On Sunday, February 12, those attending the service had the chance to get an offering from the church.  There were $20 bills in envelopes taped under the seats in the sanctuary claimed by whoever was sitting nearby.  The requirements of receiving the offering were to do something kind with it and to let us know what was done.  We’ll keep track of where our funds went here updating it as we hear about more kind acts going out into the world.

$20 spent on toys for the vigils at the Northwest Detention Center. Many small children accompanied the parents visiting detained relatives.

The envelope with $20 along with a balloon was given to a random woman at Safeway.  

Valentines Day Hulk leave package for homeless people in Sumner park.

A friend happens to be heading a diversity book drive for McCarver Scholars (for the McCarver elementary school library).

It is being done by the UW iSchool – library sciences- in conjunction with the Hilltop Scholars and Peace Lutheran, also in the Hilltop. Perfect timing, he asked me on Friday if I would donate books or money, and Sunday I had the lucky chair. I already intended to do something as books and reading for young folks are high on m
y list. Adam, in the photo, is a grad student in the library program as works at PLU.

I donated the reverse offering to Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and N Idaho.  I cannot think of anything kinder than providing reproductive services to the women of Washington.

I came home yesterday pondering what to do with the $20 reverse contribution I found under my seat at the service. Lo and behold, the Seattle Times that day had an article by Bethany Jean Clement about a “tiny local non-profit that seeks to empower refugee and immigrant cooks through job training”. The non-profit is called Project Feast, and the chef instructor there is Lisa Nakamura, who runs the Culinary Apprenticeship Program. It is a heartwarming article, and I went right to their website and gave my $20 to their cause. The article notes that the chef and her cohort plan to open Ubuntu Street Cafe in Kent to give the apprentices hands on experience with catering, marketing, and recipe development. I really loved that Ubuntu is “the African concept of togetherness, the belief that there is an interconnected bond among us all”. Sounds very UU to me.  (Find more information at http://projectfeast.org/)

We had a reverse offering at TUUC this morning. One seat in each row had $20 and Janae found an envelope under her seat. The requirement was to use this money to do good. We discussed purchasing socks for the food kitchen to give out or buying dog food for the Humane Society. Janae decided to buy snacks for the Pierce College professors to have on hand before classes. This is a new program at the college. Hungry students don’t learn well and there’s no free/reduced lunch program on college campuses, not even for our Running Start students who are high schoolers.