Visit Sandy W.
On Sunday I visited Sandy W., who recently took up residence at The Meadows at Osborn Park. She will no longer be able to stay in her home in Bellevue. Sadly, she is now under hospice care.
Funeral for Ted Dress, husband of Pr. Janine Dress
On Monday I attended the funeral for Ted Dress, who died on July 10. You can read the obituary here. Janine is a member of the Pines Retreat Center pastor's group that has been meeting twice a year for the past 15 years. Janine served her seminary internship at St. John's back in the late 1970's. The funeral luncheon was at St. Paul's Danbury, where Pr. Chris Young recently retired from. At the luncheon I sat with Pr. Matt Musteric, whose first call was to Bethlehem Pemberville under Pr. David Wietelman, the congregation he was called to following his years at St. John's. You can't go too far in our synod without making some kind of connection to St. John's.
Eastern Conference Pastors Meeting
Eastern Conference Pastors met Tuesday morning at my former stomping grounds, St. Peter in Norwalk. Our primary program for the meeting was Carolyn Guy, who is our synod's Coordinator of Communications and Technology. In this capacity she facilitates the synod’s communications and media presence, in addition to providing communications and technological administrative support for the professional staff. Her presentation included helpful tips regarding our congregations' web presence and use of social media. Like I said above, lots of people have belonged to or are connected with St. John's.
Diakonia Program will begin in September
The other presenter for our Eastern Conference Pastors' meeting was Pr. Chris Young (St. John's again!), who provided information about a Diakonia program starting in our synod, of which she will be one of the class leaders. Diakonia is an intensive adult Christian Education program that meets during the school year on Wednesday evenings from 6-9 pm. The sessions will be held at Grace Fremont. The program lasts for two years, and involves six courses each of the two years. Topics covered include Old Testament, New Testament, Church history, and pastoral care. I would strongly encourage anyone from St. John's that would have any interest to check it out. My First Galion interim had four members that had enrolled in the Diakonia program in the Southeast Conference. You can read more abouat Diakonia here. Let me know if you're interested!
Executive Team Met Tuesday
Exec met Tuesday, and and our discussion included formation of the Call Committee. I have prepared a bulletin insert that will be in this and next weekend's bulletin which is a request for Call Committee suggestions from the congregation.
Summer Senior Social Huge Success!
On Wednesday, at least 80 people came together for our Senior Summer Social, the brain-child of Pat Olsen, who made the suggestion at our June Council meeting. Pat, Marlene and Minetta formed the core of the planning team, and they had plenty of help to make this event a smashing success. Two van loads of residents from Orchard Grover and Bellevue Care attended the event, along with many of our seniors that have been unable to get out, but with some help from family or congregation members, made their way to St. John's. Entertainment included Marlene on the piano, dancing by Rose and Dakota, a piano solo by Kaden, Cindy and I singing a few songs trying some harmony, and Paul provided the postlude on the organ. Thanks to all who made this event a success -- Becky, activities director at Bellevue Care was very impressed, and plans to bring more next time.
First Small Group Meeting in the Books
Wednesday continued to be a busy day with our first Small Group meeting. I thought the meeting went very well -- we had about 15 in attendance. There was good conversation, and the Transition Team took lots of notes. Halfway through we paused for some refreshment by way of root beer floats. Three more meetings are scheduled, Sunday after worship on July 21 and 28, and next Wednesday at 7 pm. I know we have some council members signed up for each of those meetings, so see you there!
Thursday Bible Study continues
The Thursday morning Bible Study group has been meeting intermittently during the summer weeks, but resumed our Bishop Daniel's study of the Sermon on the Mount. This six-session study usually takes us two weeks to complete one session. We completed the first part of session five this week, and then we have 1.5 sessions to go.
Bill Cramer Memorial Service
Will conduct memorial service for Bill Cramer on Saturday, June 20, 2pm, at the Lakefield Manor Club House, 4901 W. Waterberry Dr., Huron.. You can read the obituary here. He was a brother to Renee Strayer-Hart and Norman (Joyce) Cramer, and an uncle to Valerie Graziano.
Audit continues
The audit of the St. John's financial records continues. They should be completing their work soon. Mark, one of the auditors says he's seeing nothing out of the ordinary, so that's good to hear.
Weird Temporary Electrical Outage on Wednesday
Late Wednesday afternoon, there was a strange power outage at the church. There was no power to the the light in the hallway inside the office entrance, in the entryway outside the elevator, and the security keypad was not working. I had to call Mike B. to come and let me in with a key. No tripped circuit breakers could be found, but low and behold, a couple hours later the power to those areas returned. Weird.
Bishop Daniel's Messages
Half-Year Giving Statements Going Out Soon
First half of the year giving statements will be going out early next week. Our plan is to include a brief report, thanks for your gifts, and encouragement to continue faithfully with your giving.
August Newsletter Items needed soon
August will be her soon, so that means Newsletter items to Kristen. Yeah, that means me, too.
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