Fuller Hearts & Pantries

Thank You for Your Donations to help make fuller hearts & pantries!

The end of the year brings many things, and were hoping full-er pantries can be one of them.
At this month's Dinner Church we collected food donations for the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters with your help.
Thank you for your support of those with food insecurity in northwest Bellingham.

Because Food IS love.

We'll collect donations in January, at our Dinner Church, Monday, January 29th @ 6:30pm.

Shelf stable food and seasonal vegetables & fruits gladly accepted!

End of Year Food Box Donations Needed!

Help us feed our neighbors in north Bellingham at the end of the year! At our monthly dinner church we collect food donations for the 4 food boxes we fill on the 4th Tuesday of the month in Bellingham. This month due to Christmas day being on a Monday, we will collect on the 3rd Monday 12/18 this month.
We are grateful for the work of the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters to bring nourishment (and love) to their neighbors in need. Monetary donations are also welcome to purchase foods that are still needed to round out each box (often ready to serve/eat meals).

FOOD DONATIONS COLLECTED 12/18 @ DINNER CHURCH

Winter Food Box Needs
granola bars  |  canned / shelf stable milk  |  nuts  | canned/pouch meat/fish  |  canned beans  |  canned fruit  |  soups/stews  |  jerky  |  fruits / veggies stable in cold  |  oats  |  sauces  |  spices  |  tea / juice  |  parmesan cheese  |  syrup  |  sugar  |  cereal  |  tortillas  | sliced bread  |  rice |  salt / pepper

When Worship Experiments Collide!

Our annual Friendsgiving Dinner Church Potluck was filled with delicious foods, good stories, and songs around an inclusive colorful table! And it is at one big ol’ crowded table that our worship experiments COLLIDE!

We used candles from past creative church experiments (candle painting and advent wreath making) as our centerpiece and ended up with a unique waxy art piece that allowed people to play even after the meal was finished.

But have no fear we don’t waste at echoes and all the wax was reclaimed and filled two recycled candle containers in a very beautiful shade of green.

Thanks to all who cooked, who came, who cleaned and who collaborated to remind one another that food is love.

We shared this blessing together:

May we always look
out for one another
May we always be willing to go
the extra mile in search of water,
not only for ourselves
but for the sake of the other. 

May we never forget
we were made to be in community,
never made to do this life alone.
Your small act of being present
will go a long way.

May we only continue to grow 
and learn from each other.
As elephants living together 
learn from one another, 
let’s embrace the wisdom
of those who came before us.

Let us hold dear
all of the notes of survival
that have been passed down and shared among us.

May we never forget 
that the greatest gift 
we have to give to another
is love.

-Morgan Harper Nichols
(You Are Only Just Beginning)



Feed Our Neighbors: Together!

Food Donations Collected 11/27 @ Dinner Church

At our monthly dinner church we collect food donations for the 4 food boxes we fill on the 4th Tuesday of the month in Bellingham. We are grateful for the work of the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters to bring nourishment (and love) to their neighbors in need.

Fall Food Box Needs
granola bars  |  canned / shelf stable milk  |  nuts  | canned/pouch meat/fish  |  canned beans  |  canned fruit  |  soup  |  jerky  |  fruits / veggies stable in cold  |  oats  |  sauces  |  spices  |  tea / juice  |  parmesan cheese  |  syrup  |  sugar  |  cereal  |  tortillas  | bread  |  rice |  salt / pepper

Monetary donations are also welcome to purchase ready to eat foods.

Fill the Food Boxes for Fall!

At our monthly Dinner Church we collect food donations for the 4 food boxes we fill on the 4th Tuesday of the month in Bellingham. It’s fall and folks are needing shelf stable food, and fruits and vegetables that can stand the fluctuating weather. We are grateful for the work of the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters to bring nourishment (and love) to their neighbors in need. Monetary donations are also welcome to purchase foods to round out each box (often ready to serve/eat meals).

Last month we filled the Northwest box first, and then after filling the other 3 we went back around in what we call the “great bean migration” to ensure that each box has a mix of different types of foods, and found that the box in that 30 minutes had been almost completely accessed! So filling the boxes and feeding others is needed more than ever, especially at the end of the month when money is tight. Thank you, thank you for your contributions!

We’ll collect our next donations at Dinner Church on October 23rd!

Fall Food Box Needs
granola bars  |  canned / shelf stable milk  |  nuts  | canned/pouch meat/fish  |  canned beans  |  canned fruit  |  soups/stews  |  jerky  |  fruits / veggies stable in cold  |  oats  |  sauces  |  spices  |  tea / juice  |  parmesan cheese  |  syrup  |  sugar  |  cereal  |  tortillas  | sliced bread  |  rice |  salt / pepper

Check out the full list of needed items for the boxes here!

