Due to the inevitable changes of life, some volunteers at ODB actually step down from their positions and we need to find new volunteers.

Most of the following jobs take 2-4 hours, and can be done once a week, on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, or on all three days:

• Chef's helper
• Dishwasher
• Server
• General Kitchen Helper
• Plate Scraper
• Driver to pick up food

To help us celebrate the new St. Thomas wall hanging created by Peg Prior, take a look at—

• Fabric of Faith: a guide to the prayer quilt ministry by Kimberly Winston.
• Patchwork patterns from Bible stories by Judy Rehmel.
• The patchwork pilgrimage: how to create vibrant church decorations and vestments with quilting techniques by Jill Liddell
• The quilt of belongings: stitching together the stories of a nation by Janice Weaver.
  Each piece represents all the nations of the world and Canada’s major aboriginal groups.
• Quilt patterns: women of the Bible by Suzanne Schaffhausen.

For children—

• The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco
  A homemade quilt ties 4 generations together of a Jewish immigrant family.
• A name on the quilt: a story of remembrance by Jeannine Atkins
  A family makes a panel for the AIDS memorial quilt.
• The seasons sewn: a year in patchwork by Ann Paul.
  24 traditional quilt block designs provide a look at pioneer life.

Dear St. Thomas Family,

I am writing to you on the cusp of my beginning my third and final year at the School for Deacons (SFD) in Berkeley. For the past two years, I have been spending every third weekend of the Fall and Spring on the campus of CDSP where SFD holds classes. Starting with my second year, field education became part of my curriculum and I was placed in a social service agency known as the Community Homeless Alliance Ministry, a homeless shelter and housing advocacy group in San Jose.

All students at SFD complete four semesters of Field Education, each with a 120 hour minimum requirement. This translates into about a 6-8 hour per week time commitment. Every placement is approved by our Field Education coordinator and contracts are made between the student and the individual agreeing to serve as Field Education mentor. For my third year placement, my Field-Ed. Mentor is the Rev. Sylvestre "Silito" Romero.

My third-year experience with Field Education will be a parish placement, meaning that I will be spending most Sundays away from my home parish of St. Thomas among the good people of St. Phillips in San Jose---this is of course excluding weekends when I'll be at school. As a consequence, you may find yourselves scratching your heads and wondering, "Whatever happened to that Michael guy?" I admit I had a similar question in my own mind whenever our previous seminarians abruptly disappeared from within our midst.

Yet, I have grown to understand, especially as measured against my experiences in my Field-Ed. placement last year, these placements are critical in assisting discernment for the diaconal student regarding vocation. Moreover, they are essential in providing experiences to apply classroom learning to real, practical ministerial situations in real time. This is an indispensable part of our learning. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing what this placement holds and I look forward to sharing my experiences with you when I am back among you between semesters.

In the meantime, my family and I are grateful for your prayers of support for continued strength and perseverance during this journey. It is something that the whole family participates in---no one person sharing the same roof with a seminarian is unaffected. Yet it is also this same sharing that makes the journey possible.

51 months to our Centennial (December 2011)

May the souls of the righteous rest in peace, and rise in glory!

We said farewell to Nate Roberts, who had been with us for 12 weeks while doing an internship at a local company. He has gone back to Texas to finish his master's degree.

On August 5th, members of St. Thomas were happy to see Eileen and Shannon Hutchison, who came with Sheldon that Sunday to hear him preach.

St. Thomas' Social Ministry has been busy helping people by giving them Albertson's or Long's gift cards, toiletries, socks, and often a few clothing articles. This ministry occurs the second and fourth Tuesday each month in Cowans' Hall with two of the three of us on duty. We greet our guests in the patio area and then have two enter at a time to fill out information sheets, have some refreshments, and then meet singly with us. These people usually find out about the gift checks from a friend or by calling the church office. Occasionally only one or two congregate in the patio, but recently eleven were there waiting to be interviewed.

