A new ministry in 2018 for Good Shepherd UCC in Sahuarita involves preparing 75 lunches monthly for the Crossroads Nogales Mission. The Mission provides holiday meals, domestic violence programs, substance recovery programs, and a clothing program in addition to daily meals.

And speaking of The Good Shepherd, the Sahuarita Food Bank, which they sponsor and support, is growing in its outreach, serving 27% more families this year than last. They bought a new truck, increased their relationships with the Community Food Bank of Southern AZ and Safeway, and recently hired a new executive director to manage its operations and 150 volunteers.

We are happy to start receiving the newsletter from United Church of Santa Fe. A couple interesting items from their June issue:

For the fifth year, United will host a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice each Sunday of the summer opera season.
On June 3rd at 9:45, they will host a forum by representatives from the Santa Fe Fire Department, the Dept. of Homeland Security, and other emergency management agencies to discuss “How to ready yourself and your home for the upcoming fire season."

What are some of your Vacation Bible School themes?

Desert Palm has the “Rolling River Rampage”
Church of the Painted Hills will enjoy “Rome”
Casas Adobes will be "By the Waters of Babylon"
Church of the Red Rocks is "Shipwrecked, Rescued by Jesus"

The art departments of Sunnyslope and Washington High Schools will exhibit both student and teacher artwork in the narthex of Church of the Beatitudes through the summer.

First Church Phoenix serves a meal most Sunday evenings and on May 27th, they also had an agency, Shear Outreach, offering free haircuts!

Shadow Rock UCC is giving us notice of a rally planned on June 17th at 6 PM to protest our broken immigration system. Attendees will start at Central United Methodist Church and move to the ICE office.

Church of the Painted Hills in Tucson will meet, hear, and vote on a pastoral candidate on June 10th. Pray for wisdom as the Church takes this important step.

Scottsdale UCC is serving dinner for Rebel and Divine on June 10th....meatloaf, mashed potatoes and watermelon. Sounds pretty good!

Landscapers at Church of the Red Rocks are creating defensible space around the church for wildfire safety prevention.

Many of you work with Family Promise at your churches. Here are some recent stats from the Phx chapter for 2017:

bed nights, 13,980
108 families and 397 individuals served
37 hosting congregations
5800 volunteers
135 family pets rescued
75% of families find employment within 30 days