On the Right Path The News let ter of the South ern Mary land Emmaus Com mu nity

Transcription

1 On the Right Path The News let ter of the South ern Mary land Emmaus Com mu nity Second Quar ter, 2014 Walk In the Light Vol ume 14 Is sue 2 Your Assistant Community Lay Director My name is Pat Brennan, I worship at La Plata United Methodist Church, I walked on Southern Maryland Emmaus Walk #2, and I sat at the table of Martha (clap). I come from southwestern Pennsylvania, married Dan in 1985, and now live in La Plata. We have two married children and two grandchildren. I have worked for a landscape contractor as office manager for the last 29 years, and some day would like to retire. At La Plata UMC, I sing in the adult choir, play in the hand bell choir, and sit on the Fellowship Ministries Committee. I participate in Pets on Wheels with my Morkie (Maltese/Yorkie) dog, Darby, and visit Charles County Nursing and Rehab Center, and other events. Darby and I also have been visiting churches during Safe Nights spending time with adults and children who are homeless. Dan and I have been active at Port Tobacco Playhouse for many years, where I am most often involved in costuming. I am honored to be serving my first year on the Southern Maryland Emmaus Board of Directors as the Assistant Community Lay Director / Vice Chair / Facilities. As a new member of the Board, I am, discovering another way to serve within our Emmaus Community. My husband, Dan Brennan, walked on Southern Maryland Emmaus Walk #1, and has been involved in many capacities serving on many teams, Weekend Lay Director, Board of Directors, and currently as Newsletter, Website, and Entertainment POC. On Saturday, May 17, 2014, beginning at 9:00am, I attended the Board Leadership Training which was presented at Good Shepherd UMC in Waldorf. As a new member of the Board, this training was invaluable to me. See PAT page 6. Southern Maryland Emmaus Gathering July 19 Potluck at 5:00 p.m. Gath er ing 6:00 PM at Good Shep herd UMC 305 East Smallwood Drive Wal dorf, Mary land Childcare Pro vided Bring Friends, Fam ily, Neighbors Everyone Welcome

2 Fall Walks West River Men s Walk #49 November 6-9 Women s Walk #50 November 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 Recurring Events of the Southern Maryland Emmaus Community Next Gath er ing - July 19, 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 November 22. At ten dance at a 4th Day Sem i nar is re quired in or der to spon sor pil grims, and 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 Bab bling as an Art Form Ba bies bab ble. I don t sup pose that co mes as a star tling rev e la tion to any one who s ever been around an in fant. We had a won der ful Me mo rial Day visit from our grand daugh ter Emma Grace, who dem on strated that she had more than mas tered the fine art of bab bling. But did you know that bab bling is not lim ited to those still in di a pers? I know this be cause I have been ac cused from time to time of do ing just that - bab bling. Just the other day I was ex plain ing to my sainted wife the in ner work ings of her cell phone when she turned to me and said, What are you bab bling about? Never one to miss an op por tu nity to turn the ta bles, I made the same ob ser va tion as she was ver bal iz ing a list of things I needed to do while she was out. To be hon est, I m an in vet er ate bab bler. I do it while watch ing the nightly news. I do it be hind the wheel when chal lenged by other driv ers. I do it while stand ing in lines for any rea son (but es pe cially those where the ma jor holdup is de cid ing how many ex tra pick les are re ally needed on that Quar ter Pounder.) I bab ble when pay ing bills. I bab ble loudly when I can t lo cate the re mote con trol. In short, I bab ble at life. So what ex actly is bab bling? Well, here are a few def i ni tions: 1. To ut ter a mean ing less con fu sion of words or sounds 2. To make a con tin u ous low, mur mur ing sound, as flow ing wa ter. 3. In ar tic u late or mean ing less talk or sounds. 4. To talk fool ishly or idly; chat ter Oops, sorry, those were def i ni tions of Con gress. But close enough. God pun ished the build ers of the Tower of Ba bel for their van ity in try ing to build a stair way to heaven by caus ing them to speak dif fer ent lan guages, mak ing it im pos si ble for them to com mu ni cate with each other. And it seems we ve been bab bling ever since. We teach ba bies to speak in tel li gi bly yet we of ten con found each other with con fus ing, mean ing less, or fool ish talk. We say what we want some times with out think ing of the con se quences or ef fects on oth ers. But when we con verse with God - when we pray - He can sort out the truth and hon esty from be hind the pro tec tive screen of our bab bling. We should talk to each other just as we would to God. And now, if you ll ex cuse me, I m go ing to go bab ble to my grand daugh ter, she will not judge me, she ll just en joy the con ver sa tion. - Dan Brennan On the Right Path Dead line for next is sue is September 10, 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

