Marco Tulio Maldanado, his wife Mimi, and his son Alan, will be worshiping with us. Please extend the warm welcome of Fauntleroy Church to them, and then stay for the coffee hour in Fellowship Hall to say hello. We're making plans to build stoves in a remote Guatemalan village this spring with Marco’s amazing support team. This is a great opportunity for anyone who may be interested in joining or supporting us to learn more about all the good we can do together beyond our walls!

CROP Hunger Walk 10/1

Our congregation will be walking in the West Seattle CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday, October 1. The CROP Hunger Walk is a nationwide movement sponsored by Church World Service (CWS) to raise funds to end hunger and poverty in the U.S. and around the world. But, there is so much more to it than that.

CWS is a faith-based organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement and disaster. CWS works to empower people to have thriving livelihoods in their own communities, and with their own families. There is a global food crisis. Millions are on the brink of famine. When people join the CROP Hunger Walk movement, donate and raise funds, they provide life-saving support like emergency food along with the seeds, tools and programs that will help families feed themselves in the future.

Last year, 34 people and 3 dogs from our congregation walked together to raise awareness and $8,717 to end hunger. 25% of the funds we raise each year come back to local agencies that are fighting to end hunger in our community! Those agencies are West Seattle Food Bank, White Center Food Bank, North Helpline, and Food Lifeline.

Join us in walking and/or sponsoring our team by vising our team page on the CROP Hunger Walk website:

https://events.crophungerwalk.org/2023/team/fauntleroy-church-ucc

ADDITONAL WALK INFO

When: Sunday, October 1.

Where: We will gather at Fauntleroy Church and then walk through Lincoln Park.

Timing: We will start checking in at noon and will take a group photo and have a blessing close to 12:15. After the blessing, some will start walking from the church and others will drive to Lincoln Park and start walking there.

Distance: It is just a little over 3 miles to walk from the church, down the length of the waterfront in Lincoln Park, and back to the church. You can choose to walk as little or as much as you’d like.

Lunch: We will have 50-60 minutes between worship and the walk. Bring a brown bag lunch for yourself or pick up lunch from Wildwood Market or Endolyne Joe’s and enjoy eating with fellow walkers at the church.

Wear RED: We encourage everyone to wear a red shirt or jacket so that we stand out as a group.

Building a Tiny Home Together

On August 23, members and friends of our congregation joined together to build a tiny home at The Hope Factory. We built the tiny home “Xian” which is a Taoist Chinese word for someone who is long lived or immortal. This is just one of the many ways we are working in our community to end homelessness.

An Abundance of School Supplies

Thanks to your generosity, our annual school-supply drive was another winner for area low-income students. Scores of students will have the supplies they’ll need to start the new term, including 62 boxes of colored pencils, 202 glue sticks, and 420 pencils. We were able to pass along $200 in cash donations to West Seattle Rotary for bulk purchase of supplies and to earmark $1,200 for special supplies that Highland Park, Roxhill, Sanislo, and West Seattle elementaries would otherwise not be able afford. Finally, we joined West Seattle Rotary in giving this area's Head Start coordinator 92 backpacks to equip students for this coming term and the next.

Let's Talk: Another service opportunity

Through networking with service providers, our Homelessness Task Force has become aware of another concrete way we might assist.

With Covid relief funding depleted, the rent freeze eliminated, and basic apartment rental approaching $2,000/month, many households are getting "pay or vacate" notices. Local providers receive an average of 60 requests/month for assistance, making this one of the most economically distressed areas in Seattle.

Responding to financial requests is just part of a complex picture, however. To stabilize long term, many families have needs beyond those a check can meet. St. Vincent DePaul offers professional case management but clients can wait many weeks in the queue to access that service.

Our Lady of Guadalupe parish has developed a practical way to shorten the wait, when warranted, by enlisting volunteers to respond to the human dimension of housing crises. Working in pairs, they visit clients to collect the basic information that case managers will need to connect them with available resources.

Our Homelessness Task Force will host an informational meeting about this potential service opportunity on Sunday, Aug. 27, at 11:30 in the sanctuary. Guests will include Bob Bucci, president of the local Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and at least one care-team volunteer.

