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Café is a group for young women who want to build Community, participate in Advocacy, strengthen Faith, and strive toward Enlightenment (CAFE!).We use material from Cafe: Stirring the Spirit Within. It incorporates a Lutheran perspective for women of Christian faith or simply for any woman who is interested in how faith can relate to the issues that women face today.
Examples of some topics include: sharing blessings, discovering unexpected growth out of loss, renewing the body and spirit, inviting people to church, the sound of your faith, keeping a flexible spirit, addiction transfer, AIDS, Domestic hunger, Young women and voting, anger, the burden of credit card debt and its spiritual consequences, body image and negative self-talk and forgiveness for good health.
www.boldcafe.org
Café wins big. . . again for the fifth consecutive time For five consecutive years, Café received a “Best in Class” Award of Excellence from the Associated Church Press in the Independent Web site or E-zine category. ACP honors excellence in religious journalism at its annual convention. Café received this same award in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007. Then, the judges said Café “Provides a high quality product for its targeted audience. The magazine writing style is top notch and provides an intimate yet professional voice. The journalists use relevant and quality research and sources to create articles and podcasts that are meaningful to all women, no matter their religious beliefs or associations." Café won an Award of excellence for Internet Communication from the Religion Communicators Council. In 2005, Café won the Award of Excellence and Best in Class from RCC.
Strengthen Faith
UPCOMING MEETINGS and EVENTS

When: Wednesday, February 1st at 7 pm Where: Panera Bread 500 Kolb Dr, Fairfield Hot Topic:
 Faith reflections + study

Contemporary Arts Museum
Monday, February 20th at 6 pm
This is a guys and girls event!
We will be meeting at Kristel Cunningham's home in Covington, KY for appetizers.
Please bring an appetizer to share & $2 for shuttle service to downtown Cincinnati.
Short walk to the Contemporary Arts Center. Free Admission. Open until 9 pm.
If weather does not permit, the date will be changed for Monday, February 27th.
Please email Jessica Gill at holycrossfairfield@yahoo.com if you will be attending. Thank you!
Cincinnati Spring Gathering
Surviving the Season
Peace Lutheran - Arnheim Bible Study Led by Pr. June Fryman of Faith Wilmington
April 21st. Registration will begin at 8:45 Cost: $7.00 includes lunch
May 27th - Ladies Luncheon

Noon at Holy Cross
All Ladies are invited!
Advocacy

www.one.org ONE is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights extreme poverty and prevent Fair Trade
www.lwr.org
Cafe proudly supports Fair Trade. Handmade items are for sale at Holy Cross.
In supporting Fair Trade, you support:
Better incomes for farmers and artisans
Better working conditions
Protecting children from child labor and slavery
Women’s rights
Democratic principles, giving the poor more power
Good stewardship of resources like water, fertile land and forests
Development projects that bring schools, clinics and clean water to poor, rural communities


We will be selling various items to raise money for our Café group for outreach projects in the near future. Items for sale will include breads, cookies, knitted scarves & hats, handmade bookplates, etc. Do you have handmade items you would like to donate? Please email Jessica Gill @ holycrossfairfield@yahoo.com
Outreach projects to include prenatal gift baskets for single and/or low income women in our community.
Get connected with our Cafe group on Facebook.


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Café meets the first and third Wednesday of the month at 7 pm.
Café meetings and events
2012
January 4th - Panera Bread
February 1st - Panera Bread
February 20th at 6 pm - Contemporary Arts Center/Appetizers at Kristel's
2011
January 19th - Dinner Outing at Joe's Crab Shack 25 Fairfield Ave Bellevue, KY
February 2nd at 7 pm Panera Bread bakery-café
500 Kolb Drive Fairfield, OH 45014
February 16th at 7 pm Cyclones Game
March 2nd at 7 pm Skyline Chili 1190 Hicks Blvd Fairfield, OH
June 1st at 7 pm Perkins 745 Nilles Rd
June 22nd at 7 pm Pool Party - WELCA and Cafe event.
July 6th at 7 pm Fairfield Village Green Park - icecream at Flubs
August Reds Game - August 10th at 5:30 pm
August 17th at 7 pm Working on Yard Sale at Holy Cross
September 7th Working on Yard Sale at Holy Cross
September 21st Holy Cross - Baptismal Joy Light refreshments (apple cider, pumpkin bars, cheese spread & crackers)
October 5th "Movie Night" at Holy Cross Light refreshments
October 19th Jessica Gill's home Light refreshments
November 2nd - 6:30 pm Carry-in Dinner & Movie Screening "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" Everyone welcome to attend Sponsored by Cafe
February - December 2010
February 3rd at 7 p.m. at Holy Cross Lutheran Church. Light refreshments.
March 7:Movie outing to see Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Showcase Cinemas Springdale around 8 pm.
April 7th at 7 p.m. Perkins on Nilles Rd in Fairfield
May 5th at 7 p.m. Fairfield Village Green Park - icecream at Flubs
May 19th at 7 pm at the church
June 2nd at 7 p.m. Fairfield Village Green Park - icecream at Flubs
June 16th at 7 p.m. Café will be meeting in conjunction with the Church Council and Pastor Ed Williams, assistant to the Bishop.
July 7th at 7 p.m. Fairfield Village Green Park
July 21st: Reds Game
August 4th: No Meeting due to VBS
August 18th: Cleaning Party at the Church
September 1st: Fairfield Village Green Park
September 15th: Playhouse in the Park - "High" starring Kathleen Turner
October 20th: Holy Cross
December 1st: World AIDS Day Event at Holy Cross

Building Community Tips on how to build community

Turn Off Your TV
Leave Your House
Know Your Neighbors
Look Up When You Are Walking
Greet People
Sit On Your Stoop
Plant Flowers
Use Your Library
Play Together
Share What You Have
Help A Dog
Take Children to the Park
Garden Together
Support Neighborhood Schools
Fix It Even If You Didn't Break It
Have Pot Lucks
Honor Elders
Pick Up Litter
Read Stories Aloud
Dance In the Street
Talk to the Mail Carrier
Listen to the Birds
Help Carry Something Heavy
Start a Tradition
Ask a Question
Hire Young People for Odd Jobs
Organize a Block Party
Bake Extra and Share
Ask For Help When You Need It
Open Your Shades
Sing Together
Share Your Skills
Take Back the Night
Turn Up the Music
Turn Down the Music
Listen Before You React To Anger
Mediate a Conflict
Seek To Understand
Learn From New and Uncomfortable Angles
Know that No One Is Silent Though Many Are Not Heard Work to Change This
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Greetings! I would like to share with you my experience at the Women of the ELCA’s Triennial Gathering. I was invited to go as a leader at the Triennial Gathering in Spokane, Washington by Elizabeth McBride, director for intergenerational programs and editor of Café, Women of the ELCA’s online magazine for young adult women. She received the full funding for me to go (airfare, hotel, registration, and a per dium check for food)! I was apprehensive at first but talked with the women of Holy Cross at a WELCA meeting. They replied that I must go, that it is an honor to be asked. So I went. I have never been to a Triennial Gathering before, so I had no idea what to expect. When I arrived in Spokane, Washington, I went to the Camp Café exhibit and helped out. The exhibit was cute with a foam board fire pit, an inspiration message board, and Café style tables with coffee mugs filled with s’more jelly beans of which I could not stop eating!
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| Beth McBride at the Camp Café Exhibit |
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The idea was for women to fill out a piece of paper with their info and prayer concerns. They then had to put their paper in their generation box and pull out another persons paper from another generation box and email them about their prayer concerns. At the Camp Café exhibit, I met a women who was helping out. She talked to me about her struggles with her church and how she was thinking of leaving the church because she’s distraught. She told me because her church is struggling financially and with few people attending she was well….drained. She told me that she has been continually trying to start up a bible study group but people just don’t come. However she said that coming to the Triennial Convention and Triennial Gathering somehow put a spark back into her. She listened to my story of starting up a Café group and since she was helping with the Café exhibit, she said she might want to try the Café group in her church. My prayers go out to her and her church.
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Later that day I attended the Meet-and-Greet with Presiding Bishop Mark S. Hanson in a picnic atmosphere with live band and free lunch. The line never seemed to get shorter, so I did not even try to meet the bishop, however I did get up close to snap a few pictures of him. Instead I picked an empty picnic table and a couple came up to me to sit with me. Their names are Ted and Corinne and they were a hoot and an holler! They drove all the way from Wisconsin to Spokane. They told me that they go to the Triennial Gathering every three years. She saw the tag I had to wear of Triennial Leader and asked about that. I explained to her I had to do two workshops tomorrow. She said unfortunately there was another workshop she had planned on going to tomorrow but her husband said he would go. As it turned out when I started my first workshop, they both showed up! Because they were there, I felt that I had the support that I so desperately neededJ
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| Corinne and Ted |
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That night I attended the Chocolate Lounge: A Young Women’s Gathering. I met a lot of wonderful women at this event. Boy was this a fun event! Over 40 women in their 20s, 30s and some a little older, were present. Over drinks and dessert (ripe strawberries, banana slices and marshmallows plain or dipped into a chocolate fountain) we discussed our lives and faith, as well as issues we face as young women in the church and society.
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The next day was the big day with two workshops back to back called “Building the Organization through Creative Programming” with Elizabeth McBride. Both workshops were packed. When the seats where all taken, people sat on the floor along the wall or stood in the back. Boy was I nervous! The idea of the workshop was using creative ideas on getting new and younger women involved in their WELCA units. I had to speak about our Café group at Holy Cross and answer any questions. The first workshop went great. Beth asked the group to raise their hands if they saw our Café webpage on the Holy Cross website. Wow! So many women raised their hands! They said “Oh it’s so wonderful”! I had many women come up to me afterward with hugs and praises. One women gave me a token from Alaska and she actually had tears in her eyes! Another women asked me how she could get the younger women to start up a Café group in her congregation. She told me she was the youngest woman in her WELCA group. I told her that she should and she said really?…and I said why not? Then she got so excited and asked me how to start with invitations and such. The next workshop didn’t go as well. I didn’t get many questions about the group. Many women didn’t understand what Café had to do with WELCA. I felt bummed. No hugs afterwards. No positive feedback.
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| First workshop...see...happy faces |
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| PowerPoint Presentation |
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| Me, Pastor Julia, Pastor Megan, and Pastor Beth |
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The pastors and I enjoyed conversing over dinner. I learned that both Pastor Megan and Pastor Beth have written articles for Café Stirring the Spirit Within.
Pastor Beth was asked to come to the Triennial gathering to host the 5K run/walk/roll, as well as host the “athletic field”. I missed this event. If only I had brought my tennis shoes!
After many wonderful stories, the pastors handed out their cards and we all connected on Facebook. So I made some new friends. GreatJ
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The next day I was approached by a woman who attended the second workshop the day before. She wanted to thank me. She said that her church had too few young women participants and she has four daughters that do not come at all. She told me that she is going to take everything she learned back to her church in hopes of bringing some life back into it and to encourage the younger women to get involved in her church. It touched me very deeply. I was glad to know that the second workshop was not as big a failure as I had thought. That someone had gotten something out of it that would inspire her to try to get the younger women involved.
That day I went to the In-kind gifts presentation and listened to Bishop Mark S. Hanson speak. He said something that left an impression on me. He said that he was in the airport wearing his clerics and a woman asked him what denomination he was. He said he was Lutheran. She said “Oh, I love the Lutherans!”. He asked her why she loves the Lutherans? She told him that she works for FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the Lutherans are always the first to arrive and the last to leave and they don’t leave until they get the job done.
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I ended my trip with closing worship. It was quite something. Big, colorful, powerful sermon, people waving around big green streamers, huge choir, clapping and singing, big screens and plus half of the offering that was received went to the Malaria Campaign. It was a beautiful service. But as I reflect, I prefer worshiping at Holy Cross. It may be small, no clapping, no screens, but it’s where I feel the closeness with God and my church family.
My time at the Triennial Gathering has made me more aware that there is a need throughout the ELCA on finding new, creative ways of getting the young women involved in the church and in their WELCA units. I felt the Holy Spirit working through us at the gathering by coming together and sharing our stories of struggles, perseverance and faith. Our faithful journey to carry the torch from one generation to the next.
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As one women told me from Virginia, the WELCA Gathering three years ago was almost void of young women. She was pleased to see that the number of young participants was greater this year. Let’s pray that in 2014 in Charlotte, NC, the number of young participants will be even greater!
Your Sister in Christ,
Jessica Gill
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January 19, 2011 
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February 16, 2011
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 A special thank you to Beth McBride for sending us the Cafe material early for us to use. Thank you ONE Campaign for overnighting the movie to us to use for the event and the ONE bracelets. Thank you Sarah for making the Red Ribbon Cookies. Thank you to all who came to this event:)
We held our Cafe World AIDS Day event on December 1st, 2010. We started the event by reading and discussing the material from Cafe: Stirring the Spirit Within. The topic was "An Ubuntu Christmas". Afterward we watched "The Lazurus Effect". The evening ended with a World AIDS Day Prayer.
“The church’s ministry of caring is a grateful response to God’s caring for us. The undeserved love of God announced for all in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is our reason for standing with our neighbor in need…In the same way we are called to “be Christs” for all in our midst who suffer and are ill. Our calling summons us to compassion for, acceptance of, and service with people affected by AIDS both within and outside of our congregations.”
From the ELCA’s 1988 message, “AIDS and the Church’s Ministry of Caring
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Reds Outing - July 21, 2010
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Women, faith, Café and dinner:
Café groups by Elizabeth McBride Café, our on-line magazine for young women, is not just something women read but something that brings them together. Young women are forming Café groups to have hearty conversations about life and faith. Sometimes there’s dinner, wine and a movie, too.
Expanding participation in units
Jessica Gill began a Café group in her congregation, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, in Fairfield, Ohio. Although she is involved in her unit, she wanted to increase the participation of other young women. Jessica, who participates in Café’s Facebook group page, posted on the wall and asked how she could start a group. I suggested that she throw a kick-off party for women in their twenties and thirties and just see who shows up. So she did that, and voila! A group was born. Jessica left this update on the Facebook group wall:“Just to let you know . . . our Café group now meets twice a month! Plus we are planning on two different summer outings, one to the Cincinnati Zoo and the other to a Reds game. We are doing VBS this year,and this Wednesday we are watching ‘Created in the Image of God: A Community of Women’ to get ideas on other things we want to do. . . .“ Our last meeting this month, we met at Fairfield Village Green Park and ate Flubs icecream while we read this month’s hot topic. We brought a picnic blanket and picnic cushions to sit on in the grass, and it was a beautiful day out! Plus we have a new group member and we just keep on inviting! Thank you for Café!” (See www.fairfieldlutheran.org/ ministry/cafecircle.php) ~July 2010
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A special message from the editor of Cafe, Beth McBride about our Cafe group at Holy Cross:
Your Cafe group meeting sounds awesome! I am going to pass along that message to some other folks. My goal is to maintain and help start out 10 cafe groups by the end of the year. I am thinking of putting group organizers (like you) on NING, so we can all talk to one another and may...be plan events--those that are close geographically! But there could be loads of things we could do! Or if we want to create a CAFE retreat or something like that, the NING group would be in on the training! Anyway in the meantime, thanks for starting up your group--I hope it continues to grow and provide for a relevant and meaningful space for young women of faith. Keep up the great work! Blessings! Beth
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