I have blogged about this before but just to preface...at Church each member is asked to serve in some capacity. We call these callings. Until Sunday, April 28, 2013, I was teaching Institute every Thursday evening to Young Single Adults age 18-30. I also played the organ for Church services. I also cover a four hour shift at the Family History Center every 1st, 3rd & 5th Tuesdays with my hubby. I visit teach 4 sisters. And, finally, I play the organ for Stake Conference twice a year.
Sunday, April 21, 2013 we were told there would be a special meeting at 6pm that evening at the Lexington North Stake Center to tell us about the boundary changes within our Stake. These changes would affect the Georgetown Ward (congregation) which Claude and I reside in as well as the Beaumont Ward and the Pioneer Ward in Lexington.
Sunday, April 21st, I went to my father's apartment after the meetings were finished to pick our songs to sing at the nursing home. While visiting with him I received a call on my cell phone. It was the Executive Secretary. He said the Bishop wanted to visit with Claude and me after the 6pm meeting. Yike!! That could only spell change.
I eMailed Claude so he would be aware since he was in Owingsville. He eMailed back that he would meet me at the Stake Center.
In the meeting we were told that all the members with a Lexington mailing address and currently in the Georgetown Ward would now be in the Beaumont Ward. There was only one family in the Pioneer Ward that would now be in the Beaumont Ward. This was really not a huge surprise to anyone. We have known that the Georgetown congregation was getting way to large for the building. We also knew that when they formed the Georgetown Ward from the Georgetown Branch they did this by adding to the Georgetown Ward those members residing the Masterson Station section of Lexington. It always only seemed logical when a boundary change came that this would be the most likely boundary to move.
After the meeting and after the Bishop met with all other members about their new callings, he met with Claude and me last. Bless his heart he set up the appointments with parents with children being first so they could get kids home and saved those us without children to visit with him last. Claude predicted what it would be about accurately. I was being called to serve as the Primary president. Primary is the auxillary for the children 18 months to 12 years of age. We have about 70 children in our new boundaries. I have not served in Primary for many, many years. This would be a big change for me. I would be released from the callings of teaching Institute and playing the organ for Church and stake conference.
Sunday, April the 28th, the two ladies I requested to serve as my counselors had been called and accepted their callings. They are Amber Marcum as 1st counselor and Amy Coyne as 2nd Counselor. I also asked to retain the secretary, Jamie Lott, who served with the previous presidency. After one is called and accepts that calling, the congregation is given the opportunity to sustain them in Sacrament Meeting. That happened Sunday, April 28th. Then after all Church services were over the Bishopric gave each of us a blessing to help us with our callings. The Bishop gave me my blessing and my husband stood in the circle.
These blessings are a tender part of membership in the Church. As the Bishop was giving me my blessing I was thinking, I so want to remember these words and I wish I had a pen to write them down. Then I just tried to concentrate so I could remember them. I was so very happy when all our blessings were given and we were leaving the room and I was handed a pieces of paper with notes on them. Amber Marcum had quietly written down brief notes about what was said in each of our blessings and gave them to us. I have typed these notes and added them to my journal.
The previous Thursday, April 25th I went to Melanie Danielson's home. She was the previous Primary president. She gave me her materials and told me many of the things she did. This was a huge help.
Monday, April 29th I took Papa to Dr. Slabaugh's office in the morning for a check-up which went very well. After I dropped him back at his apartment, I headed over to the Church to clean the Primary closets. They had been using the chapel for the opening exercises for Junior and Senior Primary since they had way too many children to use the Primary room. They had things in a file cabinet behind the choir seats in the chapel that needed to be put back in the Primary closets in the real Primary room. I set to work cleaning at 11am and finished all I could do at 6:30pm. I didn't expect it to take that long but it did. It felt good to have all things in some type of order for us. I told my presidency we would just use it as it is and after a while, when we know our needs better, we could rearrange to better meet those needs.
That week we wanted to have a presidency meeting but the reality of the situation was Jamie and I were both leaving town for the weekend on separate trips to Michigan and would be gone from Wednesday through Sunday. My direction was to have each of the new counselors meet with each of their counterparts from the previous presidency for an orientation. Then we set Monday, May 6th, for our first presidency meeting.
The next wrinkle came on Sunday, May 5th, during Stake Conference. Our Stake President took a position as Dean at Utah Valley University. He was released and our Bishop, James Jenkins was called as the new Stake President. This was a major change. It meant that while trying to restaff lots of positions in our newly reboundaried (I made that word up) ward, we would be working with a Bishop that was also the Stake President and he would be working on getting a new bishopric in place. So many things to work with and around.
This last Monday, May 6th, we had our first presidency meeting. We began the process of restaffing and combining a few classes. We determined what areas each of us would cover in the Primary program. eMail's have flown.
Tomorrow will be the first Sunday to have Primary all on our own. It should be an interesting day. We're moving back into the Primary room. I'm full of angst about how it will go. I'm trying to stay calm and prepare myself to be flexible and look for positive solutions. Lots of prayers and thought so that I'm receptive to the Spirit as it directs us how to handle and deal with each little thing that comes up tomorrow.
So we have a Primary change in place and lots to learn for an old girl!!
No comments:
Post a Comment