Dear St. George family,
Over the last few days, I have had the pleasure of writing an article about our Summer of Service for The Church News, the official newspaper of the Diocese of West Texas. As you know, we had a project every week over the summer. We organized donations and assembled packages for Magdalenda House, joined in a backpack and school supply drive with the North Central Convening of Churches, and collected and assembled donations for West Avenue Compassion.
All summer long, I wrote a long list of items that we needed to have donated and a description of that week’s project for the eSpear. Marilynne, Keith, Happy, Haley, Maricela, Aimee, Daniel, Fr. Ram, and Dave all worked together to make sure that I had the information to publish so my St. George family would know what we needed to make the Summer of Service a success. Each week’s project came together even though we might have been a little worried about details from time to time. We had speakers from each of the organizations teach us about the people we were helping. We met new friends and reconnected with others we hadn’t seen for a while.
It worked very well to accomplish a task a week. For lack of a better word, it was “satisfying.” I think we all enjoyed it, and we knew we were “doing a good thing.”
However, I think that your perspective may change when you read the article or when you think back on the summer as a whole. A project a week became a discipline, or even more than that–a meditation, or a prayer. It was transformational. St. George serves. It is who we are.
We were able to transform lives with our Summer of Service. I know my life changed. I’m so honored to be part of this family and happy to have had the chance to share our Summer of Service story with the Diocese of West Texas. When it is published, we will notify you all.
As we approach the beginning of our Stewardship Season, I remember that Fr. Ram once said something like, “Your gifts of treasure, time, and talent enable the church to keep doing this good work that we are doing.” I think we are doing good work indeed, and I’m honored to be part of the St. George family. I look forward to seeing you all on October 2nd as we begin our Stewardship Season with a potluck supper after church!
-Laura L. Kelly
Sr. Warden of St. George Vestry
