This week at Faith 9/6
Based on the news Pastor Sarah shared about her wedding this evening, I’ll bet you all can guess what kinds of shenanigans have been happening here! The answer is all of them!
God’s Work, Our Hands Sunday
YOU GUYS. Thank you so much for everything that you’ve brought to pack lunches for the IHELP Homeless Program! Look at everything you’ve brought! Big shout-out to Isabel Gayosso for being the first to bring a box of snacks down, and starting the pile. I’m too excited to share this with the community. I hope you are too!
Friends from out of town
If you need an excuse to come to our God’s Work, Our Hands event, here it is: America’s Sweethearts, Mike & Amanda Morlan will be gracing us with their presence this weekend! (They can’t bail now that I’ve told you!)
Anniversary Celebration
We are deep in the throes of organizing the event to celebrate Faith’s 75th anniversary! Madaline Hansen brought over a ton of DVDs from past events, and we’d love to use snippets from the footage. If you’ve got a DVD player and a lot of time, I’d love to ask you to review these DVDs for key moments that will be fun to share at a party. You don’t have to worry about editing anything, just watch old Faith events and find the timestamps of pieces we should share (like that lovely photo of Betsy Loehnis & Madaline Hansen!)
Bible Study
Have you noticed yet that I love being around people? I don’t really even need to talk to anyone, I just love the energy that I feel when I’m physically closer to my brothers & sisters in Christ. So with Pastor Sarah back from vacation, Bible Study is back on, and I had the treat of joining Helga Smith, Madaline Hansen, Brenda Lund and Jane Upham in person this week for a wonderful conversation about the Spirit, and the indwelling of Christ, as Pastor Sarah called it. (I don’t think she made that up. I think it’s a thing we say, but I’m not sure). If you’re interested in a good scriptural meditation, check out John 17:26, and join us for New Testament Bible Study next Wednesday at 10:30am!
If you’re more of an Old Testament Scholar, make sure you join Pastor Sarah for her new series on Joseph on Mondays at 10:30am.
If you’re more of a foreign language speaker, I would encourage you to join Vicar Veronica on Thursdays at 7:30pm.
Wedding Prep
Pastor Sarah and Jane have been on campus nearly around the clock, working on wedding preparation business. The wonderful thing about having such a fun party here is that it gives us an excuse to clean! There are other good reasons, but the Parish Admin part of me is just so happy about the shampooed carpet in Parish Hall.
A huge shout out to Jennie Carr, Brenda Lund, Heidi Boldway, Gail Turner, Vicar Veronica, and all of Church Council for the work they’ve been doing to clean up. I love the way that our community shows up to support one another. I’m telling you, I walk away with tears in my eyes almost daily because I’m just so moved by the love and support we have here.
When you’re here on Sunday, make sure you peek your head into the chapel. It looks phenomenal.
Another AC Problem
One thing we’ve discovered in this monsoon season humidity is that the darn ACs for the chapel are still leaking. Those awful, rusty streaks that had been on the Narthex walls and doors have returned, but we’re not letting them stick around this time! The fix will either come in the shape of a shop vac, or as Nettles Air Conditioning. If you’re into cleaning AC pipes, we’ve got 20!
A joyful bummer
Many of you may have heard by now that our dear Bunni & Caroline Rowlett are moving to Texas next month. Bunni’s mother, June, has been on our prayer list for some time, as her surgery for carpal tunnel has been repeatedly delayed, and she’s living through a lot of pain.
God seems to be wildly flinging doors open for this next adventure for these two, as their house sold within 48 hours of listing! If you’d like to share your well wishes with the Rowletts, please feel free to contact them by email! We’ll miss them so dearly, but we continue to pray for them and Christ’s work through them. Thanks for all your years, you two!
More about Facility Use!
Having more humans on campus is just such a treat. I’m so grateful for all of the events that we’ve been scheduling here for so many reasons - first, I love to see the campus alive. If you’re ever bored at 12pm on a weekday, pop on over to church and feel the vibe of the healing that happens in our daily 12-step NA meeting. It’s really beautiful. Not only does this group bring such a wonderful energy to our campus, but they have also taken ownership of the property, helping with the preschool fence, and even hauling chairs from Faith Center to the Chapel, and setting them up!
I’ve gotten myself into what I might describe as the most wonderful pickle I could possibly drum up. Tomorrow, September 11, we will have three concurrent facility use groups on campus, and two more happening at different times. That’s five different groups that we get to host here! It’s taken some orchestration of space, but what a wonderful orchestra it is.
Alright, now I’ve got a plea for you: The groups that typically would like to use the grounds on the weekends are often one-time events, or infrequent events. This means that on occasion, the group may set off an alarm, forget their keys, or run out of necessary supplies like toilet paper. We need people who thrive on interpersonal interactions, and are willing to be available on the occasional Saturday to answer questions and help our facility use groups with everything they may need. You don’t necessarily need to be on campus! If you’re interested in using your knowledge of Faith in this way, give me a call at the church office!
Stained Glass
I promised you an update on the stained glass repairs! It’s… not pretty. To bring all of our stained glass up to snuff and protect it from future damage, we’re looking at a price tag of about $40k. Some of you may remember that we had Willett & Hauser come out to assess repairs to our stained glass in 2013, at which time the estimate was $23k. Due to supply chain issues, the cost of repairs has skyrocketed, but we ought not to delay much longer, as the damage only gets worse.
If you know an artisan who does stained glass and wants to repair our windows for less, or free, let me know!
More news?
Have you got any news to share? I reckon you do. Go to Faithalive.com/newstoshare and you’ll see your news in the next issue of Faith Alive!