Resource Directory ads and updates due
Habitat-Spokane’s Blitz Build is June 1-15
Faith Advocacy Network plans summits - May 19
Professor speaks on ‘Misquoting Jesus’ - May 23
Group shows PBS film on Native American reconciliation group in Northeastern Washington- June 1
Leadership Prayer Breakfast is on May 2
Gonzaga students raise funds for Zambia - May 2
Tribe and HREI open exhibit on the tribe - May - Dec, 2013
Dominican offers some corrections
Resource Directory ads and updates due
Progress is underway on making updates to, building support for and selling advertising to underwrite the costs of producing the 2013-14 Resource Directory: Guide to Congregations and Community Resources.
Malcolm Haworth, directory editor, and Kaye Hult, editorial assistant, are making the updates to copy for publication and data records.
“We are halfway towards reaching the budget goal we need to reach for advertising support for the publication,” said Mary Stamp, The Fig Tree editor. “We continue to contact previous advertisers and seek new ones.”
The Fig Tree simultaneously is also selling advertising to support the new Elder Refugee Resource Directory, a smaller publication of resources for senior elders who speak Russian, Arabic, Karen, Chin or Nepali.
The plan is to publish that during May and to publish the Resource Directory in June, with distribution in July.
Malcolm encourages people to continue to email, mail and call to report corrections, add new agencies and advertise.
Again this year, The Fig Tree will print 10,000 copies, so if people need more copies than they have had, it’s important for them to order the copies. There has been more demand for the 2012-13 directory than copies available. More copies are sold at the Community Colleges of Spokane bookstores.
For information, call 535-1813.
Habitat-Spokane’s Blitz Build is June 1-15
From June 1 through 15, Habitat for Humanity Spokane’s Blitz Build 2013 plans to complete construction on and dedicate four homes in Deer Park.
Families that receive new homes through this program must complete 500 hours of volunteerism, which Habitat-Spokane calls “sweat equity.” Candidate families must also help build their own homes and provide closing costs for no-interest mortgages.
Thousands of volunteers work side by side with candidate families to build simple, decent, affordable homes. The “hand up, not a hand out” model offers families a homeownership opportunity, hope and a sense of community.
Habitat for Humanity-Spokane has been building in Spokane County since 1987 and completed its first homes in Deer Park last year.
Individuals, nonprofits, congregations and businesses may partner with Habitat for Humanity-Spokane during Blitz Build 2013 or at any other time.
For information, call 534-2552 or visit www.habitat-spokane.org.
Faith Advocacy Network plans summits
The Faith Action Network (FAN) of Washington will hold a Spokane Spring Summit from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., Sunday, May 19, at All Saints Lutheran Church, 314 S. Spruce, to review actions in the 2013 session of the Washington State Legislature and draw out concerns for the future.
FAN’s Spring Summit in Yakima will be from 4 to 6 p.m., Sunday, June 9, at Wesley United Methodist Church.
The summits are opportunities to talk about issues, explore best practices and develop advocacy plans for 2013 and 2014 in order to continue in the commitment to create change, said FAN co-director the Rev. Paul Benz.
FAN and its network of interfaith communities continue to urge lawmakers to raise new revenue and protect Washington’s families in need, he said.
A record number—400 people—participated in the Feb. 20 Interfaith Advocacy Day in Olympia.
For information, call 206-625-9790 or visit fanwa.org.
Professor speaks on ‘Misquoting Jesus’
Bart Ehrman, professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will speak on “Misquoting Jesus,” which is the title of his bestselling book. The program is at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 23, at The Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, 1001 W. Sprague.
He has written three other bestselling books, God’s Problem, Jesus, Interrupted and Forged.
He has published in the fields of New Testament and early Christianity.
A graduate of Wheaton College, Bart earned his master’s of divinity degree and his doctoral degree at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey. He came to his current position in 1988.
Eastern Washington University and the Daniel and Margaret Carper Foundation are co-sponsoring the lecture
For information, call 359-4860, email bchamberlain@ewu.edu or visit www.bartdehrman.com.
Group shows PBS film on Native American reconciliation group in Northeastern Washington
One Peace, Many Paths will show “Two Rivers,” a PBS documentary on a Native American reconciliation group that began in a couple’s home in Northeast Washington. The film will be presented at 3 p.m., Saturday, June 1, at the South Hill Library, 3324 S. Perry.
Two principals in it, John and Geri Grosvenor, will lead a discussion after the film. John is a Cherokee Nazarene minister adept at moving between the worlds of Native and European Americans. He and his wife, Geri, live on the Colville reservation in Nespelem.
