Posts by Monica Sheehan (Page 2)

Mark your calendars, and get ready for an amazing week of fresh air and fellowship as Fair Oaks journeys once again down to Great Smoky Mountains National Park for spring break, Mar. 24-28, 2025. Email Ben for more information and make lodging arrangements at Camp Little Arrow.

LOGOS, the weekly intergenerational experience where adults and children in grades 1 – 12 build relationships with one another and with God. Click here for more information, and email Hailey with any questions.

Fair Oaks kicked off its new programming year on Rally Day with a worship service and congregational luncheon. Heads of the church’s various committees shared information and encouraged all to get involved. The day also marked Fair Oaks’ 100th program year! Special events are planned throughout the coming year leading up to Centennial Celebration Weekend: May 3 & 4. Honoring our past. Celebrating our present. Welcoming our future.

Learning Edge Tutoring is looking for volunteer tutors  Volunteer with Learning Edge on Monday nights at Fair Oaks! The program began in late September, and tutors are still needed. The program runs through the school year (holidays excluded). Learning Edge provides free one-to-one tutoring for students who primarily live in the Austin neighborhood. It’s a special program that aims to make a positive impact in students’ lives, and many student-tutor pairs form strong, rewarding relationships. Tutors are matched with a…

Help us celebrate 100 years of Fair Oaks by placing a yard sign in your own yard! To help cover the costs of the signs, we’re asking for suggested donations of $20/per yard sign. To get your sign, click here, and select “100 Year Anniversary” in the dropdown menu or pay via the Realm app, or leave a check or cash in the church office.  Order yours today!

Mark your calendars for next year’s trip to Nashville, Tennessee: July 18-25! Rising ninth graders through graduating high school seniors recently spent a week volunteering in Pensacola, Florida. Like last year’s mission trip to Colorado, this year’s trip focused on environmental justice.

The Afghan family that Fair Oaks has sponsored for almost three years Is moving to California! Our shared three years with them has been full of complicated problems and joyful solutions. We are happy that, with this move, they will be reunited with their large extended family which preceded them to California over a year ago. But we will miss their exuberant good spirits, their loving care for each other, and the amazing adaptation we witnessed to a new country…

As of April 1, 2024, all 165 migrants who had been sheltered in Oak Park since October 2023 have been placed in fully-paid leases for 12 months! Beginning in February of 2024, Fair Oaks began partnering with United Lutheran Church to support a migrant family who is living in an apartment located inside United Lutheran Church. Our partnership with United Lutheran has been to take turns providing fresh foods every other week to supplement items the family has obtained from local food…

The second Fair Oaks-supported, solar-powered water well in The Gambia is complete and working perfectly. Over 275 women, men, and children in the village of Gui Jahanka now have access to a year-round, unlimited supply of clean water for years to come. Up until this time, the village’s sole water source was a shallow, hand dug well which was often polluted and, during the dry season, unreliable.   This life-giving and life-changing project is positively impacting the health, education and well-being of every member of the village.…

Fair Oaks needs preparers and servers for its celebration of communion. All members can help prepare the elements while only ordained members can serve communion. Please consider helping with this important part of our worship service. See the eWeekly to sign up.

Learn about the benefits of native plants, the money-saving use of community solar, the practical aspects of recycling and composting, and how to welcome monarch butterflies to your yard – it’s all in a four-session environmental Adult Education series. While the Zoom series has concluded, each session was recorded. Click here for more information and to access the recorded sessions.

Our church has moved to a new kind of record keeping system, and it comes with an app! Check your eWeekly email or email the church office for a link to sign up or sign in.