New
Life News – March 2008
(A
monthly publication of the New Life Emmaus Community)
GATHERING THIS COMING TUESDAY – SEE DETAILS BELOW
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Please forward items that you feel might be appropriate for this section to Rakbuck@flash.net . This month’s Food for Thought is an anonymous entry entitled “3900 Saturday Mornings.”
The older I get, the more I enjoy
Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the
quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the
unbounded joy of not having to be at work.
Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most
enjoyable.
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling
toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning
paper in the other. What began as a
typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems
to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:
I turned the dial up into
the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday
morning swap net. Along the way, I came
across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should
be in the broadcasting business. He
was telling whom-ever he was talking with something about "a thousand
marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen.
"Well, Tom, it sure sounds
like you're busy with your job. I'm sure
they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be
away from home and your family so much. Hard
to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to
make ends meet. It's too bad you missed
your daughter's "dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you something that has
helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his
theory of a "thousand marbles."
"You see, I sat down one day
and did a little arithmetic. The average
person lives about seventy-five years. I
know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about
seventy-five years.
"Now then, I multiplied 75
times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the
average person has in their entire lifetime.
Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.
It took me until I was fifty-five
years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on,
"and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred
Saturdays." "I got to thinking that if I lived to
be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought
every single marble they had. I ended up
having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large,
clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear."
"Every Saturday since then,
I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.
I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on
the really important things in life.
There is nothing like watching
your time here on this earth run out
to help get your priorities straight."
"Now let me tell you one
last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out
of the container. I figure that if I
make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little
more time."
"It was nice to meet you
Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again
here on the band. This is a 75 Year old
Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop
on the band when this fellow signed off.
I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that
morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next
club newsletter.
Instead, I went upstairs and woke
my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon
honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast." "What brought this
on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh,
nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together
with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a
toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.
NEXT GATHERING: The monthly New Life Gathering will
take place at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, March 18th at
2008 GATHERING SCHEDULE:
March 18 Northern Hills UMC, 3703
April 15 Universal City UMC, 90
Winn,
May 20 New Braunfels 1st UMC,
June 17
July Joint Gathering: TBA
August 19 Schertz UMC 3460
September 16 New Hope UMC, 10155 Old Cimarron Tr,
October 21 Bethany
UMC, 4102 Eisenhauer, SA, TX 78218 210-655-5473
November 18 TBA
December (no gathering scheduled)
If your
church/community is interested in joining the New Life Emmaus community for
LOCAL
CHURCH GATHERINGS:
We are posting the day & date of local church gatherings
in the newsletter to invite others to come.
Please update this information by replying to this newsletter if your
church changes/cancels your meeting.
Local Gatherings scheduled:
First UMC
Northern Hills UMC: Last Monday of every month, 7 pm.
Schertz UMC: 1st Tuesday of every month, 7 pm.
St Andrew's UMC: Fridays, quarterly.
Universal City UMC: 1st Sunday, every even month 7 pm – Next
Gathering will be in June.
2008
WALK SCHEDULE:
Walk# Dates Lay
Director Site
1445W Jul 10 –
Jul 13 Mary Robertson Mt Wesley
1468M Oct 16 –
19 Rick Bernhardt Mt Wesley
WALK
NEWS:
Walk 1445 - We
will be meeting for our second team training on March 15th. Please lift our team and their families in
prayer to sustain them through this training process and during the walk. Please invite your family and friends to
consider being a pilgrim. And of course,
lift up the pilgrims, and God calls them to the Walk
to Emmaus. Together, we as a community
can make this a truly joyous event. "If
your heart is as my heart, take my hand."
John Wesley. Please contact me if
you have agape questions and ideas.
Mary Robertson, Lay Director
830-609-7665
FROM THE LAY
DIRECTOR: A reminder that the
next New Life Board Meeting will be held Sunday, April 13, at Schertz UMC at
2:00 PM. In addition to the regular
board meeting it will be followed by a team selection for Men's walk 1468. We need to confirm our monthly gatherings so
it would be very nice to have a representative from all New Life Churches. We may be planning a joint gathering for July
as well. Please mark your calendars and
remind local church board members to attend.
Jim Talbott, New Life Lay Director
Calling All Future Lay Directors: The New Life Board will be tentatively selecting our Lay Directors for 2009 early in April. Additionally we will start to chart out potential Lay Directors for 2010 and 2011. If you have expressed an interest in being a future Lay Director, even if you are not sure about 2009, please make sure you get your Lay Director interest form turned in to our Board Rep no later than the end of March 2008. Forms can be downloaded from the New Life WEB Site at http://www.gbgm-umc.org/newlife-sanantonio/forms.htm
EVERYDAY-USE TIP OF THE
MONTH: ATTORNEY'S ADVICE - NO CHARGE
(Continued)
A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.
4.
Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both
sides of each license, credit card, etc.
You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers
and phone numbers to Call
and cancel.
Keep the photocopy in a safe
place. I also carry a Photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or
abroad. We've all heard horror stories
about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a Name, address,
Social Security number,
credit cards.
Unfortunately, I, an attorney,
have firsthand knowledge because my Wallet
was stolen last month. Within
a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package,
applied for a VISA credit card, had a
credit line approved to buy a
Gateway computer, received a PIN number from
DMV to change my driving record information online, and more. But here's some critical information to
limit the damage in case this happens to you or
someone you know:
5. We have been told we should cancel our
credit cards immediately. But the key is
having the toll free numbers and your card Numbers handy so you know whom to
call. Keep those where you can find them.
