Faculty Commons SLO

CURE SLO is the Cal Poly chapter of CURE International, who’s mission is “healing the sick and proclaiming the Kingdom of God.” CURE International is a Christian organization and the  largest provider of reconstructive surgery to disabled children in the emerging world.

CURE SLO will be hosting their first annual CURE Charity Banquet at Mountainbrook Community Church. This banquet is an opportunity for the campus and larger community to come together and be informed about the 100 million physically disabled children living in the developing world, and the work that CURE does to provide them with physical and spiritual healing. As part of this banquet we will be hosting a silent auction. All proceeds from this event will go directly towards sponsoring specific children’s surgical procedures as CURE hospitals around the world. We hope that this banquet will empower the community to realize that together we can make a difference in the lives of these Children.

What: CURE Charity Banquet & Silent Auction
Where: Mountainbrook Church
Time: 6:00pm
Cost: $15
Services: Child Care Provided (Contact: Amanda Maffris – amaffris@calpoly.edu)
Food: Italian Cuisine (Vegetarian & Chicken option)
RSVP: RSVP by April 22 – Link: http://goo.gl/tZc3Q
Questions: CURESLO@yahoo.com

What is CURE SLO? 
CURE SLO is the campus chapter of CURE International. Through their network of charitable hospitals and surgical programs, CURE delivers life-changing care and the good news of God’s love to children and families with treatable conditions. CURE operates in over 27 countries around the world, and since 1998, has seen over 1.9 million patients, performed over 138,000 surgeries, and trained over 6,100 medical professionals. As a CURE university program CURE SLO’s mission is to raise awareness and financial support for the millions of children living with treatable conditions and the work that CURE is doing to provide them with healing.

Questions or more information: CURESLO@yahoo.com

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Many thanks to the faculty members who supported the “Feed My Starving Children” event – either by announcing it in class, by participating at one of the ten packing sessions, or through a financial gift.

The cost to host the event was $45,000; if  you’d still like to contribute financially, you can do so here.

Above, volunteers during of ten different packing sessions.

Highlights include: 

• Over 200,000 meals were packaged over the two day event for children in the Third World.
• Students from 53 different campus clubs, organizations, fraternities, sororities, and sports teams participated in the event.
• For many students, this was their first exposure to any sort of Christian event on campus. Of the 1500 students who volunteered, 0ver 1000 are not connected to a local church or campus ministry.
• This year, faculty members from Food Science & Nutrition, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, Communication Studies, and Philosphy volunteered during one of the packaging shifts.

Above left: Dr. Laura Hall with a group of her students. Right: Professor Michael Winn working alongside student Luke Bernardy.

As you remember, please pray for the relationships built during this event, and that “gospel conversations” will take place in dorm rooms, greek houses, classroom … and faculty offices.

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We’re looking forward to this weekend’s “Feed My Starving Children” service event.

While most time slots to serve are now full, feel free to stop by any time that works with your schedule. 

If you’re unable to attend, but would like to make a financial gift to help cover the cost of hosting this event, that would be great. Cru (the sponsoring organization) has no campus or “outside” funds to cover the $45,000 needed to host this event. Here’s a link to giving on-line.

As you remember, please pray for this event: for the impact it will make in the lives of students and faculty – and, of course, for the children we seek to minister to. 

For more information: www.FMSC-SLO.blogspot.com

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Friday & Saturday, Feb 22nd & 23rd, Cal Poly students and faculty will come together in 90 minute shifts to package over 200,000 meals. We’d love to have you join us.

You can sign up to participate here. 

Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit Christian organization committed to fighting global hunger through “feeding God’s starving children hungry in body and spirit.” The approach is simple: students, adults and kids hand-pack meals formulated specially for starving children, which are shipped to nearly 70 countries around the world.

In November 2011, a similar event was held. This short clip does an outstanding job explaining what the event is all about:

OK, plenty of students, but what about adults? Here’s a 30 clip with some thoughts from our friend Deborah from Arroyo Grande, who came with her kids:

We hope you’ll consider participating, and inviting your students – or a colleague – to consider joining you. If you have kids (ages 8 and older) they can participate as well.  

To help cover the cost of the event, participants are being asked to consider making a $25 donation, covering the cost of what they’ll actually be packaging – enough to feed a child for nearly four months. 

