ZANT News - December 2016 1 www.zant.org December 2016 A Publication of Zoroastrian Association of North Texas ZANT NEWS We welcome and encourage feedback from our community. Please send comments or suggestions to [email protected]or mail to ZANT, 1605 Lopo Road, Flower Mound, TX 75028-1306 Message from the Board 2 Religion class/Vohu Manah group 2 Sanjan Day Celebration 3 ZANT Youth Lock-in 4 Huvarshta Project 4 ZANT Yalda Celebration 4 Guest speaker on holistic health 5 Kid’s Corner 6 ZANT Membership Form 8 Weekend Wonders 4 Kidz 9 Past Events in Pictures 11-13 ZANT Address: Zoroastrian Center of North Texas 1605 Lopo Road Flower Mound, TX 75028-1306 I NSIDE THIS I SSUE B OARD OF DIRECTORS President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Social Director Director Director Jamshed Jamadar Kashmira Contractor Mehroo Madeka Charlotte Kharas Pearl P. Balsara Persis Shroff Bahrassa Monaz Karkaria ZANT U PCOMING E VENTS Nov. 13: Religion Class / Vohu Manah Group Nov. 19: ZANT “Sanjan Day” celebration Nov. 25-26: ZANT Annual Youth Lock-in Dec. 4: Guest speaker Dec. 17: ZANT “Yalda” celebration Jan. 8: Religion Class / Vohu Manah Group Jan. 21: AGM / Jashn-e-Sadeh Feb. 5: SuperBowl Party Feb. 12: Religion Class / Vohu Manah Group Feb. 18: Bylaws Meeting / Gahambar Mar. 11: Unity Park— ZANT Huvarshta Project Mar. 12: Religion Class / Vohu Manah Group Mar. 18: Panjeh Prayers Dear Community, We urge you to update your email addresses with ZANT so that the Newsletters and E-Flash news emails reach you in a timely fashion. Please feel free to contact any member of the Board with your updated information. Kindly remember to renew your membership in November 2016 (see enclosed membership form). Thank you!
Transcript
ZANT News - December 2016 1
www.zant.org December 2016
A Publication of Zoroastrian Association of North Texas
ZANT NEWS
We welcome and encourage feedback from our community. Please send comments or suggestions to [email protected] or mail to ZANT, 1605 Lopo Road, Flower Mound, TX 75028-1306
Message from the Board 2
Religion class/Vohu Manah group 2
Sanjan Day Celebration 3
ZANT Youth Lock-in 4
Huvarshta Project 4
ZANT Yalda Celebration 4
Guest speaker on holistic health 5
Kid’s Corner 6
ZANT Membership Form 8
Weekend Wonders 4 Kidz 9
Past Events in Pictures 11-13
ZANT Address:
Zoroastrian Center of North Texas 1605 Lopo Road Flower Mound, TX 75028-1306
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President
Vice President Treasurer Secretary Social Director Director Director
Jamshed Jamadar Kashmira Contractor Mehroo Madeka Charlotte Kharas Pearl P. Balsara Persis Shroff Bahrassa Monaz Karkaria
ZANT UPCOMING EVENTS
Nov. 13: Religion Class / Vohu Manah Group
Nov. 19: ZANT “Sanjan Day” celebration
Nov. 25-26: ZANT Annual Youth Lock-in
Dec. 4: Guest speaker
Dec. 17: ZANT “Yalda” celebration
Jan. 8: Religion Class / Vohu Manah Group
Jan. 21: AGM / Jashn-e-Sadeh
Feb. 5: SuperBowl Party
Feb. 12: Religion Class / Vohu Manah Group
Feb. 18: Bylaws Meeting / Gahambar
Mar. 11: Unity Park— ZANT Huvarshta Project
Mar. 12: Religion Class / Vohu Manah Group
Mar. 18: Panjeh Prayers
Dear Community,
We urge you to update your email addresses with ZANT so that the Newsletters and E-Flash news emails reach you in a timely fashion.
Please feel free to contact any member of the Board with your updated information.
