Help Needed - Downtown Oly YMCA

The downtown Oly YMCA annual Facility Closedown week is just around the corner and they are actively recruiting volunteers for the many projects we have planned. They need help painting, moving equipment and furniture, organizing filing systems, cleaning and organizing rooms (Playcare & Teen Loft), wall repair and much more.

If you are interested in volunteering, please notify Joyce Neas at 360-357-6609 or via email at neasj@ssymca.net by Monday, August 13th with the date and time - you'd like to help out (let her know if you have a preference of job or skill as well). She will be assigning work to staff & volunteers the week prior to closedown.

Closedown Week is: Sunday August 19 - Sunday, August 26

CLAM BAKE

PLEASE JOIN US!
4th ANNUAL CEDARVILLE FARMS CLAM BAKE

1875 South Bank Road, Oakville, WA
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Starts at 12 Noon
(Snooze and Lose)

We'll be providing clams, potatoes and corn cooked in a pit, and a roasted pig. If you would like to bring anything, a salad or dessert or beverages would be helpful. Also, please bring lawn chairs if you have them, and inner tubes and swimsuits if you want to swim or float the river. If you would like a ride or to car pool please meet at the Emmaus House at 12:00pm.

Don't forget the decoy races! If you have a decoy you'd like to enter in either the "stock" or "unlimited" categories, bring it along, or contact us if you want a decoy to paint ahead of time with your racing colors. Proceeds this year will be donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, so bring your wallets.

Luke

Join us for worship this Saturday at 6:30pm at the Emmaus House. We will be discussing Luke 12:13-21. Hope to see you there.

Hosea

We will have worship this Saturday at 6:30pm at the Emmaus House. Come join us for a time of community and talking about Hosea.

Faith and Film

Come join us this Saturday at 5:30pm at the Emmaus House for faith and film. This week we will be watching the Israeli movie "Ushpizin."

A downtrodden couple finds hope and good fortune -- amid unexpected houseguests -- in this humorous take on religious Jews living in a modern world. Moshe and his wife are given a sum to help prepare for the holy holiday of Succoth and end up hosting two unannounced guests (rather, escaped prisoners). The couple must deal with their boorish visitors, who reveal Moshe's not-so-holy past, while upholding their faith.

Don't forget to bring your favorite snack. Hope to see everyone for a time of community and discussion.

Downtown YMCA

This Saturday we have a great opportunity to be part of the community. The dowtown YMCA is having their Eco-Jam on Saturday - teens and young adults spend the day doing community work. Afterward all of the participants will join together for dinner and a time of fellowship in the evening. Emmaus Community will be helping set up and serve dinner. Please come join us during this time of service for our community. We will meet at Oly First at 4:15 so we can start setting up and then be able to serve dinner and also spend some time in fellowship and meeting new people.

The established church is having a church wide retreat this weekend. Consequently, several of us will not be in town so we have chosen to not meet this Saturday. If you are interested in attending please let Mark or myself know.

Next Saturday we have volunteered to help the downtown YMCA with their Eco-Jam. Youth and young adults involved at the wide will spend the day out doing ecological/community service projects. They will then come back to First Baptist Olympia, where we as a community will be there to serve dinner and fellowship. More information on this will come next week.

Arts Walk and U2charist

Emmaus Community will be doing things a little differently this weekend.

Arts Walk is an excellent opportunity for us to be present within the community. Come join us this Friday at 6:30pm at the Emmaus House to take part in this wonderful community experience. We will meet at 6:30 and participate in the Arts Walk from there. After experiencing this Arts Walk we will be actively pursuing ways to get more involved for the fall Arts Walk and even host one of the stops. Click here to watch a video about the Olympia Arts Walk.

Also, on Saturday during our normal meeting time we are going to head over to Saint Bendecit's Episcopal Chruch in Lacey to be part of the 'U2charsit' service. The service uses U2's lyrics to help spread the message of world poverty. More information on exactly what U2charist is is available at www.e4gr.org/pray/u2charists.html. Whether you love U2 or have a passion for fighting world poverty this is an excellent opportunity for us to gather together with others in community and worship. Please meet us at the church at 6:30pm to carpool over to the Episcopal Church.

I hope to see everyone there.

Easter Celebration

Join us for a time of celebration and reflection of this Easter Season this Saturday evening. This time of worship, community, and celbration will be at 6:30pm at the Emmaus House. Hope to see everyone there.

Small Group

Come join us for our last small group for the Lenten Season. We will meet at 6:00pm this Wednesday at the Emmaus House. Come enjoy some homemade soup, community, and a discussion about how we live culturally.

Prayer Retreat

A quick reminder about the prayer retreat at Camp Bethel this Friday and Saturday. If you are planning on going and need to either carpool or follow someone there please meet at Oly First Baptist at 6:15pm on Friday evening. Please make sure that you eat before you come as dinner will not be provided there. If you are planning on meeting us at Camp Bethel plan on being there around 8pm. We will eat dinner at camp on Saturday evening and should return back to Olympia between 8 and 8:30. Please feel free to contact either Mark or Carrie if you have more questions or if you still need to sign up to go. It's not too late.

