Marple Christian Church

Welcoming All as Christ Welcomes Us

Christian Women's Fellowship

CWF
Members of CWF. Top row left to right: The Rev. Janet Moore, Dale Blair, Sharon Margolis, Barbara Ann Floyd, Irene Thompson, Pat Treat, and Emily Treat. Lower row left to right: Janet Settee, Marion Johnson, Becky Johnson, Joanne Birch, and Mary Mallory.

The Christian Women's Fellowship of Marple Christian Church, Broomall, PA, has a benevolent project nearly every month (except July, August, and September). The monthly meetings can take place either in a classroom of the church building or in the home of the hostess of each meeting. All women are invited. Please contact the church to confirm the date and place, and if you need to arrange transportation or directions.

Meetings in September and June begin with a "salad supper" at 6:30 p.m. with the program beginning at 7:30. Meetings from October through May are on the second Wednesday of the month. The morning group's meetings include reports and planning sessions from 10 to 11:30. The business is followed by a 15 minute program and 10-15 minute devotional, ending by 12 a.m. Often we work on a project (projects listed below, by month) instead of having a program. At noon the meeting is followed by lunch (usually a bring-your-own-sandwich lunch with the beverages and a salad or dessert provided by the hostess), and sometimes followed by finishing up a project, which can go until 2 p.m. (participants are free to leave when they need to).

From October through May there is also usually an evening group which meets the same Wednesdays as the morning group. There is neither a business meeting nor meal (therefor no hostess - although often someone brings a dessert) at the evening meetings, but there is a 10-15 minute devotional. This group usually has the same program or project as the morning group. They generally meet from 7:30 to 8:30 or 9:00 p.m., depending on how long the project takes.

Our planned 2010-2011 CWF meetings and projects are:

September - Salad Supper at 6:30 p.m., followed by a meeting or program (contact church for details) and worship. For this program we often invite a guest speaker or group. I Salad Suppers are always held in the Church building.

October - 10:00 a.m. We will finalize plans and preparations for the annual Craft Fair and prepare group craft projects to sell. Click on the red letters to learn more about our annual Craft Fair (a fundraiser). Then click on Photographs. We usually conclude our planning session with a devotional that includes worship highlights from the CWF Retreat. Craft-making to follow either the devotional or the luncheon.

November - The project for this month is to fill Christmas Stockings with toiletries and niceties for Fair Acres, a state-supported home for the elderly in (Granite Run) Delaware County. The Christmas stockings for women are red and are to contain several of the following: Hand lotion, body powder, a toothbrush, toothpaste, hair brush, comb, shampoo, soap, wash cloth, socks, jewelry or playing cards. The green stockings, for men, are to contain shaving lotion in a plastic bottle, tooth brush, tooth paste, comb, shampoo, soap, socks, stocking cap, pen, note book, or playing cards. We will accept donations of either some of these items or money by the Sunday before this meeting (for assembly at the meeting). The rest of the finished stockings will be collected on the last Sunday of November, and taken to Fair Acres in time for their Christmas parties in early December.

December - We fill Ziploc"goodie bags" to take to The Life Center of Delaware County, which is a shelter for the homeless (whose director, we've been told, takes the goody bags to shelters where children are). The business meeting begins at 10:00 a.m., followed by a devotional. We will work on filling the goody bags instead of having a program.

January - We collect money for either baby layette kits or school kits. The money is sent to Church World Service.

February - We make heart pillows for Paoli Hospital (post-surgical pillows sewn in the shape of hearts, to be used for holding against the stitiches when coughing). There is a devotional time, but no program, as we spend that time to work on the pillows both before and, if needed, after the byos luncheon. For the last several years we have made 30 to 40 pillows.

March - Because the need for the heart pillows is so great, we continue making heart pillows in March. Here is a picture of some of the pillows we made in 2008, as they are being displayed here at the foot of the communion table as an offering to the Lord. Each pillow is about 16" wide,

We used to collect items for School Kits in March to send them to Church World Service, but our Children's Group has taken over this good work. Donations accepted in any amount. (Church World Service needs $11 to make each kit, but the kids are putting together the kits themselves to send in March), with the project being organized by the leaders of the 'Youth' Group. Donations can go to our minister, Rev. Janet Moore; the children will do the shopping. Contents of each kit:
• One pair blunt-tip children's scissors
• Pads or notebooks of ruled paper approximately 8 1/2” x 11”, containing 150-200 sheets of paper
• One 30 centimeter ruler (12 inch)
• One pencil sharpener
• Six new pencils with eraser tops
• One large eraser
• Twelve sheets colored construction paper
• One box of 24 crayons
• One canvas cloth bag, approximately 12” x 14”, with cloth handles (A.C. Moore)
(Instructions from CWS to us: Pack these items in the canvas cloth bag, fold the top over, and secure with two large rubber bands. Processing/shipping: $1.00 You can also provide School Kits by donating $11.00 per Kit.)
http://www.weekofcompassion.org/pages/resources/giftsoftheheartkits.html

April - Health Kits for The Life Center (for the homeless of Delaware County) located on Market Street in Upper Darby Township (by Cobb's Creek).

