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"Love one another, as I have loved you"
--Jesus, John 15: 12
While reflecting on Easter this year, it struck me that the dead are resurrected not for the benefit of the dead, but for the benefit of the living. It also struck me that people who are resurrected from death are not resurrected as a reward for their good behavior or because they held the correct religious beliefs, but rather, because they lived fully, freely, and faithfully while alive. They are people who poured out their love unconditionally, emptied themselves to bring about healing, and committed their lives to the pursuit of human dignity, justice, liberation, and peace. They are people who tuned their lives as closely as possible to the living spirit of God regardless of the consequences or the ultimate price.
These are the people who become the most intensely present to the living after they die. They are the people who become the greatest gifts of grace, inspirers of hope, and guides for the living after their deaths. Jesus. Martyrs for peace and justice like Oscar Romero and Martin Luther King, Jr. And all the women and men who are still present with us like a cloud of witnesses, whose words continue to guide us, and whose actions continue to encourage us.
On Easter morning, I left you with two questions to ponder.
First. Who are the people who after death are still present in your life? Who are the people who after death are precious living gifts of grace to your life, the people who continue to inspire you, teach you, guide you, and offer you hope because they loved you, poured themselves out for you, and were so closely attuned to God's spirit while they were alive? Who are the resurrected people in your life?
Second. Are you living your life in a manner that will lead to your resurrection in the lives of other people after you die? Are you pouring yourself out to others, brining healing to their lives, pursuing dignity, justice, liberation, and peace with them or for them, and tuning your life as closely as possible to God's spirit?
Will you, by virtue of how you are living your life now, and by virtue of the mysterious power of God at work in creation, be present to people who are still alive after you die? Will you continue to live in their hearts, memories, and dreams? Will they continue to see you and feel you near them? Will you continue to inspire, teach, guide, uplift, and sustain them?
Will you be resurrected in the lives of others after you die?
You certainly will be, if you love others as Jesus loves you.
March 30 has been set as a date for receiving new members into our church. Please join us in welcoming them into our fellowship! Before then, of course, we will be observing Palm Sunday and Good Friday, and celebrating Easter. While planning this year's Easter services, the board decided to look ahead to next year, to reconsider the sunrise service on Mt. Bonnell, and to investigate some possible alternatives that might draw better attendance and more participation from our own congregation. This spring we are also focusing on our in-care folk - Jack Harris-Bonham, Will Heimbach, and Dan Nieto - in an effort to ensure that we understand their goals and needs and how we might be more supportive to them. Finally, Spring Retreat is right around the proverbial corner (April 11-13): don't miss this weekend of spiritual exploration and renewal - sign up now!
Spring Retreat, April 11-13
The Intersection of Art and Faith
This year at Slumber Falls Camp in New Braunfels we will experience the arts both as praise and as a spiritual path. We will leave "ordinary time" for a few days of fun, fellowship, and creativity. In workshops on photography, drawing, recitation, and writing we will work to quiet ourselves and observe our world. Can such an effort re-awaken us to the beauty of creation, touch our feelings, and allow an opening to the Spirit? Please join us as we explore this theme. Estimated cost per person for the weekend is $75; this includes room, meals, and materials costs. To register please contact Marilyn Vache.
Chairs of our Boards
Trustees: Reuel Nash
Deacons: Betty Bodman
Christian Education: Paula Fracasso
Christian Outreach: Dan Jeffery
Moderator John Goff
GREAT GROWN-UP SPELLING BEE
The Church Ladies, contestants in the Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee sponsored by the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas, will be competing on Thursday, April 17th, at a lunch at the Austin Music Hall. The team members are Pat Oakes from our church and Susan Richter and Lauren Stoddard (new this year) from Central Presbyterian Church. Tommie and Doyal Pinkard are our team managers. The team has won outright 3 years and tied for first last year. The team needs to raise $1200 in order to compete and is asking for your donations. The event is a lot of fun and raises money for literacy programs throughout our area. Please give your donations to Tommie or Doyal.
AUSTIN INTERFAITH CANDIDATES FORUM
On Sunday, April 20, starting at 7:00 pm at St Ignatius Church on Oltorf St in South Austin, Austin Interfaith will host a candidates forum. Candidates running for a variety of offices locally will be on hand to field questions from Austin Interfaith on a number of community issues. This will be a great opportunity for members of our church to see Austin Interfaith at work, as we begin to consider whether we would like to become involved with Austin Interfaith. I will be attending, and I hope several other folks from our church will attend. See me if you would like more information, or if you already know you would like to attend. --Tom
PERSONALS
by Pat Oakes
Best wishes to Ricky Masters, son of Danny and Mary Towery Masters and grandson of John and Eleanor Towery, and Monica Pfiefer, who announced their engagement at church on Sunday, February 10. The wedding date has been set for October 4. Ricky has his own business, M & C Electrical Contractors and Monica is an engineer with the LCRA. They met at the Travis County Rodeo where they have both been involved for a number of years.
Those of us who have been a part of this church community for awhile will remember a former violinist, Felicia Day, who played at the church for several years. She left about 8 years ago to try for a career in the movies. Just on a whim, I Googled her and found that she has indeed succeeded. From her Web site (http://www.feliciaday.net/bio.html), I learned "Felicia started college at 16, majoring in violin performance, and then in mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin. During college she continued to participate in theatrical productions on and off campus. After graduation, Felicia moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting as a career. She has been on television shows such as "Windfall", "Strong Medicine", "Monk", "Love Inc.", and most notably had a recurring role as Potential slayer Vi on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." She has been in such films as "Bring it on Again", "June" and most recently the Emmy award-winning "Warm Springs", with Kenneth Branagh." She has also appeared in a number of commercials.
Don Miles has been busy of late. He was In San Miguel de Allende, State of Guanajuato, Mexico, for more than a week in February. He attended a couple of really great back-to-back conferences on two totally different subjects. One was on possible retirement opportunities in San Miguel and the other was on authors, agents, and publishers (you might remember that Don is the author of a book on Cinco de Mayo). Don is delighted that academia is discovering his book and sales for classrooms are going well. His whole house has been re-done with wood flooring with the project being finished just before Palm Sunday. Don was busy putting everything back in the proper places. While the project was underway, he had whole rooms of furniture piled in other rooms. He was flying to Gainesville, Florida, Easter Monday. His family was planning on having another session of "charettes" (hearings with designs being presented) for the upcoming Cade Museum (a 40 million dollar museum being built in honor of the Dr. Robert Cade who invented Gatorade--and his son's late father-in-law) through the rest of that week.
Vic Appel will be undergoing elective surgery April 21st. He is having his left knee replaced. He has put off doing this, but now his left knee can match his right which was replaced five years ago. His daughter Debbie and her family will be staying with him the first week after his surgery to help him get through the hardest part.
Lynne Lemley has been much missed of late, but she is working fast and furiously on her book project with several friends. The book, EN COMUNIDAD, is a second year college Spanish textbook with a service learning angle. The idea is for students who are studying second year Spanish to use the text and their expertise in Spanish in useful ways in their community--for example tutoring or helping people with written forms, etc. Lynne is approaching the end of working on the workbook--but now the women have decided to go for a first year Spanish text, too (they started with second year on the premise that students would actually know some Spanish!). They are being published by McGraw-Hill, the biggest publisher of Spanish textbooks. It was a joy to have Lynne and family with us on Easter with her traditional offering of berries and cream. Gracias, Lynne--y buen suerte!!
Matt and Mary Blackstock are grieving the death of their faithful Lab, Somerset, in early March, mostly from old age, his last 2 weeks being difficult both for him and them. They finally resorted to euthanasia after several difficult days. He was more than 12 years old and had been a part of their family for a long time. In early March, while walking, Matt suddenly became aware he couldn't see the ground with one eye. He contacted the ophthalmologist immediately, who was able to confirm his symptom with an extensive test of the vision in that eye. His next procedure was an ultrasound of his carotid arteries which were clear. He is now on Plavix and is not planning on any more medical dramas for a good while. Matt is adapting to his new vision.
It's that time of the year for Beth Placek--time to dance. Beth was in Washington, D.C., April 2-7 and enjoyed going to an English country dance and 2 contra dances at Glen Echo. She loved spending time in the National Gallery and running on the mall and enjoying cherry blossoms. She also spent an afternoon with her friend Libby and Sunday morning at an eastern market.
Former members Steven and Jeanine Neuse who live in Fayetteville, AK, are delighted to report that their daughter-in-law Kara's new assignment is at Lackland Air Force Base. Yea, in Texas! One trip will let them catch everyone as both of their sons will now be in San Antonio. Kara will be promoted to Lt. Colonel. Micah and Kara were in Russia March 9 - 16. Their van was on its way to the States (it takes about six weeks -should come in to Dallas.). Movers will arrive April 17 - 20. Quin, the dog, gets shipped to Dallas where Steven and Jeanine will pick him up and bring him to Fayetteville. He will stay with them until the junior Neuses get settled in San Antonio. They leave Germany around April 4, plan to come see us, and look for a second car. Kara reports for duty about the 15th of April. Of course, Micah and Kara have to get their son Bryce into a school, look for housing, etc. Jeanine is still doing physical therapy from the car accident earlier this year. She is looking forward to walking their dog again without feeling the results at night! Jeanine notes that she and Steven are getting older...Steven is experiencing carpal tunnel.
