St. Mark's News & Events for July 15, 2007

Greetings to all of you!

First of all, even though it’s July and vacation season is in full swing, we continue to be busy planning for events that will be held at St. Mark for the year and years to come. The Church Steering Committee and subcommittees will also be meeting in July to discuss their respective concerns. Vacation Bible School will be held at the end of the month and that committee has been planning a great week of activities. We are also planning fund raising events in the fall and spring so continue to watch your bulletin and the website for details. It’s going to be an exciting year!

We are also happy to introduce Mr. Luther Ferris who is our new Liturgical Coordinator! Luther and Sandra Ferris have been members of St. Mark since 1999. They have two children, Dominick (15) and Alexavier who was born this past March 2007. Luther was a former seminarian studying at the North American College in Rome, Italy over twenty years ago and then decided that God was not calling him to the Priesthood and eventually left the seminary. Yet, he continued to feel the call to service and what better way to serve God than to work for him in the Church as a lay staff member! We welcome Luther to St. Mark and I hope that all of you will be able to meet him and give him a warm embrace. Keep him also in your prayers as he begins this challenging assignment.

I won’t be seeing you this week as I will be on vacation. The parish will be in the capable hands of Fr. Isaac and of course our great and hardworking staff.

Well, that is all for now. Continue to enjoy the gift that God has given us in each other.

Peace,
Fr. David

St. Mark's News & Events for July 8, 2007

Greetings to all of you!

As promised, this week is the final chapter of my golfing adventure you have been reading about for the last few weeks. I feel like J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, trying to keep the ending a secret. Hordes of fans have tried to bribe me with all sorts of money, power, and vacations to find out the ending. But I have kept up my resistance and have won the race! I just wish the ending were as exciting as I’m sure the Potter book will be. As the crowds carried me to the ninth hole, the only hole of the shootout, two other mean looking teams awaited us. We stared each other down and I pulled my driver out of the bag just taunting them to dare and beat us. I stepped to the tee, my knees were shaking like an earthquake was about to hit. I was determined not to hit the ball in the water. I took a massive swing and the ball went high in the air, not really that far out, but it was dry nonetheless. My partner hit a massive drive but unfortunately the ball didn’t turn left enough and the ball ended up in the watery grave. At this point, I was a long, long, way to the green and I felt I needed to at least get near it to have any chance of winning. The pressure was enormous with the thousands of spectators cheering from the sidelines just waiting for a spectacular Tiger Woods shot. My partner pleaded with me to play very short of the hole and hit it on in three. I would have no part of that! After all we had been through, I was not about to play like a scared rabbit. I can only compare the feeling to that of Kevin Costner in the movie Tin Cup going for the green despite all the odds against it. So with my blood pumping and the vision of being a hero going through my mind, I went for the green! There’s an old saying that states “only fools go where heroes fear to dwell” and unfortunately I didn’t have that quote in my mind as I took a huge swing at the ball. Just like Kevin Costner in the movie, I pumped my ball in the water and to make matters worse, I took another massive swing and pumped that one in the water too. A huge groan went out from the crowed and our chances for first place went out the door too. However, we did get third place out of 60 or so teams and it made my weekend one of the most exciting and nerve wracking events in some time. All I can say is “we’ll get ‘em next year!”

Well, that is all for now, continue to enjoy the gift that God has given us in each other.

Peace, Fr. David

St. Mark's News & Events for July 1, 2007

Greetings to all of you!

As you may have read last week, my first hole in the semi-finals turned out disastrous but I had two more holes left to salvage a decent showing. Well, as the golf gods would have it, another team decided to pump three balls out of bounds on the next hole and all of a sudden our team was back in it in second place with one whole to go! As we stood on the tee for the final hole, five shots down, the first place team decided to pump three of their own balls out of bounds! Suddenly, after the hole was finished, we were tied with them to decide who would advance to the final shootout! The officials decided to have a “chip off” to declare the winner, and again, I was the first one to hit. The chip was about 30 yards with all sorts of groves, hills, and even mountains between me and the hole. (Ok, the mountains might be pushing it). Anyway, realizing my partner couldn’t chip his way out of a paper bag, a mountain of pressure began to settle on my poor shoulders. Thus, after surveying the contour of the land and the roll of the green, I stepped up and knocked it two feet away and no one else even got close! WE WON the semi-final round and we were now heading for the final shootout against two other teams!! The crowed went wild and I was carried on the other golfer’s shoulders to the 9th hole where the ultimate winners would be crowned. Next week I will tell you what happened so stay tuned!

Well, that is all for now.
Continue to enjoy the gift that God has given us in each other.

Peace,
Fr. David