WEEKLY WORSHIP BULLETIN NOTICES  (See http://www.avenue.org/cropwalk)

For Sunday, September 6th:
A CROP Hunger Walk general information and materials distribution meeting will occur this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. in the Student Center at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Please consider attending and serving as a recruiter for your group, class or organization. Our 38th Annual Charlottesville/Albemarle CROP Hunger Walk will occur on Sunday, October 11th.  

For Sunday, September 13th:
	The 38th Annual Charlottesville/Albemarle CROP Hunger Walk will occur on Sunday, October 11th.  Please plan to participate as a Walker or financial supporter.

For Sunday, September 20th:
	The CROP Hunger Walk to raise funds for local and international hunger and disaster relief will occur on Sunday, October 11th.  Sponsor envelopes are available from   (name of your group's recruiter).

For Sunday, September 27th:
	Our congregation will be joining hundreds of other faithful Charlottesville‑area people in the CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday, October 11th.  Please be generous with your pledge!

For Sunday, October 4th:
	Our annual Charlottesville‑Albemarle CROP Hunger Walk will occur next Sunday.  Many individuals have already signed up to walk. If you are able to join them see  (your recruiter's name)  for a Sponsor Envelope.  Otherwise, please sponsor a Walker.

For Sunday, October 11th:
	The Charlottesville‑Area CROP Hunger Walk is TODAY!  Registration begins at 1:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church.  The walk will begin at approximately 1:30 p.m.  Walkers from all over our community will be raising money for relief of hungry people.  Our CROP Hunger Walk will follow a 10 kilometer loop route which starts and ends at First Presbyterian Church on Park Street.  We will walk through the Downtown Mall, out Ridge Street and then along Cherry Avenue and Jefferson Park Avenue and back on Main Street.  The CROP Hunger Walk begins with a brief ceremony.  Along the way refreshments, rest rooms, and encouragement are offered at rest stops.  

ARTICLES FOR NEWSLETTERS:

(1)	38th Annual Charlottesville-Albemarle CROP Hunger Walk, Sunday, October 11th

	This year marks the 38th annual Charlottesville-Albemarle CROP Hunger Walk.  Participants in our previous CROP Hunger Walks have raised over $767,000. Last year our local CROP Hunger Walk raised $35,754 or an average of over $120 per Walker.

	Twenty‑five percent of this money has been distributed locally to our Community Meals on Wheels and the Emergency Food Bank.  The rest of this money has been used by Church World Service (CWS) to help hungry people, including refugees and victims in war‑torn areas and those suffering from natural disasters and epidemics.  For example, Church World Service continues to work in coalition with Action by Churches Together (ACT) to help more than 250,000 people in the Darfur of Sudan and neighboring Chad, who are affected by violence.  People are benefitting from water and sanitation programs, health and nutrition assistance, peacebuilding initiatives, agricultural assistance, and support for schools and the education of youngsters affected by the conflict. 

	This year our CROP Hunger Walk will occur on Sunday, October 11th.  Everyone is encouraged to participate by being either a walker or a sponsor.  Walking helps us relate to the poor and hungry of the world, who walk everywhere.  People who walk obtain pledges, with pledge envelopes available from (name of your group/church's recruiter).  Walkers' friends, family members, and fellow church members are often happy to sponsor them.  People can also send their CROP donation to    (your group's recruiter)  ; checks payable to CROP. 

(2)	CROP Hunger Walk:  Sunday Afternoon, October 11th

	The CROP Hunger Walk is a community-based hunger education and fund raising event sponsored by Church World Service (CWS).  Twenty-five percent of the funds raised by our CROP Walk are used to support the local hunger relief work of our Community Meals on Wheels and Emergency Food Bank.  Church World Service uses seventy-five percent of the funds to provide disaster relief and recovery, food, medical supplies, refugee resettlement, training and other self-help development activities through partner agencies in more than 80 countries.  For example, 160 children in slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, are being empowered by receiving a basic education, skills-training (sewing, cooking), and personal care, with support from CWS and local partner, The Ecumenical Foundation for Peace and Justice.  The children, mostly girls, are at a heightened risk of abuse, including sexual violence, prostitution, and substance abuse. The program works to educate the children and their community about these issues. In addition, the children learn about human rights and peaceful ways to resolve conflicts, and receive hot nutritional meals and school supplies. 

	Over 2,000 CROP Hunger Walks that involved 250,000 individual walkers raised approximately $15 million last year.  Our local CROP Hunger Walk had 295 walkers who raised $35,754.  Walkers include: athletes and accountants, babies and beauticians, cooks and contractors, doctors and directors, engineers and ecologists, homemakers and historians, lawyers and landscapers, mechanics and musicians, pastors and politicians, teenagers and teachers, rabbis and retirees, students and social workers.  

	Our CROP Hunger Walk will be held, Sunday, October 11th, at 1:30 p.m.  The Walk will follow a 10 kilometer loop which begins and ends at First Presbyterian Church on Park Street.  People of all ages are invited to walk or pledge money to a walker.  Please contact
  (name of your group's recruiter)   to walk or pledge.    (Recruiter)    will be available at
 (place and time)   to distribute pledge envelopes.

(3)	CROP Hunger Walk, A RESPONSE TO GOD'S LOVE:

	In Micah 6:8 we read "... and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."  What better way to show God's love than to help provide for those in need?  

	Please consider participating in the Charlottesville‑Albemarle CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday, October 11th. A few hundred other walkers will join us at First Presbyterian Church with the goal of raising $38,000 to help feed the hungry.  Everyone can participate.  If you are able to be a walker, see   (recruiter's name)  for a Sponsor Envelope.  Then, sign up people to sponsor you in the CROP Hunger Walk.  If you are not able to walk, please be generous when approached by a walker.  By working together as people of faith, we can make a difference.

	Twenty‑five percent of the money we raise stays in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area, supporting our local Emergency Food Bank and Meals‑on‑Wheels.  Seventy‑five percent goes to Church World Service, the interdenominational agency that works to eradicate hunger and poverty.