An Opportunity to help a Brother

Hello men of CalvarySLO. We have an opportunity to help a local family that calls CalvarySLO home. Saturday January 31st this family will be moving from the Laguna Lake area to the area behind Vons off TankFarm and Broad. Without any family in town they are glad to call the people of CalvarySLO family and so they are looking for 8 or 10 guys (especially if you have a pick-up you would be willing to bring) to help them move that Saturday morning. Starting at 10 in the morning 8-10 guys can probably move a 3 bedroom/2 bath house in just a few short hours. A lunch of pizza will be provided when all is said and done. If you would be willing to come and help please comment to this post and I ... er this beautiful family ... would be extremely grateful.

Building Help Update 1/12/09

We need a few helpers tomorrow 1/13 for the 2nd coat of the Bonded Sand Concrete floor. If you have a few hours to spare PLEASE stop by!

James, Nick, and the Concrete crew will be starting at 9am. Show up any time! It is not daunting or intimidating work...so come on out if you can...

Thanks.
pz

Fishers of Men and MENtoring Year in Review

To begin, everyone pretend that this was posted last week. That way the Grand Master of Men's Ministry will go just a little easier on me.

Fisher of Men took a hearty blow with the exodus of Aaron Wise who's job transferred him South into the lonely desert. We're hoping one day he manages to find his way out. In his absence the Fishers of Men dominated the SLO City parks and recreation lower division Softball League on games played during the first week of October. Currently in the offseason we're hoping to make some blockbuster deals in free agency and bring in some heavy bats and fast wheels. The Season starts up again in March and sign-ups begin in February. If you want to play, it will be around $50 to sign-up to begin a new team at the beginning of the year.

Fishers of Men also sponsored a few Marrieds v. Singles. There was the run/walk for FCNI in which ... oh I can't remember who won that one. There was also a Futbol game in which the marrieds dominated and it has hence taken us 4 full months to recover. Fishers of Men will be kciking off 2009 by sponsering a Marrieds v. Singles Flag Football game THIS SUNDAY at Meadow park across from Hawthorn on South Street after Church. Bring your food, your cleats, any flag football gear you have, your game face and your medical insurance card.

MENtoring kicked off late in the year. We've had plenty of interest but as is usually the case we've more people interested in being mentored than being a mentor. Needless to say we still have a few stragglers out there looking for men of God to take them under their wing and mentor them. Let this serve as one more reminder that if God is prompting your heart to be a mentor to a young man who wants to draw closer to the heart of God to take that step and contact Aaron McFarland or Patrick Zalamea.

Help Update 1/1/09

Hey all,

If you have the day off on Friday, hope you'll consider coming over to the building. We will be applying the 2nd coat of the Bonded Sand as well as the Whitish Gray squares in the Theater.

Don't be intimidated, most of the application thus far has been done by non-skilled labor!

I believe we will need help on Saturday as well, I'll send an update as soon as I know...

Need Help...

If any of you are available tomorrow between 8am and 3pm or so please stop by the new Building. We'll literally be throwing stuff on the floor!

In the 2nd - 3rd Grade room (Theater) we'll be throwing down paint chips that will stick in the Epoxy that is being laid on the floor in a checkered pattern.

In the hallways we will be throwing down a custom color blend of sand that will stick to some epoxy as well.

Hope you can make it...we can use as many hands as possible to spread the epoxy and throw down the medium that will stick to it.

We may need help Friday and Saturday as well. I'll let you know here.

Worship thru Service Year in Review

Well men, its been an extremely exciting and busy year for the Worship through Service portion of Calvary SLO's Men's Ministry. We started out the year with a huge sense of God's calling and high expectations of what he can do through us. Let me say God,. as always, did not disappoint!

2008 started with a couple of WtS breakfasts. In the morning we would meet, eat a hearty meal and listen to one of our elders give us an encouraging message from the Lord. Special thanks to James Rey, Sean Brennan, Marc Ammese and Joey Hill for speaking...you all were truly inspiring! Also to thank is Ken Krall...he cooked and tutored the rest of us on how to prepare the perfect breakfast. After breakfast the men broke into groups and went out into the community worshiping God through Serving his people. We were able to build a metal shed, tear out a spa, landscape, pain, provide oil changes and car washes. It was so amazing to see each family so grateful for our church body helping them with the things they could not do on their own. All the glory goes to God!

