It's May

Wow, it’s May already, with final exams and graduations, Mothers’ Day, planting and gardening, Memorial Day, 4H and more. Time sure marches on.

But before we move into summer I’d like to lift up a huge congregational Shout of Praise & Thanksgiving to God for all the Heavenly Blessings we enjoyed in April. Surely the Presence of the Lord was in this place.

I want to celebrate a full and wonderful year of TUF Team after-school programs. Thank you Lord, for these great youngsters and our whole team of leaders. Our final gathering for the year was a dinner the youth prepared for their families. 59 people were served. A happy night and a great year! 6 of the youth will be attending camp this summer with the help of the Cans for Camp. Thanks, too, to all of you who bring your cans to the church for us to recycle for cash.

*On April 9 the Upper Midwest Region of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, re-organized their regional governing by-laws, a vast and exciting change that promises stronger lay leadership in Regional ministries and administration. The Region also elected the interim director, Bill Spangler-Dunning, as director.

With Easter coming so late this year, the Holy season of Lent filled most of the month. We kept that season by having a Sunday night Study Series at the LeRoy church. For four weeks we studied, with lively debate, “A Life Worth Living” by Bruce Wilkinson. We ended the series with a mission report from Linda O’Connell and friends from the Presbyterian Church in Indianola who together had traveled to El Salvador to visit a *mission site with which they have connection, called “Our Sister Parish.”

The Holy Week communion services were soooooo… beautiful and meaningful, impressing us with the cost of salvation mercifully paid by Jesus on the Cross, and the endlessness of God’s great love. Then, with the sun shining and spring hope in the air, Easter arrived. What a perfect day to receive New Members in both churches and celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism by immersion at Humeston.

April’s best. The parish is celebrating a huge achievement. Challenged to read 400 chapters in the Bible each month from Oct 2010 to April 2011 (2800 chapters in all) we exceeded the challenge 3 fold. By April 30 we completed reading a total of 8821 chapters (or an average 1261 per month). How awesome is that!!!!!!

Other April events included Presbyterian Women’s Fellowship Dinner, United Methodist Women mission disbursements, scrolling announcements being projected in church, and the parish attending an Iowa Barnstormers game at Wells Fargo Arena.