Churches gather for common goal

A week ago, in an effort spearheaded by MarinersResources.Org that included Mariners Church, Rock Harbor, St. Andrews, Yorba Linda Friends, Hope Force International and Transparent Productions, people began working toward a goal of 2,000 gift bags for families of firefighters.

Jim Gaffney of Mariners Church encourages people to donate and volunteer.

Gifts of any amount to purchase gift cards for the firefighters can be made at mrm@marinerschurch.org through PayPal (note: Firefighters) or by writing a check to MarinersResources.org (write Firefighters on the memo line) and delivering to 3901 S. Main St. (off the corner of Main and Sunflower) at the MarinersResources.org distribution center, where volunteers assemble and distribute the gift bags.

To get involved, contact Gaffney at jgaffney@marinerschurch.org or (714) 540-4088.

INTERFAITH IN CHINA

Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council members, family members and friends totaling 84 youth and adults are in China as you read today’s Daily Pilot. It is the council’s sixth China tour.

Friday began our tours of Beijing, and highlights included the Great Wall, Ming Tombs and Temple of Heaven. Saturday, we toured Tian An Men Square, the Forbidden City, Summer Palace and visited at Protestant church where we met with the minister and talked about religion in China.

Today, half the group is off to Xi’an to visit the Terra Cotta Warriors while the other half visit Suzhou and Hangzhou. We will meet up together in two days to tour Shanghai, where we will visit a Chinese Catholic cathedral, the Bund and Yu Garden.

The seventh council-sponsored tour to China will be Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, 2008, according to Linda Short, assistant tour director from Harbor Christian Church. More information on the 2008 opportunity can be obtained by visiting www.nmiinterfaith.org.

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WORTH REPEATING

From the Thought for the Day as provided by Greg Kelley of the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council: "The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I.’ And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I.’ They don’t think ‘I.’ They think ‘we’; they think ‘team.’ They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit ? This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.  — Peter Drucker ?