Next Meeting TUESDAY January 3!

Hi everyone - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  We are on to meet this Tuesday, January 3 2012!!!   Getting back on track, we'll be looking again at the gospel of John, focusing on Chapter 6, 22-71 - the first of several passages in John where Jesus is somewhat cryptic, but also offers some fresh ways of thinking about what it means to "believe" - Maybe not what we think.  (For some reflections on that Greek word for "believe" -- which we talked about early in the year, see a post on my blog from awhile back on this.

Meanwhile, here are some good photos of our Christmas party - plus you'll see I've included one of them as the new photo for the websit.  Enjoy!  And I hope to see you on Tuesday . (I'm making, I think, Jambalaya-- reminded by our scattergories game that that's good holiday fare!). 

Moving to Tuesdays for January -next meeting January 3.

Hi everyone --
With Monday holidays the first and third weeks in January I think the consensus is that we should move our gatherings to TUESDAY nights, at least for January - and we can figure out whether we want to stay with Tuesdays going forward.  So our next meetings will be JANUARY 3,  and JANUARY 17.

Hoping this will work for most of you and perhaps be good for some folks who haven't been able to make it on Mondays.

Watch this space for some photos of our Christmas party soon - it was really fun tonight -- my first experience of "Scattergories" -- and Christmas carols with banjo by Joe.  

Wishing you all a very Marry Christmas -- Kathy

Next meeting December 19, 2011 - Christmas Potluck and party

Hi Everyone
 Wow - this past week really sped by -- it was great to be with everyone last Monday.  I was really moved, actually, by the way that reading the story of the woman at the well as a "drama" brought the story to life.  And it felt to me as if the discussion led to some fresh insights about what an "encounter with Jesus" is all about in the Gospel of John.

We'll come back to the gospel of John at our meeting on January 2, but our NEXT meeting will be a Christmas potluck:  So far, here's who's bringingwhat;  Joe and Carolanne -main dish; Heidi - green bean casserole; Joel- bread; Cameron - fruit & cheese, Kathy -homemade Christmas cookies; Mary Beth - salad;  Ben - drinks.  If you didn't get to sign up just bring yourself and whatever you'd like to contribute in the way of food - or just bring yourself - and bring a friend.  Heidi will bring some games.  Joe & I will bring our guitars and I'll bring some carol books so we can do some Christmas singing -- perhaps with a bit of theological commentary on a couple of my favorites!

7:00 on Monday December 19 at the Johnsons -- come back if you haven't been in awhile; Come for the first time if you're new.  Feel free to be in touch with me at kathleen.staudt@gmail.com if you need directions to the Johnsons' home.

Our next meeting - December 5

Hi everyone --Hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving!   Our next meeting is Monday December 5.  The Bible study part will focus on the gospel of John, Chapter 4,  the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman. If you have a chance to look at this story ahead of time, pay attention to the "drama" of it -- who would you be, if you were in the story?  What about this woman - she's a pretty fully drawn character.  What does she find out about Jesus in the course of the conversation? What do we find out about him, watching him interact with her and the others in the story?  I'm looking forward to our convesration about this chapter -- as well as our conversations over dinner- - and hope we'll be welcoming back some of you who haven't been able to come in awhile!


Meanwhile - 3 other things to think about looking ahead

1. December 19 we said we'd have a Christmas potluck, maybe with some carol-singing and other party activities for the season.  Do plan on coming, bringing food and friends to this evening.

2.  Some of you are already signed up to help out at the Hypothermia shelter at Fairfax UMC January 29-February 1.  We'll share more information about this at dinner Monday night but you can check out he signup sheet atwww.signupgenius.com/go/fairfax8 and enter the password Winter. They also have info about needs for monetary donations, gift cards etc.   Let's think about working some of this into the "gift-giving" part of our Christmas party. 

3.  SAVE THE DATE:  We're hoping to have a retreat at Lost River Retreat Center May 11-13, 2012.  Plans are still evolving but it's important to make sure people can come -- so do mark your calendars now!

See you Monday night, I hope!

