Some of you may remember that back in February someone stole the electrical cables of the church, leaving us without electricity during Vacation Bible School Week. They even returned a week later and stole some more cables. Well, the guy who was doing this was arrested, so that's stopped for now. The cyclone fence between the church property and the abandoned house next door (which has been purchased by Instituto Episcopal San Cristóbal) was trampled and destroyed during the robberies. We are replacing the fence with a concrete bloque wall ($2000.00 +!). Yesterday Mr. Green, our Senior Warden, and I took on the incredible bureaucracy which is the Government of Panamá to get the proper permits. Work started today! Here be photos.
1. Area for the wall. When I first saw that graffiti, I thought the Nigerians were after us, but it says CALA, not CANA!
2. More of that
3. And even more!
4. The Great Wall of Parque Lefevre
5. This will keep the hairy barbarians at bay!
6. The Wall is coming along.
7. This is our lot in which we once had a community center. The building was falling apart so I had to close it. Then it became an Attractive Nuisance, attracting the sort of person who ingests the smoke of rock cocaine, so I had the building torn down. We have drawings for a building, but the estimated cost is $1,000,000.00, which is a bit prohibitive.
3 comments:
All right, you rich lurkers, SHELL OUT! I'm serious. You will help build a community center for all manner of people old and young, it will be a place of learning, recreation, reflection, and safety, it will be sponsored by the Episcopal Church, it will strengthen individuals, families, and the neighborhood, and it will be a witness to the church's commitment to the community and to its loving presence. Contact Padre Mickey to make a gift, and better yet, make a challenge grant to smaller donors to leverage funds.
Some of us are scraping by paycheck to paycheck, but others are more laden with cash. Unburden yourself; your reward will be great not only in heaven but right here. Invest in humanity! And help church be church!
And no, Padre Mickey didn't make me say this, or pay me or anything. I'm too far away for him to slip me a beer or a rum drink (too bad). I'm just sayin'.
Gee Jane, that's a great pitch!
This week our Youth Activities Coordinator came up with an idea that is simple and perfect and the Senior Warden and I are kicking ourselves for not thinking of it. It may take care of our problem as far as raising funds. We may have an attainable goal! I'll talk about it once our investigation is done and I've talked to the Vestry.
Stay Tuned!
I was a development director (a.k.a. fund-raiser) and consultant (for a longish while, mostly in Boston, while writing and still doing some churchy things) and director of two nonprofits (oy, not the two NGOs at the same time -- and not for that long) in one of several previous professional lives and I have no shame about asking for money. This is an opportunity for people with common values and concerns to get together and for the ones with money to put their money where their heart and mind are. Everyone wins. (Boy, I'm on a roll today.) Keep us posted when you can on the Youth Activities Coordinator's idea. Go, youth ministers! (Maybe I should add that to my Major Ministry Motto, which is "Never underestimate the church ladies." I tell my college students that motto too when appropriate, like when we read The Newtown Story. Valid in relation to altar guilds and other groups and individuals too, though, including the very oldest of the churchwomen.)
Okay, I had better go for a walk -- too much blogging today with the addition of caffeine, but always nice to see all y'all.
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