Goodmorning Shalom Friends!  

I can hardly believe we are approaching Labor Day weekend already.  Where has our summer gone?  

As I look back on our summer and all its activities I am so encouraged by what I see happening in our midst.  

Friendship Shalom Community

Friendship Shalom has had great success with their tutoring program which involves 4 other churches and 2 other denominations.  They reached approximately 30 children and helped them be more successful in their futures by helping them improve their reading skills.  How awesome is that!  

Friendship also, has a fantastic Job Search Skills program happening.  They have taught 3 groups of participants to date and have an 80% success rate!  They have also received a Shalom seed grant to get help offset their costs.  On September 22, from 11:00 - 2:00 at Asbury UMC the FSC will be having a Health Fair for the community.  Keep up the great work Friendship Shalom, we are so proud of all you are doing.

(Friendship Shalom Site is lead by Linda Meanor.)

West Side Shalom Community

Last year the West Side Shalom Site did a great job providing an Arts Reach program to Ferguson Elementary School, located on Newberry St.  Due to the budget cuts within the York City school district, art and music were two things that were cut and several area churches (along with the West Side Shalom Site) stepped up to the plate and provided these programs.  Each church group took one week a month.  What an experience for both the kids and the adults to share together!  Thank you all of you in the West Side site!

(Pat Armold has been the key organizer of their work.)

Far East Shalom Community

It has been tough for us in the Far East Side to make those important community connections.  But through doing prayer walking and passing out door hangers for our National Night Out event, we have made connections with some key leaders of the East Side Neighborhood!   We are in the process of planning a neighborhood cleanup this fall and looking forward to improving those connections in the future.  

In the near future it is our plan to meet together with the new Pastors in the city and discuss some next steps. We also want to bring the entire Shalom group back together to discuss where we've been, how we want to move forward, and to hopefully do some retraining since we now have 3 Shalom trainers in our city Shalom group.  

I will be in touch with all of you in the near future, looking forward to the upcoming months with great hope,  anticipation and confidence.

Blessings and shalom,

Pastor Judy Bupp