Last night's session - a chance for conversation

Hi everyone -- just to report on last night's meeting (I'm thinking it might be good to do followup posts so that people who didn't make it can know something of what's going on.  For various reasons it was just me and Natalie last night - illness, travel and moving hassles all arose on the same night.   But we hung out for most of the allotted time, anyway,  enjoying good food provided by Tom and Mary, had a good conversation on various aspects of Life, the Universe and Everything and got to know each other.  I really value this kind of one-on-one conversation and hope for more opportunities -- though of course it will also be great to have people back next time.    This does confirm one thing for me about this group, though -- it's important just to keep the door open and have it happening on the 1st and 3rd Monday nights, whoever can come.  So always come when you can, and I'll be there when I can, which should be most of the time!

Still - hoping that by next time Heidi and Kunal will be back (particularly since you're cooking, H&K), Carolanne will be further along on the mend, Cameron will be moved in, Joel & John back from travels, etc.!  

Something to think about in the meantime:  Who would be up for a retreat in the spring?  I'd be glad to lead it. We could go to Lost River, perhaps for a weekend in early May?  Need to get something on the calendar soon, so think about it. 

We'll resume our study of John next week, with the Nicodemus story and maybe the stories in Chapter 4 too -- more on this as I mull it all over over the next few weeks.  

Next meeting: November 7 -- also news about service opportunities

Hi everyone -

Our next meeting will be Monday November 7 -- we have a long lag this time because there's a "fifth Monday" in October and we don't meet -- but keep November 7 on your calendar.  The Johnsons will be cooking!  Thanks to Joel and to Nora for the food last time -- Chicken & dumplings,  and Nora's pumpkin cupcakes -yum!    Next time we'll be talking about Chapter 3 of John -- the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, where the whole question comes up about what it means to be "born again."  The posible answers may surprise us!   Chapter 3 in the commentary will be a good guide, but I expect our discussion will range far & wide.  Since you have an extra week, I encourage you to follow the reading guide in the commentary so that you read beyond this chapter and see a little more how it fits into the whole way that this gospel tells the story.  But our focus will be on 3:1-21.

The photo here is of members of our group participating in the ministry to Citygate - a program for children in Northeast DC where members of our group and the mission group from Vienna Baptist go each month to help with enrichment and support activities for grade school age children.  It's an important and satisfying ministry which we are trying to support more actively.  The next Citygate day will be November 12 -- meet at VBC at 9:00 to ride in together. We're back by 1:00.  Email Ben Wagener for more information and to sign up.

There are also opportunities to help out at the Hypothermia Shelter week at Fairfax United Methodist church in February -- we'll talk about this at our next meeting.

Looking forward to seeing you all on November 7. Please email me if you need directions to the Johnsons kathleen.staudt@gmail.com

Bible Study this Monday October 19

Hi everyone-

Here are some photos from our last meeting, when we began our conversation about the Gospel of John.   We looked at the multiple layers of meaning in this gospel -- the way that we start out knowing who Jesus is -- "the Word made Flesh" and then meet him, as a human being.   We'll be talking more this week about the human Jesus in this gospel and what we learn by reading these stories.  Our focus  (Monday October 17) will be on John 2:1-11, and on what's going on with this story of changing water into wine.  If you have the commentary, we're in chapter 2.   Think about a wedding you've attended (or planned!) recently.  What was necessary to make the event go forward smoothly?  Were there glitches?  Thinking about your own experiences of a "wedding feast" may help bring this story down to earth, even as we also look at it on a symbolic level.  There's a lot here! 

Welcome to the New blog site for 2011

Hi everyone - I'm moving our blog from the old site which was connected to my other blogs (and so was "all about me" in the profile information, to this new one that is dedicated to our group.  I think this will work a little better going forward and I'll post a forwarding link on the old blog.

We can think of last year's blog as an archive of last year's work on 1 Samuel -- I'll leave it up so you can get back to it if you're curious.  But please change the link to this one.  And also, it would be great if all could make a point of "following" this blog -- by email or RSS feed -- so that you'll know when I add updates!

We meet tomorrow, Monday 10/3, to for dinner and fellowship and to begin our study of the gospel of John.  In preparation, read the first chapter of the gospel of John, and if you have the commentary, the first chapter there.  Bring questions, puzzlements, observations.  See you soon!

KATHY