Mustard Seed

From our Library Friends of Christ/Deaf via Sharon Svenningsen:

December Honorees

Clerc-Gallaudet Week, formerly Deaf Awareness Week, has been observed in the District of Columbia metropolitan area since December 1974. Today the purpose of the week is celebrate the birth anniversaries of two American Deaf Education pioneers:  Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (December 10, 1787) and Laurent Clerc (December 26, 1785) and to recognize their impact on American society since April 15, 1817 when they and Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell co-founded the first permanent school for the deaf in the Western Hemisphere.

On Sunday, December 5, 2010 at 2:00 pm, there will be a program at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library (901 G St NW, DC)   Native Iowan,  Ronald E. Sutcliffe, author of "The Legacy of the Iowa School for the Deaf," will introduce a book "Edmund Booth: Deaf Pioneer" by Harry G. Lang. Booth was a former student and colleague of Clerc and Gallaudet at the American School for the Deaf (1826-1839). In 1880, Booth was granted an honorary Master of Arts degree from Gallaudet University. Ron Sutcliffe also will highlight Booth as co-founder of the Iowa School for the Deaf in 1855 and the Iowa Association of the Deaf in 1881.

For more information about this program, please contact Janice Rosen via Email: janice.rosen@dc.gov

The Voters' Assembly on Nov 7 elected Gerald Ahrens as Chairman of Evangelism. He will also serve as Vice-President. Also elected was Ward Pettis as Chairman of Stewardship. He also serves as Treasurer. They replace Bonnie White and Don Peterson, respectively, both of whom served the two-term limit. Thanks to both for jobs well done, and may the Lord be with the newly elected officers. The coming years may not be smooth sailing.

One item of new business was a motion by Pastor Ron that our church tithe its income to other needy groups. This mean giving 1/10 of collections. It was discussed and then tabled because there were a number of Voters unavoidably absent and it was felt that all should have a chance to discuss this important idea. A special meeting will be called in the near future.

A Cruise to Hawaii
Part 1
By Carolyn Snyder-Mason

Hello Everyone,

John and I went to Hawaii in 2009 from March 15 - 30. We flew from BWI to San Diego, via San Francisco on March 14th. It was total of eight hours of flights. We checked into a hotel across the street from the Cruise Terminal. We were little tired from long sitting on airplanes and realized we went through four time zones. With those three hours difference in time zones, our body still on Eastern Time. We waited for our room but it wasn't ready at 3 pm. We went to restaurant on the premises. It was nice and cozy with very British food. After dinner, we checked with the front desk again and the room was ready. We went up to 7th floor. John opened the door and said the room is not clean and ready yet. He went down to Front desk and exchanged to other room and we moved up to the 12th floor. Oh, that is the best room as it has good view to the bay. We watched the sun go down as it was lovely and warm. We left MD early in the morning around 4 am and it was cold.

Next morning, we got ourselves ready for the cruise that was called Celebrity X. We saw our boat, Mercury, at the dock and walked across the street with our luggage to the cruise terminal. The man took our luggage already tagged to tell which room where we will be. We were supposed to enter the terminal but they told us to board to a charter bus and we were puzzled about it. The bus took us to San Diego Convention Center. We lined up to register and asked the lady what is going on. "Oh, that previous cruise had several passengers sick due to Norwalk Virus and they need time to clean and bleach the virus out.” That's reason why they decided to put all the people in the conference room while we wait for the crew to finish scrubbing down. Drinks, lunch, and desserts were provided. We sat for almost 4 hours but there were some entertainments and activities to keep us busy.

Finally we got on the bus to the terminal. First thing we saw was a person were holding a bottle of Prell—hand sanitizer for everyone to clean and wipe their hands. They wanted to reduce the virus so that is new thing for us to do. They stand near food area and elevators. We went to Purser's desk and to ask to meet the interpreter. It was so strange and so funny that our interpreters were standing next to us! We met and discuss what to do as we both know it is required to go to mandatory fire muster drill meeting.

(to be continued)