REV. LYNN CHEYNEY and TRAVIS OVERBECK at WVRC on August 25th
The Pledge was led by JOHN O’KEEFE. DAVID FRIEDMAN provided the Invocation, “Dear Lord, Hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us. Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. Amen.” Well done, DAVID thanks. And keeping it all in the family, LENNY came forward to lead us in My Country ‘Tis Of Thee.
We had two Visiting Rotarians, Paul Stromgborg, from Sycamore, Illinois, who was accompanied by his wife, Mentyn, and Steve Macick, a guest of the person who introduced our Speaker, Renato Romano, who is from Beverly Hills Rotary. PEGGY brought her helper, and of course LENNY was accompanied by SUNNY.
PP MIKE NEWMAN gave us the sad news that SALLY NEWMAN had slipped away earlier this week. As you will recall, this was expected, and HOMER, MIKE and ANGEL were with her. The services will be private, with a public ceremony later on. DWIGHT HEIKKILA came forward to remind us that the visit to Chinatown Rotary will take place on 7-8-9 October, and there are SEVEN events planned around that visit!
CRISTA STILLEY had a wonderful announcement - she is ENGAGED - and her partner already belongs to Hollywood Rotary! Sounds to YOE like some joint meetings are likely - and our best wishes to CRISTA, of course.
Renato Romano introduced our Speaker — or, as it turned out, two speakers. Rev. Lynn Cheney is the minister at Westwood Presbyterian Church, and her associate is Travis, and he has his degree from Princeton Theological Seminary, and is the Director of Outreach at Westwood Presbyterian. The way this turned out was that they alternated on topics, and there certainly was a lot to talk about. They consider themselves as the Little Church That Could.
Travis came on to outline what he does. One of his basic functions is to be sure the Church has everything they need to carry on their mission of outreach. This includes supplies, study materials, even lesson plans to guide their efforts. He has found this to be a wide-ranging subject, which is one of the reasons it is so intriguing.
Rev Lynn pointed out that there are 500,000 homeless children, and 10% of them are in Los Angeles — so we don’t lack for subjects. Actually, 150 of them are within boundaries of their church, right here in WLA. One subject — what hunger does to those who don’t get enough to eat? Provides a most graphic reason for us all to be involved in this project.
We thank you both for coming to talk to us. You can reach Westwood Presbyterian Church at (310) 474-4535, and they welcome your calls.
