Accessibility Award
The ADAM (Abled Disabled Awareness Ministry) Task Force of the Northwestern Ohio Synod is sponsoring a synod-wide effort to find the congregation that has made the most concentrated effort to become handicapped accessible. Accessibility is not just for the physically handicapped but also includes those who have hearing and sight difficulties as well as those mentally challenged.

The parish that is selected will be honored at the Synod Assembly and presented with a $250 award to further their accessibility efforts. They will also be our synod's entry into a similar search by the ELCA.

In addition to facilities, congregations will be rated on how they have included handicapped people in worship, leadership and parish ministries.

A synod-wide mailing will go out early in 2002 explaining the details and with applications. Deadline for entering will be April 15, 2002.

Coffee Hour Has Come
Does your coffee today cost a fifth of what it did last year? That is how low the current world prices are for coffee farmers. If you were paying them directly for their coffee beans, you would only have to give them a fifth of what you paid them last year! Coffee farmers are in trouble

The good news is that the Lutheran World Relief (LWR) Coffee Project is helping some of them survive this crisis. Equal Exchange, the fair trade organization behind the LWR Coffee Project, calculates that it will pay small producers nearly a million dollars in fair trade premiums this year. Those earnings are over and above the market price.

Now is the time, with world coffee prices at historic lows, to serve coffee that has been fairly traded. Fair trade buys direct from some of the smallest players in the world economy-family coffee farmers. Here is what you can do:

• Show the new video "Grounds for Hope" at an adult forum. See the impact of the LWR Coffee Project. A discussion guide is included. Call 1-800-LWR-LWR-2 to place your order.
  
  
• Order and serve Equal Exchange coffee through the LWR Coffee Project. Call 781-830-0303. There's a measure of justice in every cup.
  
  
• Introduce church members to fair trade. Call 1-800-LWR-LWR-2 for a "Do Justice" packet of materials.
  
  
• Start a buying club for parishioners so more farmers will benefit from fair trade.
  
  
• Encourage other parishes in your area to join the project.

If more of us buy fair trade coffee, more farmers will receive a fair price. The cafeterias at the U.S. Congress recently agreed to give fair trade coffee a try. That's a step already taken by more than 2,000 Lutheran parishes.