Flooding in Hudson River Presbytery

Hello Friends,

I wanted you to be aware of the following press release, which I received from the Synod. It involves one of our own, Nancy Asbury. Please keep her and the entire region in your prayers.

Pat

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Roscoe, New York, in Hudson River Presbytery, experienced significant flash flooding earlier this week after a storm dumped 8" of rain in two hours last Tuesday night. It was reported that least two lives had been lost, a search for mission persons had begun, and people have been displaced - this on top of last summer's flooding in this Catskill area.

Acting on the report from HR's Congregations Connections Specialist, Rev. Chris Shelton, Executive Presbyter Susan Andrews requested a $10,000 grant from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, which has been authorized. Additionally, PDA offered assistance from PDA-trained volunteers. The Red Cross is on the ground and active.

The Rev. Nancy Asbury, who is the pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Roscoe (who is being installed this weekend!) was interviewed by the local cable news channel following the flooding. She advised that the Presbyterian Church will serve as a place where people can come for help. They have already received donations of clothes. A recovery center was being established in Monticello, but that pastor was afraid that people would not be able to travel there due to washed out roads and cars destroyed by the flooding. Nancy is hoping to set up a more local distribution center. We ask you to keep the people of Roscoe and all river communities, the church and pastor, in your prayers. We will make information available as we receive it about ways other presbyteries and congregations may be helpful to the recovery effort.

Shameless self-promotion

I decided that I am taking 2 whole weeks off this summer, back to back in July, and it can't be here soon enough. Week 1 - -home in SC at the beach eating shrimp. Week 2 - participating in t he Anchor House Ride for runaways. It's a week long ride (500 miles!) to raise funds for a local agency that helps teens - -especially runaways. I'm not riding, but serving as support staff (I keep the beer cold in the water coolers!).

I was going to post my fundraising letter here, because I am looking for suport, but wasn't sure it was in the proper spirit of the blog. So, instead, I am going to shamelessly promote that I knew I needed a break and have taken 2 weeks off. If you want more details, send me an e-mail and I'll get them to you. if you want shrimp, come with me to the lowcountry of SC. We have room!

And for another question -- anyone want to try to take a fieldtrip this summer? NY is probably the easiest for all of us to get to for a day trip, but I'm open to suggestions.

Julie