New
Life News – October 2008
(A
monthly publication of the New Life Emmaus Community)
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 was sent in by Phill Swinney and is entitled “LUCKY”
Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named 'Lucky.' Lucky was
a real character.. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit
they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky
would help himself to whatever struck his fancy.
Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing. Mary or
Jim would go to Lucky's toy box in the basement and there the treasure would
be, amid all of Lucky's other favorite toys. Lucky always stashed his finds in
his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.
It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she
was going to die of this disease ...in fact, she was just sure it was fatal.
She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders. The night
before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky. A thought struck
her...what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog
liked Jim, he was Mary's dog through and through. If I die, Lucky will be
abandoned, Mary thought. He won't understand that I didn't want to leave him.
The thought made her sadder than thinking of her own death.
The double mastectomy was harder on Mary than her doctors had anticipated and
Mary was hospitalized for over two weeks. Jim took Lucky for his evening walk
faithfully, but the little dog just drooped, whining and
miserable.
Finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital. When she arrived home,
Mary was so exhausted she couldn't even make it up the steps to her bedroom.
Jim made his wife comfortable on the couch and left her to nap.
Lucky stood watching Mary but he didn't come to her when she called. It made Mary sad but sleep soon overcame her
and she dozed. When Mary woke for a second she couldn't understand what was
wrong. She couldn't move her head and her body felt heavy and hot. But panic
soon gave way to laughter when Mary realized the problem.
She was covered, literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned! While
she had slept, the sorrowing dog had made trip after trip to the basement
bringing his beloved mistress all his favorite things in life. He had covered
her with his love.
Mary forgot about dying. Instead she and Lucky began living again, walking
further and further together every day. It's been 12 years now and Mary is
still cancer-free. Lucky? He still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy
box but Mary remains his greatest treasure.
Remember.... live every day to the fullest. Each minute is a blessing. And
never forget.... the people who make a difference in our lives are not the ones
with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the
ones that care for us.
If you see someone without a smile today give them one of yours! Live simply.
Love seriously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.
NEXT
GATHERING : The October Gathering will
take place at 7:00 pm Tuesday, October 21st at Bethany UMC. Directions: Directions: Take I-35 South and exit at
Eisenhauer. Turn right and proceed west
on Eisenhauer. The church will be about
one mile down on the left. Join us as we
welcome the new community members from Walk 1468.
2008-09 GATHERING SCHEDULE :
October 21 Bethany UMC, 4102 Eisenhauer, SA, TX 78218 210-655-5473
November 18 St
Andrew's UMC, 7222 Robinhood,
December (no
gathering scheduled)
January 20, 2009 Rolling
Oaks Christian DOC,
February 17 Bracken UMC, 20377
FM 2252,
March 17 Northern Hills UMC,
3703
April 21 Universal City UMC,
90 Winn,
May 19 New Braunfels 1st
UMC,
June 16
July Joint
Gathering: TBA
August 18 Schertz UMC 3460
September 15 New
Hope UMC, 10155 Old Cimarron Tr,
October 20 Bethany UMC, 4102 Eisenhauer, SA, TX 78218 210-655-5473
November 17 St Andrew's UMC, 7222
Robinhood,
December (no gathering
scheduled)
January 19, 2010 Rolling
Oaks Christian DOC,
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 (except
Dec) 7 pm – Next Gathering will be in February.
2008
WALK SCHEDULE :
Walk# Dates Lay
Director Site
1468M Oct 16 –
19 Rick Bernhardt Mt Wesley
2009
WALK SCHEDULE :
Walk# Dates Lay
Director Site
1503 June 11 –
14 Chivi Dagg
1524 October
8 – 11 Seth Walters
TBD
WALK
UPDATES
:
Walk
1468 – The planning is over, the team is ready, and the pilgrims
have been selected by God. Walk 1468
kicks off this Thursday at Mt Wesley.
