Michelle with her husband’s Navy Seal craft on the monitor.
February 2009
This month
STORIES OF LIFE SUPPORT
• Michelle’s crucial community mission
• Charlie’s work: helping St. James reshape itself
• Help for ministry in daily life
RESOURCES
• FaceBook’s membermission page
• “Greening Our Faith”
• Motivating Students Left Behind
• Post-graduate coaching for three years following ordination
• Seminary scholarships for black Episcopalians
• “Stewardship as loving and just living” – a sermon
FOR MEDITATION
• Working for change
STORIES
Michelle’s crucial community mission
Michelle with her husband’s Navy Seal craft on the monitor.
“I am a Navy Family Ombudsman, and serve as a volunteer appointed by the commanding officer as a liaison between the leadership and families. I have been an ombudsman for four different Naval Special Warfare commands for 9 years now. Ombudsmen undergo 24 hours of training on ethics, confidentiality, professionalism, protocol and information and referral. We are not counselors but a helping hand. Issued a command cell phone, I am on call 24/7. I have given predeployment and homecoming briefings; reached out to new Navy spouses; assisted with issues from childbirth while the husband is deployed, to who to call for marital counseling, to planning the command's children's Christmas party, to helping in the aftermath of a casualty. My children often come along with me to deliver a hot meal or take flowers to a family member in the hospital. Dinner is often interrupted for a crisis phone call. But I hope I am modeling compassion and a volunteer spirit for them.”
Where do you see God at work in what you do?
“I just feel a calling to help people.”
How does God help you?
“The families I assist are in extraordinary circumstances usually under a lot of stress or dealing with a lot of issues on top of one another. I’m able, after asking for guidance and strength, to give them the resources they may have thought of otherwise but not while under so much stress. I am a voice to be calm and to give them the support they crave. I often pray for God to lead, guide and direct me in all situations and care for others as I have been cared for in the past when my husband was deployed and the roof leaked, my car broke down, my kids got sick, I was put on bed rest with my third pregnancy, etc.”
Contact: Michelle Galvez; rmgalvez@cox.net
Charlie’s work: helping St. James reshape itself
St. James Church in “high-rent” Cambridge, MA has a self-operated car wash next door. A bride repeating her vows can be interrupted by the scream of the vacuum cleaner when $.50 has just been put into the slot. Charlie’s job is to help such churches to redevelop their facilities to serve their community better. At St. James, this has meant developing plans to buy the car wash and replace it with 47 apartment units – seven of which will be affordable by families on limited income. All 47 units will reduce auto use by putting their dwellers close to the subway and within walking distance of needed stores. The families in the affordable units will place their children in the well-funded Cambridge school system. The diocese is on track to give final approval once the contract between St. James and the builder has been signed. Charlie’s most recently completed consultation has led to nine homeless people living in the rectory of Christ Church in Quincy, MA.
Contact: Charles Wibiralske, Associate Director for Community and Economic Development Programs, Episcopal City Mission, 136 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02111-1318; 617-482-4826, x 207; cwibiralske@diomass.org
Help for ministry in daily life
Demi Prentiss, appointed to the position of Program Officer for Lay Leadership and Ministry Development in November 2008, brings a wealth of experience to support church members living as agents of God’s mission 24/7/365. Available to both clergy and lay leaders, she works out of the Omaha, NE regional office of the national church. Reach her at dprentiss@episcopalchurch.org and 402-342-9128. For Demi: “As the body of Christ, we are most attractive, most beautiful when we are working in the world, beyond the church walls. When we’re on our own church grounds, we’re not nearly so attractive or inviting to the outsider.”
RESOURCES
FaceBook’s membermission page: sign up for probably the best way to talk with each other about our work with with member mission. Go to http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=36876342706 Also, look for my own comments. Doors into church life keep opening and insights keep emerging as I live with member mission and FaceBook is a neat way to share them.
“Greening Our Faith” is a set of PowerPoint slides telling of the Green Team at St. Philip’s in the Hills, Tucson, AZ. Slides include “Raising awareness,” “Transforming lives,” “Sunday Forums 2007, 2008, 2009,” and “What we can do about being faithful stewards.” For copies: Jane Baldwin at mollyjane37@comcast.net
Motivating Students Left Behind by Richard Curwin helps readers to reach disinterested youth and give them a sense of purpose. Order it on-line at Richard.Curwin@TLC-Sems.com for $15.95 plus shipping. Curwin has other books on this theme that are available through Amazon – Rediscovering Hope, Making Good Choices, and Discipline With Dignity.
Post-graduate coaching for three years following ordination – Virginia Theological Seminary offers three to five-day residencies; trained mentor and peer mentoring available at any time; and $1,000 in financial aid for continuing education started with 18 months of graduation; 703-461-1753 or icfl@vts.edu.
Seminary scholarships for black Episcopalians – Virginia Theological Seminary offers full tuition for full or part-time black students from a province within the Episcopal Church, USA; financial aid is also available; 703-461-1706 or www.vts.edu
“Stewardship as loving and just living” – a sermon by John H. Elledge based on Matthew 22:15-22 and preached in October 2008 at St. John’s Church, Havre de Grace, MD.
FOR MEDITATION: Working for change
“Life is about commitment to your beliefs. If you are willing to work hard, sacrifice, suffer, and be sensitive to the people who disagree with you, then there is almost nothing that can’t be done.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“If you want to see change in the world, you have to be the change.” Mahatma Ghandi
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God is most interested in how we live from Monday to Saturday.
Sunday – all of church life – helps us to do it better.
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