On the Right Path The Newsletter of the Southern Maryland Emmaus Community

Transcription

1 On the Right Path The Newsletter of the Southern Maryland Emmaus Community 1st Quarter, 2015 Walk In the Light As I look out on my snow-covered, frozen back yard, huge fluffy clumps of snow falling quietly as the gray overcast morning begins, just a little light, then a little more I see a solitary bird alight on the edge of the heated birdbath, making a dent in the snow and ice-crusted edge to dip in for a nice long drink of life sustaining, unfrozen water. I raise my binoculars to get a better look, and am as always thrilled to see a majestic, vibrantly colored Eastern Bluebird. In short order, he is joined by his mate and what appear to be two half grown young, probably nestlings from a second late summer clutch. Just then, the sun broke through and the scene was lit with the first morning light Southern Maryland Emmaus Gathering March 21, 2015 Potluck at 5:00 p.m. Gathering 6:00 PM at Good Shepherd UMC 305 East Smallwood Drive Waldorf, Maryland At that moment, I was struck by the imagery that could only be God speaking to me through nature. He invites us to His living water, his fount of mercy waiting for us to come and drink our fill. That quiet pool, the one place in the frozen world that we can find His sustaining love and grace. One comes, leading the way, then invites another, and another. That is what The Walk to Emmaus does. It allows us to find that perfect, quiet pool of love and life, drinking our fill, so that we can be strong in our faith and lead others to that same experience. As we come though this icy, snow-covered winter into the spring, it should be a time of re-awakening and renewal of our faith. Each of us in our Fourth Day needs to go back to that place where we feel closest to God, to find that special connection to Him, so that we can then lead the way for others. It is with this purpose in mind that we, your Board of Directors, plan this year of activities for our Emmaus community. See "Frozen" page 4 Volume 15 Issue 1 Childcare Provided Bring Friends, Family, Neighbors. Everyone Welcome!.

2 Spring Walks - Postponed to Fall Fall Walks West River Men s Walk #51 October Women s Walk #52 October Make plans to at tend the com mu nity events for each walk: Thurs day - Spon sor s Hour - 7:00 p.m. Sat ur day - Can dle light - 8:00 p.m. Sunday - Closing - 4:00 p.m. Sign up to pray for our walks (and oth ers) online at: Pil grim and Team Ap pli ca tions and this news let ter may be down loaded from the web at CLICK on Doc u ments, Lists and News let ters New Mailing Address for Southern Maryland Emmaus P.O. Box 343 White Plains, MD Recurring Events of the Southern Maryland Emmaus Community Next Gath er ing - March 21, at Good Shep herd UMC 305 E. Smallwood Drive Wal dorf, MD Potluck at 5:00 p.m. Gath er ing 6:00 PM watch your for fur ther information 4th Day Sem i nars Sem i nars are held in the spring and in the fall fol low ing the men s and women s walks. The next sem i nar date will be announced shortly. At ten dance at a 4th Day Sem i nar is re quired in or der to spon sor pil grims,and is highly rec om mended for those who wish to team. The sem i nar will be held at Good Shep herd UMC. 2