Questions?

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Winds of Change, sponsored by “Faculty Bridges,” is an outstanding conference specifically designed for Christian faculty members at secular or public universities.

Here are a couple of thoughts from Cal Poly faculty on our speaker – and the conference itself:

Since our days on the faculty of Texas A&M, Walter has always impressed me as a gifted communicator in his faithful ministry to students through Cru (Campus Crusade) and his expert resourcefulness to the engineering community. And he’s also one of the most technical engineers I have ever known. Dr. Paul Rainey

The Winds of Change conference is an opportunity to connect with like-minded believers, to hear what God is doing on other campuses, and renew our own calling to serve on public university campuses. Dr. Mary Pedersen

The cost is just $69 if you register by Jan. 23rd which includes a continental breakfast and sit down lunch. On-site lodging is available. More information can be found here  (ignore the “copy” designation – it’s a system quirk).

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Wednesday night, January 16th, over 700 students, faculty and members of the community were in Chumash Auditorium to hear MIT professor speak on “Faith, Reason, and the Human Need for Certainty.”

The 40 minute lecuture was followed by another 40 minutes of questions from the audience. 

Afterwards, Dr. Van Voorhis dialogued with interested students for almost an hour. He had a full week, speaking at UC Davis, Cal Poly, and Cal Tech.

Wednesday night’s lecture was followed by a panel disucssion Thursday, with three Cal Poly professors (from Physics, Engineering, and Philosophy) sharing their impressions of the talk, and taking questions from a student audience. 

The Veritas Forum is committed to “engaging students and faculty in life’s most important questions and the relevance of Jesus Christ to all of life.” Thank you to the many faculty members who prayed, attended, or participated this event. Please let us know if you have suggestions for a future Veritas Forum topic or speaker. 

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• Are science and faith in opposition to each other? 

• Is scientific progress making God irrelevant? 

• Is science the only path to certainty in what’s real? 

• Is faith a form of non-thinking? That is, somehow believing in things that are false?

• Is Christianity a means to escape the material world – or a way to engage with it?

Please join us for: “Faith, Reason, and the Human Need for Certainty” 8pm Wednesday January 16, 2013 – Chumash Auditorium

Lecture followed by Q & A with our featured guest Dr. Troy Van Voorhis (Associate Professor of Chemistry, MIT). Open to students, faculty, staff, and member of the community. 

Troy Van Voorhis is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at MIT and an expert in electron transfer dynamics, solar energy, and molecular electronics. Dr. Van Voorhis received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and mathematics from Rice University and his PhD in chemistry from UC Berkeley. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, he joined the faculty of MIT. His research focuses on the intersection of quantum mechanics and chemistry. He is the author of numerous scholarly publications, a fellow of the David & Lucille Packard foundation, and has spoken at Veritas Forums at MIT, Bowdoin College, U of Rhode Island, and UC Berkeley.

Sponsored by the Veritas Forum www.veritas.org/calpoly

Please save the date and plan on joining us for the 2013 Veritas Forum as we hear from MIT faculty member Dr. Troy Van Voorhis speaking on “Faith, Reason, and the Human Need for Certainty” Wednesday January 16, 2013 at 8pm in Chumash Auditorium. His lecture will be followed by Q&A from the audience. Here’s a link to a similar presentation given by Dr. Van Voorhis earlier this year at the University of Rhode Island. We hope you’ll consider attending and inviting students or a colleague.

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There will also be an afternoon welcome reception for Dr. Van Voorhis co-sponsored by Faculty Commons.

This will be a time for Christian faculty members to welcome him and hear from him about his personal spiritual journey, his involvement with Veritas, what God is doing at MIT, and as a group pray for him and for the evening’s program.

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Friday, October 26th, International Justice Mission will be hosing a free screening of the documentary film Call + Response at Mountainbrook Community Church (1775 Calle Joaquin, SLO) from 7-9:30pm.  

Since its release in 2008, the film has been profiled by major news networks and screened in communities, colleges, and cultural institutions across the country.  To date, over 350,000 people have viewed the movie, raising over $250,000 for groups helping to free slaves.

International Justice Mission is a Christian organization committed to ending human trafficking through a 21st Century Abolitionist Movement.

More information on the event can be found here. 

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