If you look around on Sunday mornings, you will find a table that’s labeled "The Deacons' Table" which will become a new and permanent addition to our Sunday morning Gathering space activities. Sally Schneider will be making a beautiful quilted banner that will be hung to identify the table. This will become a focal point where the Deacons can better serve and inform the congregation, enhance their various pastoral ministries, and also to assist you with getting connected to proper support and care-givers as needed. The Deacons will be staffing the table in between services to facilitate individual-confidential prayers, listen to your concerns, and just to chat. Please stop by and get acquainted or just to say hello.

Now that I’ve finally retired, I’ll be spending less time with ARTA and getting more involved with local volunteer work … so I thought that it would be “appropriate” to put some of my ARTA thoughts in writing. I made my first trip to San Juanito, Las Tinajas, and Sicachique in the Sierra Tarahumara in the late spring of 1997 with Jack Frost and Walt Lance – meeting up with Jim Shibley when we arrived in San Juanito. At that time, we were mainly distributing fertilizer and looking at corn, teaching farmers to build cold frames, running water lines from remote springs to communal locations, and undertaking a few minor construction projects at the school at Las Tinajas.

The nature of our activities has changed a lot since 1997, but our compelling desire to help these needy and wonderful friends we’ve gained has never faltered. With the departure of Jack Frost we’ve moved away from a lot of the engineering and facility work, and with the later departure of Jim Shibley we’ll also be leaving potential agronomy projects behind. But not completely – we’ve recently laid a foundation for a new bodega and sleeping quarters in Sicachique, and we are continuing to support the fertilizer distribution activity, although from a greater distance.

We’ve transitioned somewhat into some social action activities like starting the twice a year trip for eye and dental patients from San Juanito to Guerrero. Initially we established the necessary contacts to get patients scheduled and we traveled to San Juanito to provide the transportation. Now they are able to handle the process themselves and it will become cheaper and easier with the school bus the ARTA purchased and delivered to the school in November of 2009. Primarily, the school bus will enable the school to increase their student body by 40 percent.

Anyone who is involved in charity work will tell you that they get much more out of it than they put in – regardless of their time, expense, and effort. In ARTA it was extremely interesting to see how a small charity works – the gathering, balancing, and commitment of resources, the determination and planning of activities and projects, and the interaction of personalities, talents, and agendas. Then there is the excitement of learning to work within another culture – this was exceedingly educational. Lastly, and most importantly, are the relationships that you make and the deep satisfaction of building on these relationships and truly becoming a positive and enabling force in the lives of others.

Since 1997 I’ve also seen many people of varying talents and capabilities pass through the program – far too many to name, but the number would be in the 40’s or 50’s. However, right now our active membership is somewhere in the 8 to 10 range with very little technical know-how and experience but an awful lot of desire and enthusiasm. While we still have a lot of ideas for meaningful work projects and have enlisted the input of the families and villages that we serve, we remain in dire need of additional people and funding. As one can imagine, in these very tight days our donations are down considerably, the possibility of generating an income stream from grant funding does not appear to exist, and our budget projection only gives us about 2 to 3 more years of life. It is my hope that some out there will sense a calling to the work of ARTA and will join up with us in person or financially. It is a calling to a really terrific adventure!!!

This handbook has been prepared as a result of a Deacon’s retreat where we determined that some aspects of the Pastoral Ministry at Shepherd of the Valley may not be known by current or prospective members. This handbook is intended to summarize and inform interested parties regarding the various ministries available. You can be involved both in a providing and receiving role in many of these ministries.

Download the Deacon's Handbook here to learn What, When, Where and How to Fit into the Life of the Church.

Menaul School is gearing up for another exciting summer at Panther Camp. SOTV has supported Menaul School’s summer camp program in the past and they wanted to let you know about this great opportunity and their plans for the summer. This year’s theme is "Imagine What You Can Be!” which explores different careers each week with educational activities and more! The camp runs for 6 weeks in June & July, and is for children entering grades 1^st - 6^th. Hours are Monday-Friday from 8am to 4pm. Find details at the Panther Camp website: http://www.menaulschool.com/programs/summer_programs/panther_camp/.

