It seems appropriate at this time of Thanksgiving to say thanks to the many who have contributed so much to the work and mission of our church.
THANKS
The month of November at our church was particularly special because of the outstanding missionary convention that we had with Jeff and Heather Williams. Following our international potluck dinner Sunday as we were cleaning up and people were here, there and everywhere helping with the cleanup. Heather came to me and she was beaming. “Thank you for the Missionary Convention” she said, “What a difference it makes when a church actually prepares a convention.” Then she added, “What a great church this is,” and looking around at people working everywhere, she added, “I can’t believe what everyone does around here.”
In thinking about her comments, and remembering that this is Thanksgiving month it seemed appropriate to me to say “thank you” to all who have done so much.
It goes without saying that I will inevitably forget someone, so let me first of all say thank you to any one I may forget to mention. Thank you for not killing, maiming or forever disowning me.
In addition to Jeff and Heather Williams who were absolutely outstanding in their presentation of the work in Cambodia, I would next like to thank all those who helped with our missionary convention beginning with Bill Severance who seemed to be everywhere, helping especially with the sound, the cooking and the shopping. Thanks also to Tom Smith for organizing the men’s dinner and the women’s breakfast, and thanks to all the men who helped with the preparations for both of these meals.
Thanks to my wife Karen and the deaconesses for their work in preparing the catered meal Friday evening and also in organizing the Sunday noon potluck, and thank you also to all those who prepared food for the potluck.
Thanks also to Paul and Sandy Kucharski for their behind the scenes work in the cleaning of the church and the transporting of items of sound equipment we needed for our meetings in the fellowship hall.
Thanks is also due to our entire music team which includes Marge Silverblade and all those who play the piano and to Alan Bean and those on the praise team for their great work and flexibility in working around frequent program changes. Thanks to ALL of you also for providing us each week with the best music program in the entire area.
Thank you to Gary Burhite and all the trustees for their excellent work in maintaining the church building, the parsonage and the grounds. The outstanding work that has been done has greatly improved our overall presentation to those who visit and attend here.
A special word of thanks to John Washburn, Maggie Burhite and the many teachers who have worked to make our Bible Discovery Zone successful.
Thanks also to Cindy Ranco and everyone else who worked so hard on VBS this year. I’m afraid I couldn’t possibly mention everyone who fits into this category.
I am also very grateful to all those who have been involved in the various outreach programs of the church such as the Haggerstroms, Ann Ruel and all those who help her with the puppets and Nancy Grigg and the quilting ministry, and to Wally Conley and his vision for starting an ALPHA ministry in the prisons.
We mentioned the deaconesses above, but I would thank them again for all they do throughout the year in various ways such as preparing communion and organizing meals and receptions for weddings and funerals.
I would thank also each member of the Board of Elders and the Administrative Board for the hours of work they do throughout the year to enable the church to fulfill its mission.
I of course could not go without mentioning the outstanding work that Jamie Basil does each month in putting together our church news letter.
I know there are many others who could and should be thanked. When we have our worker recognition Sunday almost everyone in the church is standing up front, but I’m afraid I’ve pretty well run out of space in this article. If you are not from this church you may already have caught on that this is not a typical church where a few people do all the work. I could go on and on thanking those who minister in so many ways, but in closing I would like to thank Pat Burgess for her very efficient office managerial work and of course I couldn’t even begin to enumerate all the things that Debbie Dean does, but for all that she does do I say a very sincere thank you.
What we do we do for the glory of God and I can assure you that God is being glorified in and through it all and for that I am sure that all of our hearts overflow with praise.
I would say with the apostle Paul in Phil. 4:17 & 19. “I don’t say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness…And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”