Vol. III, # 10, Oct. 15, 2004

Prayer Rounds

Charlotte and Bill Lose Their Son-in-law

Craig Spitzer, husband to Helen Simpson Spitzer, died this past Tuesday. This young man had experienced a troubled life that ended at an early age. We will remember Charlotte, Bill, Helen and members of the Spitzer family in our prayers. The obituary that appeared in the Richmond Times Dispatch is below:

Craig Edgar Spitzer, age 29, passed away on October 12, 2004. He is survived by his wife, Helen S. Spitzer, to whom he was married five years. His parents are Leila B. and Kirk E. Spitzer of Richmond, Va. He also leaves his sister, Kathleen L. Spitzer of Richmond; and his brother, Brett B. Spitzer and wife, Anna, who reside in Indianapolis, Ind. His mother and father-in-law are Charlotte and Bill Simpson, also of Richmond. Craig was born in Mission, Kansas and had resided permanently in Richmond since 1993. He graduated from Rocky Mountain Academy in Bonners Ferry, Idaho in June of 1993. Craig will be remembered for his keen sense of humor, his spirit and love of others, and particularly, his love of his pets and other animals. The family will receive friends on Friday, October 15, at Parham Chapel, Woody Funeral Home, 1771 Parham Road, from 6 to 8 p.m. Funeral services and burial will be held in the Mausoleum at Westhampton Cemetery on 10000 Patterson Avenue on Saturday, October 16, beginning at 1:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation in Craig's name to the Richmond SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), 2519 Hermitage Road.

Rick Mears Is a Fighter. Linda wrote:

Dear Henry,
I think Rick has had another TIA. He said he had a really bad headache the other night and when he woke up we noticed his left eyelid drooping. Other than that, all is going pretty well. Thanks for your continued prayers. Linda

Dear Henry, Rick is back in the hospital. I took him to the ER yesterday with a TIA, and he had another one about midnight last night. They have him on a Heparin IV trying to get his levels where they want them, but one time they are too high, and the next time they are too low. I will update you with any new developments as I get them. Thank you for your continued prayers. Love, Linda

Dear Henry, They let Rick come home from the hospital:) He is really weak, but doing well. They tweaked his medicines a little, and are hoping that the new combinations will be more helpful to him. Thank you for your prayers. Love, Linda

Julia Shepherd Left Us A Year Ago

Julia Shepherd completed her life's journey a year ago on October 22, 2003. The flowers in the narthex Sunday morning will be given in memory of our late friend, Julia Jett Shepherd, by the Shepherd-Simpson Bible Study Class. Remember Teacher Bob and his adult children and grandchildren during this time of remembrance.

Remember in your prayers: Charlotte and Bill Simpson, Helen Spitzer and the Spitzer family, Rick and Linda Mears, Teacher Bob Shepherd and his family, Harry and Peggy Boutchyard, Retta Gray and Alex Sherman, Jacqueline Elizabeth Butcher (Anne and Rob James' newborn granddaughter), Donald and Barbara Deer, Audrey Thomson's sister Sharon Ruben and Sharon's family, Jared Oliver, Julia Tyler and her parents, Mary and Julian Pentecost, Kay and Bob Culpepper, John and Margaret Oliver, Mike and Vivian Clingenpeel, the Church staff, our military and civilians in harm's way, and those only known to you.

Several weeks ago we learned that Lauren Brown's horse, Tyler, was seriously ill. He has improved and attached to this PHA is a recent photo of Lauren and Tyler.

Trunk or Treat Set for Friday, October 29

Regardless of age, plan to participate in "Trunk or Treat."

Reverend Barbara explains the details:

This event is scheduled for Friday evening, Oct. 29, 7:00-8:30 PM and promises to be tons of fun! But we need the participation of adults to make this a fun event for children and their families. The planning committee is at work and we think it will be such a fun event.

One of the activities we plan to do with the children is to go "trunk or treating." In order to do this, we need ADULTS who will come that night, bring your car and park it in the back parking lot, have candy and other Halloween/fall treats in the trunk of your car. Adults will open the trunk of their cars and be available as the children go from car to car "trunk or treating" to collect Halloween goodies! Of course, for this to be fun, we need cars/trunks with treats.

In addition to "trunk or treating" we will have a Moon Bounce, bobbing for apples, pumpkin painting, costume parade, ghoulish games and treats, and collecting of food for the Food Bank.

