Welcome to the Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday Mailing Vol 2, Ed 18 –  

        Top Ten

Don’t compare Kyle with other BFPs (beloved former pastors)

 Remind Kyle of your name

 Don’t hide from him (he has a whole bunch of you to get to know, you have he – and his family – to get to know. . .take the initiative)

 Don’t play games with him (don’t expect that he knows you have a need or want to talk or are in the hospital – last I checked he is not a psychic)

 Celebrate the new & unique gifts he brings (YES!)

 Don’t . . .  

Welcome to the Thursday Mailing Vol 2, Ed 18 –    End of a Run Edition

 wow. . .it has taken me all week to actually write this. I was going to be cute and creative with the above, and then just ran out of steam. This is usually the sign I recognize when I have come to the end of something. . .as I have with you. So, bear with me as I take a moment of personal privilege. 

Thank you to Nancy Messersmith, who chaired the IPNC. You were relentless, tenacious and dogged in getting me up here. . .and I am ever grateful that you did. It was an excellent IPNC, who didn’t sugarcoat anything about HUPC. Thanks for sharing with me in this calling. Thank you to the Hasselbarths for taking me to dinner the night I learned of my brother’s death. It was a simple act, that meant so much. Thank you to the congregation and the PW for the Christmas gifts. As I have told many, this is the first church I have served which gave me a financial Christmas gift. . .even when I had only been here three weeks. Such grace you all bestow.

Thank you to Mark Hutchinson and Liz O’Neill for the, well, I would say assistance with Pandemic times worship, but really, they both saved my skin this last year. What a wondrous use of the gifts God gave them. A huge thanks to those who participated in Office Hours over my time here. We have solved all the problems of the world during those times  . . . or at least lightened the burdens we have shared.  Thank you to all who came to me asking for prayer, advice, direction or to challenge something I have said. Those have truly been times of grace for us all. Thank you to Steve Smith for heading up worship, and agreeing to just about every crazy idea I had for worship. And to Laura Smith, for always calling folks together for a meal, just when we needed it.

Thank you to the multiple Sessions and Boards of Deacons who have set about the task of caring for and guiding the church. By your acceptance of your calling, you demonstrate a true love not only for this community, but for the world. Thanks, as well, to the PNC for dedicated and faithful work in calling Rev. Kyle Delhagen to be the next “called and installed” pastor of HUPC. Get ready, because I have a suspicion things are really going to start moving! Thank you, Ann Duncan. . .your willingness to jump in and try new things. . .to learn new things, and to serve this congregation with loving kindness has been a great joy. As you prepare to retire, may you do so knowing you served this church well.

For those I have not mentioned by name, I see you, and I know you. . .and I rejoice in your  place in this congregation and all that you give so that the youngest to the (cough, cough) oldest knows the welcome of Christ in this place.

As for me, it is time for another adventure. I am being called, if the way be clear, (which is Presbyterian speak for we plan on this, but there are minor hoops still ahead) to serve as the Interim/Transitional Pastor for First Presbyterian Church, Brunswick, Georgia. There are some specifics about the church which have lead the search committee and me to see that I am, in some ways, uniquely skilled to work with this congregation. Phone and gmail will remain the same, and I will let you know of an address when I have a place to land. Yes, not far from the beaches of St Simon’s and Jeckell Island. . .trading in the snow for sand! Score! And I will try not to giggle too much when they complain that it has gotten down to. . . 59 degrees!

I have procrastinated with this Mailing this week, because it means I am going away. And the relationship we have had. . .pastor and parishioner will go away. And that is going to be an adventure for us both. I will miss you greatly. Truly, you have helped to heal me during this time. . .mostly by being you, and you didn’t even know it. Isn’t that the way love in the name of Christ works. . .most often without us knowing what we did outside of love, love, love.

Blessings on you all. . .and in all that lies ahead for each of us.

(no longer your Pastor) Janice