Cathy Hubbs has been getting a great deal of support from her children since the death of Clark in early February. In mid-March son John was home for a week helping Cathy sort through papers, etc. John, who retired from Kodak a year and a half ago, drove in from Tennessee where he and his wife live.
Meredith (Williams) and Graham Parker were in Austin for ten days while visiting Meredith's mom, Mary Charles Williams. Mary Charles has been a resident of Arden Courts for several years now and is in failing health. She perked up a great deal, though, with the visit of the Parkers who live in Salcombe, England.
Julia Deisler and Larry Camp are engaged and planning on marrying on October 12. They have bought a house at 3505 Hillbrook and were to close on the house on April 1. There will be room for the whole family in the house--Ava, Olivia, Eric, Larry's son Noah, and several dogs and cats!
Over spring break, the Nash family went in various directions. Annie and Becky joined a school trip to Costa Rica, visiting San Jose, Monteverde, and Arenal. They saw the rain forest via zip lines (some that were very high, but apparently not scary), saw incredible birds and lizards, rode horses and a bull, and visited a spectacular butterfly and insect garden. The high points of the trip were spending a day with local kids at a school (ask them about it) and spending the whole trip with another group of Canadian high school kids from Ontario. Reuel, Liz, and Ellie spent part of spring break in San Francisco, staying at a bed and breakfast (once a Summer of Love "crash pad") on Haight St. They spent time with family going to two San Francisco Ballet performances to watch Reuel's nephew's wife, Margaret Karl Nash, dance and then take everyone on a backstage tour. Of course, there was lots of good food, beautiful weather, lovely time by the Bay, and a cast of odd and colorful local characters on the buses. Annie, Becky, and Ellie were all stuck at the beginning of their travels in DFW, which was shut down because of weather, but finally got out and had great trips. While they were gone, Annie got the news that she is being offered a $14000 scholarship to the College of Santa Fe, which has a wonderful film department. She visited there with Reuel last year on one of their open house days, and Liz is headed back up there with her the weekend after Easter -- their offer makes the school rise pretty high on her list. The school is the only college in the US to have an active sound stage (they have 3) for filming major motion pictures, and those who use it are required to hire students to help. The reason for the college's focus on film and theater is that Greer Garson moved to Santa Fe many years ago and gave money to have a place where people who worked with her could be educated. The other schools she is considering (University of San Francisco, Hampshire -- haven't heard yet from them to see if she is in, and UT Arlington) have pretty good film departments but also have a full college scope. So, the choice to go to Santa Fe would be a choice to immerse herself in film and perhaps in creative writing. More than would be the case elsewhere.
Michelle Ulerich is working on completing her yoga training so that she can be a yoga instructor. She needs 300 hours to be fully certified and has earned 100. She is qualified to teach at 200 hours but is actually doing some teaching already at Ballet Austin where she is a dancer, working on Tuesday evenings with yoga students ranging in age from 10 to 60. There will be information next month on a Mother's Day weekend performance that will be great to see at the new Long Performing Arts Center.
Joe McMillan reported on Palm Sunday that he has retired for the second time. His first retirement was as president of Huston-Tillotson University and he has for the past three years been working as the chief academic officer of the Texas College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He is looking forward to some down time! He was also pleased to report that his aunt Cora Gordon had come through her minor surgery very well and that he hoped she would be at church with him on Easter Sunday.
Whit Bodman went to Trinidad for five days in early March to organize a student travel seminar for next January. He spent most of the time with people from St. Andrew's Theological College, including the Director, Joy Abdul-Mohan. Her name says it all - Western (Joy), Muslim (Abdul), and Hindu (Mohan). Trinidad is amazingly diverse - 20% Hindu, 6% Muslim, 25% Catholic, 3% Presbyterian, and with plenty of Pentecostals, Shouter Baptists (an Independent African Church) and various Afro-Caribbean traditions. He didn't meet most of these groups this time, but the group will next January. He went around with a former student, who pastors four churches, two each Sunday. They got up early for service at one church at 8:00, then on to the next church at 9:45, then to a prayer service at a family's house in honor of a 79th birthday, then to a seaside service to commit ashes to the ocean.
