Seminar for widows

I received this request from a wonderful, caring pastor in the city.
Judy Wilson

I am sharing information with you regarding an upcoming 2009 Widows Retreat, specifically designed to minister to the special needs of widows. This is the fourth retreat organized and led by Donna Nunes and her ministry group called Widows Helping Widows, based out of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. This year's retreat is planned for Friday, January 23 - Sunday, January 25, 2009 at Murrieta Conference Center.

Originally, this was a small group that I started with nine years ago when I was widowed. This outreach has grown and sustains a continuing ministry to the special needs of widows & their children. I will be presenting, for the fourth year, a 2-hour grief support workshop during the weekend, as a grief support facilitator trained by Susan Beeney, Director of New Hope Grief Support Community. I consider it an honor and privilege to assist this ministry and come alongside other widows, as I have experienced and walked a similar journey to the one they are now traveling.

Attached are documents with the retreat flyer and registration form. This retreat is open to local churches, as this very unique ministry wishes to make the retreat available to the widows in our region.

In past years, I have invited local widows to attend the retreat with me and have provided some with transportation in my van. Let me know if there are widows who might be interested and would like to talk to me about attending.
There are a few scholarships available and sponsoring a widow to this retreat would truly be a blessing to her and your church.

Thank you for considering sharing this information with your women's ministry and the widows in your church & communities. We ask for your prayers for this retreat and ministry. For more information, please call me. God bless you.


In His service,

Genevieve Douglass-Beckham
562-421-4640 or 562-577-4561
Friday Study Ministries
www.fridaystudy.org
Agent Orange Widows Awareness Coalition
www.aowac.org

getting FED!

On September 3, 2008 I had a BBQ with Dan Pressberg, a local community activist and member of North Long Beach Community Action Group.  I nervously arrived at his beautiful historic home in North Long Beach.  I have met Dan before at large city meetings.  I have to admit, I was very intimidated by him.  I heard about his work in North Long Beach and knew that he was a mover and shaker in this city.  Here I was at his door step with an intern in tow.  He opened the door wearing a casual button down shirt and bright blue hawaiian shorts.  He was talking on the phone with several city leaders about politics in his boisterous voice.  His home was filled with beautiful antiques and photos of Long Beach way back in the day.  You can tell just by his home, his passion for history.  Right off the bat he said that you need to know your history before you start anything.  And let me tell you, he sure does know his history.  We met with Dan with the intention of learning about the history of North Long Beach, but we kept on going on tangents about all of Long Beach.

I could not imagine North Long Beach as a cattle farm, as it was in the 1900s.  Then it was made into sheep farms.  Eventually the land was split and sold.  During the 1930s there was a boom in housing development and North Long Beach was home for many workers.  In the 1940s the theaters were built.  In the 1960s and 80s the demographics greatly shifted due to immigration.

We continued to discuss the history of North Long Beach as we ate our yummy hamburgers.  He told us about the past, present, and near future of North Long Beach.  Dan shared his heart for Long Beach and that's when my nervousness melted away.  Dan was just another neighbor in North Long Beach that wants the best for it.  Rosie, the community development interns, asked how can churches change their involvement in North Long Beach.  Dan advised the church needs to feed the people, physically and spiritually.  He said whenever he meets with someone he always shares a meal with them, to create an equal level with each other.

So thank you Dan Pressberg for feeding me!

Art of Hearing God seminar

I have heard of a wonderful opportunity and want to pass it on to you. I have been aware of John Paul Jackson for a while now and have wanted to go to one of his seminars and they are seldom in this area. However, coming soon to a place near you!
The Light Christian Fellowship, one of our networked churches, is hosting an Art of Hearing God seminar at Light and LIfe Christian Fellowship at 5951 Downey Ave., Long Beach on September 18-20. If you want to register or check it out go to: Streams Ministries - www.streamsministries.com. I especially like his book titled Needless Casualties of War. I use it in all my prayer training classes as a foundational teaching. Let me know what you think....judy

