Kicks off with verenike meal, followed by live and silent auctions
The Mountain Lake MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) Relief Sale – which raises funds for worldwide relief, development and peace – will be held Saturday, April 12, 2014, with sites in two locations.
The event will kick off with a verenike meal served at First Mennonite Church In Mountain Lake, located at 305 7th Street North. (Verenike, an ethnic main dish features cottage cheese pockets topped by a cream sauce) and is usually accompanied by ham.) Serving will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will not be a set price for the meal, only a suggested amount for those on a tight budget, but left open for those who wish to give to the cause. Everyone enjoying the meal will receive a coupon for dessrt at Mountain Lake Christian (MLC) – which is where the action shifts for the live and silent auctions.
The live auction will open at 1:30 p.m. at MLC, located at 710 11th Street North. In addition, many items on silent auction will be ready to take bids. Items for both the live and silent auctions will be on display and viewable that day beginning at 12 p.m.
To top off activities, bake sale items will additionally be available at MLC.
Each year in the United States and Canada, thousands of volunteers come together to raise money for MCC. In 2012, over $5 million was raised to help MCC respond to basic needs and work for peace and justice around the world. Relief Sale events and auctions offer participants a little bit of everything – quilts, artwork, crafted woodwork, homemade foods, antiques and crafts.
MCC’s worldwide actions pursue justice and build peace, assure there is enough food for all for today and tomorrow, improve access to the vital resource of drinking water, meet the needs of individuals following emergencies and disasters, bring education to within the reach of all members in the Global Family and take action to bring an end to AIDS.
Relief, development, peace
The MCC motto, “Relief, development and peace in the name of Christ,” takes MCC workers to many places in the United States and Canada and around the world.
They are there to aid and assist following a natural disaster, they are in Syria providing hygiene kits, they are working in Iran working to build understanding, in Israel and Palestine, helping to forge a lasting peace – and providing emergency assistance in South Sudan, as the following story from the MCC web site (http://www.mcc.org) clearly shares:
Emergency Assistance in South Sudan
There are concerns about the availability of food now and in the months ahead. In areas where armed conflict has been interrupting agricultural work farmers have been unable to prepare for the coming growing season.
MCC is responding in the following ways –
* Providing maize, rice, lentils and beans to 2,000 displaced children living near the Awerial Diocese in Lake State. This $60,000 project is in partnership with the Episcopal Church of South Sudan.
* Financially supporting leaders from the South Sudan Council of Churches as they attend peace talks.
* Currently developing a supplementary feeding project for displaced people in Renk, Upper Nile State.
* Finalizing plans to provide supplementary food for South Sudanese refugees in Kenya.
* Working on ways to assist with recovery from trauma and the documentation of human rights issues.
Photographs of auction items
Following are photographs and descriptions of a number of auction items. More will be added as the date of the event draws closer, so check back:
