Letters to the Churches of Carbon County and Beyond

Happy New Year to the Episcopal Church! I hope all is well and that everybody had a good Thanksgiving. The Wasingers in Wyoming traveled quite a bit and it was a full week for us. As for the churches I hope that the first Sunday of Advent set the tone for the remainder of the church season. I was in Region 5 last Sunday and so I don’t have much to report from last Sunday; however I do know that there was a baptism at St. Thomas in Rawlins and I trust that the following week I will be checking in throughout Region 4 to see how the first week of Advent is coming along. I hope this letter finds you well.

Last Monday I headed to St. Paul’s in Dixon for two different Wade in the Water sessions. The first group met at 2pm because this group prefers not to drive about at night. Because of family and work commitments a second group met around 6pm. During my time at St. Paul’s was introduced to a liturgical format to learn from Wade in the Water and so it is on my “to do” list is to duplicate the format for all the sessions in Wade in the Water.

Tuesday was working around the office at home kind of a day. I was pacing myself because that evening the Wasinger family broke up into two units with one going to Wheatland and the other part going to Denver. Thank you for all the prayers for the oldest (this letter is posted on a blog and so I prefer to protect the names of my daughters) her surgery was a success. She is recovering nicely and all is well.

As we all know, Wednesday through Saturday was more alike a holiday were people gather to count our blessings, get out and start shopping for the upcoming Christmas season (well at least check out what is available) and watch a little football.

Sunday I awoke early and headed to Fort Bridger to start my day. I was in fog most of the trip and I smiled with I read the Gospel for the day thinking that I should have been looking for the arrival of Jesus in the clouds! I arrived in Fort Bridger and the fog began to be burned off and the sun was bright and beautiful. I heard of some news in regards to the Little Snake River Valley and I noted that I love this state. Following that service I headed to Green River for another service and to host a Wade in the Water session. The conversation was open and honest and I believe people discovered that God is present even in the small events of our lives. After everybody headed home I poked around the church for about two and half hours and figured out how to use the projector in the main church for future use.

What is on deck for the coming week? On Monday I am heading to Baggs for “Winter Bible Café” in which we will begin reading the book of Psalms and that meeting starts at 2pm. It is my intention to keep Tuesday’s a light day (it seems my energy wanes on that day!). Wednesday will start with a web/phone meeting with the Ministry Developers followed by office hours at Kraft Hall from 10am to 12pm. Thursday I will be heading to Denver for a follow-up post operation appointment. Friday is an administration day in which I am planning on (that doesn’t always mean it will happen) reviewing and making professional goals for the up-coming year and continuing education. On Sunday I will be presiding at St. Paul’s in Dixon @ 10:30 am with a Ministry Support Team meeting following the service.

Giving Thanks in Carbon County - Nov 22 2009

November 22, 2009

Hello. This is Doug once again writing his weekly letter to the churches of Carbon County and beyond. This is Thanksgiving week and so I am going to stick with that theme for this letter. I have much to be thankful about. I hope this letter finds you well.

I will first start with the beginning of my week, which started with me heading to Rock Springs to spend some time with Linda Wilson. We will be working more as a team in Region 5 and helping one another with mutual support. It was while I was in Rock Springs that I received the news of Reba Sheehan passing away in her sleep on Sunday evening. That bit of news was both sad and joyful. Reba was a vital member of St. Paul’s in Dixon and she was vital all the way up to her death. She died at home and with out a struggle. I am thankful for knowing Reba and she was an amazing woman with quite a legacy.

Tuesday I was working on a newsletter contribution and hanging around the house. I also scheduled two personal meetings to get to know other community leaders of Rawlins. That evening I was on a web/phone meeting with the Regional Reps. We talked about how to continue to build on the success that was discovered with the Mustard Seed Projects (including possible grants request to support a ministry in transition) and we were asked to being talking to congregations to see how technology could be a benefit in communications. I am thankful that the Regional Reps and Ministry Developers are working together to make our Diocese a better connected community.

Wednesday was an all day web/phone meeting with the Ministry Developers. We discussed such topics as how the Apostolic Teams are forming, opportunities for new faith communities, working more in tandem with other ministry developers, and technology. That evening I was invited to a “Don’t Meth with Me” presentation by Marathon Oil Company in which they make a Meth awareness event and they wanted to engage the shareholders of the community. It was one of the best attended events with the leaders of the community. One of St. Thomas’ own was one of the key players in putting this event together. I am thankful that the leaders of the church are engaged in making our communities a better place to live.

