Western New York Walk to Emmaus & Chrysalis June 2016

Transcription

1 Volume 26 No. 2 Western New York Walk to Emmaus & Chrysalis June 2016 Greetings to all of our Brothers and Sisters in the Western New York Walk to Emmaus Community! We are so blessed to have the Rainbow Connection back in publication again. We have missed the opportunity to be able to communicate with you all in this forum. As many of you know, Anita Cooledge has accepted the Newsletter position. She will be assisted by Kate Moody and our friend Barb Swanson has agreed to stay on to help with the Web site. We now have an excellent team and together we look forward to helping our Community stay informed. Lots of new things have happened since we last had the opportunity to communicate with you in this newsletter. We have elected several new members of the Board of Directors, another successful Walk is behind us and Walk 51 is being planned. New members of the Board include Hal & Carol Goodwin as 4th Day Coordinators. Hal & Carol bring a wealth of experience having served many times on the Board including a term as Community Lay Directors. The Community Board position is being filled by Bill & Geneice Perkins and Brian & Cheryl Keesler. Jim and Julie Noreck have agreed to support the Community in the Supplies position. As you already know, Anita Cooledge is our Newsletter person and Rev Greg VanDussen now serves us as Community Spiritual Director. As a result of Walk 50 we welcomed 26 new members into the Community. Both the Men s and the Women s Walk were spirit filled where the love and grace of the Lord was present. The Reunion on Saturday, April 30th at the First United Methodist Church in Springville was well attended (a record number in my estimation). Even though Walk 50 has just wrapped up, the planning for Walk 51 has already begun. The Men s Lay Director is Mike Mortimer and the Spiritual Director is Pastor Joan Zimmerman. The Lay Director for the Women s Walk is Janice McKinney and the weekend Spiritual Director is Brian Scharf. We know it is early yet but now is the time to search your heart and to discern those who Lord is leading you to offer the gift of the Walk to Emmaus. Walk 51 will be held at the United Methodist Church in Hamburg. Dates are located elsewhere in this edition of the Rainbow Connection. Remember your weekend and what it meant to you. Make a friend, be a friend and bring a friend to Emmaus! Thank you. DeColores, Lynn & Pat Blakeman Greetings Emmaus Community! Your Rainbow Connection Newsletter is up and running again! Thank you for your patience as my team and I get up to speed and learn the ropes. A special thanks to Barb Swanson for the awesome job she has done sending out the Rainbow Connection over the last three years. Barb has kindly agreed to continue taking care of our Emmaus website which is a wonderful tool and blessing. She will fill you in more on that in a future newsletter. My name is Anita Cooledge and I am your new Emmaus Newsletter Coordinator. I am excited to serve in this way and I have a wonderful team of people helping me. So going forward, please submit all Emmaus articles, info and pictures to a new address: WNYEmmausnews@gmail.com. All Emmaus articles, info and pictures will need to be submitted in Word document format and by the 15 th of the month preceding the newsletter being worked on. Please note that we do have to strictly hold to this deadline of the 15 th. Please feel free to call or text me at or me at acooledge@rochester.rr.com with any questions you may have. My team and I look forward to continuing to make this an informative and enjoyable newsletter for our Emmaus Community. DeColores! Anita Cooledge 1

2 Women s Walk #50 Lay Director Reflections There may have been some anxious hearts and minds when the women s walk began on Thursday night. But the laughter and friendships that were already building during our new friend time that evening, seemed to ease some of those anxious thoughts. Many women were paired with a new friend, who shared the same common threads in their lives! As we all know, Emmaus is bathed in prayer, much prayer! It must ve been a God-thing! Then on Friday morning, all discovered who they would be sharing their table with for the weekend. Again, so many common threads! God most certainly knew who should be at each table and with whom. Some were absolutely more comfortable than others right from the start. But as the weekend progressed, relationships grew and so did everyone s comfort level with other Christians around them. Friendships blossomed! Each night as we shared our artistic responses, we recognized the amazing God-given creativeness and talents that each person has been gifted with. Every poster, every skit, every song and every demonstration shared the depth and beauty of each person s insight of the talks. ALL women were so extremely creative during their artistic responses. It was a beautiful wrap-up of the day, each day! During the artistic response after Talk #2, the servants table discovered that they were really good at cutting out paper tulips for their poster. For every talk s artistic response after that, the servants table tried to incorporate tulips into their presentation. We weren t sure why tulips were such an attraction, but it lasted the rest of the weekend. Because of this, I meditated on this tulip fascination and what the Lord was trying to share with me through it. This is the analogy: We are that tulip bulb. There is beauty in each and every one of us. But many times, we want to stay hidden in the dirt, not revealing ourselves to anyone. Through encouragement, kindness, friendships and agape love we are watered by others around us. We, the bulb, start to break through the ground and reveal ourselves to others. We eventually blossom! And then, what others see in us, blesses them! Just as the tulip doesn t stay in the flower state forever, we too don t stay in full blossom. Life takes hold and sin creeps in and it s necessary for us to die to self. We need to go back into the bulb stage. We need to allow God and our Christian friends to again water, garden, love and prune us, so that we once again can blossom and bless others. My friends, thank you for being part of God s garden with me! For all those persons involved in the preparation for Walk #49 and the actual Walk #50, you have been incredible! God has used each and every one or you for team building, friendship building and Kingdom Building! What an awesome God we serve! In Gratitude and Humble Service, Lisa Waterhouse DeColores! Women s Walk # 50 Row 1: Pastor Vonnie Vredenburg, Cristina Mitchell. Brenda Denk, Lisa Waterhouse, Darrell Rublee, Mary Kay Williams, Shirley Orton, Row 2: Tracey Benjamin, Pastor Nancy Preston, Mo Poteat, Ginny Fugle, Linda Kelley, Julie Noreck, Linda Garner, Amber Torrey, Barb Lockwood, Susan Scharf, Kathy Woika, Nancy Carroll, Row 3: Martha Thompson, Trudi Slocum, Pastor Britta McCarthy, Jessica White, Carole Wulf, Row 4: Anita Cooledge, Debe Ploetz, Dana Phelps, Doris Brydalski, Nancy Weilert, Debbie Shisler, Jennie Gleason, Row 5: Pastor Greg Van Dussen, marlene Worthington, Char Smith, Erika Morse, Cindy Jaeger, Melissa Childs, Anne Finch, Cheryl Keesler, Laura Everett, Cindy Hull, Pastor Stan Scoville 2

