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Heart
of Carolina Emmaus Newsletter
Volume
6, Number 4 October 2006
From
Your Spiritual Director
Greetings
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
In
ancient times there once was a king who decided to find and honor the
greatest person in the realm. A man of wealth and property was
singled out. Another was praised for her healing powers; another for
his wisdom and knowledge of the law. Still another was lauded for his
business acumen. Many other successful people were brought to the palace,
but it became evident that the task of choosing the greatest would be
difficult. Finally the last candidate stood before the king. She was
a woman whose hair was white. Her eyes shone with the light of
knowledge and understanding love. “Who is this?” asked the king.
“What has she done?” “You have seen all the others,” said
the king’s aid. “This is their teacher!” The people
applauded and the king came down from the throne to honor her.
Yeah,
so what? Great story but what does this have to do with the
spiritual journey of a person’s life? Shaun McCarty writes, “Those
who accompanyothers on journeys of faith have been called by a variety of
names: spiritual directors, masters, fathers, mothers, midwives, guides,
counselors, mentors, companions, friends, etc.” The question
for us is, who are the “spiritual teachers” that have been one or many
of these names for us along our life’s journey? Don’t look too
hard for the professional religious or the academically or economically
successful (whatever that means). Look for those who have been in
the trenches with us and who, by their life and wisdom, have opened our
eyes to the mystery of our faith. Let us look for those who have led
us to understand that God is not necessarily where or how we expect to
find God and that God is not manageable by any human proficiency.
Let us look for those “soul friends” who affirm the grace of God
within us and who challenges us toward a growing intimacy in our lives of
worship and devotion. These are the ones who deserve our applause
and our gratitude. These are the ones who, without attention drawn
to them, become our spiritual teachers. Thank God for these
wonderful gifts of grace. I look forward to saying thank you to one
or more of my “spiritual friends.” I invite you join me in this act of
gratitude.
Peace,
Bryan
Lay
Directors’ Corner
“Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,
let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily
entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who
for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:1-2
We in Heart of Carolina Emmaus have been blessed by so many that are a
part of the great cloud of witnesses: those who gave sacrificially
to see this Community come into being, ones who served on each of our
pilgrim Walks, and subsequent teams, those who served faithfully behind
the scenes or provided leadership on the Board of Directors through the
years. This year we are particularly reminded of the selfless
service of T. Ray Smith and Lemoyne Rose.
Each of us can think of many in the HOC Community – both clergy and
laity – who have re-presented Christ to us. We have been and
continue to be richly blessed by those serving in His name.
Your faithfulness in the voting process resulted in almost three times the
number of ballots! The by-laws change was overwhelming passed.
New Board members will take up responsibilities in January, 2007 but will
begin learning about respective work areas during the upcoming Walks.
Newly elected lay members are:
Colon
and Donna Davis from Elevation UMC, Keith and Lynda Stewart from Fremont
UMC, Si and Stephanie Weeks from Fuquay-Varina UMC, and Al and Susie White
from Millbrook UMC. The clergy position will be filled by Alice
Kunka.
We know that each of you will do all you can to support Walks 89 and
90 and the pilgrims God is entrusting to us. Let us join together in
prayer that these two Walks are all God visions them to be. Men’s
Walk #89 will be September 21-24. The Lay Director will be David
McAnally, and the Spiritual Director will be Bill Snotherly.
Women’s Walk #90 will be October 12-15. The Lay Director will be
Kim King, and the Spiritual Director will be Lib Campbell. Follow
Up for these two Walks will be October 29.
May God richly bless you for your servanthood in His name!
DeColores,
David
and Lee Heathcoat
R & R Tracks-From Your Editors
Dear
Friends,
Well folks-this is it for us. It is with an unusual combination of
both sadness and relief that we bid farewell as your editors for the Heart
of Carolina newsletter.
Now that the “referendum” to begin Board of Directors terms in
January has passed, we will still be on the board through the end of this
year. However,
this will be the final newsletter of our tenure.
We have enjoyed this journey of service for our community, and we
are grateful to the community for allowing us to be a part of this journey
for the last two years.
We’ve tried to spice up the newsletter a bit with some new
features, clipart, and different formats.
We are confident that our successors will continue to improve this
publication.
We have also tried to keep up with your changes and updates of
information in the directory.