Just as exciting, the WtS ministry was also able to participate in the local Habitat for Humanity project in Atascadero. In case you were unaware, our church partnered with H4H to finance and construct 4 new homes off Traffic Way in north county. As anyone who came with us can tell you we were worked extremely hard. We went through over 8 palates of pavers to finish construction of the driveway. The sweat and grit payed off immeasurably when we attended the home dedication in December. The 4 chosen families were prayed for, given bibles and finally cut the ribbon on their brand new homes! It was indescribable to see God work through a community to help out those who need our help the most.

As we head into the new year we are looking for the Lord's leading as to where he would like to take this ministry. It is obvious that the Calvary SLO church body is passionate about worshiping our creator through the service of his people. We find our calling in I John 3:16-20:

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Please keep our ministry in mind when you or others you may know might need assistance. It is not only our calling but our passion to display Christ's sacrifice by helping others.

Happy New Year!

Big Buddies Christmas

Christmas is around the corner and we thought one way we can celebrate and show the love of Jesus is to bless the families that participate in the Big Buddies program. The Big Buddies program matches people from our church with "at-risk children in single-parent homes who need a positive adult role-model in their life." We would like to provide needed services to these families (such as yard work or fix a household item that's broken) or bless them with a meaningful gift (such as a gift certificate to Boomer's so they can go have fun as a family). We are currently asking the families what needs they have, so more information is sure to follow. If you'd like to sign-up to help or have any questions, please email Christion at crichert02@gmail.com. Thanks!

PS: The idea for this was partially inspired by the Advent Conspiracy. Here's one of their promo videos:

A FoM Victory ... of sorts

You know when the Raiders or 49ers have a bye week it's celebrated as a huge victory, because, well, they can't lose. Cause they didn't play. Well tonight the FoM Softball team got themselves a Bay Area Victory!! Our game was rained out. The troops had rallied, we'd a team ready to take the field and 2 hours before the game was to start I got a call saying they were calling the game on account of rain.

So to you FoM Softball players I say, good job and well done. There is hope of a make up game scheduled so stay tuned. The excitement is palpable.

FoM Softball Team Wins 29-6

You heard it here first folks. The interesting thing is the team sent Coach AMac (Aaron McFarland) to the minors in Guatemala...and then they won! Addition from subtraction? j/k

Great job men! Greg or David can you comment on who was playing last night so we can congratulate them? And also any anecdotes you'd like to share.

MENtoring Lunch @ Buona Tavola

Earlier this year, we met at Buona Tavola for breakfast, then helped some people out in the community for Worship thru Service (WtS). The owner, Antonio, goes to CalvarySLO and hosted us to a beautiful breakfast that was second to none!

He's blessing us again! Nov. 8th, at 12pm he will open his doors just for us men, for a MENtoring lunch. He sent me the menu and I'm so bummed, because I'm have motorcycle safety training, towards my motorcycle license, that day at 1pm in Santa Maria. Oh if only we could be in two places at the same time...because he just sent me the menu and it ROCKS!

Buffet

Insalata Mista: a mix of organic baby lettuce, tomato roma, red and yellow bell peppers in a balsalmic vinagrette topped with fresh goat cheese

Penne al Pomodoro e Basilico: a short tube pasta with tomato sauce and basil

Scaloppe alla Milanese: a center cut bonelss pork loin chop lightly breaded pan seared with organic sage

Erbetta Parma: a baked swiss chard with parmasan cheese and garlic

Frutta di Stagione: a basket of seasonal fruit

Tiramisu: (to me needs no definition) a classic northern Italian dessert with lady fingers dipped in espresso coffee, mascarone cream cheese, topped with shaved chocolate

Water, ice tea, and sodas will also be served.

I would give one of you my left kidney for a doggie bag!

When: Saturday Nov. 8th @ 12pm

Where: Buona Tavola

How Much: $15 (With plenty of scholarships available, Aaron M. and Austin will be doing sign ups soon so let them know)

We'll have an elder speaking and some worship, then finish up with some MENtor/MENtee fun and details. We'd love it if everyone that came was signed up for the MENtoring deal, but everyone is welcome to the Lunch part.

BTW we could really use some MENtors...so sign up on Sunday or e-mail Aaron M. at aaronmcfarland@hotmail.com.