Parish Post September 2004
We are more in need of a vision or destination and a compass (a set of principles or directions) and less in need of a road map. We often don't know what the terrain ahead will be like or what we will need to go through it.... But an inner compass will always give us direction. Steven Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People
One year ago who would have thought we would be where we are today. I get the feeling that as a church we have been traveling more by a compass than a road map. How ever difficult this journey can be, just look at where we have arrived. We have arrived home with the largest delegation from any New Hampshire church from the United Church of Christ National Youth event, and with changed people feeling more optimistic, more ready to walk in faith, and closer to God. We have arrived on the other side of “Faith and Nature Camp.” After months of hard work we arrived at Loon Lake to discover that not only could we pick up where we had left off two years ago but also that we could go beyond where we had been following our one-year hiatus. We arrived on Pentecost Sunday having found that the theme of “The Actor’s Studio” opened new portals into the meaning of embracing Jesus Christ as director and understanding God as the audience. We arrived at midyear meeting “working out our salvation in fear a trembling” to find that the Holy Spirit was steadying our walk and we were held in God’s heart. If anyone had told me last August that in little less than a year I would be standing in Jerusalem and walking by the shores of Galilee I would have politely as best I could laughed to myself. If anyone had said one year ago that I would be fifty pounds lighter and run fifty miles a week you all would have laughed. That I will arrive at the Choir camp under the direction of Kristin Ruthenberg with 14 other adults is no laughing matter. At least we hope not.
These are the kind of places that you arrive at when even if you don’t have a road map you have a compass and a sense of direction. To paraphrase St. Paul it seems less important to know exactly where we are headed than to know who is our head. This has a way of helping us keep our head and keeping us headed in the right direction until we arrive at those places where God wants us to be.
In this Parish Post you will read of changed lives and renewed living because of the journeys that we have undertaken. You will also see that while we don’t always know what lies ahead or where we are headed, these kinds of experiences help South Congregational Church know who is the head of the church. “Rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” Ephesians 4:15
Craig
A Medical Update
I am pleased to report that I continue to make significant progress! The CEA blood level, an indicator of cancer, continues to shrivel. We are right where we need to be in the process at this point. I continue to function well, run every day and have minimal side effects. I am blest to be part of a faith community as I make this journey without benefit of the usual road map. - Craig
8:00:15 AM 
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