Contents of a Health Kit for The Life Center of Delaware Count listed below. Donations of individual items or cash can be gven to Sharon or Dale (or to Reverend Janet Moore if neither ladies are around). In 2008, we gave them 41 towels, among other items listed here.

• Toothpaste (still in an unopened box)
• Toothbrush (still in its plastic container)
• Nail Clippers
• Emory Boards
• Soap (still in box)
• Washcloth
• Powder

• Lotion
• Shampoo
• Comb
• Pen
• Shaving Cream
• Shavers
• After Shave

May - Blankets for Church World Service, for the homeless and refugees around the world. (Among thousands of others, blankets were given to both the Tsunami survivors and the Katrina survivors.) Donations, given in increments of five dollars for each blanket, may be made 'in honor of' or 'in memorial to' a special woman or women in the donor's life, such as one's mother. The project is organized by Marion Johnson.

June - Tools For Hope for Church World Service, for providing tools for people to take care of themselves. Donations for Church World Service are given in increments of $5. Donations may be made 'in honor of' or 'in memorial to' a special man or men, such as one's father and/or a special teacher, and given to Marion Johnson. This meeting will be held in the church building, beginning with a Pot-luck Salad Supper, at 6:30 p.m., with the program from 7:30 to 9:00 or 9:30 p.m.

September - This meeting will be held at the Marple Christian Church building. Beginning with a Pot-luck Salad Supper in the Fellowship Hall at 6:30 p.m.

Other On-going Projects - At any time during the year, our CWF collects Campbells' Soup labels for The Cleveland Home for Children. We are also collecting the blue receipts from Acme. Also, we continue to collect unusual used stamps to 'stamp' out hunger. ('unusual' like commemorative stamps made for special occasions) These may be turned in to Marion Johnson, Barbara Ann Floyd (President) or Pat Treat (Secretary).

Other occasional projects that the Christian Women's Fellowship participates in from time to time are: baby gifts to Head Start (given to Faye Tyler of Fellowship Christian Church); layettes for Church World Service; Christmas stockings for Melmark; Christmas presents sent to the children of The Cleveland Home; gift certificates to McDonalds fast food restaurants; panties and socks given to the Life Center Shelter for girls and women, and Ronald McDonald House fundraisers.

__________________________

These CWF projects shown here are above and beyond either the projects done by our Church as a whole, like the offerings and gifts for the "Christmas Family" (a Delaware County family) and the congregational money sent to the Disciples headquarters for dispersing aid to groups in need in this country and around the world (like to Hurricane Katrina victims), or the projects done by the Care Groups from time to time like house-painting or leaf raking, the Welcome Baskets, and preparing and serving food at The Life Center in cooperation with the Beverly Hills Presbyterian Church of Upper Darby.

For more information on any of the above, please call Reverend Moore at the Church at 610-356-6186 or contact us by email . If you haven't already, please check out our church website.

For information and pictures about the annual retreat, DWM board cabinet, the Interregional DWM, national DWM <http://www.discipleswomen.org>, and International DWM, please click on the red words in the box below. On the local level we have retained the name CWF, but on the Regional and broader levels, the name has been changed from Christian Women's Fellowship (CWF) to Disciples Women's Ministries (DWM) to better indicate the purpose of this charitable organization.

This Spring, on May 1st, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., will be the Disciple Women's Ministries in PA "Spring Event", for the women of the Eastern half of the state/region. It will be held at the First Christian Church in Leymoyne, PA: gps address 442 Hummel Avenue, Lemoyne, PA 17043. The cost is $10.00 which will include lunch & a special take-and-tell item. Women are invited to bring their money from their gratitude boxes as a donation, and items for the Health Kits we will be assembling. See the box above that lists those items. (The Spring One-Day Event for the Western half of the Region, closer to Pittsburgh, will be April 24th in Coal Center, PA.)

This summer, from June 25-27, 2010, is the international gathering of Disciples Women for several days together for study and worship (an international 'retreat') called the Quadrennial (because it happens every fourth year). Go to <http://www.quadrennial.org> for all the details.

Some of our members, left to right: Emily Treat, Debra Mixon, Janet Settee, Teresa Albers, Dale Blair, Joanne Birch, Pat Treat, Barbara Ann Floyd, Rev. Janet Moore, Joyce Doup.

This page last updated March 23, 2010.

Regional CWF | Interregional CWF
Disciples Women's Ministries | International Disciples Women's Ministries
CWF Retreat

Marple Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Broomall PA 19008
www.MarpleChristian.org

Tuesday, March 23, 2010