CAN'T BUY ME LOVE

(Photo at: http://flickr.com/photos/donncha/1396468434/)

It is definitely that time of the year again; the Christmas shopping phenomenon is kicking into high gear, right on schedule. Join us this Saturday as we get together to look at consumerism in North America and how it relates to the rest of the world. If you like live music, this is the place to be... Also, there will be food and lots of conversation. So come on out, we're going to have a great time together!

CAN'T BUY ME LOVE: a look at consumerism and the world around us
SATURDAY, December 1st @ 7:30pm
First Baptist Church, 5th & Gillett

St. Vincent's "Bulk Breakdown" for Christmas Hampers

LAST MINUTE REQUEST!!

St. Vincent's has asked us to help them with their "Bulk Breakdown" for their Christmas hampers this Saturday.
We will be breaking down bulk goods and packaging them for the hampers.
WE NEED YOU!!
Since we can use all the help we can get, we can certainly use yours!
And the more people we have helping, the sooner we can get it done...
(If you are planning on coming we would really appreciate a comment on this post so we can get an idea of how much help we'll have.)

The low-down:
SATURDAY, November 24th, from 3:30pm-6:00pm
St. Vincent de Paul Society Drop-In Centre
1180 3rd Avenue

Thanks for your time, and don't forget our December 1st gathering!

Missing Women

Photo credit: Ken Turner http://www.tworiversartgallery.com/

Last Friday night the SATS group attended a workshop at the Two Rivers Art Gallery focused around the Missing Women exhibit by Betty Kovacic. After being prepped by a "tour guide" of sorts, we quietly made our way through the gallery of portraits portraying 50 women who had gone missing on Vancouver's East side. Many of these women have since been found on the Picton farm.

In the centre of the room was a crowd of 50 black shrouded bodies hanging earily by invisible string from the ceiling. These bodies each had a sash across their chest with the writing "As a child I dreamed of....." and various endings to this phrase such as ....being a nurse;....being a ballerina;......helping people. The portraits around the room were accompanied by dial-in music, different for each woman, which we listened to privately through head sets.

The combination of this multisensory exhibit hit all of us in different ways and on multiple levels. It was a very sobering exhibit which caused us to take another look at these "invisible" people in our world. The people that society would rather not think about; the homeless; the sex trade workers; the addicted. And we were reminded that each of these people were once children with hopes and dreams just like ours.

After discussing our thoughts and feelings from the exhibit, we made our way to the art studio where we were able to express our own feelings on canvas. We completed our own portraits which are now hanging in the art gallery; in essence uniting us with these women in a small way.

Thanks to Maureen Morgan for her blog contribution... Well said Mau!!

December Poster

Hey y'all!

Here we go with our latest poster, for our December gathering called "CAN'T BUY ME LOVE". This is a tool to let others know about our event, so use it as you please.

A Room Full Of Missing Women

Our dear friend, Laura-Lee Penson, has passed along the following message to our group:

Hello Smokestacks community!
Have you seen the Roomfull of Missing Women Exhibit at the Art Gallery yet?
We're having a private workshop/showing on Friday November 16 from 7 to 9.
I need to know by Thursday who would like to join us.
Please email davepenson@telus.net or facebook Laura-Lee to reply or if you have questions.
It's a moving display and a real call to prayer.
Maybe we can take a silent prayer on Queensway afterwards if anyone's interested?!

Look forward to your feed-back! All God's Best, LLP

St. Vinnie's On The Stat

This morning a bunch of us helped out at the St. Vincent de Paul Drop-In Centre, as sort of a "last-minute" project. It is very encouraging to see the amount of willing volunteers we have in our small community. There was piano playing, storage organization and breakfast serving (among other activities) to be done, and we had a great time doing it. Stay tuned for more information regarding our work with St. Vincent's...

Sorrow and a Movie.

For our November SATS, we focused on the idea of sorrow, and how bad things can happen to good people. We drew our inspiration from the book of Job. Sometimes it can be easy to disregard people for their place in life, or judge them for things that happen to them, thinking that they must deserve it. God's word says this is not the case- bad things don't just happen to bad people, they happen to everyone- and we should love and empathize with each other, not judge. We also addressed how there is always hope, even in the worst of times.

Going along with our sorrow theme, we'll be showing a movie on the BIG SCREEN at the church next Saturday, Nov. 17, at 7pm. We'll be watching Shadowlands, a remarkable, Oscar-nominated film about the life of Christian writer C.S. Lewis (played by Anthony Hopkins). It's a very touching film. You might cry. . . my dad always does at this film. Bring Kleenexes. Also, we'll be offering some light refreshments. See you there!