Thursday was a full day. It started with me going to Baggs to preside at Reba Sheehan’s funeral. The event was held at the local high school gym. Members of St. Paul’s were there to assist in the worship. The way the Little Snake River Valley community works is that an event of this size includes everybody so the pastor of the local church was on hand to give the eulogy and I was there to provide the homily. I say there were about 200 people in attendance. That evening I drove back to Rawlins and was able to meet with the Ministry Support Team of St. Thomas to discuss the life of the church and following that meeting I attended a vestry meeting. St. Thomas is working hard in preparation for next year. I am thankful for the leadership of both St. Paul’s and St. Thomas.

Saturday I was in Laramie for an Apostolic Team meeting. The meeting opened with general sharing among the leaders and we welcomed Rev Carol Peterson, Pat Walsh, and John Peacock and John Sullivan. Then we shared a case study of the Mustard Seed Project from St. Paul’s in Dixon. After we finished lunch we moved into talking about the Bishop search and because we were blessed with having both John Peacock and Norm Peterson in our presence we heard more about how the process is coming along and made future plans for the walk about. I am thankful that people from throughout Region 4 are willing to give up a Saturday to be together and those who came for the first time.

Sunday I was in Medicine Bow. St. Luke has completed Wade in the Water and is well prepared for Advent. A member of the church has been working hard to start a local pre-school in Medicine Bow. At every obstacle, i.e. financing, paperwork, and regulations this member has found away to stay positive and focused to move forward. When she was sharing where she was in the process a gentleman said, “Don’t worry, Jesus is coming,” which caused us all to start laughing.

I also give thanks for the fine folks of St. James in Encampment. This group of people worships, fellowship, and are a delight to be with. It often feels like a family reunion when I preside and they are quick to laugh, to roll up their sleeves to work on a project and manage to keep a good oral history of the Diocese.

Looking forward to this short, but busy week this is what is on deck for the Thanksgiving week. Starting on Monday I will be heading to St. Paul’s in Dixon to start Wade in the Water in which we will cover two sessions every meeting. We are also hosting to meetings one at 2pm for those who don’t like traveling at night and a second meeting for those who have prior commitments like jobs, families, and the like but can meet in the evening. Tuesday I will be making phone calls and getting ready for a little R&R. Sunday I will be in Fort Bridger (St. David’s) starting at 9am and then I will be in Green River (St. John’s) for an 11 am service with Wade in the Water session two.

Letters to the Churches of Carbon County and Beyond

Before I move onto the news of the week, at the State Convention of 2009 there has been a resolution passed asking that the leadership of the Diocese seek ways to fund Wyoming Wilderness Camp also known as HR Wilderness Camp. The Camp itself is in a middle of a fund-raising event and is asking for people to make a ONE TIME donation of $20 but NO MORE than $50. More to the point this fundraiser is a process to increase more support for the camp through broader participation. Rather than having one or two large givers it would be beneficial to have many smaller givers contributing to this wonderful ministry. You can send your donation to 123 Durbin Street, Casper WY 82601 and write Wyoming Wilderness Camp in the memo. Thank you for your prayerful consideration in this matter. If you would like to read more about the camp you could go to this web-site www.hrcampfoundation.org.

November 16, 2009

Good morning fine folks of Carbon County and Beyond. I trust that your week went well and I am taking this time to catch you up on what has happened throughout Carbon County. A quick run down of the area looks like this, St. Thomas is doing well and has an administrative week lined up; St. Paul’s is in the midst of preparing for Wade in the Water; St. James is getting ready for the holiday season (Thanksgiving and Christmas); St. Luke is finishing up Wade in the Water; I hope this letter finds you well.

Last Monday I headed over to Laramie to work on my professional development and also was able to have quick pastoral visit. A member of St. Thomas (Rawlins) was involved in a rollover on the interstate a couple of weeks ago. He is recovering and by the grace of God was not seriously injured (if you consider broken ribs not serious). His spirits remain high and he has a great prayer support system in place.

Tuesday I participated in a web/phone meeting with the clergy of Region 5 to plan church services for the next three months. The meeting when really well and the quote of the day was, “We desire a developer not a presider.” This means that the Ministry Developer is now freed up to focus more effort in developing ministries rather than providing supply Eucharistic services. A great sign of growth!

On Wednesday I was a web/phone meeting with the Ministry Developers as we work on putting together a Ministry Review using the Baptismal Covenant to guide our work. We are currently working on the second promise which is about sin and repentance. Now that is a difficult subject to address, yet I think we have a process that helps congregations and individuals look at this par of their lives without being threatened or hit with a heavy guilt trip. We will continue to work on putting together this Ministry Review in the coming weeks.

