CONGREGATIONAL/LOCAL NEWS

• Mount Morris held a “Junk in the Trunk” yard sale event on a sunny Saturday, Sept. 10, with dozens of stands (and car trunks) full of a variety of second-hand treasures, crafts, and other goods. Proceeds from the event benefit the congregation’s Loaves and Fish food pantry and the Pinecrest retirement community.
  
  
• On Sunday, Aug. 21, Canton Church of the Brethren baptized Kendahl and Korbin Shake in the lake at Camp Emmanuel, surrounded and supported by family and friends. The clouds split and the sun emerged when the baptism service began.
  
  
• Dawn Blackman, a minister at Champaign (Ill.) Church of the Brethren, was one of the first community leaders to receive a gardening tool made from guns in a “Guns to Garden Tools” event this summer, according to a report published by Illinois Newsroom. Randolph St. Community Gardens, where Blackmon is coordinator, hosted the “weekend of peace” event, with leadership from the Champaign-Urbana Interfaith Alliance and the Ministerial Alliance of Champaign-Urbana & Vicinity and support from Champaign Church of the Brethren, Champaign-Urbana Moms Demand Action, and the Central Illinois Mosque and Islamic Center (CIMIC) in Urbana. The blacksmith collective RAWTools, a Mennonite-sponsored group based in Colorado, did the work of transforming guns into yard signs and shovels for distribution to various local gardens.

Do you have congregational news: celebrations, milestones, “Jesus in the Neighborhood” stories or other things to share with our district family? Please send those to the district office: andreag.iwdcob@gmail.com.