4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:4-5 NIV
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31 NIV
De Colores CHRISTmas!
The colors of Christmas...are endless, brilliant, and joyous and like all of God’s work, are totally awesome! The two primary ones: green and red seem to tell the whole story of what we are really celebrating this special time of year - life and death. The birth of our Lord and Savior, an astonishing event in and of itself. But even more important and astonishing to all of us, is the real gift, God’s abounding and unconditional love given through Christ’s death and Resurrection! And that my friend, is truly something to celebrate! So let the celebration begin! He again has wiped the slate clean, and given us another NEW Year to walk in His grace and become more like Jesus!
My prayer for you is that 2011 is one AWESOME year in your walk with the Lord!
Speaking of awesome...you have one awesome group of men and women who will serve as your 2011 E’town Emmaus Board of Directors. It will be an honor and privilege to serve with these outstanding individuals as they seek to build upon the foundation of those that have so ably served the Community previously. Your Emmaus Board members are: Janaye Bond, Sabrina Brock, Sheila Calbert, Tom Crittenden, Jeff Dean, Pat Dile, Sarah Hart, Steve Hart, Larry Holthouser, Chris Love, Arnel Megino, Sharon Oliver, Peggy Salmon, Doug Shepherd, Bobby Smith, and Chris Yates. All these folks represent you, so please feel free to contact them about ways in which we can further build our Emmaus Community to bring glory to God.
One other special person that has the task of helping the Board remain centered on Jesus Christ, focused on the purpose of the Emmaus movement and aware of God’s presence in the decision-making process, is our new Community Spiritual Director. It’s my privilege to announce this individual to you. Jeff Noel, Senior Pastor of Grace Heartland Church, has answered God’s call and will lead us spiritually in the coming year. Along with pastoring Grace Heartland, he is also active with the National Prayer Committee. Please join me in welcoming Jeff to this important spiritual leadership role!
So we humbly ask you to lift all of us up in prayer for discernment, wisdom and understanding as we fulfill the roles in which you have asked us to serve.
Important Announcements:
· Date for the January Board Meeting and Gathering has been changed to Saturday, January 8, 2011 due to New Year’s Day falling on our regularly scheduled date.
· Board meeting time has been changed to 5:00 PM for the January Meeting due to the large amount of business that needs to be conducted at this first meeting of the year.
· The Board has been notified by the Campground that the rental fees for walks will be increased this coming year. After some “number crunching” and deliberation, the Board felt walk fees should be increased so the Community could remain financially solvent. As a result, walk fees for 2011 Emmaus and Chrysalis will be as follows:
o Emmaus Pilgrims = $75
o Emmaus Team Members = $55
o Chrysalis Butterflies = $70
o Chrysalis Team with T-shirt = $67
o Chrysalis Team without T-shirt = $55
· Memorial United Methodist Church has implemented a “Safe Sanctuaries Policy” to protect children and youth while at the church. All groups that use Memorial’s facilities are now required to adhere to this policy. Emmaus leadership has participated in a required training course and been approved to conduct events at the church under their Safe Sanctuary guidelines. As a result, all childcare and youth workers at any Emmaus event at Memorial must have a Background Check Form completed and submitted to the church administrator. These forms will be made available at each Gathering and will be located at the church welcome center in the narthex. Completed forms should be given to Doug Shepherd, Community Lay Director.
· Summer Outing - This is an important fun, family event in the life of our Community. So we’re asking that you pray about whether you’re being lead to serve on a special committee to plan and implement this summer’s Emmaus Family Outing. And if you are willing to serve as a member of this committee, please let Doug know.
· Start praying (if you haven’t already) for discernment in who God is leading you to ask about participating as a pilgrim on the Spring Emmaus and Chrysalis Walks.
· The scriptures listed at the top of this month’s newsletter are our Emmaus Community Scripture Verses for 2011. Each month this year we’ll delve into these verses and try to extract a nugget of truth. Each month we’ll have a “word of the month” from these verses - this month’s word is HEAR! Did you know the word “hear” is found some 550 times in scripture? Think He might be trying to get our attention?!?!?
In Deuteronomy 6:1-9 Moses said, “these commandments...are to be upon your hearts”. Jesus quoted the verse from Deuteronomy when the Pharisees asked him to name the greatest commandment - the passage from Mark. Read these, meditate on it, memorize it and integrate it into every area of your life. In short, place it “upon your heart”!
De Colores! And we look forward to seeing you at the Gathering on January 8th! And by the way, how about inviting someone who was at your table on your walk or a walk you worked, that you haven’t seen in awhile!
Merry Christmas and an Awesome New Year!
Doug Shepherd
Walk 108, Table of Matthew
Prayer Time
COUNTRY—LEADERS—WORLD—CHURCHES
· Military Service Men and Women: Especially the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division stationed at Fort Knox - some 3,500 soldiers who will be deploying to Afghanistan early in 2011.
· Nicaraguan Community
· Emmaus & Chrysalis Families
· Emmaus & Chrysalis Sponsorship
· Chrysalis and Emmaus Reunion Groups
· Emmaus Lay Directors (Spring 2011)
o Kevin Oldham (Men’s Walk #118)
o Carolyn Cox (Women’s Walk #119)
· Chrysalis #47 Lay Directors
o Kelly Sherrard (Girls)
o Matt Cunningham (Boys)
· Chrysalis YAC #2 Lay Directors
o Amanda Drane (Girls)
o Carl Stoltzfus (Guys)
· Walk Team and Lay Director Selection Committees
· The Lost
E’town Emmaus – Did You Know?
· The first two walks for the E’town Emmaus Community took place in February 1984. Wayne Lowe and Kay Thomas were the first two Walk Lay Directors.
· Each October beginning in 1996 through 2003 there were two women’s walks held. The only other time two women’s walks were held back-to-back was in February and March 1990.
· There are 60 approved Clergy serving the E’town Emmaus and Chrysalis Community.
· There is a promotional DVD on the Walk to Emmaus you can borrow to use at your church.
Mark Your Calendars
SaturdayJanuary 8th / Board Meeting
Gathering - “Hear” / 5:00 PM
7:00 PM / Memorial UMC
Saturday
February 5th / Board Meeting
Gathering – “Love” / TBA
7:00 PM / Memorial UMC
February
19th – 21st / Chrysalis 47 / Campground
Sunday
February 20th / Chrysalis 47
Candlelight / 8:00 PM / Memorial UMC
Saturday
March 5th / Board Meeting
Gathering – “Your” / TBA
7:00 PM / Memorial UMC
March 10th-
March 13th / Men’s Walk 118
March 17th-
March 20th / Women’s Walk 119
May
21st – 23rd / YAC 2 / Campground