This by itself has been an Herculean challenge!
Forgive us if we missed you somehow.
As we enter the fall, which is our favorite time of year, we have
started this season with an additional blessing.
Our oldest daughter, Ariel, went on her Chrysalis Flight over Labor
Day weekend!
Now that she is now a part of the Heart of Carolina community, you
can be sure that you will see plenty of us, even though our tenure on the
board is complete.
Emmaus and Chrysalis have now become a family affair for us, and we
are looking forward to even more involvement in both fellowships.
(We should also note that our spiritual director’s daughter,
Meredith Faggart, was one of Ariel’s fellow caterpillars on the
Chrysalis Flight.)
Praise God!
We would be remiss if we did not say thank you to Dave Amon for his
work as the web-servant for the HOC website.
Our past issues of the newsletters are there, and recently, Dave
redesigned the whole site.
Check out the new look at www.rtpnet.org/emmaus/.
Once again, it has been our joy and privilege to serve you and the
HOC Community.
We look forward to seeing everyone working behind the scenes, with
future teams, and at Gatherings.
May God bless and keep you all-see y’all around!
Grace
and Peace,
Rusty
& Renee Rains
Luggage
and Transportation
New Snackroom Assignments!
Vegetables,
Fruit, Cheese, & Dips:
Hollands
UMC, Westover UMC, Horne Memorial UMC, All Other Churches
Salty
Snacks, Salsa, Trail Mix & Crackers:
Edenton
Street UMC, Hayes Barton UMC, St. Francis UMC,
Glendale
Heights UMC, Mt. Sylvan UMC
Candy
and Nuts:
Garner
UMC, St. Luke UMC (Sanford),
First UMC
Cary
Fruit Drinks & Soft Drinks:
Fuquay-Varina
UMC,
Nashville
UMC,
White Memorial Presbyterian
Baked Goods:
Gateway
Community, Fremont UMC, White Plains UMC,
St.
Andrews UMC, Benson UMC,
Elevation UMC
Low Fat & Sugar Free Snacks:
Millbrook
UMC, Apex UMC,
Wake
Forest
UMC
Sponsors:
Please
bring a snack and a drink. We are especially in need of more fruit,
vegetable trays, and homemade baked goods.
Be advised that cash donations are welcome if you don’t have
time to shop or bake. We can
use the funds to purchase snacks as needed.
Sponsorship Training
As required by the Upper Room, your Heart of Carolina Emmaus Board of Directors
established a plan to equip this community for the most important job in
serving future pilgrims - Sponsorship. The Sponsorship training
session was established in order to train as many community members as
possible in a short period of time. We’ve worked to make sessions
available at varying times and in locations convenient to the entire
community, to local churches, and reunion groups. It is our intent to
provide this community with the needed information. At least once
a quarter, Sponsorship training will be available prior to HOC community
Gatherings.
All
Sponsors must understand the commitment they are making to the pilgrims
and to the future life of the community. As a vital member of the
Heart of Carolina Emmaus Community, we hope you will make every effort to
insure the integrity of the Walk to Emmaus by joining your Board in the
commitment we have made to follow the guidelines set forth by the UPPER
Room.
Ted
& Dorothy Rogers
Agape Reminder
After collecting the 12 letters, the sponsor should write Sponsor
or S #1 through # 12 in the postage stamp area of the envelopes.
This will ensure that the main 12 letters are included in the
packet.All other letters received will be given to the sponsor to give
to the pilgrim after closing.
Those of us who experienced God’s love in a powerful way on the
Walk to Emmaus want everyone to have the opportunity to attend.
A few years ago, the Heart of Carolina received a generous
contribution for our scholarship / financial aid fund.
Due to MANY requests for financial assistance since this
donation, the fund is almost completely depleted.
If you are sponsoring a candidate, please ask for financial
assistance ONLY if a financial need exists.
Some sponsors pay the entire cost of their pilgrim; many pay at
least the application fee. If
you, as sponsor, are unable to do this, please check with your church
since many churches have funds available for this purpose.
Please consider donating to our Financial Aid Fund Contributions
can be made at our Gatherings, Apostolic Hours, Send-offs, and Closings
or by contacting our treasurer, Faye
Cress at 919.552.0713. We
will also gladly accept donations mailed with applications.
In
Service,
Short,
Clean, and Funny
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