Watershed at Palisades St Park

This Thursday, June 26th we will be having our Watershed gathering outside at Palisades-Kepler St Park. Feel free to come anytime after 6pm for food and fellowship and a chance to enjoy the great outdoors. There are grills at the park, but you will need to bring your own food/drink. Also feel free to bring a frisbee or a ball to kick or throw around. We will start a time of worship at 7:30. We will also have a fire and smores afterwards so plan to stick around. If you came out to Palisades last year, you'll remember how much fun it was. You don't want to miss out!

Here is a map showing how to get to the park, which is off US 30 going east toward Mt Vernon. Here is a map of the park. We have reserved Shelter #1. 

Helping Mission of Hope Flood Relief Center

We as the Watershed community have the opportunity to come alongside and help the Mission of Hope organization as they minister to the flood victims in the area. They have opened their doors as a relief center. We will be collecting food and supply donations at our Watershed gatherings for the next several weeks (see list below).

They can use our help in several different ways:

Prayer. Pray not only for the people affected by the flood, but also for the staff serving them...that they may remain able and faithful servants to our King

Food. They/we will be serving at least two meals per day (currently planning on lunch and dinner), and also are giving a bag of non-perishable food items away.

Supplies.

Biggest Needs:

• men's underwear
• men's clothing, esp larger sizes
• white socks
• jeans
• shorts
• toilet paper
• paper towels
• towels

Other Needs:

• clothing
• toiletries/hygeine products
• cleaning supplie

Time. They will need volunteers to work in the kitchen, food pantry, provide transport, sort and distribute clothing, provide prayer and counseling, answer phones, make calls/recruit, etc. A special need right now is nightly cleanup from 9pm - midnight.

To sign up to volunteer, call Cathy or Pastor Ron at New Beginnings Church Monday through Friday from 8 am to 4:30 pm at (319)294-5393, or email at newbeginningschurch2002@hotmail.com

July's Park - Bever Park

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have updated the Summer Schedule to reflect that we now have a park reserved for the 4th Thursday in July. We'll be gathering at Bever Park in the Bever Pavilion.

Also, we are investigating whether the floods have caused problems at Palisades Kepler State Park where we are scheduled to gather on June 26th. Be watching this blog for updated information. As of right now, we are planning on still going to Palisades.

Saturday Serving Project Update

As you may have guessed, the rain and flooding has forced us to cancel the painting project schedule for this Saturday. However, we are planning to do flood relief work instead, so we will still meet at Maranatha at 8:30 am. We will have details for you then. Since circumstances are changing rapidly it is hard to plan very far in advance.

If you are unable to make it to Maranatha tomorrow morning but are still interested in meeting us somewhere to help, or if you have any other questions, please give John a call @ 319.431.0083.

Serving those affected by flooding

I'm at work downtown, and we're putting our disaster recovery plan into action with some temporary work locations. And for people that just work downtown, that's fine.

But people who live near downtown, or in other areas affected by the flooding river, need help. Serve the City has a page dedicated to emergency flood assistance. I think they are coordinating with Linn County Emergency Management. It sounds like the needs are constantly changing, so check the emergency flood assistance page and call in.

Also, check Erin's post below or the various news outlets (KCRG, Gazette, etc) for more ways to serve.

Another serving opportunity - Sandbagging

Since this is a "serving" week in the summer schedule, this seems appropriate to post...

Want to help your community and neighbors?  Make sandbags!  They are doing them 24 hrs. a day all week.  For more info (like where to go), see to KCRG's website.

No Watershed on Thurs (June 12), Service Project on Sat (June 14)

We will not be gathering this Thursday (June 12th) but will be having a service project on Saturday the 14th instead. We will meet at Maranatha Bible Church at 8:30am to receive instructions and then drive to our location, and work til 4pm.

We are partnering with an organization called Brighten and several area churches to help paint and repair the outside of several homes in the Wellington Heights neighborhood. We will specifically be scraping and painting the 2nd story of one home. We will be working on ladders and scaffolding, but for those who aren't a big fan of heights, we will have work on lower levels for you as well. All you need to bring is some old clothes that you don't mind getting dirty and stained with paint. All the other stuff we need will be supplied to us. I've been told the old paint we are scraping off is lead-based, so I will provide some face masks for us to use.

We hope to see as many of you out there as possible, so please consider serving the people in our community alongside other young adults.