Fall Equinox Blessing

Sunset from Deception Pass State Park, Whidbey Island, WA. (September 2023)

Fall Equinox Blessing

I do not know if the seasons remember their history or if the days and nights by which we count time remember their own passing.

I do not know if the oak tree remembers its planting or if the pine remembers its slow climb toward sun and stars.

I do not know if the squirrel remembers last fall's gathering or if the bluejay remembers the meaning of snow.

I do not know if the air remembers September or if the night remembers the moon.

I do not know if the earth remembers the flowers from last spring or if the evergreen remembers that it shall stay so.

Perhaps that is the reason for our births -- to be the memory for creation.

Perhaps salvation is something very different than anyone ever expected.

Perhaps this will be the only question we will have to answer:

“What can you tell me about September?"

-By Burton D. Carley

Shared at our Wild Church on Whidbey Island, September 22, 2023

Fill the Food Boxes with Us!

FOOD DONATIONS COLLECTED 9/25 @ DINNER CHURCH

At our monthly dinner church we collect food donations for the 4 food boxes we fill on the 4th Tuesday of the month in Bellingham. We are grateful for the work of the Birchwood Food Desert Fighters to bring nourishment (and love) to their neighbors in need. Monetary donations are also welcome to purchase foods to round out each box (often ready to serve/eat meals).

Check out the full list of needed items for the boxes here!

Thank you for bringing your food or monetary donations, or helping us deliver them to the boxes. We are grateful to each of you who have helped!

Podcasts to Drive To

Podcasts to Drive To [summer 2023]


This past August I took the month for sabbatical. For radical rest and reconnection with myself and with the land. So I naturally headed deep into the West.

I love the West.

I love the mountains, the plains, the summer thunderstorms, the wide open spaces where vast clouds kiss the far away horizon. I love the bigness of the landscapes. It invites you to ponder your smallness. I welcome this.

Having a great soundtrack for your drive is ESSENTIAL.

So I have included the podcasts that made driving 1000s of miles go by quickly!

Modern West: (Season 2 is a good beginning)
If everyone leaves home who will be left to mind the town?
Excellent commentary and questions on preserving communities before they become ghost towns. I am loving every season of this podcast from Wyoming Public Media, but season 2 is a great place to start.

Parched
Will there be enough water not only for the west, but for our country in the future?
This podcast provides deep research and interviews to dig in to the water problems particularly along the Colorado River. A true gem from Colorado Public Radio.

Wilder
Did you grow up reading Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie? If you were a kid growing up in the 80’s & 90’s you did! This podcast examines the life and landscape of the authors of one of America’s most beloved Pioneer Tails. What do libertarians have to do with a kids novel? take a listen and find out!

Seeking
What do you do with your existential questions about the future? Some people take drugs or psychedelics. Some people bottle them up and attempt to live forever. Or at least create a religion so in the future people will be smart enough to revive them or rather help achieve the first case of resurrection outside of Jesus. Season 2 of the Seeking podcast takes time on the margins of futurism and those who are trying to live forever. Lots to think about here.

Driving long distances allows me to settle my mind and explore some of the bigger questions of life and faith. My sabbatical allowed me time to curate what listening, learning and resting I wanted to do for 30 days. I am hoping that I continue to be mindful about what I am consuming not just when I’m on break, but each day of my commute.

What podcasts have been helping you dig deeper or pass the miles quicker?

A Summer Blessing

Sunset from Taylor Dock, in Bellingham, WA. (July 2023)

A Summer Blessing

Blessed are you, summer,
season of long days and short nights,
you pour forth light from your golden orb,
energizing the earth and calling forth growth.

Blessed are you summer,
with your generous gift of heat.
Your warm breath animates creation,
encouraging all growing things to stretch toward the sun.

Blessed are you, summer,
you call us into playfulness,
encouraging us to pause from work.
You renew our spirits.

Blessed are you, gracious season of summer,
you surprise us with a variety of gifts from the earth.
We, too, gaze into the earth of ourselves,
beholding gifts waiting to be honored.

Blessed are you, nurturing season of summer,
your fruits and vegetables appear on our tables,
changing them into altars.
Tasting of your life, we are made strong.

Blessed are you, summer,
host of a star that shines with passion.
Sun-soaked, we reach for your energy
that drives us upward and onward.

Blessed are you, sacrament of summer,
nature’s green season, sweet echo of spring.
You speak to us in living color as you renew the earth
with symbols of life for our bodies and souls.

Blessed are you, summer,
season of roots that reach for water.
Even through the cracks in the sidewalk
the song of your seed can be heard.

Blessed are you, summer,
season rooted in reality.
Even as the perspiration collects on our brow,
we experience your earthly joy.

Blessed are you, summer,
and your firefly evenings
you minister to the child in us.
You feed our hunger for beauty.

-Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr