2017-2018 CWF Annual Report

The Annual Report of the
Christian Women’s Fellowship
of Marple Christian Church

The Christian Women’s Fellowship is a local branch of the regional, national and international organization called Disciples Women's Ministries which is the charitable women’s organization of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ. Following are the good works of the Christian Women’s Fellowship of Marple Christian Church in Broomall, Pennsylvania in the year 2017-2018.

Our group of women met together for worship, fellowship, and for planning and fulfilling good works from September 2017 through June of 2018. Our September 12th and October 11th meetings were used for planning for the year and especially the annual craft fair. At the September meeting it was reported that for the project for June, which was collecting money for Tools for Hope, we sent $260 to Church World Service.

The hostesses for the September meeting were Janet S. and Joyce D., with 19 in attendance. Janet M. led our devotional. Cheryl provided commentary with a slide show of the city of Copenhagen, with an emphasis on museums and churches (with the help of her husband, Paul R., who ran the slide show).

In October Barbara Ann F. hosted a total of 7 women in the Fellowship Hall. Dale provided our devotional as well as leadership for the craft fair planning. On October 21st we had our 15th annual craft fair, with 33 crafters filling 36 spaces, and raising $2,056.39. We donated $2,000.00 of this to AMANESER 2025 (Alliance for Sustainable Resources Management-in Spanish) keeping the $56.39 to add to our craft fair seed money (to put towards the funds needed for internet advertising for the 2018 craft fair). AMANESER 2025 was created by and works in cooperation with our own Global Ministries, to address the problems caused by recent hurricanes in central Puerto Rico by addressing not only the problems they have now but also will have in the future.  Providing for long-term solutions, they are trying to provide a central area on the island with solar energy panels, a community refrigeration system, and a rainwater harvesting system that can hold 2,000 to 4,000 gallons of water. They will also provide water filters that can filter up to 30,000 gallons of watery and battery operated communication devices. Because of our donation, they say we will receive updates on their work.  They promise that 100% of our funds will go to Amaneser’s efforts.

Although our November 14th meeting had to be canceled by our hostess Marion, Marion and Becky J. put together 68 Christmas Stockings themselves which were delivered to Fair Acres by Emily T..

On December 12th fourteen women met at the home of Marion J. and Becky J.. We filled 225 goody-bags, which were delivered to The Life Center by Sharon M.. Dale led the devotional.

On January 10, 2018 nine women met in the Fellowship Hall with Sharon M. as the hostess and worship leader. The project in January was to collect funds and housekeeping items for The Women of Transformation in Philadelphia. A check for $300.00 was mailed to them in late January. In early March Janet S. and Pat T. delivered the household items we had gathered for The Women of Transformation to their house in West Philadelphia. We took them the following: an additional $10 in cash, various cleaning supplies, several dishcloths, a big container of multipurpose cleaner, ‘Awesome Cleaner’, Shout stain remover carpet cleaner, 2 large packets of septic-safe toilet paper, several used twin-size bed-sheets, several towels, 2 blankets, 5 pillows, 1 blow-dryer, several personal-size shampoos and conditioners, 13 pairs of like-new women’s underwear, 8 like-new bras  30 pieces of make-up, and some clothing.

The hostess and worship leader on February 14th was Janet M.. To work on the Heart Pillows, the February meeting was continued on the evening of Feb 20th at the home of Sharon M.. Twenty pillows were finished at this meeting. Besides the Heart Pillow project, we also raised money for The Cleveland Christian Home, for which Marion was able to send $205.00. About seven to eight women attended each meeting.

Six women of the CWF of Marple Christian Church met together in the morning of March 7 in the Fellowship Hall.  Our hostess was Dale H.. Our worship leader was Marion J., and our project was completing 20 more Heart Pillows.  A total of 40 pillows were delivered to Delaware County Community Hospital in Upper Darby. The heart pillows are used by post-heart surgery patients to hold while coughing.

In the evening of April 11th, eight women met at the home of our hostess, Cheryl. Dale H. led our program and worship.  Our project for April was providing new twin sheets, towels and washcloths for the temporary residents of The Life Center.  Sharon Margolis organized this project and delivered 12 sets of twin sheets, 18 bath towels, and 52 washcloths to the shelter.

The Blanket the World has been the project for May. Marion is sending the collected funds of $240.00, which will purchase 48 blankets, to Church World Service (collected in
increments of $5 for each blanket). Our hostess was Janet S. while Janet M. led the devotional. Eight women attended.

We will meet one more time for this CWF year on June 13th.  Pat T. and Emily T. will be the hostesses for the June Salad Supper. Our program will be brought by Dale and will involve Bible board games.  The June project is collecting funds (in increments of $5) for the Church World Service project called Tools for Hope.

For our first meeting of the 2018-2019 year, we will meet on September 12th. For our Regional Disciples Women’s Ministries 2018 annual retreat that will be held at Joy-el Christian Camp near Greencastle, PA (which is south of York) during the last weekend in September, our CWF has been asked to bring 100 pocket-sized packages of Kleenix tissues.  Each church in PA is being asked to bring 100 of an item to fill a large zip-lock bag to be given to 100 people in need, like the homeless or refugees.  We are also deciding if we will take a gift basket for the DWM retreat raffle that will be used to offset overages on costs for the retreat. If there is a surplus after expenses, raffle money will go towards supplying scholarships for the next PA DWM retreat.

Respectfully submitted by the CWF Recording Secretary, Pat Treat