SERVICE & TRAINING
WAY STATION WORK DAY
9am – 4pm • Nativity Lutheran Church, No COnway, NH
Come help paint and prep more rooms at Nativity Lutheran Church to welcome guests of the Way Station, a day resource center to provide essential services to the valley’s homeless and housing insecure population, including showers, laundry, internet access, post office box, lockers and more. Wear old clothing. Supplies and paint will be provided!
| UPCOMING CLASSES Relevant to Way Station Community Service |
| UNDERSTANDING HOMELESSNESS and ITS IMPACTS on CHILDREN & FAMILIES Wed, Feb 27 from 6:30-8:30pm SAU#9 / Conway School District Professional Development Center @ Kennett Middle School 176 Main Street, Conway, NH 03818 Registration Link. Participants in this session will: Understand the general state of homelessness in NH. Understand how to identify a homeless child and/or family. Understand the relationship between homelessness and trauma in children. Understand the physical and emotional impacts of homelessness, particularly on children. Understand the reactions and symptoms of trauma and homelessness in children. Understand best practices in serving children who experience homelessness. Training Methods: Training will incorporate a variety of teaching techniques including didactic presentation, small group discussions / brainstorms, videos, and opportunity for questions, dialogue and discussion. NH LISTENS Advanced Facilitator Training Fri, Mar 15 from 10am-4pm Conway Library, Conway, NH Registration Link. $50 fee. Fee waived for students and those with financial need. Many of us are trained to remain “neutral” as facilitators. However, that doesn’t mean we are passive. This workshop enhances confidence to remain neutral, productively address issues, encourage and move conversation in a constructive manner. |
TUNE UP rescheduled
- TUNE UP (Fitness) with LAURIE McALEER
10-11am • Parish Hall, Jackson Community Church
Join members of the women’s group and fitness trainer Laurie McAleer for a gentle, introductory fitness class for beginners. Wear comfortably clothing, sensible shoes, and bring a bottle of water. Men and women both welcome to come try this class. Laurie will lead a fitness class that can be customized to each person’s abilities, and help improve overall wellbeing, as well as focusing on body areas that may need additional support and care.
Reflections on ashes and dust: themes from Ash Wednesday & Lent
Ash Wednesday is the starting point of Lent. We are marked with ashes as we begin the season. We go from feasting to a season of fasting, praying, and giving.
Or perhaps we can think of Lent as a season of personal training, of discipline and preparation, to return to spiritual fitness. It’s a time when, through confession, we admit and wrestle with our issues, vulnerabilities and weaknesses … and get to know ourselves better. We seek healing and balance.
This is also an opportunity to understand that we are beloved for whom we are: messy and imperfect and broken. Just as we are beloved for whom we may become. Because the gift of this season, ultimately, is grace. We can prepare, we can focus … yet we cannot earn the boundless love toward which we are reaching. It is simply offered to us, regardless of how perfect or imperfect we are. Just because.
Ashes symbolize mortality, as well as humility and contrition. The proudest members of society, in many faith traditions, don sackcloth and wear ashes as signs of humility, to express sorrow, or to demonstrate a desire for reconciliation and forgiveness. Ashes represent, like “dust to dust”, our elemental origins and remind us that our bodies will return to the earth. Within our faith, we also believe that while our bodies are formed from organic materials, our living selves are filled up with and energized by Breath, Wind, or Holy Spirit, which animates life and connects all of us.
Traditionally, people receive ashes today, Ash Wednesday, as a smudge or cross on the forehead. We come to this season in a messy way, wearing our imperfection on our faces. Messy, sad, sorry, tired, angry, grateful, hopeful, happy, curious … we enter into this time of preparation, on the journey toward Easter.
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