El Quiri
September, 2005 Newsletter
Painful Reality
Tragedy finds all of us at times. Hopefully, with the past hurricane in the Gulf States most of us here in Ohio weren’t affected by the tragedy directly. Our hearts go out to all who have suffered with Katrina. Here at home though, we may be feeling the crunch indirectly soon. With the already rising gasoline prices, I know my household has had to make adjustments in our lifestyle. Future trips to the grocery, vacations or just a Sunday drive, will need to be more of a consideration of expense for most of us in the coming months.
For several months now, the community has been facing a financial crunch. Your board has implemented a few ideas of how to save money while continuing to run a “class” act here in the Sidney Emmaus Community. As we have all said before, everything we do is for the Pilgrims. We must continue to sacrifice and have the servants heart that God would want us to have.
The GSAE Board has taken steps in order to preserve the quality of experience for those pilgrims who attend the walks. The teams that God has put together have always been prayed over by our Lay Directors. In turn, the teams have come together in those few short weeks to always serve God with their servants heart. This only goes to show, that the Holy Spirit is always involved in every weekend and everything we do here in Sidney. I personally want to thank all of the community for your continued support of the board and decisions made by them.
This brings me to the part of this letter that will be the easiest for such a community to deal with. The GSAE Board has spent many months prayerfully deliberating over fees. We here at Sidney still have been able to keep our fees at one of the lowest in Ohio. Unfortunately, we will no longer be able to do so. During the August board meeting we voted to raise Team and Pilgrim fees $10 each. The rising costs of all items necessary to put on a walk have shot up considerably. To continue to operate the way we feel the community would like us to, is going to be next to impossible without an increase. I’d like to give you an idea of the expenses we have occurred over the past summer. New mugs, 500 @ a cost of approximately $750. Batteries for flashlights average around $50 per walk. We are right now investigating other options. The cost of the change over is yet to be determined. Fees paid to Emmaus in Nashville has increased from $7.50 to $10 per pilgrim per walk. Costs of food for each walk has consistently increased for some time now, and won’t stop. On a positive note general supplies such as notebooks and paper have been cut back to a minimum to help save. You have generously given, as the offering baskets are passed at Candlelight.
As you can see, we are tightening our belts, but the board has concluded a need for other options to be implemented. We hope this will not cause a burden to anyone, especially to a pilgrim. I don’t know how most of you sponsor your pilgrims, but I have paid for all of the weekend or at least the application fee when there has been a need. This is a wonderful first pieces of agape for a pilgrim. Finally, the dates for this to happen will be announced at Gathering and in future newsletters. If there are any questions concerning this matter, please feel free to ask. God bless you and the work you do for Him.
In His Service
Jerry Noble, Community Chair
PLEASE SUPPORT ALL OF OUR PILGRIMS….
… with prayer
… with love
… with prayer
… with agape
… with prayer
… with your presence at send off
… with prayer
… with your presence at Candlelight
HOW YOU CAN BE COME AN IMPORTANT PART OF WOMEN’S WALK #37!
Send Off—October 13th at 6:30 PM
Candlelight—Saturday, October 15th, at 8:00 P.M.
Closing—Sunday, October 16th at 4:00 P.M.
SING UNTO THE LORD!
Please remember that October is our yearly
“Gathering for Music”
If you have a desire to share your talent, and praise our Lord in song, please contact Mark Burd at mburd@bright.net or call him at 937-394-7195, and let him know that you would like to join in the praise!
mburd@bright.net or call me (937) 394-7195
RESIGNATION
Unfortunately, I need to inform the community of another loss. If you were at the July Gathering, you heard that the Board regretfully accepted another resignation. John Lockwood has served the community the past year and a half as Vice Chair and Chairman. Along with his excellent service to the community, he has been going through nurses training. His time involvement with his training has increased, and with trying to continue to work full time, has created an extreme amount of stress for John. This has also made it difficult to fulfill his Chairman duties. After much agonizing and prayer, he felt it necessary to step down for the sake of the community. The Board would like to express their appreciation for all John and Sandy do. If you see them in the near future, give them both a hug, and tell them how much you appreciate them, as well. Try not to hold John up too much, after all, he probably needs to go home and study for a final!
Jerry Noble, Leadership Chair
STEPPING BACK UP
Due to John Lockwood’s resignation, your Board members were faced with the issue of how to fill the void, taking into consideration what was best for all involved. This situation has been faced by our Board in the past, and according to the by-laws of the community, the Vice Chair is to step up into the Chairman’s position, if they are comfortable in doing so.
When discussing this at the June Board meeting, our Vice Chair , Bill Rickey expressed that he would be willing to do this if the Board wished, however, he preferred not to do both Vice Chair and Chairman duties at the same time. This would mean that we would need to fill Bills’ position if he moved up. We also explored the idea of trying to recruit a passed board member, from the position, to fill in for the remainder of the year. This did not seem to be a popular choice due to the fact that, this person would also need to be replaced again in 4 months.
The solution seemed obvious to me, with careful consideration and a lot of prayer, I offered to step back into the Chairman role, and share duties with Bill Rickey, over the next few months. The Board voted to accept this solution to the current need, and I will try not to disappoint their confidence in me to complete the task.
Jerry Noble
Chairman/Leadership
WE NEED YOUR
HELP!
As most of you know, we have had some difficulty with our computer over the last few months. Joyfully, we now have it working again, but we need your help making sure that we have not lost any information. In an effort to update our data base, please complete the following information and return it to Sandy Lockwood, 3850 Maple Drive, Lima, Ohio 45805, or e-mail your information to lockwood@wcoil.com.
KITCHEN HELP!
If you want to get a real blessing, please sign up to help serve in the kitchen during the Women’s or Men’s Walks. This is truly a wonderful Agape to give to the Pilgrims, and it is also a wonderful way to get to know other Emmaus community members! There are sign up sheets at each of the Gatherings, so please sign up to give the best agape you can give…………your time and service.
We encourage you to submit information and/or articles for this newsletter. Deadline for the November newsletter is October 10th, 2005. If you have any corrections to the mailing list please let us know.
Address correspondence to:
Greater Sidney Area Emmaus Community
230 E. Poplar Street
Sidney, Ohio 45365 or E-Mail:
Jody Prater at rej@bright.net