Pam Tucker's soccer team, the Baby Blues, has had a winning season and will be going to the state cup competition in April in Houston. Pam is also coaching her six-year-old daughter Savanna's soccer team--the Purple Hearts. Pam reports that they are having a wonderful time while losing every game!
Mel and Pat Oakes had a very busy two weeks in mid-March. Beth and Eugene brought Emily, 7, and Ethan,5, from cold, snowy Iowa to stay with them for 12 days while the Maia Quartet toured in Japan. The two additional Oakes daughters, Sarah and Mardie, arrived after the first week to help out the busy grandparents. Then there was an overlapping time with the whole family there except son-in-law Tony Deifell back home in San Francisco. Mardie was on her way to a meeting in Boston and Sarah was on spring break.
APRIL BIRTHDAYS
2 Ellen Luna
3 Mary Tomasek
4 Ricky Masters
5 Sarah Oakes
Katherine Anderson Ashton
10 Lynne R. Lemley
14 Susan Ashton
16 Eleanor Towery
22 Suzanne L. Bradford
24 George Lemley
28 Sarah Bentley
BRAZOS ASSOCIATION NEWS
There are two important Brazos Association events coming up in April.
Our Brazos Association Spring Meeting will be held on Sunday, April 27 from 3 pm through dinner time (ending about 7 pm or earlier) at the Congregational Church of Austin. Come for worship, excellent music, the ecclesiastical council of in care student Tamara Franks who is graduating from Eden Theological Seminary, our business meeting, fellowship, and a good meal together. Business includes a by-law revision being sent to the churches beforehand, reports, voting on nominations, recognition of ordination anniversaries and in-care students, and installation of our elected representatives and officers. Rev. Douglas Anders, our Conference Minister, will be with us, giving us a chance to meet and hear from him. Check with your church soon for a mailing with details and directions. Plan to join us!
Also, St. John's UCC in Burton invites all Association women and friends to a one day Association Women's Retreat on Saturday, April 12th. The theme deals with the seasons of our lives, and the retreat team, headed by licensed lay minister, Frances Sidenblad, is working hard to prepare a meaningful, joyful day of faith building and reflection. Look for the publicity sent to all the churches for details about how to register (advance registration needed by early April) or call St. John's at (979) 289-2485. Burton is in one of the most beautiful areas of the state during the spring wildflower season, so take the opportunity for a lovely drive to be with one of the most hospitable churches around. Get to know and grow in faith with our Association women.
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Liz Nash, Associate Conference Minister, Brazos Association
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
On Sunday, April 20, we will celebrate the completion of Phase One of the Centennial Project during fellowship time. We will be rejoicing for the new nursery, kitchen, accessible restroom, play area, sidewalks, landscaping, portico roof, and fire escape and drainage improvements. We'll be giving thanks the Centennial Committee and their many hours of work, and to every person who contributed the money, energy, and talent to the completion of this project. We believe our architect, Evan Taniguchi, and our contractor, Robert Sullivan, will be here that Sunday to share in the celebration. Please join us!
YOUTH GROUP
COMING UP
April 27 will be Youth Sunday, with the combined youth groups leading worship. Annie Nash will preach.
HILL COUNTRY RIDE FOR AIDS
To support Tom and/or George in their efforts, Saturday, April 26, to raise money for The Care Communities, an organization that provides care to people living with AIDS, please go to: www.hillcountryride.org At the home page, look for the list of cycling teams scrolling by on the lower right hand side of the screen. Push "stop" below the list when you see Care Communities Cycling Team scroll by. At the team page, click Tom or George, then click the button that says "Support Tom" or "Support George," and then follow the instructions. If you would rather send a check, send it to HCRA, PO Box 16529, Austin, TX 78761. Be sure to indicate that the check is to support the fundraising efforts of either Tom VandeStadt or George Hetrick on the Care Communities Team. Thank you!!!
COFFEE HOUR
Please sign up in the Fellowship Room to be coffee hour hosts on an upcoming Sunday. The coffee hour time is such a good opportunity to visit old friends and meet visitors. We keep coffee and ginger ale and some punch fixings in the pantry in the kitchen. There are usually paper napkins, and we use coffee mugs and punch cups to avoid wasting natural resources. Your menu can be as simple or complicated as you want. Cookies and/or chips and salsa are just fine! If you have questions, talk to Pat Oakes, Tommie Pinkard, or Lynne Lemley.
Deadline for May VISITOR -- April 18
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