July 19 (Portland) and 20 (Albany): MCC Clean Water Fund Raising Concerts featuring traditional and contemporary folk music from Les and Gwen Gustafson-Zook of Goshen, Ind.

August 3-8: West Coast MCC Idaho Panhandle Bike Ride, a week of beautiful rails to trails rides to support MCC water projects.

October 11: 31st annual Oregon Mennonite Festival for World Relief (psst, quilters: the 2014 quilting challenge is to make a mini wallhanging, 22 inches or less)

General auction:                                                        $14,000
Quilt auction:                                                             $22,260
Silent auction:                                                            $2,767
Children’s auction:                                                    $273
Auction “blessing bids” and other donations:     $7,569
Penny Power:                                                             $10,953
Country store:                                                            $6,958
Marta’s Haus:                                                              $4,943
Fair trade:                                                                    $3,300
Books:                                                                          $1,862
Garden shop:                                                              $1,317
Quilt table:                                                                  $930
School kits:                                                                 $543
Apples and cider:                                                       $4,635
Baked goods:                                                              $2,895
Bulk sausage:                                                              $692
Food and drink booths:                                            $14,525

Sale day total:                                                         $100,423

Pre-festival fundraisers:

Chorale:                                                                       $3,680
Albany Barbecue:                                                       $5,860

Total for year:                                                         $109,963

In the Philippines Mennonite Central Committee is responding to Typhoon Haiyan, providing funding for relief, supporting an initial assessment team of an MCC partner organization, and working with partners to determine needs for longer-term recovery.

With help from supporters like you, MCC is providing an initial $50,000 to Church World Service, which is working with the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Network, to respond with urgent food and non-food items. Initially this assistance is focusing on Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Island (both in Mindanao) and on Bohol and Samar (both in Visayas), areas where MCC’s partners have access to be able to help.

MCC also is providing funding to Peacebuilders Community, a Mennonite-related agency, to send a 10-member team from Cebu and Mindanao, trained in disaster preparedness, to Leyte Island, an area where thousands of people are believed to have perished.  ■

For the latest information, go to mcc.org.

Trip around the World in rust, green, tan and cream prints; top purchased in Pennsylvania and hand quilted by Salem Mennonite quilters ($2,000)

Broken Star Log Cabin pieced in brown and green forest prints with added animal skin prints, purchased in Arizona and donated by Donna Miller ($1,250)

Framed 8-Point Stars in colors of autumn leaves, pieced and hand quilted by the MCC Material Resource Center quilters ($1,100)

Party Mix with modified snowball blocks in multicolor fabrics, hand quilted by Salem Mennonite quilters ($1,000)

In the general auction, the top-selling item was the very first of the day: a loaf of bread baked by festival chairperson Ron Litwiller, who is president and CEO of Mennonite Village. Given the amazing $1,000 bid, he says, “Several people have suggested I’m in the wrong business.”  ■

Thanks be to God for the blessings of the 30th annual Oregon Mennonite Festival for World Relief. And thank you for making this day a success. Through our joined efforts, more than $100,000 was raised to serve people around the world through the ministry of Mennonite Central Committee. Here’s a starting list of things we’re thankful for:

1. God’s grace and protection: The rain held off. No one was hurt. And it was a great day.

2. Volunteers, volunteers, volunteers: You stepped forward to set up chairs and display quilts, organize books and fabrics, record bids, sell tickets and fair trade gifts, staff booths and compost stations, paint faces, wash silverware, sweep floors, oh my, and so much more.

3. Quilters, crafters, and woodworkers: It would have been a small auction without you and your skill with needle and thread, wood and tools. The countless hours you gave will give hope to countless people worldwide. Special thanks to our school kit bag sewers and the young artists who decorated shopping bags.

4. Cooks and bakers including Kris Krabill of Kris’ Kitchen, spring roll experts Booney and Chanh Syravong, Gary and Brenda Burch, Wanda Sheeler, Albany Service Adventure, whoopie pie bakers from Zion Mennonite, cookie baking youth, pie bakers George and Aimee Cairati, the apple dumpling gang, and so many others: Exemplifying our 2013 theme of “Food for All,” you made the festival a “feastival.”

5. Generous donors: You provided goods for the auctions, garden shop, Marta’s Haus, country store, book booth, and school kits. And through “blessing bids” in the auction and other direct gifts, donors collectively gave more than $7,000 straight to MCC.

6. Generous bidders and buyers: You know how to shop for a better world!

7. Penny Power ambassadors who collected coins in our churches: You helped raise $10,953.41!

8. More volunteers: Our incredible auctioneers and auction coordinators! The Et Cetera Shop team! Appleman Alan Frost, children’s activities leader Heather Gingrich, and all the store managers! Photographer Don Bacher! The Festival String Band!

9. Behind-the-scenes business partners: Cascades Case, which stores our equipment from year to year. Loaners and movers of straw bales. Mennonite Village, which provided the great soups as well as golf carts this year. Cascade Printing, Lee Newspapers, and Darkside Cinema, which provide nonprofit discounts.

10. And even more volunteers who work year-round on planning: Webmaster and graphic designer Curt Weaver! Board members! Special thanks to Kiara Yoder, who has been our foods director for the last four years and helped make our food service more environmentally friendly. ■