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5 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 Team & Pilgrim Applications Team & Pilgrim Lists (where available) Prayer Coordinator Ken Cain ken.cain@capitaltristate.com Visit our website. No need to reg is ter at our new website as no per sonal in for ma tion is main tained. On The Right Path This is the newsletter of the Southern Maryland Emmaus Community. It is Published quarterly by , distributed by the Point of Contact for each participating church, hard copy mailed, and available on the Southern Maryland Emmaus website. Southern Maryland Emmaus is affiliated with the International Emmaus Movement of The Upper Room, Nashville, Tn. Emmaus is a program offering of Upper Room Ministries of the United Methodist Church. Our purpose is to inspire, challenge, and equip church members for Christian Action. Please con tact the POC for your church as listed in this news let ter if you are not Southern Maryland Emmaus Community Reunion & Accountability Groups The Re union Group list ing is tem po rarily un avail able while we are in the pro cess of ob tain ing up dated in for ma tion on Re union Groups in the com mu nity. Pub li ca tion will re sume shortly. 5

6 PAT from page 1 My own weekend came at just the right time God s time. Although I was raised in a Christian family, went to church regularly and participated in all kinds of programs, committees, and as a leader within the church, I needed this special weekend to open my mind and my heart, and experience God in a whole new way. Sharing this with Dan, who walked just before me, made the experience much more profound. We both began to look at things differently. Our weekends were God s way of preparing us for things we could not possibly know were coming. About two years after my walk, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Dan and I went through all the emotional impact that such news brings. Over the next months, I underwent lumpectomy surgery and radiation treatments. It was a scary and stressful time in our lives. With many prayers and support from our family and friends especially our church and Emmaus family friends, we came through everything fine and I remain cancer free. Several years later, Dan s mom had a severe stroke and came to live with us for about two years before she passed away. About six months before her passing, Dan s younger brother, Bill, died unexpectedly. Then, about eight months after we lost Mom, my father passed away after a long illness. Any one of these events could have been beyond our means to cope without the inner strength and guidance that God provided to us. My walk made me aware that God has a plan for each of us. It is also quite likely that it is not the same plan we had for ourselves. God calls us to be disciples, within our family, our church, and our community. Participating in Emmaus events is an excellent way to grow spiritually, find ongoing support and renewal, and bring others into a stronger Christian commitment to further the work of the church. When we walk, we be come aware of only a por tion of the pro cess. When we team, we see an other layer of the prayer, prep a ra tion, com mit ment, and de vo tion that is re quired to pres ent on go ing week ends. As mem bers of the Board, we see a lit tle more of the over all struc ture of our lo cal Emmaus com mu nity, and learn to work within the larger frame work of the Emmaus Model, know ing that we are only one com mu nity of many. Within the Emmaus Com mu nity, there are so many op - por tu ni ties to use the tools which equipped us dur ing our walk such as: Team ing: My walk was such a spe cial and life-chang - ing event that I find my self from time to time want ing to re turn to that place in my heart. Serv ing on a team has al lowed me to do that, and to find a whole new joy in be - ing a part of bring ing new pil grims to that same place. When I see some one s life change within the short few days of a week end, it is a thrill ing and hum bling ex pe ri - ence to know with out a doubt - that God is us ing me to make a dif fer ence in some one s life. I have been priv i - leged to serve on five teams and pray that God will use me to serve in the fu ture. Per haps God is call ing you to be on a team. To do this, you need to be gin pray ing and sub mit an ap pli ca tion. Spon sor ship: The need to share this ex pe ri ence has led Dan and me to spon sor many pil grims, some of whom have be come spon sors for many oth ers and have served in many ways within their church and the Emmaus com mu nity. When God places a per son on your heart, He is speak ing to you and to that per son. Pray, and pray some more, and ask Him to lead you to find the right time for this per son. For Dan and me, we did not walk the first time we were asked, it took a year or so for us to be ready, but the seed had been planted. Sev eral peo ple spoke to us and de scribed the Walk to Emmaus as a Gift. We could clearly see God s love shin ing through these peo ple who en cour aged us, and we saw the dif fer ence in how they par tic i pated within our church. When we walked, we were ab so lutely ready to open our minds and hearts and al low God to re veal his plans for us. Per haps God is call ing you to spon sor. To do this you must at tend a Fourth Day Sem - i nar and begin praying for a pilgrim. Team ing and spon sor ship are only two of the many op - por tu ni ties open to you. Oth ers such as par tic i pa tion in a Reunion Group, pro vid ing com mu nity sup port for week ends such as help ing with setup and cleanup, par tic i pat ing in the prayer vigil, pro vid ing agape in many forms, par tic i pat ing in monthly Gath er ings, giv ing a Fourth Day talk to share your own ex pe ri ence, and serv ing on the Board of Di rec tors. Each and ev ery one of these is a step in fur ther ing your own spiritual growth, build ing stron ger Chris tians, mak ing more ef fec tive lead ers and work ers within each church, and be ing true Dis ci ples as we bring oth ers to deeper un der stand ing and com mit ment to Christ. 6