I am sending a "sign-up" sheet to each adult SS class this Sunday in hopes of getting volunteers to come and be a part of this fun event. Any help you can give us will be appreciated.

The planning team for this--Barbara Massey, Marguerite Bostic, Theresa Price, Susan Vaughan--says thanks in advance!

Barbara

PH: One can never know what folks might put in their trunks for this event. This is the kind of event that Tonto the Tarantula might want to be a participant. Tonto is now at least thirteen years old. This is his time of year. In the past he has made Halloween season visits to River Road Preschool, Maybeury Elementary School, Tuckahoe Elementary School and St. Christopher's Lower School. This year his visiting schedule will include Lakeside Elementary School. He wanted to ask a question at the second presidential debate but was denied admission because he has eight legs. He has no wings and no one could determine whether he was a right winger or a left winger. His question would have been, "Do you support capital punishment for female tarantulas who kill male tarantulas after an act of passion and procreation?"

Possible Answers:

Bush: "Being President is hard work and I support the death penalty."

Kerry: "I support a female tarantula's right to choose."

The SSBSC Fall Social Is Tomorrow Night

When: Saturday Evening, October 16, tomorrow night
Time: 6 PM: Talk and Liquid Refreshment, 7 PM Dinner
Where: The home of Carolyn and George Thomas
12211 Iron Forge Drive (South of the James River)
Midlothian, VA 23113 Telephone: 267-1774

Various Routes to Find the Thomas Home Are Below:

Directions from Huguenot and River Road:

From River Road Shopping Center, cross the Huguenot Bridge and go 0.4 miles from the south end of the bridge, past Spring Creek Drive and turn right onto Cherokee Road. There is no traffic light here, but it is the first cross street after the bridge. Follow Cherokee 3.2 miles until it you reach a stop sign at Old Gun Rd. East. Turn right on Old Gun and continue to follow it 1.2 miles along the river and then in a sharp left turn away from the river and up hill. You are now on old Gun Road West. Turn right onto Iron Forge Drive and into the subdivision (Clarke’s Forge). The entrance is well marked with a stone and stucco sign. The Thomas home is the third house on the left. Driving time is 10-15 minutes, depending on bikes, joggers, deer and police officers.

Directions from Huguenot and Robious Rd:

Go west on Robious Rd. At the second light turn right onto Old Gun Rd. West. Go about 1.7 Miles and turn left onto Iron Forge Dr. (the first public road on the left). The Thomas home is the third house on the left. Driving time is about 5 minutes unless you turned at the first light.

Directions from Huguenot and Chippenham:

Dealer's choice. Either go north and turn left on to Cherokee and follow directions from Cherokee or go south and follow directions from Robious. Cherokee is prettier; Robious is safer.

The Stewardship Campaign Is Underway

This constitutes PH's third plug for the Stewardship Campaign.

From the Sermon on the Mount:

"Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. For your heart will always be where your riches are."

PH: Hopefully, our hearts are invested in RRCB and its mission. Consecration/Committment Sunday is October 24 with a free lunch to follow.

The October ISH Campaign Is Also Underway

The October ISH Diapers/Warm Coats Campaign is moving along, thanks to Charlotte and Bill. Shopping is good at Target, Good Will and Fantastic Thrift. Ask Charlotte or Bill about what is needed and be on your way to shop til you drop.

SSBSC Photo Opportunity Approaching

On Sunday, October 24 at 10:35 AM, the official 2004 SSBSC photograph will be taken outside our outer door. Choir members are expected to be in this photo. Teacher Bob will be aware of the time. Miller Alvis will get the door open. All members are to wear your best twenty-nine year old clothes.

Teacher Bob Is on a Roll or Is That a Scroll?

Last Sunday, believe it or not, Teacher Bob completed chapter three of I Samuel. This was over twenty-one verses and may be a record in modern SSBSC history (twenty-first century). Members, you better start reading or at this pace you could get behind and never catch up.

Shepsons Sheila and Roberta Are Twenty-nine Today

Curt Linderman Is Twenty-nine on Next Wednesday

Nancy and George Werner Will Celebrate Thirty-four Years of Marriage on this Sunday

Christopher Reeve and Luke's Samaritan Leper

Last Sunday PH heard a meaningful sermon from Pastor Mike. Mike's main text was Luke 17: 11-19. The story relates how Jesus healed ten lepers, sent them to the priest in accordance with the law in order to be declared ritually clean and only one of the lepers returned to Jesus to praise God and thank Jesus. This leper was the Samaritan. This grateful and healed leper had a new vision.