Kindly remember to renew your membership in November 2016 (see enclosed membership form).
Thank you!
ZANT News - December 2016 2
Dear Community,
The last few months have been a whirlwind of activities at the ZANT center and we are happy
to see the community attending these events along with their families. The year has passed so
quickly and we are in the month of November awaiting the Thanksgiving weekend to give
thanks to Ahura Mazda for all the blessings that he has bestowed on us. Though this country
has its problems we are still so much better than what we see and hear occurring in other
parts of the world. Kindly remember to renew your membership in November 2016 (see the
enclosed membership form).
The ZANT board encourages more of its members to attend future activities that have been
planned and wishes everyone a very blessed Thanksgiving.
MESSAGE FROM THE BOARD
CHILDREN’S RELIGION CLASS
Our next children’s religious class will be held on Sunday, November 13, 2016. Please be at the ZANT Center by 10:45 am so we can have the Prayers & Tandarosti for kids in the Prayer Room at 11 a.m. before the Religious Class. Children’s religious class will not be held in December.
We are very grateful to our Parent Volunteers for catering lunch for our kids and adults and a monthly Birthday cake, at each Religious Class.
To support the good work being done by the Weekend Wonders 4 Kidz, please bring your food item donation & put it in the drop-box at the ZANT Center.
For further details about the Religious Classes, please contact Pearl P. Balsara
VOHU MANAH GROUP
Please join us as we continue our study of the Ushtavaiti Gatha. Have some tea and snacks to feed your body and some enlightening conversation to feed your soul! DATE: November 13, 2016 TIME: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM. PLACE: ZANT Center Library For further details about the Vohu Manah Group, please contact Anahita Sidhwa
ZANT News - December 2016 3
ZANT News - December 2016 4
ZANT is happy to announce that we will be hosting our Annual Youth Lock-in during the up-
coming Thanksgiving break on Friday and Saturday November 25-26, 2016 at the Zoroastri-
an Center of North Texas, 1605 Lopo Road, Flower Mound Texas, 75027. All Zoroastrian
youth age 11 years and older are welcome to participate. We have also invited youth from Hou-
ston, Austin, and San Antonio for this event. The event will be an over night lock-in for our
youth and consists some social and educational sessions. The cost is $20 per youth member and
will include all the meals for the duration of the lock-in. This event starts on Friday at 12:30
pm and will end on Saturday at 12:30 pm. Further information will be provided at a later date
to all who RSVP.
If you are interested please RSVP to Delnaaz Irani at [email protected] by November
15th. A late fee of $10 per youth will apply after the due date.
We encourage all our youth to participate, make new friends and create wonderful memories
with your fellow community members
ZANT YOUTH LOCK-IN
HUVARSHTA PROJECT
ZANT youth is planning to do a Huvarshta project during the ZANT Annual Youth Lock-in event. The project is to support the non-profit pediatric clinic called "Pediplace" which pro-vides primary care pediatric health services. Our project includes assembling and providing new born essentials care packages.
We would love our community members to support our youth by way of monetary donations for the program. Checks can be mailed to ZANT with "Huvarshta Project" in the subject line. Please send any checks prior to November 21, 2016.
If you have any questions do not hesitate to call Delnaaz Irani at [email protected]
ZANT YALDA CELEBRATION— DEC. 17, 2016
The nights are long and the days are short,
The light is low and the nights are dark.
But we know how to feast and sing,
And how a lot of fun and joy to bring.
So along to ZANT Center we want you to come,
To mingle, to eat, to sing, to dance,
To celebrate until the night is done.
Please plan to be at the ZANT Center by 7:30pm on Dec. 17, 2016. It will be a potluck meal, preferably finger foods or snack items, followed by crafts, poetry, and traditional Yalda celebra-tion activities.
ZANT News - December 2016 5
ZANT News - December 2016 6
KIDS’ CORNER
You Reap what you Sow
Once upon a time there was a small time business man from a small village who used to sell butter in the nearby town. A big shop owner in the town was his regular customer. The villager used to deliver every month the shop owner the required butter in 1 Kg. Blocks and in turn he used to get grocery items like sugar, pulses etc from the big shop owner. Once the shop owner decided to weigh the butter and to his surprise every block of butter weighed 900 gms. instead of 1kg.
Next month when the villager came to supply But-ter, the shop owner was very angry at him and told him what he found & to leave the shop. To this, the villager replied him courteously " Sir, I am a very poor villager, I don’t have enough money to even buy the required weights for weighing the butter, I usually put the 1Kg sugar you give me on one side of Weighing scale and weigh butter on another side !
(Source : Treasury of Quotations from Zoroastrian Texts)
Religion Class:
At our October Religious class, our
little ones had a lot of fun playing
cards! Not just any old game of cards
(and definitely no gambling!!) :-) but
the kids hopefully learnt something to
help them remember some important
things in our religion. They each used
a deck of playing cards and a story to
relate key elements in Zoroastrian-
ism to each card - the Ace, 1 to 10 and King, Queen
and Jack cards. For example :
Ace is Ahura Mazda and 1 for there is only one
God;
2 for the two Sprits - Spenta Mainyu and Anghre
Mainyu;
3 for Good Thoughts/Words/Deeds and etc. …
with more revision comes more learning and
retention!
Our middle-age group had a discussion on Zoroas-trian Fire Temples -
The 3 categories of Fire Temples
16 fires and 585-920 days of continuous Pray-ers / Ceremonies / Rituals required to consecrate an Atash Behram
The 8 Atash Behrams in India and 1 in Iran
4 fires and Prayers / Ceremonies / Rituals required to consecrate an Atash Adaran
The 48 Adarans in India, 2 in Pakistan & 6 in Iran
Atash Dadgahs or Darb-e-Mehrs
We ended the class watching the Udvada Atash Behram video.
The October teen religious class was a very productive
one. Our teens have begun a study of Zoroastrianism in
the modern world and Zoroastrianism and science.
Here are some things they found interesting today:
Edul - Asha is universal order and law and that is the
focus of scientific observation.
Sascha - the religion respects nature, as does science.
Danesh - Zarathushtra is the greatest ecologist, mi-
crobiologist, atomic and nuclear physicist, and health
physicist.
Cyrus - Zoroastrianism cares for the environment.
Navaz and Anaiza - science can exist
with religion - energy for the Big Bang came
from God.
Amy - Zoroastrianism is not just a reli-
gion. It provides a philosophy of life.
Burzin - the Amesha Spentas help us
make good decisions.
Thank You!
We are very grateful to our Parent Volun-teers for catering lunch for our kids & adults & a month-ly Birthday Cake, at each Religious Class. We’d like to thank the Elavia & Godiwalla families for October class lunches & Godiwalla family for the cake!
Children’s Religious Class:
Our next religious class/Parents’ Day Celebration will be held on Sunday, Nov 13, 2016. Please be at the ZANT Center by 10:45 a.m. so we can have the Prayers & Tandarosti for kids in the Prayer Room at 11 a.m.
There will not be any Religion Class in December. So, after the November Religion Class, we’ll meet again on January 8, 2017.
For further details about the Religious Classes, please contact Pearl P. Balsara
(Kid’s Corner logo courtesy of Zoroastrian Studies, India)
ZANT News - December 2016 7
The children of the Zoroastrian Association of North Texas (ZANT) have written and illustrated a book on Zoroastrian Festivals. This book is a “must have” for every Zoroastrian home library and we urge our community to purchase this Special Limited Edition for your own family and friends.
Please support our children’s hard work and effort in raising funds for the ZANT Center Operation and Maintenance fund.
The book is available from ZANT for a donation of $15 or more (checks to be made to ZANT). Please contact Pearl P. Balsara in Plano, Texas for more in-formation.
ZANT CHILDREN’S BOOK FOR SALE
Nov. 8, 2016: News from India: Prime Minister Modi announced today that all Rs. 500 and 1000 notes are no longer legal currency. You can take the notes to the banks by Dec. 30 to get money for them, but you can't use them to buy anything.
