Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Wake Up To Poverty, July 31st

Nobel Peace Prize nominee and 2007 Kenyan presidential candidate Wahu Kaara will speak on global poverty and social transformation on July 31, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at 26W325 Torrey Pines Court in Winfield, IL.  

Her talk is part of an evening called “Wake Up to Poverty” and will be followed by a concert from Psalters, an experimental folk rock group influenced by the music born out of generations of cultures that have struggled with oppression.

Kaara, the founding coordinator of the Kenya Debt Relief Network, is also the Ecumenical Coordinator for the Millennium Development Goals in Kenya at the All Africa Conference of Churches.  

With Brazilian President Luis InĂ¡cio Lula da Silva, Kaara launched the Global Call to Action against Poverty in Brazil in 2005, which has grown into the world's largest anti-poverty movement.  Its organizations together represent more than 150 million people globally, with campaign actions in more than 80 countries.

“Wake Up to Poverty” is sponsored by Adventrek, a not-for-profit organization, created to foster individual and community transformation through social justice events and educational service trips.  Adventrek affirms, in the words of Wahu Kaara that, “It is obvious that we as a civilization are at a critical juncture that calls upon us to rethink our destiny. This is not a small task and will not be accomplished overnight. But its mere admission calls for us to dialogue.”  On July 31, 2006, all are invited to share in this ongoing dialogue and will be encouraged to wake up to poverty.

For more information, please contact Brian Socall at 630.668.4564 or email brian@adventrek.org.

Emerging Women East Coast Gathering



You are invited to the Table!!!

Emerging Women's Voices
An East Coast Gathering 2006

October 1 - 3
Virginia Beach, VA

I'm advertising this on my wife's behalf (she's one of the organizers). The ladies will be staying and meeting at the Sandcastle Oceanfront Resort in Virginia Beach.

The theme will be "A Seat At the Table" and will offer many 'table gatherings' (sessions) to choose from as well as plenty of time to enjoy our beautiful surroundings. The goal of this gathering is to facilitate discussions that are directly related to women, encouraging them to boldly emerge as leaders in this 21st Century. The conversations are inclusive of a diversity of leadership styles and opportunities. The sessions will enable all women to have a voice at the table to dialogue, to learn and to advance their journeys of Christian spiritual formation.

The registration fee is nominal and 'scholarships' will be available to those in financial need. Lodging, transportation and meals are not included.

Registration and more information are available here.

All women are invited to join us at this table, and are encouraged to invite others as well. Please spread the news of this event to any women you know interested in the emerging church conversation.

Emerging Women look forward to sharing a place at the Table with you!

If you have any additional questions please contact:

Julie - emergingwomen@gmail.com
Sherri - sherace@aol.com
Liz - mizliz00725@hotmail.com

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Special Guest at up/rooted

If you didn't hear the news yet, up/rooted will be visited this month by Wahu Kaara, a current Kenyan presidential candidate and 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her work fighting global poverty. The Psalters will also be joining us to grace us with their musical talents. You will not want to miss this unique opportunity as Ms. Kaara challenges us to "Wake Up to Poverty".

The gathering will be on Monday, July 31st, at 7pm. We are meeting at the Socall home at 26W325 Torrey Pines Ct., Winfield, IL 60190.

I hope you all can make it. And please, spread the word. The Socall's home can hold dozens of people, so invite your friends and neighbors to this if you like. And if you've never been to up/rooted before - or especially if you've just heard about us through the recent CBS segment on the emerging church - this would be an excellent first time to join us and get to know our community a little bit.

Blessings,

Mike Clawson
up/rooted co-coordinator


P.S. If you need a ride, please let me know. We can arrange transportation from any of the local Metra stations or other locations (given enough advanced warning). We don't want anyone to miss this for lack of transportation.

Friday, July 14, 2006

We were on the News!

In case some of you missed it, Channel 2, the local Chicagoland CBS affiliate had a piece this past Monday on the emerging church. Geoff Holsclaw, Dave Fitch, my wife Julie and myself were all interviewed for it and made it into a few brief clips. They also interviewed Scot McKnight up at North Park University and several people from Chicagoland Community Church, an emerging church down in the city that hasn't made the connection to us in up/rooted (yet).

The whole piece was pretty good, though very short and not very detailed. You can read the transcript or see a video of it at the website. They've also included some links to up/rooted and to the others involved in the segment. At any rate, I'm glad for the attention to the emerging church, and I hope it will potentially lead to more people finding out about the movement who were perhaps on the verge of giving up on traditional Christianity.