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EXTREMEJanuary 2009

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PARTNERS IN COMMUNITYVa General Assembly Sen Toddy Puller & Del Scott Surovell with Rev Keary Kincannon & members of Rising Hope

Twenty-five members of Rising Hope, plus two staff

(Pastor Keary Kincannon and Director of Missions Kay

Barnes) traveled to Richmond in February, in a bus kindly

funded by Delegate Scott Surovell. The visit enabled them

to participate in United Methodists' Day at the General

Assembly. Members of the church were able to meet with

Sen. Linda "Toddy" Puller and Del. Scott Surovell (see

picture) to share their concerns about where their faith

connects them with local and regional issues.

Pastor Keary said, "Rising Hope is not about simply serving our community by

providing free services. We provide food, clothing, shelter, & emergency services, but

the whole point is to love people in such a way that they will want to get involved in

extending that love to all corners of our community, especially those most in need,

and that includes making sure our legislators pass bills that include and lift up the

poor and marginalized and not exclude them from society."

Even more reasons to

celebrate this Spring

Celebrationjournal Spring 2012

Photos: (Top) Senator Toddy Puller with Rising Hope members from left, Tony Nash, Jerome Smith, George Thigpen, and Joy Stribling. (Bottom) Many Members of Rising Hope got to tour the Capital and got an on site history lesson.

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Pastor Keary and Kay Barnes joined other faith leaders from

across Virginia to meet with Senator Mark Warner on Capitol Hill

last month at the Senator’s Interfaith Advisory Group. After that

meeting, Keary and Kay also attended a Policy Briefing and

“Questions and Answers” session at the White House Conference

Center, where they heard presentations from Directors and Senior

Advisors from the Office of Public Engagement, the US

Department of Education, the US Department of

Agriculture, the US Department of Housing and Urban

Development, the Corporation for National and Security

Service, National Security Staff, the US Department of

Labor and the Small Business Administration.

Pastor Keary said, “It was a very interesting and hopeful day, and one

that the Senator is hoping will be the first in a series of such meetings.

Senator Warner is a man of faith who is genuinely trying to find ways to

dialogue across the aisle but the current state of politics doesn't allow for

collaboration. He is turning to the faith community to see if we can open up

a dialogue to find common ground on the issues so pressing to our nation.”

STOP THE PRESS“Look who’s bringing some Yorkshire class to Rising Hope”

We welcome Kay Barnes to our staff as our Director of Missions.  Kay comes to us from Yorkshire, England.  She says she has “a passion for Jesus, Justice and our responsibility to love one another.”  She brings to Rising Hope just the right experience to help us grow the ministry. 

After teaching at the High School and college level, she started three non-profit organizations in England, one specifically as the outreach of a local Methodist Church.  Her work has been recognized as a “model of good practice” at the Parliamentary level.  She has worked for two Members of Parliament including the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.  She has served as an advisor to the Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Charities and the Voluntary Sector.   

She is a lifelong Methodist, and is recognized by the British Methodist Church as a Methodist Local Preacher and Worship Leader.  She misses her four grown children and one grandchild but feels called to strengthen the ministry of Rising Hope.  We are blessed to have her here.

“Interfaith Dialogue on Capitol Hill”

Can You Help?The Voting Restoration project has the promised assistance of a team of attorneys, secured by Delegate Surovell, but we need volunteers who will help us to promote and administer the project. Volunteers will have the guidance and support of a project coordinator, with the aim that as many people as possible get the help they need to become fully restored members of our community. If you think you might have a couple of hours here and there to support this great new project, please contact the Director of Missions, Kay Barnes, at 703-360-1976.

A Passion for Justice!Thanks to a Peace with Justice grant from the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Church and Society, Rising Hope will soon be leading a campaign to take advantage of Governor Bob McDonnell's program to restore the civil rights of ex-felons who have served their sentences and fully repaid their debt to society by being law-abiding citizens since release.

Building Bridges of

Hope!