As the holidays quickly approach, we expect the next couple of months to be Weekend Won-ders 4 Kidz' busiest and most demanding time.
Our Food of the Month Club item for this month is canned meat/fish e.g. Vienna Sausage, canned tuna/ chicken. Again, whenever you are attending a function or passing the ZANT Center, please drop your donation and we will be happy to pick it up.
Our new website is up! Check it out ...... ww4kidz.org
If you prefer to make your life easier, you can donate and let us do the shopping for you! Just go to our website (its secure), click on the PayPal link at the top of the page and voila!
Our new partner is AmazonSmile - you shop, Amazon gives. Amazon donates a percentage of the price of your eligible purchases to Weekend Wonders 4 Kidz. AmazonSmile is exactly the same as Amazon with the added benefit of supporting us! Everything is the same as ordering from the regular Amazon site, including prices, availability, etc. When ordering from Ama-zonSmile, please use the link below (http://smile.amazon.com/ch/81-1291329) and help us feed hungry children.
Please remember, we are a registered 501c3 non-profit organization and your donation is tax deductible.
Please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
As always, thank you to everyone for your overwhelming show of support over the past few months, we really appreciate it!
Weekend Wonders 4 Kidz ... making weekends wonderful, one kid at a time, one bag at a time, one week at a time!
This is an urgent appeal for financial support from Maharukh Jamasji, wife of Rohinton Jamasji of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The treatment cost is beyond the means of the family and they are appealing for financial help to cover some of these costs.
You can either make a payment using our online form (link below) and pay with a credit card, or make checks payable to FEZANA, marked “Jamasji Appeal” and mail to:
Nilufer Shroff, FEZANA Treasurer, Cherry Hill PO Box 3873, 1175 Marlkress Rd, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034.
Note, once this appeal situation has been satisfied and the recipient’s needs have been met, FEZANA Unity and Welfare Committee will use any remaining funds toward other similar appeals.
Yours Sincerely,
FEZANA Unity and Welfare Committee
Message from Maharukh Jamasji
BRIEF HISTORY OF RON’S ILLNESS AND MY APPEAL FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT
My husband Rohinton Jamasji, also known to everyone as Ron, was diagnosed with 4th Stage renal carcino-ma in November 2011. He was operated and his left kidney along with a 2 ½ kg. tumor was also removed.
Ron’s current condition is as under:
The Illness is now in the area of his left kidney, his lungs, his spine, and most recently his brain. He is unable to walk (the stick and walker do not help) and moves in a wheel chair. He is unable to see in the left eye, and has 20% vision in his right eye, which is also hazy. He has lost the sense in his taste buds. Is in continuous pain which is controlled by morphine tablets (40 mgs) twice a day, and morphine liquid every hour. This too does not take away the pain totally, but just makes it bearable to an extent.Is drowsy and tired all the time. Needs to be fed all his meals and bathed. Was 110 kgs at the start of the spread of the illness and is now down to 70 kgs (a drop of 40 kgs).
Approximate expenses related to the illness:
September – Just concluded 8 sessions of Radiation to the brain to control the 25+ tumors – A$8000 ap-prox. (75% recovered by Medical Insurance)
Regular PETSCAN to ascertain the extent of the spread of the disease A$800 (Total out of pocket ex-pense) Pet scan is done approximately 6 to 8 weeks apart.
Regular MRI to ascertain the extent of damage to the affected organs A$600 approx. (75% recovered by Medical Insurance) MRI is done approximately 4 to 6 weeks apart.
Daily medication A$250 approx. per month (Total out of pocket expense)
Medibank Insurance A$2270 half yearly (Total out of pocket expense)
Other expenses:
Apart from the above, the home mortgage, other living expenses and utility expenses are to be taken care of. These cannot be met and are in arrears owing to Ron now not able to keep his job (since the past 15 months) because of the spread of his disease, which has rendered him unfit and needing full time care. I am, hence, unable to myself, keep a job and earn any revenue to meet our expenses.
A detailed list of expenses, both current and over the past 15 months is available with WZO US Region. Trust the above summary will help you to consider our case favorably.
