Relief after Hurricane Gustav

While we were at the pastors retreat in Blackstone, our District Superintendent, Larry Davies, gave us and our churches a challenge. He had visited the offices of Gleaning for the World http://www.gftw.org/ and had met with Rev. Ron Davidson. It seems that GFTW had 3 truckloads of supplies ready to got to Louisiana, but needed the funds to ship it. The organization God's Pit Crew http://www.thegodspitcrew.org/ was ready to take it to Louisiana, but the money to cover expenses just wasn't there.

Larry had committed the Lynchburg District of the UMC to raise the $10,000 needed to ship the $780,000 worth of supplies. He challenged each pastor at the retreat to return to their church or churches and ask the congregation to meet this challenge. For me, this is one of the great things about the United Methodist Church. We have a connectedness that makes it possible for small churches to join together with other small and large congregations to do things that would be totally out of the realm of possiblities otherwise.

This past Sunday I asked the three churches of the Mt. Airy Charge, Republican Grove UMC, Providence UMC, and St. Andrews UMC to pray about what they would do. I told them it was totally up to them as to how much they would or would not give. I simply told them to send the check to the district office and earmark it for GFTW/Gustav Relief.

By coincidence, divine I think, the sermon that Sunday was the last in a series on the "5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations". The title was "Extravagant Generosity". I had actually considered putting of the sermon off for a few weeks. But who am I to change what was, to me at least, a case of heavenly scheduling.

In the newspaper article Larry commented on the fact that many churched in the district had memberships below 100. My three, considerably smaller, churches got a real belly laugh out of that.

http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/lifestyles/faith_values/article/hurricane_help_on_the_way/8102/

My three small congregations contibuted over $500 to help those in need. I will never cease to be amazed at how God's people rise to the call and truly demontrate extravagent generosity.

Lynchburg District Pastors Retreat 2008

Last week the pastors of the Lynchburg District gathered at the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center (VUMAC) in Blackstone for a two day retreat. Of over 60 pastors in the district, only 7 were unable to attend.

Our Lynchburg District Superintendent, Larry Davies, taking care of last minute business before the retreat begins.
Registration and getting our room assignments.

The pastors greeting each other and catching up with folks you don't get to see often enough.

The whole group met together for our first meeting. Larry talked about the expectations for the retreat. He shared with us about "Weathering the Storm".

We had a time of worship, aptly led by our worship cheerleaders.
Yeah, they're really Methodist pastors. Don't get too scared, they're doing hands motions for the music. (mostly)

We celebrated Communion together.



The voice of Rev. Jerry Veimeister.

The second day we moved from Blackstone United Methodist Center to Crenshaw UMC in Blackstone, A beautiful facility with some incredible stained glass windows. Larry reviewed the wide variety of ministry opportunities in the Lynchburg district. Our guest speaker was Rev. Tom Joyce, the Assistant to the Bishop for the Virginia Conference. He spoke to us about the "Five practices of Fruitful Congregations".

We had a "Clown Communion". It was very moving and brought a different perspective.

The entire service was silent, everything expressed through gestures.

We broke off into our small groups for lunch and discussion.


The Lynchburg North small group.
This is the Altavista Area small group the I was part of. We have decided to continue to get together periodically for fellowship and support. We're working up a calendar for events of each church to promote the churches working together.

We finished the retreat with each pastor writing on a 3x5 card what their church is in most need of and those individuals in their church that are potential leadership. We then, one by one, nailed our cards to a large wooden cross.




It was a good time of fellowship, finding support, and of focusing on the needs of our churches. Already looking forward to next year.

5th Sunday Road Trip

The churches of the Mt. Airy Charge give the pastor 5th Sundays off from preaching. I call it my "Day of Refreshing". The fifth Sunday in August just happened to coincide with Labor Day this year. So I had a real 3 day weekend.

Courtney had recently posted video of Lila's first steps. http://splashinggrace.blogspot.com/2008/08/she-waited-and-i-have-issues.html Well, that did it, we had to take a road trip to Albany, New york. A 72 hour mini-vacation, with 24 hours of it travelling.

We were invited to a cook-out at a church member's home. We got a detailed tour of their new house from Levi, Taisie, and Thomas. We got to attend Sunday service at the church where Dave is Senior pastor and hear a visiting missionary from the Ukraine share and Dave preach. Sunday evening we went to the 189th Schaghticoke Fair. It was like the Fairs I remember from my youth in New Hampshire. The best part was watching the kids having fun, riding rides, checking out the animals, with eyes wide open.

Levi wanted to ride this smaller roller coaster. You can't really see his expression, but it was utter terror. Now, look at Taisie's expression in the seat behind him, totally thrilled with the whole thing.

Thomas and Taisie love the thrill rides, all the rides that increase the natural G force and would make us mere mortals lose our lunch.

I rode one of these when I was Thomas' age in Myrtle Beach. As soon as i stepped off, I ran to a trash can and got sick.

Finally, a ride for Lila.
Levi got excited about the next ride, "This ride rocks" he kept shouting. It was probably more my speed, as long as you didn't spin it around.

I got to do the grandfather thing.

The animal displays were great. Check out the double chin on that fat bunny.

Talk about having a "bad hair day"!
"Back off sheep breathe!"

There was a young girl lying down with her cow. She was leaned back against the cow's neck and the cow had turned it head with it almost resting in the girl's lap.
Thomas and Levi didn't want to come into the cow area. They said it smelled bad.
Personally, I think this was done with a blow dryer.
This big guy had his days and nights confused.

This guy kept getting his horns caught on that upper bar when he tried to pull his head back.

Brilliant lights along the midway.

Time for a funnel cake covered in cherries.

Hotel room $$, meals on the road $$, over a thousand miles with high gas prices $$, a weekend with Courtney, Dave, and four grandchildren...priceless.