In May 1995, Christopher Reeve, Hollywood's chosen Superman, fell from a horse in a horse show in Culpeper, Virginia. He instantly became a quadriplegic, dependent on a ventilator to support his life. Apparently he had a new vision. His vision was one of a possible cure for his condition and to communicate hope to thousands of others who had experienced spinal cord injuries. He had many critics among the disabled who felt he was in denial and was not accepting reality. However, over time his new vision began to stir the hearts of others, including the scientific community. Earlier this week Christopher Reeve died of heart disease. His life was a little like the leper's in Luke. He seemed to see a new vision and made a difference over the next nine years of his life.

In last week's sermon Pastor Mike mentioned another man who saw a new vision. His name was Sadan. Some of Pastor Mike's words of last Sunday were:

"Last year, Dr. Paul Brand, an orthopedic surgeon, died at the age of 89. He lived a remarkable life. He was a child of missionaries in India. After being educated in London, where he met his wife Margaret, Dr. Brand and his wife, also a physician, moved back to India where they opened a clinic to treat people who had Hansen’s disease; that bacterial infection known more commonly as leprosy. Before Brand, it had commonly been assumed that sufferers of Hansen’s disease lost their hands or feet because of rotting flesh. But Brand discovered that the deformities instead were due to a deeper problem; the inability to experience pain. He pioneered numerous surgical techniques, particularly on the human hand, that allowed Hansen’s sufferers to live indefinitely without deformities.

In 1965, Dr. Brand moved to the United States to the state of Louisiana where he became the head of the Public Health Service's National Hanson’s Disease Center. It was there that a young man named Philip Yancey went and met with the doctor. Yancey was writing an article for Christianity Today magazine and this profound encounter led Yancey to uncover and publish some of the writings of Dr. Paul Brand on the relationship between pain and suffering and God.

Late in Brand’s life, he returned to his native India accompanied by Yancey. On the trip, Yancey met some of the patients that Dr. Brand and his wife had treated. One was a man named Sadan. Sadan had contracted leprosy early in his life and his feet had suffered severe deformities as a result. He described for Yancey the rejection he experienced from the disease. School classmates laughed at him. When he tried to board a bus, he was rebuffed. Employers refused to higher him. Hospitals turned him away because they did not treat people with leprosy.

Sadan found his way to the Christian Medical College where Dr. and Mrs. Brand worked. When he had no place to stay, the Brand’s invited him into their home to spend the night on the veranda, and there Dr. Brand asked to see Sadan’s feet. It was a remarkable moment, because Sadan said that no one had ever touched him. In that moment, Dr. Brand reached over and took his infected, bleeding feet in his hands and examined him. For the first time in his life, he said, he was seen not with the eyes of prejudice and fear, but with the eyes of compassion.

Each of us needs to recognize that Jesus saw people, not through the eyes of prejudice and fear, but through the eyes of compassion. He did not just spot them. He saw them. Jesus always identified an encounter with another human being as an opportunity to show compassion

Sadan, according to the story in Philip Yancey’s book, Soul Survivor, was seated with Yancey drinking tea, describing his disease, and he makes this arresting statement, "Despite all of my rejection," he says, "I am happy I had the disease. Apart from leprosy, I would have been a normal man with a normal family, chasing wealth and a higher position in society. I would never have known such wonderful people as Dr. Paul and Dr. Margaret and I would never have known the God who lives in them."

The man wearing the green cloak in the stained glass window cannot speak to us, but if he could, might he say, "I am glad I had this disease. Apart from this disease, I would have been a normal man chasing wealth and position and I would never have known Jesus, the One in whom dwells the fullness of God?" Whatever your particular struggle, look for the graces of life. Receive them as God's gift with gratitude."

PH: Perhaps Christopher Reeve would have lived a normal life as Superman if he had not experienced the spinal cord injury. As a result of his injury Reeve may have seen a new vision and he did make a difference.

Pastor Mike's Benediction on October 3, 2004,:

Go from worship to the world;
   Serve the Lord;
   Listen for God's voice;
   Practice patience;
   Be sensitive to the suffering of others;
   Pray every day;
   Have courage;
   Resist evil;
   Do what is right;
   Live with hope;
   Keep the faith;
   Because you are being redeemed.
          Amen

PH

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