Please be in prayer for Walk 1468, as lives will most certainly be
changed. Thanks in advance for making
this walk the special instrument of God that He has planned.
Rick Bernhardt, Lay Director
NEW
LIFE BOARD NEWS :
The new Life Board met on Sunday October 12 and discussed
elections for the New Life Board. The last three years elections have
been held in November with the new officers taking office in January to
coincide with most churches calendar. The Southwest Conference EMMAUS Lay
Director asked us to consider changing New Life elections so when we elect a
new board rep that person could receive training with other new board reps.
Many of you may not know that New
Life has to recertify and register with the Upper Room as a Fourth Day Group
each year, and the EMMAUS year is 1 April through March 31.
We will discuss this more at the October 21 New Life Gathering at Bethany UMC but the board approved the following schedule for elections. Current officers will serve until April 2009. At the January meeting a slate of nominations will be presented to the New Life attendees. The February meeting will be the election and new officers will take office on April 1st.
Anyone that would like to volunteer to serve as a New Life Officer should
contact Barbara Becker or Jim Talbott. You may call us or talk to us at
the gatherings, or send us an email. Positions open for election are:
New Life Spiritual Director
Lay Director
Assistant Lay Director
Secretary
Treasurer
Prayer Vigil Coordinator
Agape Chairperson
Newsletter Editor
Team Section (elected to a 2 year term)
1 man
1 woman
Some people currently serving in the above listed positions may be willing to
serve again and in those cases, they will be listed on the nomination list.
People can volunteer for the nomination list or nominate themselves at
the meeting. It would be good to have more than one person interested to
serve in many of these capacities.
Please think about these elections and we will discuss them more in the near
future.
FROM THE LAY DIRECTOR
:
The New Life Board has selected Chivi Dagg to be the Lay
Director for the woman's walk to be held in June 2009 and Seth Walters was
selected as the Lay Director for the Men's walk which will be held in October
2009.
Congratulations to both Lay Directors and if you would like to serve as a team
member please fill out a team service application and give copies to the Lay
Director and to our Board Rep, Barbara Becker. Team selection for the
women's walk will be held in December or January so it is not too early to turn
applications in. The men's team selection will be in March or April 2009.
Jim Talbott, New Life Lay Director
EVERYDAY-USE TIP OF THE
MONTH : Homemade Solutions
A sealed envelope - Put in the freezer for a few hours, and then slide a knife under the flap. The envelope can then be resealed. (hmmmmmm...)
Use Empty toilet paper roll to store appliance cords. It keeps them neat and you can write on the roll what appliance it belongs to.
To remove old wax from a glass candle holder, put it in the freezer for a few hours. Then take the candle holder out and turn it upside down. The wax will fall out.
Crayon marks on walls? This worked wonderfully! A damp rag, dipped in baking soda. Comes off with little effort (elbow grease that is!).
PUN OF THE MONTHJJJ :
Courtesy of Neil Bys
Two cannibals are eating a clown.
One says to the other: "Does this taste funny to you?"
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. Please pray for Ollie Pierce who will be
having a full knee replacement on Nov.
6th. She will be in hospital 4 or 5 days and rehab 10 to 14 days. They
will have to remove the rod that she has in the femur due to Paget's disease
and then replace the knee. Both at the same time but will make the procedure
quite lengthy. Lyle Pierce
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
.
NEW
LIFE WEB SITE :
Check it out at http://www.gbgm-umc.org/newlife-sanantonio
.
CLOSING THOUGHTS : Sent in by Neil Bys
Cell phone vs. Bible
Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?
What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we flipped through it several time a day?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to Kids as gifts?
What if we used it when we traveled?
What if we used it in case of emergency?
This is something to make you go....hmm...where is my Bible?
Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don't have to worry about our Bible being
Disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.
Makes you stop and think 'where are my priorities? And no dropped calls!
Trust in the Lord and *ASAP (Always Say A Prayer)