3 MEN S WALK #50 Men s Walk #50 was an awesome experience from the first team member phone call all the way up to the Reunion. God blessed WNY with an awesome team with each person being totally ready when Thursday night began. Thursday evening brought forth 11 pilgrims, and they were a great group of guys. We experienced a lot of laughs, a lot of great table discussion & presentations. But most importantly we all were drawn closer to our Savior Jesus Christ and his never ending Love & Grace. I would like to thank all in the WNY Emmaus Community for their prayers, presence at Community events during the weekend, all the gifts of Agape and all the Love & support that Walk #50 experienced. It takes the entire Emmaus Community doing their part to make a successful Weekend experience. As these new community members venture along in their fourth day please be praying for them, and invite them to gatherings, reunion groups, and most importantly to be more active in their local church. To God Be the glory for all that he has done thru Walk #50. DeColores, Jim Keiper Row 1: Pastor Clara Wilder, Jim Keiper, Pastor Tim Gleason, Darrell Rublee, Pastor Ron Isaman, Ron Tillis, Bill Perkins, Fred Rieber Row 2: Ben Schooley, Nick Tangelder, Jim Noreck, David Bernacki, Pastor Nilla Owen, Paul Gaskin,Robert Mitchell, Brad Wheeler, Vincent HULL, Pastor Karen Grinnell, Marty Doherty Row 3: Jim Burkhardt, Alan Harrer, Steve Snyder Row 4: Harry Garner, John Trowbridge, Blake Phinney, Paul Brown, Norb Fuest, Jack Waterhouse, Row 5: Jack Woika, Bill Skura, Bart Moody, Arlan Harvey, Dan Van Allen, Lynn Blakeman, Rodney Stringham Row 6: Joe Peters, Bob Fisher Please pray for these new members of our Emmaus Community that the Lord will continue to speak to their hearts and guide them on all their 4th Days! 3

4 WNY Emmaus Board of Directors Calling all men who Have been on a WALK Sponsor your neighbor With some sincere talk Explain all the pros What the Walk meant to you And God will bless him And you too! Walk to Emmaus Men s Walk #51 October Registrations Due: Sept 14 Let s go for a Walk Said the sponsor to Sue God has a special message Arranged just for you It s only for 3 days 72 hours to be exact And you ll come home again With nothing to lack! Walk to Emmaus Women s Walk #51 Nov Registrations Due: Oct. 13 submitted by Registrars, Dick and Roberta Baker 4

5 Gathering Schedules, Times, Locations, & Leader Contact Information Alexander: Alexander UMC - 3rd Saturday of month (Child care as needed) Frank White (585) uncleferter@msn.com Enchanted Mountain (Olean): Christ UMC lounge 1st Wednesday of the month 7-8:30 p.m. - Meeting Mike or Jan Mortimer mortimer50@verizon.net Hamburg/Buffalo Southtowns: Hamburg UMC 116 Union St., Parlor - 3rd Tuesday of the month Jerry & Caroline Schneggenburger eyemann@roadrunner.com Honeoye Falls: Honeoye Falls UMC 31 East St Honeoye Falls NY nd Sunday of the month 6:30 PM Meeting Darrell Rublee drublee@rochester.rr.com Kendall: Kendall UMC, 1808 Kendall Road - 2nd Friday of the month; 6:30 p.m. - Meeting Bob & Trudy Slocum rslocum678@aol.com Medina/Millville: Medina UMC - 2nd Friday of the month Sandy Andrews & Holly Roush (585) hjroush@localnet.com Napoli: Napoli UMC - (Moved back) 4th Monday of the month Bill & Geniece Perkins billperkins1951@yahoo.com Springville: Springville UMC 3rd Saturday of month 9:30 a.m. - Meeting Duane & Anita Domes himmiesmom@aol.com West Bank: Greece UMC - 2nd Saturday of the month 8:30 a.m. - Continental breakfast 9 a.m. - Meeting Will & Carolyn Rickman wcdric@frontiernet.net Please prayerfully consider how you will serve God through service to those who attended the Spring Walk or will be attending the Fall Walks. All are welcome... Open to all community members YES you are welcome & encouraged to attend! Unsure of community events? Follow community events on Twitter!!! Find us Not on Twitter? Go to twitter.com to create an account & to sign up to follow Community events & updates!! Please submit changes in contact information to Kathie Woika at jwoika1@rochester.rr.com 5

6 Deadline for July Rainbow Connection is June 15 B. Swanson 642 Wilder Rd. Hilton, NY