Cross 

 Point

MONTHLY GATHERINGS (7:00 p.m.) (Board Meeting at 5:00)
Jan 13		Asbury Methodist Church, Ada		Men’s Walk #65	03/01/07-03/04/07
Feb 10		Site not determined		Women’s Walk #66	03/08/07-03/11/07
				Men’s Walk #67	09/27/07-09/30/07
				Women’s Walk #68	10/04/07-10/07/07

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.

The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"

The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister...please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do," He pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. "It's my brother, "he said "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay. "Thank you and may God bless you," the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home.

It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!" God whispers in our souls and speaks to our hearts. Sometimes when we don't have time to listen, He has to throw a brick at us. It's our choice to listen or not.

SUPPORT EMMAUS! COME TO GATHERINGS!
OUR NEXT GATHERING IS JANUARY 13, 2007, AT 7:00 P.M.
AT ASBURY METHODIST CHURCH, ADA, OK!

Congratulations to our newly elected board members! Paula Pfau, Vicki Swigert, and Ben Owens of Ardmore and Jeff Hiller of Ringling were elected as laity members. Les Bussell of FUMC, Marietta, was elected as a clergy member. They will join the board in January, 2007, for three year terms. Anyone and everyone are invited to attend our Cross Point Emmaus Board meetings which are held at 5:00 p.m. immediately before our gatherings and in the same churches.

It is Chrysalis time again. The boy’s walk is next week January 11 – 14, 2007 and the girl’s is the week after January 18 – 21, 2007 at Asbury UMC in Oklahoma City. This is a call for caterpillars…We Need Them!!!!!!!!!! As of this writing we have 6 boy’s signed up and 5 girl’s!! We need your help in getting young men and ladies signed up for the flights. We need Sophomore’s through Senior’s in High School and college age through age 20 (for a Journey table). Please get the word out now. You can get applications at www.heartlandchrysalis.us and if you cannot get them to the mail box by January 9th then bring them to send off on Thursday, January 11th. Once you have identified youth that will attend, e-mail me at okiemark@suddenlink.net with all the vital information (Name, age, school, church, etc.) and I will get their names on our list. Please help make this a great flight for these youth!!!!!

De Colores,
Mark Kent, Registrar
Heartland Chrysalis

Cross Point Emmaus assists Heartland Chrysalis with presenting their flights. Just like the walks, there are prayer vigils for the flights. We need many more people to sign up on the prayer vigils for the upcoming January flights. The flights begin this weekend! The boy's is January 11-14 and the girl's is January 18-21. There are many slots to fill on both the boys' flight and the girls' flight. You can sign up on their website which is www.3dayol.org.

Candlelight services are also held on the Saturday night of each flight. Plan to attend candlelight or closing to support these caterpillars on their weekends!

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget."
Jessica - age 8

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

As our Cross Point Emmaus Community starts the team training process in preparation for the next set of Walks to be held the first two weekends in March, I want to briefly address the underlying “spirit” of the Walk to Emmaus that makes the weekend such a profound experience for so many. The spirit in which the Walk to Emmaus is conducted is none other than the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 5:22-26, Paul lists the characteristics of the Holy Spirit manifested in people’s attitudes and behaviors, which he calls the “fruit of the Spirit.” From the Amplified Bible: 22“But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, 23gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge]. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires. 25If we live by the [Holy] Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. [If by the Holy Spirit we have our life in god, let us go forward walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit.] 26Let us not become vainglorious and self-conceited, competitive and challenging and provoking and irritating to one another, envying and being jealous of one another.” This fruit also represents the character of an Emmaus team properly formed in the spirit of Jesus Christ. This is the fruit we want the pilgrims to feast on throughout their weekend. The fruit of the Spirit serves as a good backdrop for Emmaus communities to evaluate their leadership styles and practices which may or may not be in line with the intent of the Walk to Emmaus. In the Cross Point Emmaus Community it has been made a practice that team leaders will cultivate among team members a readiness to embrace the quality of community life that the Holy Spirit brings to us by reviewing at least one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit at each team meeting.

These “fruit of the Spirit” are traits that can and will become manifested in Emmaus team members as they willingly humble themselves to the spirit of the Walk to Emmaus. Whether a member of the conference room team or the outside “hands and feet” team, each person takes on the role of a servant, seeking to follow the intent of the Walk to Emmaus model and humbling themselves before Christ and others. Leadership in Emmaus begins and ends with anonymous positions of servanthood, such as those functions performed by the outside team like working in the kitchen and cleaning cabins. As community members give of themselves wholeheartedly and joyfully to the more humble duties, they will develop those leadership qualities which will exude fruit that eventually need to be placed with the pilgrims in the conference room. Through the model of progressive servanthood these team members will be setting an example and sharing their spirit with the pilgrims in new and different servant roles. As we seek through the Holy Spirit to be able to manifest ALL of the Spirit fruit, we will likely find that each of us is able to be blessed to humbly share maybe ONE or TWO of the fruit as Christ would want us to do. I encourage each of us to continually seek after that fruit which the Lord wants us to share with others, using it to draw them into a deeper relationship with Christ. May all in the Cross Point Emmaus Community know that they are called to be servants of the Most High God, sharing their spirit fruit with others.

In the Name of the Lord,
Garmon Smith, Community Lay Director

2006 Cross Point Emmaus Board of Directors

“…(I was) in prison and you visited me….I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!” Matthew 25: 36 & 40
Kairos is the branch of the Walk to Emmaus that brings the walk into our prisons. For information:

kairosoklahoma.org

Please remember to pray for Carol Reich as the Women's Spiritual Director, Scott Spencer as the Men's Spiritual Director, and Keith Wallis and Pam Caro as the Lay Directors for Walks 65 & 66 this Spring. Team training is going well and several pilgrims are signed up for these walks but we need more!

We have posted our entire community membership list on the website. Please check it to be sure that you are on the list and that your mailing address, email address and other information is correct. We are trying to obtain and maintain a complete list so that we can keep all members of the community as informed and involved as possible. If you know a community member who doesn’t get this newsletter or whose name isn’t on the list please help us!

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