Prayer from Revised Common Lectionary Prayers,
Consultation on English Texts, 2002.
Photo by Kent Mueller

Bikes for Madagascar
The Don Johnson Memorial Team completed the 7-day, 422-mile Ride the Rockies bicycle tour this past Saturday. Many thanks to all who supported the team through prayer and pledges and to Thrivent Financial for Lutheran for providing matching funds. To date the team has received over $9500.00 in pledges and donations which will go to purchase bicycles and parts for teachers, medical and church workers in Madagascar. To fulfill pledges or to donate, please make checks payable to The Rocky Mountain Synod-ELCA, memo line: Seeds of Hope - Bikes for Madagascar. Send checks to: The Rocky Mountain Synod, 455 Sherman Street, Suite 160, Denver, CO, 80203.

Christ's Own Body: DVD of the 2007 Rocky Mountain Synod Assembly
There will be two DVD's available: One featuring the Bishop's address and the Vice President's report and the other featuring the Rev. Ruben Duran and Rev. Wyvetta Bullock. Individually, the DVD's are $15 but a set will cost only $25. Although it will be another few weeks before the DVD's make it to our office from the audio/visual folks, you may place your order now by calling the Synod office (303-777-6700 or 800-525-0462) or by sending an email message to Cheryl Almquist ( calmquist@rmselca.org ). The deadline to order is July 15. Checks can be made out to the Rocky Mountain Synod and sent to 455 Sherman Street, Suite 160, Denver, Colorado 80203.

Senior High Youth Gathering Seeks Faith Encounter Stories
The music and worship committee for the high school youth gathering needs your help! We would like to collect student stories about a time in their life where they felt the presence of God, or somehow had an encounter with God that made them feel connected to God. The stories will be shared at the evening worship on Friday night as a catalyst for others to share their stories. The stories will be shared at the evening worship on Friday night as a catalyst for others to share their stories. Have your youth send their one-paragraph stories (no more than 200 words) to Brandon Newton at brandongslc@qwest.net.

Senior High Gathering Seeks High School Musicians
The worship planning team for the 2008 gathering at Estes Park in November would like to put together a worship band for morning and evening devotions during the event, such as a hand drummer, guitarists, vocalist, and more. Email Brandon Newton at brandongslc@qwest.net if you have talent to offer!

Ending Hunger: Mission Possible
The Rocky Mountain Synod Hunger Network, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry Colorado and the Global Mission Committee are co-sponsoring a second Ending Hunger Summit. This year's event will take place on Saturday, October 27, at Bethany Lutheran Church (Cherry Hills Village) and will focus on the GOOD NEWS that ending hunger is really possible if we each take concrete steps to change ourselves, our communities and our world!

The planning committee is exploring the possibility of organizing a "youth track" designed for middle and high school students (featuring hands-on service opportunities). If you are interested in bringing youth to the Ending Hunger summit, please contact Kayla Aspeslagh (kayla@lordofthehills.org or 303.726.7944).

A more extensive packet of marketing and registration materials will be available by the end of August. Actual registration will begin the middle of September.

At the Rocky Mountain Synod's website, you will find information as a flyer and bulletin insert.

Did you forget to have your photo taken at Assembly?
If you would still like to be included in the upcoming RMS photo directory, you may submit a photo, along with a $5 submission fee. Professional photographs require a release from the photographer to give permission to be included in the book. Digital photos may be emailed to kmueller@rmselca.org. Actual photos may be sent to the synod office. Deadline to receive photos is July 13.

Vision, Passion, Action Blog
A "blog" is short for "web log" and it is a way to invite conversation about topics and issues. The new RMS weblog is designed to facilitate conversation about the Vision, Passion, Action process. The address of the RMS blog is www.rmselca.blogspot.com. If you post a comment please include your name and congregation. If you would like to post an entry, send your entry to kmueller@rmselca.org.

Spiritual Hiking in Wyoming
Discover your spiritual power while hiking in the outdoors is the topic of a special course presentation entitled, "Spiritual Hiking". It will be held July 27-29 at the Thomas the Apostle (TAC) retreat center in Cody. Leader for this event will The Rev. Warren Murphy, director of the Wyoming Association of Churches (WAC). Cost for the weekend is $125 for those staying at TAC and $55 for those not needing housing accommodations. The registration covers 2 breakfasts, 1 lunch and 2 dinners.

Spiritual Hiking is designed to help people better understand the spiritual power that can be discovered when encountering nature first hand. It will be a combination of studying the essence of "deep ecology" and experiencing first hand the power of "creation theology". The program will begin on Friday evening with dinner and an opening session on how the outdoors can enhance your spiritual life. Saturday will involve an all day hike that will be relative to each person's hiking abilities. The goal of the hike is not the destination but rather experiencing the hike itself. The program will end on Sunday with a special worship service held at the Wayfarer's Chapel east of Yellowstone Park.

Warren Murphy is an experienced hiker who has long been involved in the faith and environmental communities. Further information can be obtained by contacting TAC at 307-587-4400.

Last month, Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle, Ben Affleck and 9,558 ONE members joined Susan McCue for the conference call that launched ONE Vote '08, an unprecedented campaign to engage presidential candidates and voters on the issues of extreme poverty and global disease.

For those of you who missed it, we put a recording of the call online.

The real power, the real energy, the real momentum of ONE Vote '08 is going to come from people all over the country, in their homes, in their communities, showing up at debates and events, making phone calls, writing letters to the editors of their newspapers and talking to the candidates. So when a candidate is coming to your town, toss on a ONE t-shirt and go ask them what their plan is to make poverty history. When the candidates aren't in your area, you can still take action by spreading the word about ONE Vote '08, and engaging the candidates online.

To help do all of this, the ONE team has put together a new website www.onevote08.org where they are building the tools you need to take action. Eventually, you'll also find a detailed presidential policy platform there, outlining what we are asking of the candidates. ONE members have built a nationwide, grassroots network that has changed the direction of American policy and shown that the poorest nations of Africa and the developing world are an opportunity for great American leadership. ONE Vote '08 is your opportunity to engage the Presidential candidates and ask them what they are going to do to end extreme global poverty. Working together as ONE, we'll make sure that the next resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - no matter who wins in November 2008 - is a strong ally in the fight to save lives and secure our future. To see a short video featuring recognizable people who are supporting the ONE Vote '08 project, go to: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheONECampaign

Explore the Bible, faith and Christian living with humor through a new book by cartoonist John Bush. The Funny Shape of Faith: Devotions for the Rest of Us combines cartoons based on biblical texts with reflections and prayers for any day of the year. Included are 158 devotions, each funny and faithful in their own particular way, and arranged in sixteen categories, such as: "The Problem with God's Love (Is That It's Also for People You Might Not Like So Much)" and "I Am the Lord Your God, So Listen Up!" This is the perfect "devotional" for those of us who don't always do devotions - in other words, the rest of us.

John Bush grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and spent nearly 30 years in the Twin Cities area. At age 52, he was diagnosed with stage 4 non-smoker's lung cancer. After fighting hard for 10 months, with humor and enthusiasm, he lost the battle in late June 2006. Before his death, Bush was excited, grateful and humbled to know that his drawings would be pulled together as a collection.

The Funny Shape of Faith is available from Augsburg Fortress.

Article reprinted from Seeds for the Parish (July-August 2007)