Cross 

 Point

UPCOMING EVENTS FOR CROSS POINT EMMAUS COMMUNITY

MONTHLY GATHERINGS (7:00 p.m.)
(Cross Point Board meets at 5:00 p.m.)

Dec. 10 - 1st Presbyterian Church, Ardmore

SPRING 2006 WALKS

Men’s Walk # 61, Mar 3-Mar 26

Women’s Walk # 62, Mar 30-Apr 2

The following individuals have been elected to the Cross Point Emmaus Board of Directors, Class of 2006, and will serve for the next three years (Jan 2006-Jan 2009) starting in January, 2006. The four lay members elected are Julie Altom, Tem Barrett, Cherri Bradley, and Laura Mitchell. The new clergy member elected is Rev. Paul Reed, pastor at Ringling United Methodist Church. Also recently, with the move of Rev. Tony Caro to the First United Methodist Church of Hinton, the Board elected Rev. Dan Patman as our Community Spiritual Director. Rev. Patman, Associate Pastor at Ardmore First United Methodist Church, has graciously accepted to serve as the Community Spiritual Director for the 2006 calendar year. The Board looks forward to the experience that Dan has obtained in serving as a spiritual director for numerous Walks to Emmaus weekends, and for his spiritual direction to our community.

In addition, there has been much discussion on the Board about the need to possibly expand the membership of the Board from 15 members to at least 18 members. This is because there are community functions that are not being served as well as they could be, due to the growth and expansion of our community. We have a community of upwards to 1500 members, and to keep them informed, by newsletter, e-mail and website, has become a huge and sometimes difficult task. This expansion issue will be discussed at our next meeting, and if anyone has any suggestions concerning this issue they are welcomed to contact a member of the Board. Please be in pray as your Board deals with these decisions on how to serve the Lord and this community more fruitfully.

PRAYERFULLY BE CONSIDERING WHO GOD WOULD HAVE YOU
SPONSOR FOR THE WALK TO EMMAUS.

Sponsor Sheets Available on Website

"O come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God and a great King above all gods, in whose hand are the depths of the earth; The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it; And His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand." Psalms 95:1-7a (NASB)

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7 (NASB)

During this time of the year there is so much that we can be thankful for, in spite of the hustle and bustle of our daily lives. The Lord our Creator and our Sustainer has given us so much in the way of material possessions and good things that it is sometimes easy to overlook from where it all comes. We need to lift up praises of thanksgiving to our Lord every chance we get, always being mindful that it is important as followers of Christ to have an attitude of gratitude. In the last several weeks, leading up to and including the Thanksgiving holiday, I have been so blessed in many ways. Nancy and I had the opportunity to travel to Israel with some special friends of ours to experience the Jewish celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles (also Feast of Booths) which commemorates the wilderness experience of the Jewish people and the coming of the fall rains. It rained on the first day of the celebration, the first rain since June in Jerusalem, and it was so “cool” to be there. I am so thankful for the immense blessings we received during our travels in Israel.

In early November the Lord provided another spiritual blessing as He led Wadell Altom, Sheila Altom and Jody Long to plan a renewal weekend for Crosspoint Emmaus Community past Lay Directors of Walks 1-60. It was a joy and a truly worshipful experience to share time with those individuals who have given of themselves to do the work of Christ in following His call to help bring others to a closer relationship with our Lord. These are persons who have truly touched my life in profound and gracious ways and I thank the Lord for each one of them. As this experience ended on Saturday afternoon, we were able to travel to Stratford for the Emmaus gathering that evening at the First United Methodist Church. The gathering was another time of blessing as the Stratford church hosted us in a gracious way and we had a full sanctuary of Emmaus community members. Rev. Charles Baumann, as he related his experiences in Cancun during the height of Hurricane Wilma, shared how God can use us in all types of circumstances. We must be thankful to the Lord even when it isn’t pleasant, for He will use us to fulfill His mission in all seasons. Charlie indicated that he was able to share the love of Christ with those who were strangers one day and good friends three days later. Praise be to God for all He has provided for us through relationships with others.

As we approach this Christmas season, may we be mindful of all that we have been truly blessed with, and look for ways to help and serve others. I would encourage each of us to pray for our country, our governmental leaders, our churches and their pastoral leadership, and our Cross Point Emmaus Community. Please pray that we all keep our focus on Christ, our Savior and our Lord, and that we praise Him with thanksgiving for giving us eternal life. I also encourage you to pray for the leadership of this Emmaus Community and for the planning that is going on now for the next set of walks. Finally, I look forward to seeing you at the next Community gathering at First Presbyterian Church in Ardmore on December 10, as we praise and worship together the coming again of our Lord.

Garmon Smith, Community Lay Leader

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union. It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

(from the collection of Lincolns papers in the Library of America series, Vol II, pp. 520-521).

Many times you and I have heard that God has given each of us a talent and we are to develop and use that talent. For a long time I have searched for MY talent...thinking surely God had overlooked giving me one because I couldn't figure out what it was; however, in Matthew 25:14-20 God clearly says that EACH of us have been given one.

God recently revealed to me, after much meditating on my part, that my talent is being a friend. I have many "friends" and I have few "great friends", each one giving back to me in different capacities. However, I do not look at what my friends give me in return. I love BEING a friend to someone else. The gift is in GIVING all that I can to the friend that needs it the most when God reveals it to me. How true that 'tis better to give than receive'.

Recently, very great friends of mine moved away and after weeks and weeks of tears and heartache, God has shown me that miles mean nothing. I can use my "talent" via the telephone, e-mail, snail mail or the best one yet, Prayer. What more of a blessing can you ask for than that of knowing a friend is praying for you? Instead of focusing on the fact that my friends have moved away, I will focus on what more I can do to develop and perfect my talent, all to God's glory.

What is your talent? How will you use it today?

Kristin Littlefield, Cross Point Walk to Emmaus #48, Table of Naomi

The Lay Director for Men’s Walk 61 is Tim Shields and the Lay Director for Women’s Walk 62 is Paula Pfau. These positions carry with them hard work, long hours and many blessings. Please pray specifically for Tim and Paula and their spouses as they seek after God’s will for these walks, their teams and their lives.

Men’s #63 9/28/06-10/1/06

Women’s #64 10/5/06-10/8/06