Back to School Expo

No Strings Attached Clothing Giveaway and Edgewater Alliance Church are holding a Back to School Expo on Saturday, August 11th. This event will provide quality used clothing and new backpacks and school supplies to elementary age children in the area. The even will run from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm at Edgewater Alliance Church. Children who live in Volusia County and are in Kindergarten through grade 5 are eligible!

The church is located at 310 N. Ridgewood Ave in Edgewater. If you would like to volunteer you can find the form here.

Beth Moore Simulcast

On September 15th Edgewater Alliance Church is pleased to present Living Proof with Beth Moore...This simulcast with Beth Moore and Travis Cottrell is September 15th, doors open at 8:30 am with the program beginning at 9:30 am it will run til 4:30 pm. Breakfast and Lunch are included.

Edgewater Alliance Church is located at 310 N. Ridgewood in Edgewater. You can register online on the church website. Advance registration will run until August 14th and is $20.00. You can still register after that for $25.00 until August 31st. Registration closes August 31st. Space is limited so don't wait. Call 386-427-0385 for tickets or more information.

How Do You Help?

On Friday my eleven year old son and I were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to assist volunteers from Edgewater Alliance Church in serving the Hot Community Meal, each day volunteers from local churches and the Halifax Urban Ministries serve a hot meal to anyone who needs it at 11:30 am in Hollister Hall, located at the First United Methodist Church, 310 Douglas Street. Tuesday & Thursday there is a volunteer who uses his catering truck to serve hamburgers and hot dogs to anyone who is hungry. I understand the numbers range from 70-100 people each day. This meal is put on 7 days a week.

I am not sure exactly how it works or who coordinates all this but it was an eye opening experience for my son to help someone else and see just how lucky he is. He chopped lettuce, cut up dessert, helped several of the diners get their food to the table. He did not want to leave, he was a question box when we left, he wanted to know where the people live, how do they get their clothes and purses. There was a woman there with a child who we saw in the parking lot earlier, I am pretty sure she was living in her van. My son asked me, "do they not have a Grandma?" I told him I was not sure what their situation was, and he said "it is good we have a Grandma and an Uncle Rick." Yes, it is good, and some people are not so lucky.... He was checking the calendar to see when we go back next month. yes he wants to go back. That says it all.

Here is some information on local resources and how you can help if you are in a position to do so.

Community Resource List

Frog Ministries

Free Lunch & Dinner Locations

Halifax Urban Ministries

New Smyrna Beach Church List

"There but for the grace of God go I...."

Sunday Stumble

What a gorgeous weekend we had at the beach! My son and I went to church today at Edgewater Alliance. They were talking about a program they had for elementary age children during spring break, from 7am-530pm every day during break they had a Spring Break Camp at the church. They had 74 children attend and the high school age youth volunteered to help. Yes, I said volunteered. They gave up their entire spring break to assist with arts and crafts, games, music and worship for 74 elementary children from our community. Some were children of parishioners, some were children from the community. Get this, it was free. There was no charge to parents for an entire week of fun for their kids and peace of mind knowing where they were during break. I find this to be amazing, not just that the church offered this to the community for free but that they found high school kids, many of them boys to volunteer to make birdhouses, get pies in the face and suffer all sorts of indignities that only elementary age children can dish out. WOW, what a wonderful place!

You can visit with us on Sundays at Edgewater Alliance on S. Ridgewood in Edgewater. Service times are 830, 945 and 1115. They also have great Youth Programs on Wednesday nights.

Some other local sites of interest:

The Cheap Gourmet - great site for all things cheap and gourmet. Great recipes, ideas and entertainment.

Women's Self Esteem Blog - I met Dorothy on Twitter. I started reading her blog and could not stop. She says alot of things that we all think but would probably never vocalize. Love it.

Have you seen our new "official" City of New Smyrna Beach website. It is very pretty and much more user friendly than the old one.

Have a great week!

Churches

There are many fine local churches in our area for newcomers and visitors to attend. There are a couple of good lists that I found to direct you. The first is here on Topix. It lists 56 local churches from Port Orange to Edgewater to Samsula. Google probably has the best listing I found here. You can access websites and directions directly from this page.

Since we have lived here we have attended several churches. Beachside we visited Coronado United Methodist. We also visited Crossroads Christian Church. Their holiday events were excellent and we enjoyed the regular service very much. We regularly attend Edgewater Alliance Church in Edgewater. Both of these wonderful churches provide their sermons online so you can have a listen before you go if you so desire.

The beach is lovely this weekend, low surf, water is cold but no sign of any jellyfish.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Merry Christmas

For the past several weeks we have been attending & greatly enjoying Edgewater Alliance Church, during one of our first visits we had the pleasure of hearing this wonderful singer perform "Let There Be Light". His name is Voltaire Andrews and he is incredible. Tonight at the Christmas Eve Service he performed again. So thru the magical power of Google, when I got home this evening I found him and some of his music. Have a listen and Merry Christmas!




Voltaire Music On YouTube

Voltaire Music Website