Dear Parents,
Good morning one and all! I hope you are all enjoying this wonderful transition into spring, a few tornadoes thrown in for good, north Texas measure. The wildflowers have been fabulous, in my opinion, so I suppose I can take the good with the bad. Without further ado, here’s the lowdown:
1) Fun youthy moment during the week: the interns redecorated my office with strategically placed pieces of old pizza. I have commemorated this occasion by tracing the outline of the pizza that was duct-taped to my bulletin board. Here lay pizza indeed. Also, we went out on the town Friday night with Chi Rho, which involved an IHOP stop. Coincidentally, one of our youth (Brian Tschiemer) was discovered there by his sister, fellow youth Allison, who was swinging through in post-prom fun. Allison couldn’t help but rib her brother a bit to the delight of her friends and the youth group. I think Brian was secretly pleased as well.
2) In Sunday school, EYC discussed 1 Peter 2:1-10, talking about putting other things before God. This dovetailed with our evening talk. As you might recall, last week Nick talked about the idolatry of the stuff, and this week I talked about the idolatry of the self, taking from the text on Simon the Sorcerer in Acts and the fall of Adam and Eve. We spoke of redemption and redirection through Christ with his temptation on the mount as well as Paul’s proper witness to Christ (as opposed to Simon’s self-aggrandizing attempt) in Col 1:24-28. Things to discuss would be how our love of ourselves gets in the way of loving others properly. I harped a bit on how God’s love is infinite, and here is an excerpt from my talk: “When we give the love of God to others, it continues on and enlarges without being diminished in us. In fact, it grows as we share it and as we grow in it. If we encourage love of us in an idolatrous way, it is finite. It also doesn’t fulfill us. It doesn’t get rid of the inadequacy and the pride. It compounds it, but it leaves us feeling worse than before, and it wraps us up. God can set you free. I want you to think of mission trips, of Summer splash, of Habitat work projects. I want you to think of moments you were helping friends out with tough things, when you were working on a team (truly team working). Those are times when the us decreases so that God can be greater. Those are the times when our idolatry cracks, when God breaks through. May we strive for those times.”
3) Chi rho had it’s lockout, which spent a fairly minimal amount of time on spiritual things, and our Sunday school focused on looking at the major events in our spiritual journeys and how they’ve influenced us and correlated our spiritual and physical journeys to Acts 17:1-15. We spent some time talking about what Paul’s physical life looked like and how his spiritual life sustained him even in dire straits. We talked about how it can encourage us that he went through such severe persecution and uncertainty and yet did so much good for the kingdom, even if it meant coming to an unpleasant end himself. I encouraged them to look at their lives in their entireties, not divorcing the spiritual from the so-called mundane, as in fact our spiritual and physical lives are not truly separate. Asking them about how big events have influenced their spiritual lives and when they felt closest to God and what got them through these events might be a good place to start. Incidentally, they routinely said family and friends are what got them through, and we talked about being relational creatures.
4) Upcoming this Sunday is Missions Sunday, when the parish gathers to celebrate our ministries and commit anew for the year. As the outreach department has been extremely supportive of our youth, including putting in some money to help us out with mission work, I really feel strongly that we should all gather and support them in return. Paula Harrison has been working devilishly hard on the event, and what she’d like is for us to gather outside in island apparel and play volleyball, limbo, watch the tiki torches and create a general atmosphere of mirth for the arrivals. How many other service opportunities will we have when all we’re asked is to come have a good time? Additionally, we’ll be on the outreach opps for people to volunteer, so…. Have I twisted your arm yet?
5) May 4 is Senior Sunday. I still need names of youth interested in serving in the service as acolytes, lectors, intercessors and homily giver. You may conscript them. The Christian Ed department has been very accommodating to us for this event, so we really do need to step-to and make it worthwhile. Also, if I don’t have your senior’s baby picture, I’d love to get that in as soon as possible. The ones I have so far are simply adorable!
6) I’m still working on the chi rho retreat regarding a couple of scheduling issues. The idea would be to leave Friday night and return Saturday night so as to keep Mother’s Day set apart. Does this bother you? Would you prefer a rescheduling?
7) There are still spots open on the mission trips, and the Brownsville trip especially. Please get your forms and money to me as soon as possible, remembering that money is what holds your spot!
Whew! (I think I’ll finish all of my mails with whew!) I hope you are all doing well, and let me know if I can be of any assistance in any way! Remember, www.cotiparents.com holds the latest info.
In His Grip,
Bev