Financial assistance is available to families that are in need. For more info contact Menaul School at 505-344-7727 or www.menaulschool.com.

Where are all those jars of peanut butter (donated monthly by members of Shepherd of the Valley) going?

They are going to the same place a growing number of SOTV volunteers are going, according to Bill Snead, SOTV mission elder. The place is the Rio Grande Food Project, also known as the Rio Grande Food Pantry. It is located at Rio Grande Presbyterian Church, 600 Coors NW, about a mile south of the Interstate 40 and Coors interchange.

In 2010, pantry workers, including the SOTV volunteers, handed out over 375,000 pounds of food to over 25,000 people. A growing number of SOTV volunteers are following the peanut butter trail — and showing up weekly at the food project to package and distribute food to people in dire need. The SOTV volunteer team at the pantry has swelled to almost a dozen people.

Why do they do it?

Tim Stepetic, one of the core members, says he looks on his work at the pantry “in terms of giving back. People have always helped me.” Two years ago he heard about the pantry operation from SOTV member Lara Raban, and he has been there weekly ever since. Unloading 50-pound bags and boxes of flour, beans, cabbages and frozen chicken quarters also keeps him in shape.

Many jobs at the pantry, fortunately, are not as physically demanding. Some volunteers help check in the people who arrive for a week’s worth of food. Other volunteers make up food packages by allocating items from larger containers to smaller portions, while many volunteers box up food items for each family. Recipients can pick up food supplies only once every two months.

Recently, SOTV volunteer Kathy Rhoades arrived on a Monday morning at the pantry and learned there was a food supply shortage. She got in her car and began visiting possible donors. Eventually, she decided to visit St. Pius X High School, located not far from the food pantry location. It was a cold call--Kathy is not Catholic.

She was welcomed at the high school, and after explaining her mission, she was told that St. Pius students had been making up individual, nutritionally balanced food packets for several years. Last year all the food packets went to Haiti. Kathy learned that this year St. Pius X wanted to distribute the meals locally, with high school students helping in the distribution. St. Pius X offered the Rio Grande Food Project 47,000 meals.

When the shock of the generous offer settled in, Kathy realized she had no idea where all those meals would be stored while awaiting distribution. Later, as word of the favorable predicament circulated, SOTV members Paige and Greg LoPour were able to put Kathy in contact with a person they knew who owned some available storage space.

The deal was sealed, all because of that cold call by an SOTV volunteer, and a generous donation by St. Pius X High School. Was the Lord’s hand at work?

Food boxes are distributed at the Food Project at Rio Grande Presbyterian Church on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Trucks bringing in food are unloaded on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Some fresh produce also is sent to the pantry from Shepherd of the Valley’s garden. Lorrie Stepetic is a prime mover in that effort.

Volunteers from Shepherd of the Valley who participate weekly in the Food Project program include Terry Bryant, Ruth Henss, Dorothy Wilkinson, Mary Trujillo, Gwen Petty, Gordon and Vicki Macaulay, Tim Stepetic, and Kathy Rhoades. SOTV also volunteers to staff the food project every 3rd Saturday of the month. That effort, organized through the shepherd groups, affords everyone the opportunity to volunteer. The Rio Grande Food Project can always use a few more volunteers!

The pantry staff is headed by David Whiteley, Executive Director (who also is pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Jemez Springs) and also includes Rocio Gonzales, volunteer coordinator (who can be reached at 967-5158 by anyone wishing to volunteer in the program), and Shirley Montoya, food service coordinator.

Inspiration for the work comes from Scripture, including the Gospel of John when Jesus asked Peter for the third time: (John 21:17 ) “Do you love me? And he said to him, ‘Lord You know all things: You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep.’”

Hal Simmons

February 20 marked the first official SOTV Garden workday of the 2012 growing season. Weed block and gravel was laid in the paths and the pre-school fence railroad ties were recycled for fruit tree borders.

The cold weather simply made us more efficient!

Thanks to Gerry, Frank, Dick, Tim, Wess, Billy, Lindsay, Karl, Kimberly, Gwen, Lorrie, Ryan, Trenten and Lara!