Your birthday and anniversary contributions enable the Reverend Wendy's discretionary fund the ability to buy these gift cards we use. Without the funds, these people wouldn't be helped, and few churches do something like this. Since January, 2007, we've met with seventy individuals who have received the cards. Six months between visits is required, so we do turn away those who aren't eligible. ID must be shown and the name checked with the master list for the year. Donna Cobb orders the gift cards so St. Thomas receives some monetary return. Some benefactors keep donating toiletries, razors, tee shirts, and socks.

• A new Bible Garden is being created by a group of youth members. The new plants are doing well and looking very good.
• The neighbor’s fence has been moved to allow St. Thomas to recover our original property line.
• The plans for the Transfer Center are progressing well. There are 6 volunteers. The program should begin operating in October.
• The need to prune some trees on our property was discussed. A motion was passed to approve a maintenance expense for tree trimming in 2007.
• The need to do clear coating on the church was discussed. A motion was passed to authorize funds for clear coating of the church.
• The panels [that hang behind our altar] need to be refurbished. Study and consultations have been made. The original designs would be maintained because they are considered works of art. These panels will be expensive to repair. This project was referred to the Finance Committee for review.
• The committee for establishing a Planned Giving Program will make a progress report at the next Vestry meeting.
• Wendy will attend an Icon workshop in Denver during the week of July 23.

As I believe most of you know, I was accepted last May as a Postulant for Holy Orders in the Diocese of El Camino Real. As part of my training, the Standing Committee has asked me to do a year of Field Education at a parish other than St. Thomas. St. Thomas is a very special place and I know myself to be especially blessed to be among the many who have benefited from Wendy’s superb mentoring and guidance. Even so, the Standing Committee rightly recognized that it is also important for me to broaden my experience. I need to see that there are other ways of doing things and I am pleased that once again the setting is superb. Starting this September, I will begin two semesters of Field Education at St. Mark’s Church in Santa Clara. My supervisor will be the Rev. Canon Linda Taylor.

Final tally of the evening’s proceeds will be
in the next issue of Beyond A Doubt.

Many thanks for helping Sunnyvale Cares, which St. Thomas is an important and active participant, with their annual food drive. For that particular July 14 ingathering of food, we totaled 308 pounds, which may sound strange, but that's how the amounts were measured. We are commended for continuing to gather food each Sunday which has been going to ODB and FISH for emergency supplies that are packed at the FISH closet and then brought to Sunnyvale Community Services where families come to receive this help.

A big thank you to the many people who were able to spend their Saturday July 28 helping keep St. Thomas looking great. We got most of the projects on the work list done, but many of the willing workers found additional projects that needed doing and jumped right into them.

Cleaning out the ODB closet, cleaning fans, walls, windows, pew kneelers,
pew book racks, and children's sitting area,
removing cobwebs, changing clock batteries,
pruning bushes, laying bricks, fixing the rolling poster board,
building a planter box, and repairing altar kneelers:

All done, thanks to

The Faith in Action Rotating Shelter will come to St. Thomas on Saturday September 29th, for 5 weeks this year. You may remember they were here in April, when we were doing a favor for Sunnyvale Presbyterian (construction made it impossible for them to have the shelter at that time). October is our regular month for the Shelter, and we will be providing a full set of Greeters, Shoppers, and dinner-providers. Sign-ups for these tasks will begin on Sunday September 2nd.

The Rotating Shelter was founded in 1991, and St. Thomas was the first host church. Today more than 20 churches, religious organizations and community groups support the shelter, in collaboration with Cupertino Community Services. Up to 15 homeless men stay in the shelter for up to 90 days, during which they are working toward self-sufficiency and job stability. During their stay, Cupertino Community Service staff work closely with each guest to help them find employment, save money, and locate housing. Each guest signs a contract which defines their responsibilities and rights within the program. An overnight supervisor will be here every evening.