A Charge Realignment

Tomorrow is the big day! On Sunday July 1, 2007 the Palmyra/Mt. Vernon and Monroe City Charges will be realigned.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the lingo of the United Methodist Church (UMC):
A charge is the ministry setting (e.g., a church, a circuit of churches, a service agency, a mission organizaion) where a pastor is appointed to serve.
Alignment is how that ministry setting is configured/set-up.

In June 2004, Rebecca was appointed to the Palmyra/Mt. Vernon Charge, and I was appointed to the Monroe City Charge. During the past three years, Rebecca has been the pastor of the Palmyra and Mt. Vernon UMC's. I have been the pastor of the Monroe City UMC, and have supervised a lay minister who preaches at Florida UMC.

With the realignment of these charges, Rebecca will become the pastor of Palmyra UMC only. I, on the other hand, will become the pastor of Mt. Vernon UMC, and will continue with my same duties at Monroe City and Florida. In other words, instead of preaching at two churches each Sunday, Rebecca will only be preaching at one. And for me, instead of preaching at only one church, I will now be preaching at two churches every Sunday. Since we are a husband-and-wife clergy couple, you could say that this charge realignment is "all in the family".

Charge realignments like this are made to ensure the best possible pastoral support for each congregation. As communities and congregations change, adjustments and realignments are made accordingly.

Please pray for us as we begin this new chapter in our ministry.

Double Take!

When my father (Lloyd Peak of Vista, California) looked at the pictures of Rebecca wearing her bone-growth stimulator, he said it looked like she was wearing a cat! I didn't believe it at first, but Rebecca picked it up immediately. So, here's what to do. Go back and look at the picture at my Saturday, June 16, 2007 entry. Look carefully at the power box that connects the tubes in Rebecca's bone-growth stimulator. Do you see two eyes, a nose, and a mouth? And then do you see ears of a sort, coming out of the cat's "head"? You may have to use your imagination a little bit, but if you do see a cat, be sure to leave a comment indicating so!

Bone-Growth Stimulator

Look at this picture of Rebecca. She is wearing the latest fashion statement. A totally cool necklace with big pendant in front. Everybody who's anybody will want to wear one too!

Actually, Rebecca is wearing a bone-growth stimulator. This device delivers an electro-magnetic pulse which "encourages" the bones in her neck to knit together properly. Rebecca wears the bone-growth stimulator four hours every day. She will be using it for a total of three months. Despite how it may look, it doesn't give Rebecca much discomfort. It does, however, create some static which can be picked up by the radio, cordless phone, cell phone, etc.

Here's the view from the back.

And finally, here's the view from Rebecca's right side. We won't include a picture from the left side, since it doesn't look much different!

"So here I am, four hours every day for the next three months. Fortunately I don't have to be confined to my chair while wearing the bone-growth stimulator. I can get up, walk around, even go for a ride in the car. So I think I'll survive!"

TELEGRAM 8 JUNE 2007

As a prelude to this message, let me make something clear. I realize that "netiquette" specifies that typing in ALL CAPS amounts to SHOUTING. However, ALL CAPS means something completely different for an "ole time" telegram. In the early days of Morse Code, there was no way of distinguishing between upper- and lowercase letters. As a result, ALL telegrams were printed in ALL CAPS. In no way was it considered shouting. That's all that the technology of the time allowed. So with that in mind...


TELEGRAM 8 JUNE 2007

RETURNED FROM ANNUAL CONFERENCE STOP LIFE IS BUSY STOP TAKING CARE OF REBECCA STOP CHANGES COMING UP AT CHURCH STOP WILL WRITE MORE LATER STOP LOVE CLAYTON END