Letters to the Churches of Carbon County and Beyond

It is the first Sunday of Advent for the Episcopal Church. A parishioner of St. Paul has this to say about Advent (in a round about way): It is sure nice to be a part of a church that thinks and acts with liturgical seasons. Welcome to the new year. Advent is about preparing for the arrival of God in our midst. Incarnational in spirit and by through living and being in relationship through the church and our local communities we see the the physical manifestation of this reality. I hope this letter finds you well.

St Luke's (Medicine Bow): As I write I am sitting in Medicine Bow. I finished with a brief meeting with the leadership of the church. It turns out this was outreach Sunday! They decided to make some contributions to the following organizations: Nets for Life (ERD); the local museum; the Medicine Bow's Methodist Church to support the the parish hall community outreach activities; Medicine Bow's senior center; and Lion's club. Talk about being the physical presence of Christ in the local community. There has been some talk about a coal to fuel plant being built in the Medicine Bow area. Surveys are taking place with plans to break ground in 2012. This has been a long process; however the upside is employment of about 400 people is in the mix. This is promising news.

St Paul's (Dixon/LSRV): Not much to report from last week. I want to keep with the weekly discipline of writing about activities throughout the region. As it turns out this was a short week (only three days) and so I move on to the next church in this posting!

St. Thomas (Rawlins): Again not much to report. I do know that the Wednesday Morning Prayer was canceled last week because of Thanksgiving. This is not a bad because people had a chance to worship and give thanks for God's many blessings the next day. On to the next church.

St. James (Encampment): I trust that the Rev. Jess Smith made it to preach and preside this Sunday the first Sunday of Advent. I made some changes in my schedule and will be preaching and presiding twice in December of 2010. Next.

What is coming up? Ok here we go … Monday is the weekly WebEx meeting with the Ministry Developers starting at 8:30 am. Tuesday I will be attending the Gospel Study group at St. Thomas for preparation for sermons. Wednesday I drive to Casper for a face to face meeting with the Evangelism Team and return to Rawlins for a marriage counseling session. Thursday is my sermon writing day. Friday there is another WebEx meeting with the Regional Reps and Ministry Developers at 5:30 pm. Sunday I will start my day at St. Thomas in Rawlins, head to 3 Latter Ranch for a pastoral visit and preach and preside at St. Paul's at 3pm. Also this week I am the on call Chaplain for the Rawlins Police Department. It is going to be a fun week. Take care.