3 Observations From an Overworked Editor The Day the Earth Stood Still (or at least South ern Mary land) It was an ordinary day, or so I thought. The sun was shining, there was crispness in the air that would have sent a more sensitive person running for a winter coat, but I found it energizing. Everything seemed normal as I drove. I had the radio on and heard that Congress was still locked in battle, the President was playing golf, beer production in Milwaukee was up, and Oprah was thinking of starting yet another network. And then it happened. One of those ubiquitous News Alerts complete with ominous music and a trembling voice. The voice told us, with an urgency that demanded our attention, that schools in Charles, St. Mary s and Calvert Counties were closing two hours early. I found myself mentally checking my Charmin supply, as I wondered why? The voice responded to my silent question by explaining that an anonymous source driving an unidentified vehicle in an undisclosed location reported the appearance of a snowflake, which the driver swore was unlike any other he had ever seen. Abandoning his vehicle, he risked personal safety to get this information to the authorities as quickly as possible. Being secure in my stash of milk, bread and other essentials, my mind turned towards Davy Crockett. I wondered if he, and other pioneering Americans, would have thought twice about their exploration of the West if they had been privy to news alerts. And, I wondered as well whether any of us could have endured the uncertainty of hitching our lives to a rickety wagon and venturing into the unknown. Would Davy and his friends view us as a bunch of wimps today? Would they laugh at our fear of all things natural? Would they find our expectation of being safe at all times and in all places just a bit unrealistic? It takes so little, it seems, to bring a modern society to a standstill. In the classic Sci-Fi thriller, The Day the Earth Stood Still, a galactic policeman tries to get the world s attention by eliminating all electrical and mechanical power. A near panic ensues. Today, all it takes is a short power outage or the threat of a snowstorm to leave us all cowering in our homes, unsure of what to do. I m not talking about truly serious weather events like hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes, just the routine ones that are a part of any weather cycle. I often wonder, WWDD - what would Davy do? It took a massive amount of faith to embark on a trip into the unknown wilderness which was the American West in the time of the pioneers. There was much to be afraid of, but our ancestors persevered through faith in their own abilities, and in the divine protection of a loving God. Most of us will never encounter the kinds of challenges that the early pioneers had to face, but we can still look to the same loving God who has promised to care for us and see to it that we have all that we need to achieve his plan for us. We can make Davy proud by standing up to that snowflake. And now if you ll excuse me, I need to check my collection of old Sears Catalogs. On the Right Path Dead line for next is sue is June 1, The pre ferred method of sub mis sion is as an MSWord doc u ment file or a WordPerfect file (.rtf file also ac cept able) sent via- to the fol low ing ad dress: dbrennan6@verizon.net. Very short ar ti cles or notes may be sent in the body of the mes sage. Please send your com ments and rec om men da tions as well to the ed i tor, Dan Brennan, at the ad dress above. "On the Right Path" is pub lished by the South ern Mary land Emmaus Com mu nity. Dan Brennan Ed i tor. 3

4 Southern Maryland Emmaus - Leadership & Service Re sources on Our Web Site Visit for these and other com mu nity re sources: Southern Maryland Emmaus Leadership Roster & Board of Directors Southern Maryland Emmaus Prayer Points of Contact (PPOC) Team & Pilgrim Applications Prayer Coordinator Jan Drass jdrass@maranatha.net On The Right Path This is the newsletter of the Southern Maryland Emmaus Community. It is published quarterly by mail, and is also available on our website, South ern Mary land Emmaus is af fil i ated with the In ter na tional Emmaus Move ment of The Up per Room, Nash ville, Tn. Emmaus is a pro gram of fer ing of the Upper Room International Walk to Emmaus Office. Our pur pose is to in spire, chal lenge, and equip church mem bers for Chris tian Ac tion. Please con tact the PPOC for your church as listed on our website if you are not re ceiv ing the newsletter, or if you do not have a PPOC, contact Jan Drass at jdrass@maranatha.net "Frozen" continued from page 1 Our focus this year will be in strengthening each of us in our Fourth Day, finding special ways to fellowship together, making our gatherings informative, exciting, and spiritually uplifting, so that we may, together, make a difference in developing leaders for our churches, supporting each other through fellowship and accountability groups, and fully supporting our Walks by sponsoring pilgrims, making a commitment to teaming, and community support during the weekends. Just as those bluebirds return over and over throughout the day to quench their thirst, so too must we renew ourselves in Christ. PS they do call them Bluebirds of Happiness I think they ve got that right. De Colores, Pat Brennan We look forward to Walks in the fall which will be filled with the Holy Spirit, with teams well-prepared functionally and spiritually, and a full roster of pilgrims who will be uplifted by the weekend and the support of the community. God is counting on you. I look forward to seeing you at our gatherings and pray for the strengthening of our community. 4

5 Southern Maryland Emmaus Community Reunion & Accountability Groups The Reunion Group Coordinator, Bob Evans would like to hear about any active Groups in Southern Maryland. If you are having difficulty finding a Reunion Group, contact Bob Evans. Experience the Fourth Day feeling. Bethel UMC, Up per Marlboro Co-ed - monthly fourth Tuesday - 6:00 p.m. Bowie UMC - Old Town Bowie Co-ed - 1st, 3rd, 4th Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. Cal vary UMC, Wal dorf Men Tues day - 7:00 p.m. Women Wednesday - 5:30 p.m. at Panera Bread in summer; at Calvary during the school year First UMC, Lau rel Men Saturday - 7:00 a.m. Women Sat ur day - 8:30 a.m. Good Shep herd UMC, Wal dorf Co-Ed Mon day 6:00 p.m. at restaurants call Linda Ford Men Wednesday 6:30 p.m. Women Monday 7:30 p.m. Women Tuesday 7:30 p.m. (not at church call for directions) Women Wednesday 6:30 p.m. Women Tuesday 8:45 a.m. (not at church call for directions) Women Thursday 6:00 p.m. La Plata UMC, La Plata Women Thursday 5:30 p.m. at Panera Bread Men Tuesday 6:00 p.m. at the church Lexington Park UMC, Lexington Park Co-ed Tues day 7:30 a.m. Bob Ev ans Co-ed Thurs day 11:30 a.m. (home setting) Women Thursday 5:00 p.m. Coffee Quarter contact Sheila Hanson or Connie Wells Linthicum Heights UMC, Linthicum Heights Co-Ed Saturday 8:30 a.m. Liv ing Springs Chris tian Fel low ship, Bowie Co-ed Tues day 6:00 p.m. Na val Air Sta tion, Patuxent River Men Wednes days 11:30 a.m. Nichols-Bethel UMC, Odenton Co-Ed Wednesday 6:30 p.m. Olivet UMC, Lusby Co-Ed Monthly on first S unday 12:15 p.m. at Olivet UMC Good News Center Pisgah UMC, La Plata Women Wednesday 6:30 p.m. for information contact Patti Flesher St. Paul UMC, Lusby Women Monday 7:00 p.m. Old Fellowship Hall Men Monday 7:00 p.m. Old Fellowship Hall Mixed Monday 7 or 8 p.m. contact Rich & Mary UIrey or Everett Baker Shiloh UMC, Bryans Road Co-ed Tues days 6:30 p.m. Wa ters Me mo rial UMC, St. Leon ard Pastors House Tuesday 1:00 p.m. 5

6 How important is prayer to Emmaus? The message of prayer is critical to Emmaus. The entire weekend is wrapped in prayer. Prayer takes place before the first team member is chosen and before each team meeting. Prayer is offered before each talk, asking the Holy Spirit to make up for anything lacking. Prayer is offered In the chapel, the conference room, and the dining room- in fact around the worldthat pilgrims will receive God s message of love, forgiveness, and hope. Rather than being an afterthought, prayer is an integral part of Emmaus because it is an essential part of each Christian s life. Emmaus helps to kindle in each pilgrim s life the desire to pray more frequently and fervently in all aspects of life. (from page 29, Day Four: The Pilgrim s Continued Journey, 2004, Upper Room Ministries) Prayer is CRITICAL to the success of the Walk to Emmaus. In 1 Peter 5:8, we are warned that the enemy prowls like a lion ready to devour. The purpose of Emmaus is to build leaders in the church. As such, Emmaus is a favorite target of the devil. To build that spiritual hedge of protection around the church, Emmaus and all believers, we are to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). This necessitates regular prayer for Emmaus. In your prayer time, remember to include the Walk to Emmaus, and Southern Maryland Emmaus in particular. Pray regularly for the leadership of this Community. Pray for wisdom and discernment for the Board of Directors as they fervently pray about the best way to lead the Southern Maryland Emmaus Community and support the Body of Christ. Pray for the members of Southern Maryland Emmaus that they may continue to grow in their Walk with the Lord and their service to Him. Pray that all will become involved in Reunion Groups, and continue to experience the grace of God, the peace of Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all their Fourth Days. In addition to praying for the Emmaus Community, there are a number of ways that you can support each Walk with prayer. Pray before the Walk as the Weekend Lay Director is selected and called. Pray for those considering sponsorship and pray for future pilgrims. Pray as pilgrims are submitting applications and preparing for the Walk. Pray as the team members are being called and making a decision to serve. Pray as team meetings as held. Some of you may be asked to come to the retreat center to pray for a lay or clergy speaker as they give their talk. You will pray in a special chapel on site before, during and after the talk. In the weeks leading up to the Walk weekend, everyone can sign up on a 72 hour Prayer Vigil to pray for a 30 minute time segment during the Walk weekend. There is round-the-clock prayer from the time the weekend starts until it ends. You may recall on Friday of the Walk, during the Justifying Grace talk, that a Prayer Vigil is shared with the names of people who are praying during the weekend. For most of us, it is a surprising and awesome revelation about the sacrifice of others on our behalf, as well as the power of prayer as our eyes are opened a bit more. You can sign up for the prayer vigil by visiting Select Southern Maryland Emmaus (men or women) and scroll through times that are open. Select the time you will pray and complete the information requested. You will receive an confirmation and reminder about your prayer time(s). While you re at this website, you can also sign up to pray for other 72-hour communities. This is a great way to develop prayer as a spiritual discipline, and to support 72-hour communities around the world between our own Walk weekends. Ephesians 6: 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord s people. By Cheryl Merkle, Agape Coordinator Southern Maryland Emmaus Board of Directors 6

7 Board Notes The Board meets monthly, and here are the highlights from meetings in January and February: Each Board member serves in a special job for the year. In January, jobs were assigned and voted on. Board members whose terms were ending, or Board members changing jobs for the year transferred information and trained new Board members who were taking on jobs that they previously not held. To see the job that each Board member has for 2015, please see list on page 12 of this newsletter. (In coming months, we ll highlight some details on these job descriptions.) The Board of Directors signed the 2015 Walk to Emmaus Covenant Letter, an agreement between the Upper Room International Walk to Emmaus Office and Southern Maryland Emmaus. In signing this letter, the local community agrees, among other things, to conduct the Emmaus program in accordance with the Upper Room mission, vision, and copyrighted Upper Room Emmaus materials. The Board of Directors as the local governing body also agrees to conduct its business in accordance with the Emmaus Office guidelines and in a manner that honors Christ and His Church. The Upper Room International Office in turn provides copyrighted program materials, training, guidance, consultation resources, as well as local leadership training and prayer support for the community. The Board reviewed and voted to approve a new general agape letter that will replace the current general agape letter that is sent from Southern Maryland Emmaus to other communities with walks throughout the year. The Board also reviewed the Board Reports from both Walks in Fall 2014 and noted recommendations made by team members and the Board Representative. Training is planned for Board members starting in March to help the Board members individually as well as to improve teamwork since many jobs do require input and collaboration with other Board members jobs. Walks #51 and 52 are postponed to Fall 2015; Dates for #51 are October 15-18; #52 is planned for October 22-25, Nominating Committee has already been formed and all Board members have been asked to prayerfully submit names for consideration for Board elections that will be held in the Fall A number of communion boxes are missing. There were 5 boxes in circulation. If anyone is aware of their location, or has them, please contact Pat Brennan. New News (for some)! - Jan Drass I know you are going to be very surprised and shocked when you find this out. For years we all have not know this. And yet, it is in the Upper Room Handbook. So, in order to prevent injury and prepare your mind, I am going to ask you to sit down before you read this. You might even want to get a nice cup of tea or put your feet up. Ready? Team and pilgrim applications are encouraged, welcomed and receivable all year longnot only in the months before a walk. There I have said it. Let s talk about team applications first. You can make the job of the team selection committee easier if they have applications of potential team members to look at when they meet to select potential team members for a weekend walk. In the process of selecting a team for an upcoming walk, members of the team selection committee rely on information in the Southern Maryland Emmaus database that provides information on your walk date, teams your have served on, what jobs you did on those walks, and talks you have given. Your team application provides more information that helps See "New News" page 10 7

8 Hello all! 1 PILGRIMS Southern Maryland Emmaus The Pilgrims of Southern Maryland Emmaus Walk #1- Where are they now??? I attempted to contact the first pilgrims who walked in Southern Maryland (Walk #1) on the weekend of November 1, I asked them to answer 3 questions to share with the community as part of this article: 1) Looking back, what do you remember most about the weekend; 2)What did your Emmaus Walk mean to you; and 3) What did you do about it? A number of s were returned to me as undeliverable, but the ones I received were faith-building and evidence of God at work. Here are the great testimonies I received and wanted to share with you! - Jan Drass My name is Steve Stauffer, and I took my Walk on Southern Md. Emmaus #1 and sat at the table of Luke. Jan has asked me to answer several questions for this article beginning with what I remember most about my weekend. Perhaps what I remember most is the fun with my brothers in Christ, Christ s commitment to me and being the only Baptist in a group of Methodists. And they were all United! (lol) But seriously, there were no Baptists or Methodists there, only a group, a band of brothers, celebrating Christ s love for us. More specifically, I remember the final night of the weekend when several Pastors gave talks, mini-sermons, to the group. As I listened, I thought Whoa! Is that cool or what! We were asked by the Emmaus staff what we were taking home with us and I took the commitment to preach God s Word. Little did I know at the time that I was being called into the Ministry, I thought I was just excited. In 2005, I had my first opportunity to preach, and quite frankly, it was pretty awful. Since then, I ve done a lot of reading in hermeneutics and have gone back to college. I now have a Master s in Theology and was licensed in the Ministry in 2011 (and my preaching has improved at least somewhat). As far as what my Emmaus walk meant to me, it s very simple. Jesus Christ died an awful death for me, yet is alive and quite well, and is quite committed to me despite my failing Him at times. It also meant that no matter what, I can be, and am, forgiven according to I John 1. When I m down, He gives me hope and when I walk away, He brings me back. In answer to this, I ve become more humble (as mom use to say, Who da thunk it! ) and yielding to Him and what He wants for me. I often think of one of my life verses, Jeremiah 29:11; For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to bring you hope and a future. All I have to do is allow myself to fit into those plans. Thanks, ya ll, for reading this testimony, and DeColores! ~ Deus Gloria! Steve 8

9 And from Dan Brennan, Southern Maryland Emmaus #1, who worships at La Plata UMC (but was at Calvary UMC during his Walk, and sat at the Table of Mark: As I think back on the privilege of having been a pilgrim on the very first Southern Maryland Emmaus Men s Walk, I most remember the transformation I underwent during those precious days. Not surprisingly, I suppose, I was a reluctant walker. I remember arriving in the dead of night, feeling a little like one of those people snatched off the street, pushed into an SUV and staring at the inside of a bag placed over my head. There was an air of secrecy that 1 PILGRIMS Southern Maryland Emmaus was a bit intimidating. But once inside the lighted cabin there was such an atmosphere of smiles and welcoming handshakes that I soon realized I was among friends. As the weekend progressed from that first awkward New Best Friend exercise, I began to realize and appreciate the quiet time to reflect and think about my life where I had been and where I might be going. With nothing external to get in the way, the weekend became an opportunity to spend time with Christ. God and I got to know each other again. What did the Emmaus Walk mean to me? May I say it changed my life, without sounding like every other pilgrim who has walked? May I say that the power of the talks I heard finally convinced me that God loved ME. I know, I know, I had heard that so many times before in my life. God loves me. But I didn t believe it. I believed that God loved you, and that he loved everyone else, but I knew that I wasn t worthy of God s love. He couldn t love me. What the talks showed me is that no one is truly worthy of God s love but that it doesn t matter he gives me His love and grace freely and without condition. He only asks that I love Him in return. And in that moment, I felt that love for perhaps the first time. It was a moment that changed the course of my life. I came away from the Walk with the courage to end a 31 year career that had provided comfort and security but no satisfaction or joy. God loved ME, and He wanted me to be happy. He had given me the gift of humor, and now, He had given me the strength to use that gift to help spread His word. I left that weekend with a huge burden lifted from my shoulders. So, may I say it changed my life? What did I do about it? I did a lot, and I did it quickly. I had no sooner packed the massive agape from my Walk, that I made a commitment to entertain on the next Walk. God had given me an ability to make people laugh, and I couldn t wait to share that with the women of Walk #2. I will never forget what one of the pilgrims on Walk #2 said to me after the dinner on Saturday night. I had never met her, but she came up to me and said, I ve never met anyone with the gift of humor before. I had never before thought of humor as a gift. God s gifts truly are infinite. I followed through on my plans to retire, and have spent the years since working in church offices, and loving every minute of it. My income has dropped, the benefits aren t there, but I have never been happier. Serving the Lord through my local church, as well as in the offices of other churches, has brought great satisfaction. I served on the team for the very next Men s Walk (#3), and have served on many teams since that time. Each time has brought a renewal of my understanding of God s love and His plan for me. Yay, 4 th Day! So there you have it 50 Walks ago and still go ing strong! If you were a pil grim on Walk #1 and you did not re - ceive an from me, please feel free to con tact me (jdrass@maranatha.net) and share your an swers to these three ques tions next is sue we will hear from some of the pil grims of Walk #2! - Jan Drass NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE The mail ing ad dress for South ern Mary land has changed new ad dress is: Southern Maryland Emmaus P.O. Box 343 White Plains, MD

10 My name is Connie Wells; I attend First Saints Community Church, California Campus. I walked on SME #28 and sat at the table of Naomi (clap). Once again I find myself blessed by my friend Jan Drass who shared the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. I started reading the book and thought to myself why did she recommend this dark and depressing book? - EXACT THOUGHT. So, I talked with Kathie Wright who I knew also received a copy of the book and asked her if she d started reading it yet. Kathie had the same impression I did but told me to KEEP READING. I am so glad I did. What a blessing! Giving thanks for all God has provided. By expressing gratitude for the life we already have, we discover the life we ve always wanted a life we can take, give thanks for, and break for others. Living in the present and be present to God. Giving thanks for family, friends, health, job, car, home, etc. has always been part of my prayer life. BUT, to embrace every day and see all the gifts God provides -and give thanks wasn t something I did before I read this book. Ann Voskamp has the ability to paint word pictures inspired by her everyday life in her family and on her farm in Canada as she writes about her struggle to live joyfully amid sin, sorrow, and suffering. Eucharisteo it comes right out of the Gospel of Luke: And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave "New News" from page 7 this committee in their mission of assuring: 1) a strong and balanced team after prayer and reflection on gifts, experience and needs of community members; 2) broad involvement by the Emmaus community (not everyone can come from the same few churches); 3) cultivation of new leadership for future Walks and the community; 4) attention to what people need to grow in grace and authentic servanthood. (adapted from Upper Room Handbook on Emmaus, page 21) You can actually make the job of this group of hardworking Emmausites easier by going 10 it to them (Luke 22:19 NIV). In the original language, he gave thanks reads eucharisteo. The root word of eucharisteo is charis, meaning grace. Jesus took the bread and saw it as grace and gave thanks. He took the bread and knew it to be gift and gave thanks. Eucharisteo, thanksgiving, envelopes the Greek word for grace, charis. But it also holds its derivative, the Greek word chara, meaning joy. Charis. Grace. Eucharisteo. Thanksgiving. Chara. Joy. Deep chara joy is found only at the table of the eucharisteo; the table of thanksgiving. The holy grail of joy, God set it in the very center of Christianity. The Eucharist is the central symbol of Christianity. Doesn t the continual repetition of beginning our week at the table of the Eucharist clearly place the whole of our lives into the context of thanksgiving? One of Christ s very last directives He offers to His disciples is to take the bread, the wine, and to remember. Do this in remembrance of Me. Remember and give thanks. This is the crux of Christianity: to remember and give thanks, eucharisteo. Why? Why is remembering and giving thanks the core of the Christ-faith? Because remembering with thanks is what causes us to trust; to really believe. Remembering, giving thanks, is what makes us a member again of the body of Christ. Remembering, giving thanks is what puts us back together again in this hurried, broken, fragmented world. Copies of the book One Thousand Gifts will be available at the next Gathering for the asking. See me and happy reading! to and printing out a team application, completing it and mailing it to the P.O. Box right now if you are interesting in serving on an Emmaus team this year. Ok, now pilgrims. In order to make sure that we can hold an Emmaus weekend, there is a date set about 8 weeks before each Walk that the Board of Directors (see page 12) needs to make sure that we have enough pilgrims. In Southern Maryland, the maximum number of pilgrims is what we strive to have- 24 per Walk. It works well to have applications coming in throughout the year, as the

11 Our Communications Jan You Link POC Ed i tor's Note: We wel come Jan Drass as our new Com mu ni ca tions lead. The new logo at left re flects that com mu ni ca tions within our com mu nity is a shared re - spon si bil ity be tween the Board (Jan), the Churches (the POCs) and, of course You. We look for ward to Jan's lead er ship in this role. No Emmaus Com mu nity Mem ber Left Be hind! Hi all! Since starting my Emmaus job in communications, I have set as my first priority to find and get PPOCs at all churches where Emmausites attend. For some of you, the term PPOC may be a new one, so I wanted to explain a little about it and ask your help to make sure that Southern Maryland Emmaus information is reaching everyone. First, PPOC is a Prayer Point of Contact. It really is a Point of Contact for all messages that are sent to Emmaus community members, and may include prayer requests, information, and announcements. PPOC s maintain a distribution list that may include Emmaus people in their church as well as others who do not receive communication from anyone else. So, how the process works is that I send an out to all PPOCs, which they in turn forward to all Emmaus people on their distribution list. In this way, we hope to keep everyone in the community in the know! PPOCs have a process in place to add new pilgrims from their local church after a Walk. This is something that I will be helping with starting with the 2015 Walks. Some PPOCs have backups in case they are unavailable to forward communication due to being on vacation, or ill for example. Now, here s the help I need from you- in order for me to figure out if everyone is receiving Emmaus s, I would love to hear from you if you did not receive any of the Southern Maryland Emmaus s that were sent out during February. If you did not receive them, I would like to know so that I can get you connected to a PPOC. Or maybe you used to be a PPOC and have not received s for a while- again, I would like you to let me know so that I can add you to the PPOC list. My goal is to make sure that Emmaus information is reaching everyone in the community. Remember, no Emmaus Community Member left behind! If you live in Anne Arundel County, please contact Kevin Frederick at kmf@blk-mtn.org Everyone else can contact me (Jan Drass) at jdrass@maranatha.net A huge thanks to the many PPOCs who serve faithfully and are a vital communication link with the members of the community! I have enjoyed the opportunity to talk with you via over the past month, and hear about how the process is working, along with suggestions for improvement. Together we can reach the goal of no Emmaus Community Member left behind! Spirit leads, because it "New News" continued increases the likelihood that we will have the full number of pilgrims. This is important for a lot of reasons. But again, let me share what Upper Room says about that. The Upper Room guidelines require a twenty-participant minimum for two basic reasons: First, if the ratio of team members to participants is too high, the participants may become overwhelmed. Second, in most cases the expense of a Walk with fewer than twenty participants cannot be justified Communities will not be judged or penalized if they cancel or postpone a Walk from time to time. In fact doing so is preferable to going forward with less than twenty pilgrims. (taken from The Emmaus Library Series, Your Questions Answered, by Greg Engroff, page 20). So, if God leads you to have a conversation with someone who is interested and wants to attend a Walk to Emmaus, don t think you have to wait until you get an that says that we are in need of applications for an upcoming Walk. Shock the Registrar- and send them in anytime the Spirit moves! All year long! Go to and print out a pilgrim application. Keep it handy because you never know when the Spirit will move. And let s shock the both the Team Selection Committee and the Pilgrim Registrar this year by getting applications in early! No time like the present! 11

12 Walk in the Light - South ern Mary land Emmaus Visit us on the web at "Were not our hearts burn ing within us while He was speak ing to us on the road, while He was ex plain ing the Scrip tures to us? Luke 24:32 In for ma tion on the South ern Mary land Walk to Emmaus, as well as pil grim and team ap pli ca tions may be found on our website: Southern Maryland Emmaus P.O. Box 343 White Plains, MD Southern Maryland Emmaus Board of Directors 2015 Community Lay Director/Chair - Pat Brennan Assistant Community Lay Director - Dale Merkle Facilities Treasurer - Angie Barnes Assistant Treasurer - Susan Cunningham Secretary/Historian - Dawn Townsend Assistant Secretary - Julie Flinchum Community Spiritual Director - David Graves Agape Coordinator - Cheryl Merkle Assistant Agape Coordinator - Rich Ulrey Team Selection - Mike Blizzard Assistant Team Selection - Gary Cox Community Events Coordinator - Margaret Kolbe Registrar/Pilgrim Selection - Pat Dawson Assistant Registrar - Ellen Bertelsen Reunion Group/Sponsorship/4th Day - Bob Evans Communications/Directory - Jan Drass Music Director - Bud Campbell Assistant Music Director - Lee Campbell