I'm asked frequently "what can I do to help".  Right now the two most important aides we need are money and more money!  Who doesn't? However, in this case, volunteers can take concrete steps to help us access money which is out there for the giving.  First, several grant timelines are right in front of us.  Grant-writing can frighten away the untrained, yet there is a "think-tank" function for the organization which precedes the actual writing of each grant.  Organizations that give grants are looking for grantees whose expected outcomes will further the grantor's mission. A small task group of volunteers can work on imaging and articulating these connections.  In fact, these volunteers can work via telephone, email, or even on-line capacities to generate this important info to pass on to our grant writers.  Second, we are looking for an individual or two who will take on the task of designing and hosting a fund-raising event for OASIS of NWA and Women's Work. Think about it: we only need $10,000 to put one or two homeless women and children in a leased property for a year, including furnishings and utilities!  $10,000 is our guarentee of the annual lease; whatever the woman (women) are able to pay toward the lease reduces our commitment.  Create your own "matching grant" opportunity.  Set an amount to donate - $100, $500, $1000 (any amount) and recruit ten friends to do the same.  In fact, I'll challenge you to match the giving of others right now.   So far this year, we've received individual donations of $100 and $50.  Choose either one - and match it!  The OASIS of NWA coffers will climb rapidy if you do.  Watch for the results here!
in faith, Cathy

PS I have some other slightly more labor-intensive ideas, too!

"Sitting in circle"...it's what women do to heal from our emotional and spiritual wounds!  Inwardly, I already knew this reality.  I had experienced it before, numerous times, in a variety of settings.  On Saturday morning with Becca and Gwen, we remembered a truth known by sisters throughout the ages. 

We asked our guests from Magadalene and Thistle Farms to help us experience what they do that makes their community work.  They instructed us to circle up around the cloverleaf arrangement of three tables we had assembled in the back of Becker Hall (First UMC Bella Vista).  Becca lit a Thistle Farms candle to release its lavender aroma into the circle.  She read aloud the chapter in Find Your Way Home based on the principle "Think of the stranger as God."  A silent response ensued, then one by one women began to speak.  A reaction, a quick story, an experience, even a poem.  Right there, as we sat in circle, one of the women wrote a poem which she shared!  Awesome, incredible, fascinating, amazingly healing...words don't express what we experienced there.

After a break, Becca and Gwen answered our practical questions about planning for and financing what we learned is now called a "Women's Enterprise". Everything the community does follows the daily routine of the Benedictine Community of old who came together daily for meditation, followed by a period for work, then back to meditation. So we're going to start out with meeting weekly to ""Sit in circle" together.  It's a beginning. And circles have no end.

in faith, Cathy