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8 Add Some thing Unique to Your Church's Ser vice Paul Ross and a team of partners from churches in Southern Maryland comprise "Sign of the Cross", a unique ministry of song and music presented through sign language. Paula and the members of the group are available to perform in your church at a summer service or special event. The experience of seeing familiar praise songs acted out in the beautiful motions of sign language offer congregations a new way to look at familiar tunes. If you would like to see a video of "Sign of the Cross" in a performance at La Plata United Methodist Church just copy and visit this link: Want to have them come to your church, contact Paula at mrspaulaross@gmail.com or call her at the wide array of disorienting emotions that can accompany the death of our parents. My name is Connie Wells; I attend Lexington Park United Methodist Church. I walked on SME #28 and sat at the table of Naomi (clap). Several of my close friends have lost parents recently and I am reminded of a book my sister shared with me when our last parent died: The Orphaned Adult: Understanding and Coping with Grief and Change after the Death of Our Parents by Alexander Levy. Losing our parents when we ourselves are adults is in the natural order of things, a rite of passage if you would into true adulthood. But whether we lose them suddenly or after a prolonged illness, and whether we were close to or estranged from them, this passage proves inevitably more difficult than we thought it would be. The Orphaned Adult validates In cor po rat ing his own per sonal ex pe ri ence with the ac counts of oth ers who have lost their par - ents, psy chol o gist Levy ex am ines this pro found life-chang ing event with com pas sion and un der - stand ing. Since our par ents pro ject an il lu sion of per ma nence, writes Levy, their death forces us to con front our own mor tal ity (we are next in line to die) and to ad just to our new iden ti ties as or - phaned adults. In deed, he ar gues that this strip - ping of our child ish be liefs is the first step to ward true adult hood: Per haps only af ter par ents have died can peo ple find out what they are go ing to be when they grow up. John 11:25 Je sus said to her, I am the res ur rec - tion and the life. Who ever be lieves in me, though he dies, yet shall he live 8

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11 2015 Walk Dates Announced The Spring 2015 Walks will be: Men's Walk April 9-12 Women's Walk April The Fall 2015 Walks will be: Men's Walk October Women's Walk October Educational Tour of Israel lead er ship of the team: Rev. Dr. Charles Harrell, Rev. Pat Dols, Rev. Tricia Wat son, and Rev. Da vid Graves. For a dig i tal flier de tail ing the trip, con tact davidgraves1982@gmail.com. - Da vid Graves St Paul UMC is co-host ing a trip to Is rael Jan u ary 8-18, Peo ple from sev eral churches will travel to gether on an un for get ta ble tour of the Holy Land with Ed u ca tional Op por tu ni ties Tours. We will stay in fine ho tels and en joy buf fet break fast and din ners and travel by air con di tioned coach to Caesarea, the Gal i lee, Golan Heights, Naz a reth, Je ri cho, Qumran, Old Je ru sa lem, and other sites. Four pas tors will share the Welcome To Our New Website? A clean, at trac tive ban ner wel comes you to our com mu nity's new website: While you may be used to us ing other URLs to reach our site, please up date your book marks and re cords to use only the ad dress pro vided above. There are some tech ni cal is sues we are deal ing with re gard ing our older sites that may take a lit tle time to re solve, but we want you to be able to look at and com ment on our re de signed site. We know there are up dates still to be ap plied to the new site, and we are in the pro cess of tran si tioning re spon si bil i ties for main te nance of the site. So please bear with us. Your sug ges tions are al ways wel come. 11

