For many Lent is a time of fasting, and this year, CGS is participating in the No Plastics for Lent initiative, which is led by the ELCA Young Adult Ministry. That ministry: “calls us to prayer for creation, to lament the ways we have been complicit in the degradation of the earth, and to action to care for our neighbor in fasting from the things that are hurting our planet… We encourage you to develop a commitment to practice during this 40-days that turns our attention towards caring for creation. This could be fasting from single-use plastics, eating locally, using eco-friendly cleaning supplies, shopping at farmer's markets, etc.”
We encourage all of our community to join this fast from using single-use plastics during this Lenten season, and to build some intentional habits that hopefully can become a part of your normal practices. We’ve set a goal of collectively preventing 1,000 plastic items from entering landfills and our oceans between Ash Wednesday and the end of Lent, and we ask that you keep track of those moments that you intentionally change your practices during these 40 days. We’ll track these moments on Sundays, and see that together, we can make a real difference!
Sincerely,
Pastor Kristofer Rhude (he/him)

As we begin our Lenten journey, we are blessed to have an extra opportunity to celebrate and rejoice.  We have a new pastor, and this is his first call!  We will be celebrating Pastor Kris’s installation on the afternoon of Sunday, March 19th.  This is a chance for our congregation to share our amazing ability to be a welcoming community to our new pastor.  Daniel and Rey are working on the music for the installation.  Janet Keely and Noriko Thomas are organizing an appetizer and dessert reception in the great hall.  Theo Olson and his team will be decorating the hall to make the occasion memorable.  We want this to be a community participation in our celebration, so please contribute your efforts in providing food, helping to set up and prepare beautiful dishes in the kitchen, helping to clean up and most important of all, attending to show our support and excitement over our next adventure as a congregation.  Please let Janet, Noriko and Theo know if you are able to contribute.  This will be one of the highlights of our year.  See you there!

Jean Hope

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For many Lent is a time of fasting, and this year, CGS is participating in the No Plastics for Lent initiative, which is led by the ELCA Young Adult Ministry. That ministry: “calls us to prayer for creation, to lament the ways we have been complicit in the degradation of the earth, and to action to care for our neighbor in fasting from the things that are hurting our planet… We encourage you to develop a commitment to practice during this 40-days that turns our attention towards caring for creation. This could be fasting from single-use plastics, eating locally, using eco-friendly cleaning supplies, shopping at farmer's markets, etc.”
We encourage all of our community to join this fast from using single-use plastics during this Lenten season, and to build some intentional habits that hopefully can become a part of your normal practices. We’ve set a goal of collectively preventing 1,000 plastic items from entering landfills and our oceans between Ash Wednesday and the end of Lent, and we ask that you keep track of those moments that you intentionally change your practices during these 40 days. We’ll track these moments on Sundays, and see that together, we can make a real difference!
Sincerely,
Pastor Kristofer Rhude (he/him)

In 2022, we donated 695 quilts!! We were able to bring joy and comfort to those individuals, their families and caregivers! This impact is truly amazing! The organizations that we were able to support this year include:
PAMF Mnt View and Sunnyvale Chemo treatment patients
Sequoia Hospice in Milpitas
Veterans Administration Palo Alto Healthcare System
Oakland Children’s hospital NICU & Palliative care units
Unity Care providing housing for Foster Youths
Parisi House on the Hill women’s shelter
Loma Clara memory care facility, Morgan Hill
Assistance League Los Gatos-Saratoga helping under privileged new mothers
Casa de Clara – Transition shelter for homeless mothers & kids
C.A.R.E. SF Bayview shelter helping babies, kids and teens
Sew for love (large white garbage bags of fabric and batting scraps – used to stuff sit-upons forschool kids)                                                                                                                                              
SF Chapter of CA Association of Nurse Practitioner’s (annual appreciation event - holiday donation)
Santa Clara County and SVDP Mentally challenged adults (holiday donation)
 
 
C.A.R.E. SF Bayview area
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C.A.R.E. is the Center for Academic Re-entry and Empowerment in the Bayview section of San Francisco. Our donations include quilts for children, teenagers, and their babies.
 
“One of the quilts that was donated went to this young man who is soon to be a Dad. Mom and Dad are both SFUSD students who will graduate this year. The other students gave a baby shower and this young man was thrilled. See the look on his face!
This is another young person who's life has been touched by the generosity of the quilting guild of Santa Clara.
Thank you!
Kathy”
 
Another new mom was so pleased and grateful to have a quilt for her baby!
 
Supporting our Veterans
We continue to take donations for the veterans. With the cold weather, consider knit hats, long sleeve tee shirts, socks and sweatpants. Do you have any gently used books you no longer need? Have you started receiving 2023 promotional calendars in the mail? If you will not be needing them, consider donating them to the veterans. They really appreciated the set we included in our December donations. These and the other items from the full Patient Needs List (see below) are much appreciated by the veterans. Bring them to the CQ workdays in Campbell or contact me to drop them off at my home in Sunnyvale.
 
Unity House
I pulled some information from their website to share. “Over the past 29 years we have served thousands of youth transitioning out of foster care and breaking the cycle from foster care to street, by providing safe supportive housing, case management, independent living skills education, mental health support through licensed therapists, and LGBTQ identity support.”
 
“Unity Care’s housing programs provides current and former foster youth, including probation youth, ages 16–21 with safe, secure, and affordable housing while they focus on their emotional, educations, and employment goals.”
 
Sequoia Hospice
Dee sent the following comments:
“Here is some feed back from our patient’s regarding the amazing quilts Santa Clara Valley Quilt Assoc provides.  Before they are prepared for our patients, all of the staff enjoys looking at each one  and admiring all the love and detail.  Seeing the expressions of the nurses and medical staff choose a quilt for a specific patient is priceless!  The quilts brighten everyone’s day. 

1. Our massage therapist took a quilt out to a hospice patient he was seeing.  The patient and family could not believe the “high quality and detail” of the quilt they were given.  This was the butterfly quilt from last month.  Even the massage therapist enjoyed picking it out and commented how “beautiful” it was. 

 

1. I gave a quilt to a patient who is confused, when she saw it her eyes opened wide and she stroked it.  I placed the quilt across her lap and she kept touching and stroking it.  The colors were bright and it was evident she enjoyed this amazing gift.

 

1. I’m also continually being told by the health aids and nurses, when they’re at a patients home they will put their quilt over the patient after cleaning or treating them.    They enjoy and take pride this was made from love.   

 

1. When I deliver or talk about the quilts provided to our hospice patients, I tell them who makes them and a little about your organization.  All of our volunteers who attend an orientation are shown quilts and I tell them about your organization. 

 
Thank you with all of my heart!  We are  blessed and honored to have these amazing handmade quilts  provided to our patients and families.”
  
Dee Walsh,
Hospice Volunteer Coordinator, Sequoia Hospice
 
Even our small scraps
We collect even the small scraps of fabric and batting “trash” that are generated while making quilts. These are used to stuff pet beds by guild members and to stuff the cubies made by Sew For Love. We put to use all the scraps we receive, keeping them out of the landfill. One guild member mentioned that she has stuffed over 30 pet beds with scraps last year!
 
Are you cleaning out closets before putting away your holiday decorations? keep in mind: Sew for Love will take old clean blankets, pillows & towels for the pets, yarn, cotton fabric, denim, flannel, sherpa, polar fleece, vinyl, upholstery pieces or batting, fabric and thread scrap pcs - - - nothing is too small.
 
Community Quilts Workday Meetings:
During our Community Quilts workdays, our group members work on the tops that have been donated by our guild members, layering them with batting, backing and binding. These are folded into quilt “sandwiches” that are then picked up by our guild members. They take them home to quilt. Once they are quilted and the binding is attached to the edges, the finished quilts are returned to our group. During our workdays we also sort and organize the finished quilts, now ready for donation.
 
Thank you to Christ The Good Shepard Lutheran Church for helping us to joy, hope and comfort to 695 individuals, their families, and caregivers!
Robin Scheiderer
SCVQA Community Quilts