We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

2023 Sun July 23

Village Harvest, July 2023 – A Quick Analysis

CLIENTS

For the first 7 months average clients are done from 88 to 79, a 10% reduction.

Clients increased from June from 65 to 72 in July.

Total clients served is 552 in 2023 vs. 617 in 2022, a 11% reduction.

FOOD

Total food is down from 8,844 pounds for first 7 months in 2022 to 7,576 in 2023, a 14% reduction.

Food at 1,206 was over June at 949. It was the second largest supply in 2023.

Pounds per person is 13.7 in 2023 first 7 months vs. 14.3 in 2022 for 7 months.

Considering just June to July, pounds per person, rose from 14.6 to 16.75, the second highest figure in 2023.

FOOD TYPES

In terms of supply, there was a smaller percentage of produce 41% in July vs. 45% in June.  However, it was a larger percentage than a year ago in July, 2022. In July, 2022, it was 34% produce.

OTHER

Cookie bought can openers for those who requested them. We are keeping a list of those who requested to make sure sure they will get them if they were not there in July.

The Free Lance-Star had an additional article recently on other food sources. We have had our “Grab and Go” meals list plus a texting method of finding summer meals

Videos, Pentecost 8, July 23, 2024

Hymn of Praise – “Praise to the Living God”

Sequence Hymn – “What wondrous love is this”

Gospel and Sermon – Rev. Tom Hughes

Prayers of the People

Communion

Concluding Hymn – “On Christ the solid rock I stand”

Moving speech from Stuart Scott in 2014 in winning the JimmyV perseverance

Stuart, an ESPN host since 1993, was recognized towards the end of the ESPY awards show for his efforts in sports journalism. He has been battling a rare form of cancer for 7 years. He won the JimmyV Perseverance Award.

For Scott, giving up is not an option; he has refused to backdown. He has not allowed the disease to dictate how he lived. Fighting is winning and not quitting.

He has continued his work as an announcer with ESPN through it all doing what he loves and remaining a devoted father at the same time.

Here is his story and speech this week. We keep him in our prayers. 

He died in early 2015.

Jim Valvano’s acceptance speech in 1993  in accepting the inaugural Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award is moving now as it was then. He died only months later.
 

Valvano was a legendary coach at NC State and later announcer. His  speech at the 10th anniversary of that institution’s university’s 1983 NCAA championship stressed the importance of hope, love and persistence, and included his famous "Don’t give up, don’t ever give up" quotation.

Other Voices of the Human Spirit

"The greatest achievement of the human spirit is to live up to one’s opportunities and make the most of one’s resources."- Luc de Clapiers
" Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit."- e. e. cummings 
" Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us."  -Wilma Rudolph 
" It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated… it is finished when it surrenders." – Ben Stein 

Celebrating the Human Spirit

Remembering Raoul Wallenberg and the "Righteous Gentiles"

July 9th is the anniversary to the day of Raoul Wallenberg’s arrival in Budapest in 1944 to begin a rescue mission that would result in his saving 100,000 Jewish lives. On that day in 2014, Wallenberg received posthumously the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award of the US.

Links:

1. More about the "Righteous Gentiles"

2. Congressional Luncheon honoring the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

3. US Holocaust Museum article on Wallenberg