Thursday was more or less an administrative day for me. I worked on writing a couple of reports for the COM and that afternoon I headed to Saratoga for a preaching discernment meeting. The folks of Saratoga have been working hard with a member of that congregation to discern a preaching call. As a part of the process they too are assisting me along with the COM as we look at the preaching licensing process. The reflection questions are getting better and so is the feedback from this group. Ralph Hicks, the person who is discerning, will be heading to Texas for the winter months and will be returning in the spring of 2010 to complete the discerning process.

Friday I continued to read another chapter in the book Leaders Who Last: Sustaining Yourself and Your Ministry. Starting to write my sermon for the up-coming Sunday and touch base with Linda Fleming as we prepare for the Apostolic Team Meeting for Region 4 on November 21, 2009 in Laramie.

Sunday was a full day. It started at St. James in Encampment. We all gathered a brief discussion about Christmas and determined that everybody will be gone for the season and so there was no need to have services on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. We also decided that it would be beneficial to start Wade in the Water at the first of year. That afternoon I drove to St. Paul’s in Dixon and my two oldest girls accompanied me. I met with Linda Fleming early and so we reviewed the case study that will be presented at the Apostolic Team meeting this upcoming Saturday (21^st). Before Linda Fleming arrived I briefly looked over the church registry and noticed that slowly the attendance has increased over the years and again another sign of the sustainability of Shared Ministry. St. Paul will begin Wade in the Water on November 23, 2009 and have two presentations with the first one starting at 2pm and a 2^nd group meeting at 6pm.

The remainder of the week looks like this: Monday I head to Hudson to meeting with Linda Wilson (Ministry Developer for Regions 5 & 6) and together will work on putting together some goals for our shared work. Tuesday I will be on a web/phone meeting with the Regional Reps. Wednesday is an all day web/phone meeting with the Ministry Developers. Thursday I will be meeting with the Ministry Support Team of St. Thomas and the vestry in Rawlins. Saturday is the Apostolic Team meeting for Region 4 in which we will have a case study; Norm Peterson will explain where we are in the process in the election of the next bishop of Wyoming and some general sharing. Sunday I will be heading to St. Luke’s in Medicine Bow to preside and conclude the Wade in the Water program. That evening there is a Community Thanksgiving Service in Rawlins.

Letters to the Churches of Carbon County and Beyond

November 8, 2009

Hello good folks of the church, how has life treated last week? I managed to get a day off from work and relax. Talk about Sabbath and the value of resting the body, mind, and spirit. It can change one’s outlook on life. I have noticed that people are a bit rough around the edges as we deal with the challenges of life, yet if we can get some space from all the pressures of the every day, we can almost see God in our midst. I hope this letter finds you well.

I will go quickly through my week. Tuesday I spent most of my effort working through my to-do list that had about 7 items to work through. I managed to get it all done, make and take phone calls. Not much as in the way of exciting stuff to report.

Wednesday I smaller to-do list and two web/phone meetings along with office hours. The Ministry Developers are working on our relational meetings, discussion about Apostolic Team meetings, and working on a Ministry Review process that engages the Baptismal Covenant in a deeper and reflective way. During my time at Kraft Hall Karen came over and we wrote a blessing for the “Blessing Bundles” for St. Thomas and scheduled a Ministry Support Team meeting for November. That evening I was on a web/phone meeting with different people throughout the state to begin looking at programming for Wyoming Wilderness Camp 2010. Some really great ideas are coming up. I reflected on what we did is to open our focus around youth ministry and to see the care providers of our kids and children as other area of ministry.

Thursday I followed up on some phone calls, wrote my sermon, and scheduled some web/phone meetings for next week. I also got caught up on my notes from the web/meetings the day before and forwarded them to all the participants of the meetings. I try to keep the information flowing by sharing what I heard with everybody.

Friday I took the middle of the day to work on other administrative tasks like reviewing some work that was given to the Ministry Developers to prepare for our next meeting, putting together the Apostolic Team Meeting face to face agenda and professional development. I am currently reading a book called Leaders Who Last: Sustaining Yourself and Your Ministry written by Margaret J. Marcuson. It is a good book about family systems (a way of looking at the network of relationships that make up the church and your personal family). Saturday was my day off.

Sunday I was at St. Thomas in Rawlins. During this service we blessed the “Blessing Bundles”. Blessing Bundles is a ministry that gives children ranging from infant to teenagers a small “backpack” of simple items that they can keep for their very own. These bundles are given to children who have been placed in Foster homes at a moments notice. As the service wrapped up I was blessed by the presence of one such child who was placed in a foster home at birth. The kid just smiled at everybody. Following the service we had continued our fellowship with chili and wonderful soup. It was a good time by all.