Left to Right Rev. Tuck Bowerfind (St Luke's Episcopal Church, Alexandria), Kay Barnes (Director of Missions, Rising Hope), Rev. Keary Kincannon (Rising Hope) and Dr. Darrell K. White (Bethlehem Baptist Church, Alexandria)

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PASTOR’S PAGE“Divine Inclusion”

In Matthew 25 Jesus blesses the actions of the

righteous who have been feeding the hungry, clothing the

naked, and welcoming the stranger. They, however, are

taken aback with this blessing that asserts they take their

“inheritance, the kingdom prepared for [them] since the

creation of the world” (Mt 25:34). They have not perceived

their actions as anything out of the ordinary when they

visited the prisoner and the sick, or helped anyone in need.

And that is the point. We are all connected. We are one

human family. Whatever we do for even the least of our

brothers and sisters we do for our brother Jesus. Any

loving kindness offered to one is a gift to us all and an

expression of the Gospel love Jesus proclaimed.

A few years ago I wrote an article for the Virginia

Advocate titled, “In the Church There Is No Them, Only Us.”

I was speaking of Rising Hope’s diversity but also of a

Divine inclusiveness that has no room for exclusion. Those

who inherit the Kingdom do so precisely because they

embrace all humanity as one. In God’s Kingdom we are all

equally loved, and commanded to love all, despite of our

sinful shortcomings.

Those “who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared

for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41) suffer the fate of

their own actions and attitudes. Their eternal punishment is

the exclusion they have inflicted upon others. They have

reaped what they have sown in treating the hungry, the

down-and-out, the ragged, the lonely and lost like they are

somehow qualitatively different; like they have crossed over

into a reality that is outside the possibility of our shared

human existence; where there is no longer any underlying

family resemblance. They cannot imagine Jesus among the

“least of these” because they cannot imagine themselves to

be there.

Dorothy Day, the founder of St. Joseph’s Houses of

Hospitality and the Catholic Worker Movement, was famous

for saying that her homeless guests “are not grateful, and

they smell.” But she was also known for living among

these very same people. She opened the doors of her

home to the destitute and served as an inspiration for

hundreds of others to do the same. She understood that

love cannot be lived from a distance, only face to face.

Jesus came proclaiming the Good News of the

Kingdom; a Kingdom of righteousness that is rooted in

grace and forgiveness; a Kingdom in which God wants

everyone included and no one excluded. Yet by our own

attitudes and actions we exclude ourselves. So God’s plan

to redeem our lives and include us in His Kingdom begins

with the Incarnation. God chose to be one with us in Jesus

Christ. Love took on flesh, became real and identified with

the least among us. There was no other way for our sins to

be carried to the cross. Divine Love accomplishes our

salvation by bearing the cost of sins. The love that

redeems the world begins with and proceeds out of a

common identity which Jesus came to share. That is why

Jesus can say, “Whatever you do for one of the least of

these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me.”

Yours in Christ,

Keary C. Kincannon

Matthew 25: 35_40

“...I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was in prison and you came

to visit me.

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and

sisters of mine, you did for me.”

WHAT: AMERICAN, GREEK, MEDITERRANEAN AND ITALIAN FOODS

WALK-IN OR RESERVATIONS: 571-312-6690

WHY: 10% OF ALL SALES GO TO RISING HOPE MISSION CHURCH

CAN'T MAKE IT? DONATE VIA OUR WEBSITE: WWW.RISINGHOPEUMC.ORG

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Save Our Poor, Lonely Pastor Keary! Don't Make Him Celebrate Another Birthday All Alone!

JOIN THIS YEAR'S CELEBRATION AT A RISING HOPE MISSION CHURCH FUNDRAISER:

WHERE: MAMMA'S KITCHEN

7601 FORDSON RD., ALEXANDRIA

(NEAR HYBLA VALLEY)

WHEN: TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2012

ALL DAY! (11 AM  - 9 PM)

Photo by: ED SIMMONS JR.

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As teenage volunteers washed feet, they explained God’s love.

