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The 2005 'Seniors Celebration'
is now history. We were well represented by seniors from
congregations all around the central Missouri area. There were 85
seniors who attended the event from Columbia (2 congregations), Moberly,
California, Belle (Liberty congregation), Iberia, Scrivner,
Hermitage/Strafford/Springfield area, and Jefferson City. I don't
think I missed any congregations, but I apologize if I did.
In addition, we were blessed with assistance from members of our
congregation who are not seniors--yet (Larry Murphy, Cathy Polly, Becky
Flessa), our Youth Minister, Carey Terry, and his hardworking crew of
young people (Stormy Flessa, Elizabeth Polly, Sarah and Paul Rehagen,
Derek Devore, and Zach Wankum). They were all great in their
support of this event, and we love and appreciate them so very much for
being that way. We also thank all of you who provided desserts for
the luncheon (sorry, I don't have your names).
We thank those of you who took down names of seniors who contacted the
church office to sign up to attend the event (Brent, Donna, Brenda,
Bonnie, Carey Terry). For planning purposes, we needed for that
information to be as accurate as possible, and you did a great job.
We also thank you for the job you did in getting the message across in
both the announcements and the bulletin.
We thank ole Don Smith for his invaluable assistance in getting the
building set up for the meeting, etc., and we thank the seniors, here
locally who remained after the event and helped clean up and put
everything back into place. Sue Bowman (I refer to her as our
sergeant), always (every year), does a good job of directing the group
in getting the chairs, tables, etc., back in the right place before
Sunday services.
We thank both Jack West and Charlie Bowman for their roles as
photographers. And we thank Charlie, the 'Seniors Program's'
sponsoring elder, and Larry Kopfer, elder, and their wives, for
attending the event, and for their active roles in the program.
And, if you ever need a program moderator, there's none better than
Larry Murphy, even though he's not a senior yet. Also, the book
marks he made for the group to take home with them in memory of the
event were so nice.
The food and drink for both the get acquainted mixer and the luncheon
was great and inexpensive. For the luncheon, the following was
served, in addition to several choices for drinks, pork loin, fried
chicken strips, vegetables, slaw, rolls, and several choices of
dessert--I probably missed something. All for a cost of around $4
per person. The food was wonderful! And, with the help of
the volunteers, the planning and serving of the food went so very well.
Certainly we don't want to forget to mention our guest speaker, Wayne
Wheeler, and his wife Joy. We thank them so much for coming all
the way to Jefferson City from Kimberling City to add their support to
the event. In his presentation, Wayne did a wonderful job of
building up the group, both with his humor and with his serious and
timely message. He also did a real good job of getting one over on
Charlie Bowman, but I'll let Charlie tell you about that.
Also, Frank Stephens did a great job in sharing information with the
group concerning the Dix Road building project. His presentation
spurned a lot of interest from the group regarding the project.
Thanks to Frank for a job well done!
The planning committee (Sue Benthall, Elaine and Gary Colvin, Donna and
Larry Murphy, and Diane and Carl Olson) what can I say? What a
wonderful group of people. They spent hours planning and working
on the 'Seniors Celebration.' In looking at the receipts, it seems
the Olsons traveled all over the state of Missouri shopping for food,
decorations, etc. I feel sure that those of you who witnessed the
singing and prayers, ate the food, heard the message, and participated
in the activities, will agree with me the planning committee did good.
But most of all we thank those of you (seniors) who came and supported
the 'Seniors Celebration.' Without your support, all would have
been for naught. Your singing was beautiful. I've never been
a part of any song service that affected me more than this one did.
Those of you who led songs did a great job of keeping the group together
as we lifted up our voices in praise to God. You people can sing!
And, about the activities in which the group participated under the
direction of Sue Benthall and Donna Murphy (for the purpose of helping
the group to become better acquainted with each other and to help them
see how important the little things in life can be), beforehand, I was
concerned these activities might not be of much interest, but I thought
wrong, I've never
seen a group, as a whole, take hold of such activities and play them so
very well and with so much enthusiasm. You were a great group, and
I thank you for being that way!
On this great day, I think I can rightfully say, that everybody left the
building with joy in their hearts--and that's what we wanted to happen.
Thanks to everybody!
Tom |