Roosevelt Elementary School

This Saturday Roosevelt Elementary is having their spring carnival. This is a great opportunity for us to be present in our community!!! The carnival is from 4:00 to 6:00pm. Please meet at the school at 3:30. It would be great to have a rough idea of how many volunteers we will have so if you can please let either Mark or Carrie know if you will be able to help out. Again, this is a great opportunity to be present and to have an impact on entire families. Come join us for a time of playing games and building relationships.

For more details call Carrie at 512-757-2430.

St. Patricks Day!

This Saturday we will join together for a time of community. We will be having dinner at Radka Sharpe's house. You can either meet at the Emmaus House at 6:15pm to car pool or follow someone there or you can meet at Radka's house at 6:30pm. Feel free to call Carrie at 512-757-2430 if you need directions or have any questions.

Hope to see everyone there.

Small Group

We will be meeting this Wednesday evening at 6:00pm at the Emmaus House for a time of community. Join us for chili and a time of discussing how our faith journey's intersect with our culture.

Hope to see everyone there.

Faith and Films

Come join us this Saturday to watch and discuss the movie 'Michael.' We will meet at the Emmaus House at 5:30pm. Don't forget to bring your favorite snack.

It's an average day in the life of three sorry tabloid reporters: Go check out the old kook who claims to have an angel living with her. Sure enough, the guy's got wings, but what's with the smoking, drinking and womanizing? During a cross-country trip with angel Michael (John Travolta), his unconventional methods work their heavenly magic on the reporters. Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle) wrote the script.

Ash Wednesday Service

This Wednesday - February 21st - we will be having an Ash Wednesday Service. The service will be similar to the advent spiral that we had at Christmas time except in observance of Lent and Easter. This is a great opportunity to bring friends who are searching for a spiritual experience but not necessarily a church experience. It will be in the fellowship hall of the established Oly First building at 6:30pm. Hope to see everyone there.

Community and Pizza

This Saturday night we will enjoy a time of community by making homemade pizza's at Joanna's house. This will be a great opportunity to invite people (and kids) into a nonthreatening environment and allows everyone a chance to get to know eachother.

Joanna has asked that we rsvp with her just to get an approximate count. So please call Joanna Miller @ 357-5945 and RSVP by Friday morning. If you need a ride or just want to carpool or follow - meet at the Emmaus House at 6:15pm. Also, feel free to call Joanna for directions.

Hope to see everyone for this wonderful time of community!!

Faith and Films

This Saturday we will meet at the Emmaus House at 5:30pm for Faith and Films.

We will be watching the movie 'Jesus Camp.'
This riveting Oscar-nominated documentary offers an unfiltered look at a revivalist
subculture where devout Christian youngsters are being primed to deliver the
fundamentalist community's religious and political messages. Building an evangelical
army of tomorrow, the Kids on Fire summer camp in Devil's Lake, N.D., is dedicated
to deepening the preteens' spirituality and sowing the seeds of political activism as
they're exhorted to "take back America for Christ."

Faith and Films

This week for faith and film we will be watching the movie The Mission. Don't forget it starts an hour earlier at 5:30 this week at the Emmaus House.

A Jesuit missionary (Jeremy Irons) establishes a church in the hostile jungles of Brazil (circa 1750) and then finds his work converting the Rain Forest Indians threatened by greed and political forces among his superiors. Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert Di Nero) is a heartless soldier who kills his own brother and then convinces Irons's missionary to oversee his penance and conversion to the clergy. Won the 1987 Oscar for best cinematography.

Christmas Party and Advent Spiral

This Saturday we will be having our Emmaus House Christmas party and also participate in an advent spiral.

Come join us at 5:30pm on Saturday at the Emmaus House for our Christmas celebration and time of community. Please feel free to bring your favorite snack or drink to share.

After the party around 6:30pm we will head over to the advent spiral. This is very similar to a labryinth if you are familiar with that. This will be an opportunity to walk through your faith journey - whether you have been journeying for a while or are just beginning. It is a time to pray and reflect amidst our brokenness.

Part of the spiral symbolizes our responsibility to help others experience more of God. As a tangible way to symbolize these relationships you can bring an object with you to be used during the spiral. A few ideas/examples...
a broken twig - to represent a broken relationship
an egg - to represent the fragility of life and how easily it is broken
a chocolate - to represent the sweetness we would have them experience from God
a soft piece of cloth - to represent the comfort of God
bread - to represent the fullness of the body of Christ.
The list could go on

We hope to see you on Saturday at 5:30 for the party and 6:30 for the advent spiral. Feel free to email with any questions you may have.
emmaus_community@yahoo.com