During these days of social isolation when the congregation is not together on Sunday morning or Wednesday evening, one of the things that I have missed is the opportunity to catch up for a few minutes with various members of the congregation. So often when we were all together, we could interface with others, asking questions such as “how are you doing, what’s new, how is your garden this year, how is your daughter and family in Texas, how’s your mom doing in her new home, how is school going with the kids, when is your baby due, are you still hiking some on the Appalachian Trail, have you been canoeing lately, how is the rehabilitation going for your new hip/knee, how are your French/piano/painting lessons going, etc.” We enjoyed these opportunities to spend a few moments with FPC folks briefly catching up. Of course, those FPC members that we were already very close to (our closest friends), we typically already knew the details. But at church, it was great to be able to interface with the larger FPC membership, as of course we are interested in their lives too. At church, I always cherished the few minutes with the larger FPC membership folks catching up with what others are doing, facing, planning, etc., both joys and challenges. Now with our social distancing, I miss this opportunity to catch up.
As a solution until our congregation is fully back together, I’m wondering if we could engage members to share a few bits of information with others in the congregation. Perhaps a few sentences, a brief overview of the types of answers someone would provide to the above questions. To me, I’d be interested in a brief few sentences or bullet points of what FPC members consider as information that the larger FPC family would want to know about them. Perhaps each week, a few members could provide an update to share in the weekly newsletter.
For example, Mary Beth and I are spending lots of time on home projects, enjoying working in the flower garden, cleaning everywhere, baking and cooking new foods, sewing (for Mary Beth), daily German lessons (online), reading, and lots of walking in the neighborhood. Also we are enjoying nightly story reading to our granddaughter in Seattle (video, via FaceTime), and similarly daily FaceTime chats with our 9-month old grandson in Colorado.
Gary Hallen
NOTE: Please send information to Kim at kalvis@firstpreskingsport.org