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Summer Issue, 2007
Here we are at the end of summer and
the start of another school/program year. Many wonderful things have
happened over the last 14 months. I made it through my first Annual
Gathering as President, and what a great celebration that was. If you
weren’t there you missed a wonderful 20th anniversary event.
As always we had a busy business agenda with reports of the past year’s
events and elections for Vice President (Kelly Ellis) and Secretary (Kiana
Sinz) and five Board members, (Christine Price, Susan Harris, Kathy
Wallace and Gail Starr elected to a two year term, and Judy Gainey
elected to fill a one year term). Also elected were seven Triennial
delegates and nine alternates for the 2008 Triennial to be held in Salt
Lake City, Utah in July.
Cathy Wilson, our keynoter, shared the
pain and joy she experienced during Hurricane Katrina. Cathy said, “I
have been blessed to be a part of the Katrina recovery and have seen
God’s love poured out abundantly.” Cathy also told of the many people
that have been helped by Grace Lutheran Church in Long Beach, MS, her
congregation. “Somehow we always found a way to feed another family and
give them a dry place to sleep,” she said. One half of our gathering
offering went to Grace Lutheran Church. (The other half went to
ChurchWide.)
Our ChurchWide representative, Susan
Humphrey shared news from the ChurchWide Board and Valora Starr who is a
ChurchWide staff member, and the sister of Gail Starr of our board, gave
us an update on the health initiative. She also helped us “stretch and
pray”. There were several awareness sessions on Saturday afternoon
covering subjects from “Bold Lutheran Chicks” to “Planning a Church
Infrastructure for Elder Care Needs”.
Throughout the weekend we had the
opportunity to spend some quiet time at the “Stations of the Healthy
Heart” experiencing various ways to connect Scripture with an
understanding of a healthy heart in its emotional, spiritual, and
physical contexts.
The dinner Saturday evening topped off
our 20th Anniversary celebration. At the dinner we heard
from five past presidents, who shared their memorable moments with us.
The evening’s entertainment by Cantamos was an excellent way to end the
day.
If you couldn’t participate with us
this year, I hope you will mark your calendar for next year. The dates
are May 30 – June 1, 2008 at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC.
And now we move on to plan for another
year. As many of you have heard me say we need to begin to do things
differently if we are going to survive as an organization. By the time
you read this all the committees will have met to plan their activities
around this year’s theme, FEEDING BODY AND SOUL. Our goals will
have us looking at our ESP, that is, our Emotional, Spiritual and
Physical health.
You will also notice that the
President’s mail has been re-named, the BULLETIN. This decision
was made by your Board after several women said they didn’t think the
President’s Mail was for them – they weren’t the president of their
units. Karen Hunt, our webmaster is constantly updating our website.
If you haven’t visited it lately I invite you to take a look. It will
have the latest copy of the Bulletin for you to read.
We are blessed to have Barbara Petty of
Christ the King, Cary serve as the Carolina Vine editor. Barbara with
the help of Sharon Sharpe will be creating (with all our input) four
issues of the Carolina Vine. Send them an article telling about the
things your unit is doing.
And so we are moving with the Spirit to
continue to ACT BOLDLY on our faith in Jesus Christ. Please join us.
We welcome you. Reach out and touch the future.
Peace and God bless.
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