President's Message

Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Women of the ELCA

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Presidents’ Message

Greetings!

We have finally made it through another winter and this one was actually bad.  We held our three-day board meeting in Galveston , which should have been fun just being there, on the coldest weekend of the year.  In 50 years.  Well, I don’t know the actual year when Galveston had recorded such freezing temps but it was cold this year. But we are women and we do act boldly so we stayed in close to the fire and enjoyed fellowship.  We really had a productive meeting also.  We learned of the promotional campaign for the Triennial Convention and Gathering to be held in Spokane in 2011. Peg Swavely has been visiting your Cluster Events with her Coin Can.  This is a fun thing and you have all been very receptive.  You will find more information regarding the Triennial a little further in this issue.   I can, You can, Let’s go to Spokane !

  I know a lot of you heard me moaning and groaning about getting on an airplane and going to Chicago in February and I apologize for that.  I am truly a ‘white-knuckle flyer’ and flying into snow and ice is not my idea of a good time.  Anyway, as you can tell, I made it there and back just fine.  The reason for the trip was the Conference of Presidents and it is 4 days of intensive information.  We learned of some new and exciting things coming up for us from CWO.  In fact, I received a box of some of the items in time to bring to two Cluster Events, Brazos and San Jacinto .  These resources will be very helpful to us and a couple are just plain fun.  We will have a full display at the convention in September.

In March, we had a service retreat at Lutherhill camp and we sure had a great time.  If you were there, you know what I mean.  If you missed it – you really missed it.  We planted, spread, painted and scraped and went to bed tired but happy campers.  It was a great way to help our children and grandchildren experience camping and communing with God.  I don’t have to remind you that our children are our future and we want to be their influence rather than leave it to outside forces. Another WORKING service retreat is being talked about for the very near future.  I’ll keep you posted. 

Another good thing to come out of the retreat were the 66 bookmarks that I took to St. Lukes’ Episcopal Hospital along with 19 heart pillows from the convention last year.  They were very happy to receive them and you can read the letter we received in this issue.  The gifts just keep happening.  God is good!

The convention will be at Peace Lutheran, Pasadena on September 25, 2011.  The theme of “Ignite your Spirits with your Gifts” is exciting and there will be gifts galore.  Gifts come in many sizes, shapes and forms.  You don’t know what to expect but it is thrilling.  That’s how it is with Gods’ Gift of Love and the Gift of Grace.  It just keeps on keeping on.  The ladies of Peace are planning good food and a great time.  Again, expect gifts.  Keep reading for more information regarding the convention. Convention co-chairs, Peg Swavely and Mavis Greif are busy, busy.  Well, you’ll see.

And I’ll see.  You.  At Peace Lutheran Church in Pasadena on September 25 and at House of Prayer on the night before.  Then.

Love and Blessings!

Ann Nicholson