Watch what you pray for!

There will be a very busy week coming up! The week will be cut short, as we will be leaving to visit Mike for Thanksgiving for a few days. We are really looking forward to seeing Mike and Heather!

FBAMC had its first weekly volunteer meeting last week. I volunteered us to be in charge of putting up the Nativity Scenes in the various locations. I knew I was in trouble as soon as I spoke up. Everyone else was smiling with relief and Elaine was not smiling. I found out afterwards that there are like seven locations, and maybe more! To make matters more fun, the Nativity Scenes are scattered around and some need some work. Fr. Beiting wants the Nativity Scenes up by the first week of Advent, which is this weekend.

Elaine and I had been talking about, and praying for, what we should be doing here at the FBAMC. Well, we have been asked to help with the financial matters of FBAMC (no big deal with our professional backgrounds) and placed in charge of the volunteer program! This is really what we had hoped for.

This will include the individual short-term (less than one year) and long-term (those committing for a year or more) volunteers and the groups (normally a week long). These are three different groups, with different needs and desires.

For the individuals, we would like to develop a community. This is particularly important for the long-term volunteers. We, along with Dale our housemate, have been inviting many of the individuals over for meals several times during the week. The three of us have also been working toward praying the Liturgy of the Hours together on a consistent basis. This will take a bit of time since we are running in different directions each day. Elaine and I feel that growing spiritually is as important, if not more important, then the work we can do for FBAMC. If we can grow spiritually, our work with FBAMC will be enriched.

For the large groups we are very interested in developing an evening program which will help them grow spiritually as well. Then, for the large groups, there is finding, evaluating and coordinating the work they will be doing, which is a large project itself.

Developing the volunteer program will certainly be a big job, but one we are very excited about. We will certainly need your prayers as this will be new ground for Elaine and me.