Annual School-Supply Drive

Every summer, Fauntleroy Church collaborates with West Seattle Rotary's Pencil Me In for Kids campaign to make sure that area low-income elementary and Head Start students have the supplies they need for learning.

Between July 16 and Aug. 6, we invite members and friends of the congregation to donate markers, glue sticks, and other high-priority supplies or to make a cash donation. Our cash goal is $1,000 for special supplies that five area programs would otherwise not be able to afford.

Supply donations are welcome in the church/YMCA lobby or out in the community at Wildwood Market, Treo Organic Salon, or Hazelwood Preschool. The list of priority supplies is found below. To make a financial donation, please click here. Thanks for investing in our children!

CROP Hunger Walk Success!

We did it, Fauntleroy Church! We raised $8,717 in our CROP Hunger Walk on October 2!!! It was a glorious day for a walk through Lincoln Park. 34 people and 3 dogs walked to raise awareness and funds to end hunger. We carried signs and had several people stop to ask us what we were doing. A portion of the funds we raised will come back to local agencies that feed the hungry in our community. Thank you to everyone who walked and everyone who donated. What a great way to make a difference in this world, one step at a time!

Sarah Ackers, Team Captain

Volunteer to Help Support our Immigrant Neighbors

Do you have a couple of hours a week to help refugee and immigrant individuals, families, and/or youth and children in need? The Immigration Task Force is exploring a partnership with Neighborhood House, which is based in the High Point Neighborhood Center. Potential volunteer opportunities include conversational English, teaching or tutoring ESL, and making it possible for ESL students to attend classes at Neighborhood House by helping with childcare at their facility and offering rides to classes. Or come up with your own idea on how to help The 15-year-old neighborhood center is a gathering place that offers Head Start programs, youth tutoring and enhancement programs, Seattle Housing Authority’s Job Connection program, English tutoring for refugees and other services. High Point has been described as a vibrant mixed-income neighborhood with an emphasis on environmental sustainability featuring many parks and community gardens. It has a rich mixture of refugees including many from East Africa and Somalia. The Immigration Task Force in just in the early stages of exploring how it could help and it would appreciate assistance from anyone interested in the reward that comes from helping others. To learn more, reach out to Ev Eldridge.

An Urgent Update From Our Immigration Task Force

Fauntleroy is coordinating with Alki UCC to aid four refugee families from Peru, and we are close to finding sustainable housing for two of them.

All four groups have family and relational ties with each other. Three are living with the generous single occupant of a house near Westwood Village, the fourth is an older couple who have found temporary space in another incredibly crowded house near Morgan Junction. All need better, safer, more permanent housing. Mary and Bob Code have offered to lease a three-bedroom house (under market value) in Alki on the condition that the church guarantee the rent (that’s a common arrangement in a situation such as this).

The Immigration Task Force is working to prepare the necessary documentation and finances to present the proposal to the church Finance Ministry, executive committee and Council. In the meantime, the search continues for options to house the remaining two families.

About $5,000 has been raised from West Seattle individuals and such churches as Alki, Fauntleroy, Peace Lutheran and St. John the Baptist. We NEED so much more as the families arrived here almost penniless.

Fauntleroy has a $2,500 Neighbors in Need grant pending with the UCC, and ITF members will meet shortly with the Finance Ministry to discuss more fundraising ideas. Many furnishings and household goods have been donated, including from Fauntleroy’s 2nd Time Sale and the Microsoft warehouse donation. Storage space is also needed. More VOLUNTEER HELP IS NEEDED. And if you feel moved by the plight of refugees, perhaps you’d like to join the ITF. Please contact Bob Wyss (401-447-3628) or Dianne Sprague (401 447-4421) if you can help.

Finally, and most importantly, the offer from Mary and Bob Code has been incredibly generous and heartfelt because, to truly help these families, we need to keep them here in West Seattle, where our volunteers live. Let us hear from you if you have a lead on housing in this area. Bob Wyss and Dianne Sprague, co-chairs of the Immigration Task Force