NEWS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL OFFICE: Dear
Brothers and Sisters,
We are pleased to announce that the Walk to Emmaus International Office is
working in an exiting project. It is the
redo of the Emmaus Introductory Movie.
As we venture in this journey, your input is most appreciated. We need the Emmaus Communities world-wide to
send us digital pix taken at Emmaus events.
You can send your pictures as e-files to our International Lay Director, Mr. Greg Engroff at: gengroff@gbod.org
Please, send us yours as soon as possible. You don’t want your Community not to be included
in this Intro to The Walk to Emmaus production!
De Colores!
Laura Feliciano
Assistant to Int'l Spiritual Director
The Walk to Emmaus & Chrysalis
The Upper Room Ministries
www.upperroom.org <http://www.upperroom.org>
Local Ph. Number: (615) 340-7230
Toll-free: (877) 899-2780 Ext. 7230
PUN OF THE MONTHJJJ:
Courtesy of Neil Bys
Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
In order to provide
timely response in this area, we request that you forward any prayer requests
that you have by “reply” to this letter.
Those requests will be sent out VIA immediate distribution to all
members of the New Life e-mail chain. Paula and Gary Spitzer's grandson, Hunter has a Pontiene Mass (tumor) on the brain
stem which is malignant and inoperable. He
will begin radiation and chemo treatments.
Please continue to pray for Hunter, his family and his doctors. FUMC,
PRAYER
VIGILS:
If you are a Prayer Vigil coordinator for your local church, don’t hesitate to
reply to this email if you are having trouble filling your requests. We’ll put out an e-mail alert and get them
filled ASAP. If you have questions
contact Joanne Lawrence at Granny9001@hotmail.com
.
KAIROS PRAYER VIGIL: for
Kairos Prison Ministry – Briscoe #3
Please forward this prayer vigil request to family,
friends, Emmaus, Kairos, and church communities.
“…whoever brings back a sinner from
wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death…” James 5:20
Kairos Prison Ministry, Briscoe #3,
takes place April 3-6, 2008. If you will pray during one, or more, of the half hour prayer vigil time slots listed below, please contact bwoolley@gvtc.com and indicate which dates and
time slots you will cover. The vigil
begins at 4:00 p.m. on
Thursday, April 3, 2008, and ends at 4:00 p.m.
on Sunday, April 6, 2008. IHS, Bill Woolley
TIME SLOTS TO BE FILLED
(Example Note: 8PM = praying the half hour time slot from 8:00 PM until
8:30 PM)
Thursday, 4/3/08:
4PM, 4:30PM, 5PM, 5:30PM, 6PM, 6:30PM, 7PM, 7:30PM, 8PM, 8:30PM, 9PM,
9:30PM, 10PM, 10:30PM, 11PM, 11:30PM.
FRIDAY, 4/4/08:
00AM, 00:30AM, 1AM, 1:30AM, 2AM, 2:30AM, 3AM, 3:30AM, 4AM, 4:30AM, 5AM,
5:30AM, 6AM, 6:30AM, 7AM, 7:30AM, 8AM, 8:30AM, 9AM, 9:30AM, 10AM, 10:30AM,
11AM, 11:30AM, NOON, 12:30PM, 1PM, 1:30PM, 2PM, 2:30PM, 3PM, 3:30PM, 4PM,
4:30PM, 5PM, 5:30PM, 6PM, 6:30PM, 7PM, 7:30PM, 8PM, 8:30PM, 9PM, 9:30PM, 10PM,
10:30PM, 11PM, 11:30PM.
SATURDAY, 4/5/08:
00AM, 00:30AM, 1AM, 1:30AM, 2AM, 2:30AM, 3AM, 3:30AM, 4AM, 4:30AM, 5AM,
5:30AM, 6AM, 6:30AM, 7AM, 7:30AM, 8AM, 8:30AM, 9AM, 9:30AM, 10AM, 10:30AM, 11AM,
11:30AM, NOON, 12:30PM, 1PM, 1:30PM, 2PM, 2:30PM, 3PM, 3:30PM, 4PM, 4:30PM,
5PM, 5:30PM, 6PM, 6:30PM, 7PM, 7:30PM, 8PM, 8:30PM, 9PM, 9:30PM, 10PM, 10:30PM,
11PM, 11:30PM.
SUNDAY, 4/6/08:
00AM, 00:30AM, 1AM, 1:30AM, 2AM, 2:30AM, 3AM, 3:30AM, 4AM, 4:30AM, 5AM,
5:30AM, 6AM, 6:30AM, 7AM, 7:30AM, 8AM, 8:30AM, 9AM, 9:30AM, 10AM, 10:30AM,
11AM, 11:30AM, NOON, 12:30PM, 1PM, 1:30PM, 2PM, 2:30PM, 3PM, 3:30PM. END1
NEW
LIFE WEB SITE:
Check it out at http://www.gbgm-umc.org/newlife-sanantonio
.
CLOSING THOUGHTS: “Early Easter Facts” sent in by Phill Swinney
Easter is early this year.
Easter is always the 1st Sunday
after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).
This dating of Easter is based on
the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify Passover, which is why
it moves around on our Roman calendar.
Based on the above information,
Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) which is rare.
Here's the interesting information. This year is the earliest Easter any of us
will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our
population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see
it a day earlier!
Here's the
facts:
1) The next time Easter will be
this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so
if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
2) The next time it will be a day
earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see
it any earlier than this year!