12 Ken's Perspective - Ken Cain 12 Well it s time to write something for this issue of the Southern Maryland Emmaus newsletter. When I did this for the first quarter I rambled on quite a bit about the help needed in the various aspects of communication as well as some of my concerns about participation at the Gatherings and the upcoming Walks. I ll keep it shorter this time, after all it s summer and I pray that all of you are enjoying yourselves with your families and friends, never losing sight of the fact that it is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that makes this all possible. I prayed a bit as to what to say, so here s my best shot. Our community has experienced a good deal of success in the last three years or so. If we are successful this fall, and I believe we will be, this will be the first time in a long while, a very long while that we have had two years in a row of successful spring and fall walks for both the men and the women. We have two really wonderful people as lay leaders for the fall walks, Linda Flanagan and Rich Pitonyak. I ve had the privilege of seeing them both do God s work, and take my word for it, it has been a privilege. These are my thoughts and my opinions about for whatever you may think they re worth. 1. Pilgrims, we need sponsors and a lot of them. We go through this every walk or at least for the three years or so I have served on this board. We go to the last minute, send out every type of plea we can and somehow we manage to get enough applications and it all comes together. There s always talk about this being unfair to the team members who have to start preparing a lot earlier than that point in time when final applications have been received. In my own opinion, Rev. Graves said it really well. I m paraphrasing at this point but his basic comments were that without the walks there is no reason for Emmaus. I agree. Yes I know its summer. Send in the applications now, not in August and not in September, but right now. Christ is counting on you. 2. Team members, I have admittedly only teamed twice, once as an assistant table leader and once as the board representative. Both times where experiences different then, but certainly equal to my original walk experience. We need sponsors, because without that, we won t have to worry about needing team members. Please pray about both subjects. Really pray, Christ is counting on you. 3. Gaitherings, Waldorf is central to most of our membership, that s a fact. Waldorf is not convenient for most of our membership, that s also a fact. We average somewhere around 50 to 120 in attendance at our gatherings. I can remember a time not so very long ago that if we got 30 we were just as happy as could be. We have over 700 members that we can identify as still being currently in the area, and who, as far as we know, still consider themselves to be active members of the Emmaus community. Now I need to clarify that statement a little bit. We all know the purpose of Emmaus is to encourage people to experience a greater walk with Christ and then to go back and serve their local church and community. If all the 600 or so that don t make it to the gatherings are doing that, really doing that, then I guess it s okay. Still, I think it would be good if more people showed up for the gatherings. I know many are busy with their local churches on that day; I m just not sure about the numbers. So my request is the same, please as someone I truly admire has said on many occasions, prayerfully consider this. Maybe we will see you at the next gathering. Christ is counting on you. 4. The Board, I and several others will be coming off the board at the end of the year. We need to have an election in the fall. I have asked for people to let us know if they were interested in serving on the board. Yes, it can be hard work, sometimes even frustrating, usually inconvenient, and yet, so very rewarding that I can t even begin to express it in words. You don t have to have any specific talents; you just need to love Christ. People aren t stepping forward and I am personally very concerned, but I m taking my friends advice and praying a lot about this particular issue. Again, Christ is counting on you. I don t mean for my comments to be depressing or negative. I know in my heart our community is filled with good people, good Christians, and like all of you, I too depending on Christ. I still have a few more months to go on the board and I have wrestled with what I m going to do next. I m praying that I can continue to some way contribute to the Emmaus program. There are couple more issues of the newsletter yet to go before my ongoing rants will end. You know it s funny; I started out saying that I would keep my remarks short. It just never seems to work out that way.

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17 shining a light on Community Events News From Pisgah Our church Pisgah United Methodist is awesome and full of life. We started a Parents Night Out program that is free and the children love coming. They get to do crafts, have dinner, and watch a movie. The entire evening is built around a theme. The last one was Bugs. The movie was a Bugs Life. Best of all the youth of our church come and help at as well! Pisgah United Methodist adopted a school and we support them with weekend backpacks full of food, clothes, warm coats, but most of all in prayer. We sent a team of adults and youth to help remodel a home working with Christmas in April. The youth loved seeing their efforts of creating new from old and can t wait for next year. In April we had our first free health fair. Representatives from all kinds of health organizations came and offered free screenings and advice. At the end of July, Pisgah is sending a team of 7 people to West Virginia with the ASP group to rebuild a home for a needy family. In the near future our church is having a car wash fundraiser for our ASP team, as well as a spaghetti dinner with talent show. The dinner and show are July 12th. Our church is blessed to have the Flipping Eyelids and will be playing! Check them out on You Tube. - Jane Elliott 17

18 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: