Help from Many Places

Over the past 6 months, our church has received help from many places to help with fire recovery:

• Santa Cruz Convergence
• Trinity Church
• Hope Church
• Twin Lakes
• Los Gatos Presbyterian
• Christian Drama School of New Jersey
• Kentucky Quilters
• Hope Lutheran Church quilters from  San Mateo, California
• CLC - Christian Life Center on Mission Street
• San Jose Presbyterian
• World Hope International
• Santa Cruz Foundation
• Arizona truck of household items from past church member 

Direct funds provided by San Jose Presbyterian have been distributed to members of our church.  World Hope provided fans to help with smoke mitigation. Meals provided by Santa Cruz Convergence Church were distributed to our community members when we were repopulating.  They also provided hand sewn Christmas stockings with $100 "downtown dollars" which we delivered to 100 people in our community who lost their homes, a value of over $10,000.   We also distributed $100 gift cards from our church to people who had immediate needs over Christmas. Money from the Higher Grounds donation jar funded Christmas trees and wreaths for people.  Twin Lakes gift card purchased clothing and food for members of our church who lost their home.  

Hope Church purchased the canopy at church and tools for people who lost their home.  We distributed emergency radios that were purchased with funds donated to the Santa Cruz Foundation.  We purchased the backup Yeti batteries to power our wifi when power is out using the Los Gatos Presbyterian funds.  

Moving forward, we have a few choices of how to spend the remaining funds we have received for disaster recovery and relief.  We have about $8000 in funding, 50% of it was specifically targeted to support capital expenses associated with the out reach, 25% is to be spent where most needed.   

It is our choice to use about 50% of the funds to give directly to fire survivors or to invest it on improving the services we offer at the church for our community who is facing challenges of limited power, water and communication resources.    When investing in improving services, we have two proposals:  

1) to invest in backup solar power estimated to cost about $20,000 which requires us to raise another $12,000 

2) to invest enabling us to utilize the coffee cart we received this Fall.  

The session has approved moving forward to keep the coffee cart; they haven't had a chance to discuss the possibility of having solar backup power.  There is confusion about whether we share a shed or there is a dedicated shed for Higher Grounds.

Currently, we are planning to purchase a shed with a roll-up door to house the coffee cart that we have been given to use by Sebastian of Great Infusion to use over the next two years or more.  That shed will require a level foundation and electrical power.  We estimate it will cost approximately $6,000.  Our plans are to reach out to Hope Church with a proposal to complete this work as well as to use the remaining funds we have received from Los Gatos Presbyterian, Trinity Church and New Jersey Theatre Group to fund this investment.  We have received approximately $8,000 in funds between these three organizations.

Our Church as a Resource

Our church has long been a resource for the community.  It housed the preschool for a time and was once once where people came to vote.  Since Higher Grounds installed the DSL about 10 years ago with the Wifi router, it has become a resource for people who don't have Internet service at home to access the Internet.  

The use of our church's Wifi Hotspot only increased when several years ago, smartphones like the iPhone added the capability to make cell phone calls over Wifi.  People began coming to our church to make cellphone calls because as most of us know cell phone coverage is sketchy at best up here on the mountain.  This capability is even more significant when we loose power, causing people who have Comcast to loose their Internet.  Even people who still have land lines, loose the ability to make phone calls when they've converted their traditional phones to wireless handsets.

Since the fire, Todd, one of our neighbors, invested in repairing our water tank to enable our church to be a backup resource for water to fill up 5 gallon jugs to take home to use for cooking or even to flush their toilets.

During the fire evacuation our church was offered a Tesla power wall to provide a charging station and essential resources to our community while we were out of power.    This has opened our eyes to the how our church has an opportunity to be a backup power resource to our community when we have power outages.  We recently received a quote for installing solar panels and backup power to our community.  Roughly 1/3 of the cost could be covered by grants.

In the meantime, over the past few weeks, we invested in two Yeti 150 lithium batteries to power the DSL router when we have power outages.  It was a great success enabling a half a dozen neighbors to utilize the Wifi Hotspot when their power was out at home.  Unfortunately, this requires someone to be here, charge the battery on their home generator and swap out the battery every 12 hours.   Installing a solar battery power system for our church will enable backup communication without requiring a person to manage it.

There are many other benefits to having solar backup power installed.  Our church could then offer a charging station for small devices to our community as well as Wifi power.  With so many coffee shops closed due to Covid, it is a challenge for people to charge their devices.  Many people are left to sitting in their cars and idling them with their devices plugged in to recharge them for work and school.  Of course some people have offices in town or have friends and family who are willing to allow them to use their systems, but not everyone is so fortunate.  Yes, there are co-working locations, but only people who can afford to pay the premium to become a member are afforded that privilege.

P.G.&E hosted three resource centers during the most recent planned power outage.  One of them was a church.  All three of them are 30 minutes away.  Our community had homed with the many trees that were removed after the fire that we'd have fewer outages.  The past few weeks have proven that we will continue to have outages despite the recent tree removals.

Faith on the Mountain: Spiritual Stories from the Bonny Doon Church

 

We are pleased to announce the completion of our new book: Faith on the Mountain: Spiritual Stories from the Bonny Doon Church.

This is a collection of personal stories written by members of the Bonny Doon Church. In it many of us share our unique spiritual journeys, how we came to believe in God and Jesus, and how He has patiently lead us, taught us, and watched over us in love throughout our lives. Along the way we also share songs and poems written by church members and a history of the Church and its place within our precious Bonny Doon Community.

The idea for this book came to Barbara Gaskell, when she saw a similar book published by another church she attended years ago. She enlisted the help of her special friend, Helen Gibbons, a newly retired science writer and editor with the USGS. Together, the two of them solicited stories from willing church members and in some cases conducted interviews in person and over zoom. After a years work, the book was nearly finished when the CZU fire complex caused Barbara to evacuate to Helen’s house in Mountain View. There the two of them spent part of that anxious time proof reading the final version. It was a delightfully cheerful thing to do during such a scary time.

If you live locally and would like a copy of this book, you can pick one up at the church for free, either during Higher Grounds, or after the Sunday outdoor service. If you live far away, the book is available on Amazon. 

Celebrating MLK Day with Service

MLK Day is Martin Luther King's Day.   MLK Day honors the reverend's legacy of peaceful advocacy encouraging community service through AmeriCorp.   

• Every believer has received grace gifts, so use them to serve one another as faithful stewards of the many-colored tapestry of God's grace. 1 Peter 4:10

Would you like to join arms with our church to service our community?  Our church collects food for food pantries, helps with fire recovery, prays for individual needs and hosts Higher Grounds community house.  Please email bonnydoonchurch@gmail.com if you would like to be of service in the coming year!

Our dear Camp Farthest Out friend, Brent Hample, shared Martin Luther King, jr's  10 commandments for nonviolence with us today on social media.  We hope you will find them encouraging.