Looking forward to this up coming week this is what is on deck. Monday I will be in Laramie to work on my personal project in the morning. Tuesday I have a web/phone meeting scheduled to look at the church service coverage in Region 5. Wednesday I am planning on making follow-up calls for the Apostolic Team for Region 4, and have office hours at Kraft Hall from 10am to 12pm. Thursday I will be writing a sermon and a vestry report. That afternoon I will be heading over to Saratoga for a preaching discernment meeting. Lately Fridays have been my professional development day in which I continue to work on family systems and catch-up on any items that I missed throughout the week. Sunday I will be presiding at two services starting at St. James in Encampment 9am with their first Wade in the Water session following the service. That afternoon I will be heading to St. Paul’s in Dixon for their 5pm service.

Letters to the Churches of Carbon County and Beyond

Hello folks of Carbon County and a big Wyoming hello to those beyond Carbon who receive this posting. How was your week? The early snow storm affected most of Wyoming and it dipped into Colorado. Now as I write the snow has melted away and there seems to be little if no evidence of chaos shut down highways. Halloween was untraditionally warm this year and the kids (and the Wasinger Parents) are recovering from the candy binge. As I look about in this part of the state this is what is taking place: The Apostolic Team for both Regions 4 and 5 (mostly the southern half of the state) met about a week ago using WebEx; Saratoga continues to work through their discernment process in calling a local preacher; St. James in Encampment started Wade in the Water with the assistance of Rev. Ray Grieb (Ray is also working with Saratoga with the preaching discernment); St. Thomas is getting prepared for their Mustard Seed Project – Blessing Bundles; St. Luke is about complete with their Wade in the Water; and I have been receiving reports from St. Paul that their afterschool program has drawn in a large group of kids (about 30 kids). I hope this letter finds you well.

Last Monday (October 26) I was in Laramie in the mid afternoon to work on my personal project and that evening I was a host for the joint Apostolic Team meeting between Regions 4 & 5. We talked about what took place at convention; shared what other churches are doing with their formation processes; and scheduled our face to face meetings in November.

Tuesday (a week ago) I drove over to Saratoga to participate in a preaching discernment process for Ralph Hicks. We are coming to a conclusion soon as Ralph has worked hard to prepare his responses to the questions that have been listed in the study guide. We have generated a new set of discernment questions for the next round of discussions. Fortunately I made it home before the scheduled winter storm hit for the week.

Wednesday I was in Kraft Hall in Rawlins for office hours and that evening I was on another WebEx meeting with the Regional Reps and my fellow Ministry Developers. We meet monthly to discuss what is taking place throughout the state and to stay in touch. Lately we, as a group, have been working on Safe Guarding God’s Children training and to move the resolution from the last convention forward. Following that meeting I was on another conference call with Evangelism in which we have discussed what we have been doing and to plan a face to face meeting in November.

Thursday I met with Karen Buckingham to review her checklist for priesthood and to debrief from her first of six retreats to learn about Family Systems. At this point the winter storm was in full effect throughout the state and it seemed to quite life down for about 72 hours. It is amazing and humbling to realize how much control we really have in this life. With that in mind was scheduled to go to Denver on Friday to take care of an appointment with Alexis, but the roads were closed so I caught up on my other administrative tasks.

Sunday I was in Dixon and presiding at St. Paul’s. As I looked about it was great to see so many people who were able to make the adjustments to the time change and yes even children were in our midst. We had a Ministry Support Team meeting following the service. The question of the Mustard Seed Money came up again and there was some jovial frustration about how the money is not being spent. One person said, “I know God has a plan for the money and we just need to figure it out.” Five minutes later there were three to four ideas that were presented. How it has been working is that the Church will make an offering and then the local community will rally and take care of it themselves. The church provides the spark the people of the community provide the fuel and energy.

This is how my week is shaping up: Tuesday is an administrative day in which I am writing this letter and have taken a couple of phone calls. Pat Walsh and I are in the process of planning a youth event in the area this December and more details will be coming out soon. Wednesday I will be on a weekly web/phone meeting with the Ministry Developers starting at 8am and then I will have office hours at Kraft Hall from 10am to noon. During my office hours I will be taking to Karen and developing a blessing for the “Blessing Bundles” for St. Thomas. Wednesday evening I will be hosting a WebEx meeting with the Wyoming Wilderness Camp leadership to begin planning 2010 programming. Thursday is another administrative day to write a sermon and other various items. Sunday I will be presiding at St. Thomas in Rawlins in which the church will be launching their “Blessing Bundles” and perhaps do a house blessing in Rawlins that afternoon.