Churches Connecting

How fun to be able to watch God at work!!! I don't generally attend night meetings as I live in Garden Grove and it's far to come back, but last Tuesday conspired to keep me at the office loooong and I wound up at our Emergency Preparedness Task Force Meeting. I haven't been in a while and was so blessed by what God is doing through the churches that have wanted to serve their neighbors by helping them prepare for the "big one". I have watched people go from using it to get to preach the gospel to wanting to BE the church and serve them, and I have watched as whole congregations have taken an active role in their neighborhoods to prepare and equip their surrounding "hoods". Last Tuesday several new congregations were present and learning how to be involved in this effort. As we were talking about HAM radios, CERT classes and Red Cross trainings there were so many connections between them to have shared classes and trainings and to share everything they've learned as they have gone down this road. We talked about KC being an information "clearing house" so that as classes and trainings are held, we can make them public information.
Good job all of you who have been involved for a long time - and welcome to the ones just now coming - there are rich resources to be mined here to take back to your congregations and neighborhoods.
Kingdom Causes exists to catalyze these kinds of happenings and connections.
I love it when a plan comes together!
.....and I love it when I get to watch!

Retreat in the vineyard

What a metaphor we were! We had opportunity to stay at a beautiful vineyard in the Santa Ynez Valley for our KC retreat Aug 23-25. We were pruned, fed, fertilized, grafted and sunned! Actually we got off to a little rocky start...originally, we had the girls staying at a hotel in Solvang and the boys in the converted barn. However, when we got a look at the converted "barn" we (the girls) made an executive decision and relegated the boys to the hotel! They grumbled mightily but finally "graciously" gave us our way. http://www.saarloosgroup.com/thevineyard.html (if you are prone to jealousy, you might want to skip seeing where we were)
Go to their website if you would like to hear someones heart who loves his work.

God has blessed me in this later stage of my life to be in association with an amazing group of people. Everyone on staff in any position was at the retreat and I didn't know some of them at all and a few not very well. To be in a place where each person is excited about the Lord and His Church is an answer to my prayer and the fulfillment of a dream. These are quality people, doing a quality job, for a quality organization. We have very different backgrounds, theologies, calls, passions and lifestyles - and there is honor and respect and room given for differences as we gather around the "One Thing" which is Jesus.
We laughed!!!! we fellowshipped, ate together, prayed together, learned together, dreamed together and had lots of wonderful connection and conversation. My admiration grows for these people every time we're together. I get to work for Kingdom Causes!!! what a wonderful thing is that!
xoxoxox....judy

Meeting New Pastors

We were at Pastors Garon and Betty Harden's church last Wednesday for the Kingdom Causes Leadership prayer meeting. What shepherd's hearts they have for their community! One of pastor's passions is education for young people and he has started a Bible College just down the street in order to provide opportunity for young people in the area. He also has a pre-school thru 8th grade on his premises for the same reason. Pastor Harding was telling about his building project and he has completed the permit process with the City - and he still has a smile on his face!! They are such an engaging couple and you feel welcome in that place. Prayer seems to be high on their agenda as they have a prayer meeting every day except Sunday and sometimes two. They had just finished one when we got there for our pastors meeting and as we were finishing people were coming in and going into the prayer room and getting on their knees. No wonder he's gone from 30 people to 3 services on Sunday and needs a bigger facility! They are strategically placed in the northwestern-most corner of Long Beach and I'm thinking the Lord has some amazing things in store for this congregation.

Connected Corridor - North Atlantic Corridor

Kingdom Causes was one of eight organizations that were given a grant to transform North Long Beach area around Atlantic Avenue.  There are and will be great opportunities in North Long Beach to take advantage of.  It was great to meet people with a heart for North Long Beach and a vision of creating community.  I cannot wait for the stories of transformation from these different organization.  One story of hope and transformation I heard from this first meeting was from Margaret, who is a member of Long Beach Leadership Steering Committee.  The nursing home in front of Carmelitos Apartments saw Carmelitos as the worse thing to happen to Long Beach.  A young woman who grew up in Carmelitos wanted to change their perspective and started to volunteer at the nursing home.  She broke down the barriers between the nursing home and Carmelitos and how they see each other.  Currently she still volunteers there along with other residents from Carmelitos.  I am very excited to hear more stories of neighbors connecting and building relationships with each other.