Over five years, more people joined the group and launched several social and political reconciliation initiatives that changed their community, as well as race relations across the Northwest.
Although there have been other attempts at Native American and European American reconciliation, most failed to produce lasting change, said Joan Broeckling of One Peace Many Paths.
“Two Rivers” appeals to anyone who may want to learn more effective means for connecting and healing their wounds. The documentary teaches aspects of American history that are becoming unfamiliar to Native American youth and are unknown to most European Americans, she said.
It tells how people from different worlds have created lasting friendships by being willing to adopt an open attitude, experiment with new ways of connecting, and learn to speak, listen and act from their hearts.
For information, call 536-2811.
Leadership Prayer Breakfast is on May 2
Bob Goff, bestselling author of Love Does, is the featured speaker for the 52nd Annual Spokane Leadership Prayer Breakfast at 7 a.m., Thursday, May 2, at the Doubletree by Hilton, Spokane City Center.
An attorney, Bob founded Restore International, a nonprofit human rights organization operating in Uganda and India to bring to trial more than 200 cases, including those of children in jail without trial and girls forced into sex slavery. He befriends leaders around the world, inviting them to his home in San Diego.
Rodney McAuley, prayer breakfast board chair, said Bob tells stories to empower people, inspiring leaders to meet people in need, because he believes love can “do” great things.
The Leadership Prayer Breakfast is a forum to invoke God’s blessing, guidance and strength on elected and appointed leaders. For information, call 952-8003 or email mcauley@spokaneyfc.org.
Gonzaga students raise funds for Zambia
Gonzaga University seniors Max Baer, Jordan Madrid and Joe Worthey have started the Hope for Zambezi (HFZ) campaign to raise $25,000 at a benefit at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, May 2, at the Spokane Community Building, 35 W. Main.
HFZ seeks to help people in Zambezi, Zambia, who have access to the medication for HIV/AIDS, but die because they lack food to take it with. With help from former Washington State Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, former Washington State Senator Erik Paulsen, and the Smith-Barbieri Foundation, HFZ raised more than 75 percent of their goal before the benefit.
Erik will take proceeds to a nonprofit Zambezi support group called NZP+ (Number of Zambians Living Positively with HIV/AIDS). The funds will provide short-term sustenance and build a long-term, sustainable food bank and a chicken coop to help meet nutritional needs and provide a lasting source of income.
Alex Kalukangu, director and district coordinator for NZP+, is speaking at the Spokane event. For information, call 503-545-2562 or visit www.hopeforzambezi.org.
Tribe and HREI open exhibit on the tribe
The Coeur d’Alene Tribe and the Human Rights Education Institute in Coeur d’Alene opened an exhibit on “One World, Many Cultures,” open through December from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays, at 414 W. Mullan in Coeur d’Alene.
“Schitsu’umsh Country” focuses on the heritage, contemporary life and future of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and American Indian peoples. HREI and the tribe will offer workshops.
For information, call 208-292-2359 or visit www.hrei.org.
Dominican offers some corrections
Sr. Sharon Stangler, OPI, of the Spokane Dominican Sisters, has submitted corrections to some of the historical information in an article in the February 2013 Fig Tree about Inga Jablonsky and her books on the German Dominican Sisters.
The following are corrections of errors—noted in italics:
• Eleven sisters came in 1925 in response to an invitation by Bishop Carroll to take charge of domestic needs and affairs at—not run—Carroll College in Helena, Mont.
• Doctors in Conrad, Mont., invited sisters in 1929 to manage—they did not build—a small hospital there.
• In 1934, they purchased a closed boarding school for Indian girls—not an old mission—in Kettle Falls from Jesuit fathers.
• Sisters assisted Jesuit priests to staff—they did not run—a small boarding school for Indian children in Omak.
• From 1925 to 1937, 71—not 76—sisters came from Germany.
• Sisters sold Our Lady of the Valley Convent in Kettle Falls in 1969—it did not dissolve in 1965—and moved to the new motherhouse on Fort Wright Dr. in West Spokane.
• By the 1960s, 75—not 69—Americans had entered the Dominican convent.
• When the Dominican Center closed, some—not all—sisters moved to the motherhouse in Sinsinawa, Wis., and some stayed in Spokane and Chewelah where they continue to minister.
• Sister Antonia Stare was the third—not first—American woman to join the Dominicans.
For information, call 720-9308.
Published by The Fig Tree, 1323 S. Perry St., Spokane, WA 99202