Saturday morning, Feb. 18, Rising Hope was aglow with a crowd of young children from our community getting new shoes. As the children sat about to try them on, volunteers from Samaritan’s Feet washed their feet and talked about how Jesus did this for his disciples. “This was to show the love of Christ to the kids,” said Mary Hamilton, Rising Hope’s Community Ministry Coordinator. Fifty kids received shoes. Begun by Nigerian Emmanuel Ohonme, Samaritan’s Feet seeks to provide shoes and spread God’s love to 10 million impoverished children in this county and around the world. by: ED SIMMONS JR.

KIDS’ CONNECTION“GROWING IN FAITH”

by: SULA S. TYLER, MINISTER OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH

What is evil? Can good overcome evil? These are tough questions. Yet we aim to model justice and mercy and teach inclusiveness and shared community for our Rising Hope children.

Inclusiveness means children of all ages are welcomed in opening church services every Sunday morning, singing praises to God and Passing the Peace. They are witnesses to the good things others have done and are doing, on field visits and in mission work with Kairos Ministry and United Methodist Women.

They are growing in faith with the understanding that God has made them precious and loves them.

Shared community means reaching beyond Sunday school with a weekday tutoring and mentoring Homework Club, open to area residents. This spring, youngsters in grades 2 through 5 will get help in basic reading and computation skills, to prevent them from falling through the “education gap.”

VOLUNTEERS VOICE“Kids Receive Shoes and the Love of Christ”

Isaiah 43:1-5“The children know what is right, what is just, what is merciful—and they are growing in faith with the understanding that God has made them precious in God’s sight, has love for them, and is with them.”

Our thanks goes out to The Family Christian Store for their donation of Holman Christian Standard Bibles. “We gave them out in the Christmas Shop, which worked out just great,” said Mary Hamilton, Community Ministry Coordinator. Over 100 were distributed. TFCS’s manager Keith Williams (pictured opposite with store clerk Natasha Jackson) said the purpose is “to advance the Kingdom of God.”

“Family Christian Store Donates Bibles”

by: ED SIMMONS JR.

Photo by: MIYA MENSKEY.

Photo by: MIYA MENSKEY.

Our Wish List at Rising Hope

Hospitality is an important part of the ministries of Rising Hope. Every week, Tuesday through Friday and every Sunday, we serve coffee and pastries to those who may not have anywhere else to get breakfast. We are blessed to get wonderful donations from Panera Bread and Safeway. However, it is costly to provide cups, napkins, plates and other utensils for breakfast and the noon day meal we serve five days every week. Our Wish List this quarter includes the items listed above so we may continue to provide hospitality to the strangers that find Rising Hope a beacon of light in a sometimes dark world. And we do meet angels every week - messengers from God to remind us that there are blessings in the trials and tribulations in our lives - and that is why we continue to work and volunteer at Rising Hope.

Volunteer Needs

If you have office skills or just like to organize, file or type letters, please contact Deborah Allers at dallers@risinghopeumc.org. Do you have an hour or two to help us out? Our services can only be provided if we have committed and compassionate volunteers who share our passion for serving our constituents. It is a wonderful and fulfilling experience to work with and serve others. Our needs are many and our volunteers are so appreciated and very much needed.

RISING HOPE MISSION CHURCH: A UNITED METHODIST CONGREGATION8220 Russell Road,

Alexandria, Virginia 22309

703-360-1976

www.risinghopeumc.org

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. Postage

PAIDAlexandria VA

Permit No. 5736

WHAT WILL YOU WISH FOR IN 2012?

by: SHARON EMORY

Wednesday Thursday

Watching the free store

1:15 to 3:30 pm.

Watching the free store

3:15 to 6:00 pm.

Restocking the shelves

3:30 to 4:00 pm.

Watching the free store

5:30 to 7:30 pm.

*Driver for Safeway pickups and home deliveries

9:30 am to 12:30 pm.

Restocking the shelves/cleaning

7:30 to 8:30 pm.

Food Pantry Volunteer Needs:

EMAIL LINDA SURRIDGE AT

LSURRIDGE@RISINGHOPEUMC.ORG IF

YOU HAVE SOME TIME TO VOLUNTEER.