Allison and Eric Pyle, daughter and son-in-law of Richard and Terry Bryant, have received donations and are continuing to be supported by several members of SOTV on their Wycliffe Missionary assignment. They have been in Tanzania for over a year now and after orientation and language school last spring are living in Musoma, Tanzania. They are renting a house and have gotten adjusted to life there. Eric and Allison have been thrilled to attend dedications in several communities of the Gospel of Luke in native languages (Ikoma, Kabwa, and Zanaki) and have gotten to visit quite a few local churches and some of the remote communities.

Allison is working on linguistic analysis and as a translation advisor on the Jita language. The team is working on the book of Acts. Allison works on a few chapters at a time with the local translators to make sure the translation communicates well. The next step in the process is for the translators to go out in the communities and check for understanding to see if the translation says what they intended. The team has a rough draft of the entire book of Acts but many steps remain before they get to a final draft. Also underway is a translation of the book of Luke into the Jita language.

Eric is working to integrate translation software from the United Bible Society, Paratext, with Fieldworks, the linguistics and translation software that SIL (the Wycliffe overseas organization) uses. His major focus lately has been to provide a means for Paratext to send data to Fieldworks. This will provide linguists with easier access to the work of the translators so they can better understand the language and improve the dictionary for each language. Being out in the field has also helped Eric understand some issues with the current software that need to be resolved. In addition Eric has been helping with IT problems in the office since the regular IT support person is currently in the U. S.

If you would like to receive their newsletters, request them by going to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or find them on Facebook: EricAllisonPyle.

Through the efforts of folks who attend the Survivor of Suicide group meetings at SOTV, a day has been named by the legislature in Santa Fe to bring awareness to the tragedy of suicide in our midst and the effects on the survivors. Following is the letter to Al and Linda Vigil, leaders of the SOTV group, written by the person who worked towards this goal, Romy Baca:

Dear Linda and Al,

I have confirmed, with Lee Witt of the New Mexico Legislature and on behalf of Senator Michael Sanchez, that Thursday, February 2, 2012 will be Survivor of Suicide Support Day at the Legislature. The memorial has been drafted at my request.

All survivors of suicide are invited to attend. A large participant support would be greatly appreciated.

The memorial will be presented on the Senate Floor at 10:00 or 10:30 am. It would be a good idea for everyone to be present by at least 9:15 because things move very fast there.

Al and Linda Vigil, Marion Waterston, and Rich Schwoebel will be introduced because of their leadership and involvement in the support group and I will be introduced because I have requested this day.

We are the survivors of the suicide of someone that we love. The struggles we face on a daily basis are tremendous and only known to us. This NM Legislature recognition and its ensuing publicity will hopefully enhance the awareness of the SOS support groups statewide.

Thank you!

Romy Baca
TCAA to Honorable Edmund H. Kase III
Division I - 7th Judicial District Court
Socorro, NM

SOTV Note: Thanks to Linda and Al for all your hard work in the field of Survivors of Suicide and for establishing an SOS group at SOTV. That group meets the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month in the portable.

ANGEL TREE -- this Sunday, November 20, marks the beginning of Angel Tree season at SOTV. The ministry works by connecting parents in prison with their children through the delivery of Christmas gifts. This year we are sponsoring over 100 children! You will not want to miss the opportunity to be blessed by helping another this holiday season. Pick up an angel or two from the tree (Don't forget to sign them out!), financially support the ministry by attending the Puppets of the Valley performance this Saturday, or sign up to deliver gifts the weekend of December 17th. Stop by the table in the Gathering Space any Sunday or contact Lara Raban to find out how you can get involved.

Due to severe funding issues, Martineztown House of Neighborly Service has suspended services for 6 months. They plan to take this time to reevaluate their mission and explore other community options. We are so saddened by this news! But we also know God’s hand is in this and that He will work through every detail.

As you may know, each year we donate Thanksgiving baskets to Martineztown families through our Shepherd Groups. The Martineztown Women’s Auxiliary meets early this month to determine if they will collect them this year. In the meantime, SOTV will continue to collect the food items. If they do not go to Martineztown, we know they will be put to good use at the Rio Grande Food Project.

Please continue to hold Martineztown in your prayers.

Lara Raban, Mission Elder