Greetings
from Pastor Nina

Life Skills Series Continues

 

Pastoral Search Update

 Groups, Committees & Events

Our Friend John

Combine the spiritual gifts of faith and service with talents in and love of music and visual décor, and you find the ways John Stapleton shared himself with our congregation as a whole.  His dramatically elegant silk flower arrangements and Advent and Pentecost décor will contribute to our worship for years to come.
 
The sparkle in his eye as he told stories of his life (like playing the theater organ at the Paramount,) greeted friends (young and old), listened to vocal and organ music, created flower arrangements or liturgical décor that was the sure sign that John was fully engaged, in love with life.
 
And loving life was a triumph, because much of life was hard for John.  Born and raised in Georgia, he was the first male singer in an all female chorus club, first male cheerleader in his high school, and came out to his family at 16.  His father asked him to leave and "sent him to a shrink to get him to change".  John described joining the army to get away from his father as a "bad idea"-not hard to imagine for a young gay man in Korea in 1958-60.
 
John moved to San Francisco, where he worked as a hospital orderly and florist at different times.  Eventually he moved to Las Vegas and then Tacoma by the late 1980s.  There he finally found a church that welcomed him, and once again he was able to live his faith in community.  His pride at having been ordained a deacon in that MCC congregation expressed his deep sense of "coming home".
 
John knew he was HIV positive since 1991, and believed he contracted the virus years before that.  He was active in service to children with AIDS and as a speaker about AIDS.  In 1999 he was diagnosed with AIDS and soon decided that he needed to move from Tacoma to Seattle to find the medical care and other services he needed.  He went through a number of treatment regimes and health crises (including more than one heart attack, a serious medication error, and a few different bouts of pneumonia).
 
He joined First Christian Church and became a regular at the midweek Jazz service as well as on Sundays.  In late 2000, a second First Christian team was trained by Multifaith AIDS (now Multifaith Works) and John became their Care Partner.  A couple of years later he moved briefly to Port Townsend.  On returning he participated at All Pilgrims for a time, then found his calling at First Baptist for several years.  In late 2006 he became Care Partner to an APCC Care Team.  Over the years he also had a Shanti volunteer through Multifaith Works.  In the past two years he returned to All Pilgrims, formally rejoining on June 21, 2009. 
 
After a final struggle with pneumonia, during which we thought for awhile that he was about to amaze us again by bouncing back once more, John entered hospice care and passed away a few days later.  John is survived by many friends and his church families, who cherish his memory and give thanks for his time among us.  He enjoyed the thought of flowers at his memorial and of those flowers going home with friends.  Any other remembrances should go to Multifaith Works, Lifelong AIDS Alliance, All Pilgrims or Seattle First Baptist.

 Finance Committee Report

September 30th marked the half way point in All Pilgrim's financial year, so it is a good time to report on how we are doing financially.  We don't have a financial report yet through September, but I can tell you how we have done through August.

 

Most important to us as members are those revenue sources and expenses within our control.  In other words, "How have we done so far, meeting the goals we set for ourselves in the year's budget?"  The answer is, "Not bad, but we could do a bit better."  Our annual giving goal, the sum of all of our financial commitments to the church is $110,000 for the year.  Through August, our contributions should have totaled $45,833 and we had actually given $41,175, 90% of that goal.  Add to that $2,865 in additional giving that was not identified with a pledge and we hit 96.1%.

 
The church will be sending out statements to all members in October reminding us of our pledges and how each of us has done so far in meeting his or her pledge.  This gives us all a great opportunity to recommit to and plan for meeting or exceeding our annual pledges.

 
Rental of church space should have brought in $9,167 through August, and actually brought in $8,167, 89% of our budget target.  The good news is that the Building & Grounds Committee has been working with Jeremy, our Church Administrator, who will be devoting more time in the second half of the year to marketing our church space and increasing this income stream.  Jeremy has also sought and received much help from Kathleen Hosfeld in this task.

 
Expenses through August were 90.5% of those budgeted, which means they are in line with actual revenue, by and large.

As you know, we as a congregation marked 2009-2010 as a year for regrouping and new beginnings as we call a new Pastor and face the current financial storm.  Thus, we moved forward in faith without substantially reducing expenses, trusting in God and ourselves that this period would mark the start of a new and stronger church.  We agreed to take an additional $52,027 from savings in addition to the $74,638 we take from savings in a "normal" year.  Part of the beginning anew we are now engaged in must and will include long-term plans to reduce and eventually eliminate our over dependence on our savings, which cannot be sustained.  You will hear much more about our financial plans, challenges, and opportunities over the next few months as part of our new beginning.  In addition, please feel free to approach any member of the Finance Committee with questions, concerns and/or ideas.

Steve Clagett, Finance Committee Chair

• We welcomed and served 1,227 guests at the event.  This makes it our largest CRE yet!
• 100 organizations and 300+ volunteers (including you all!) made this all possible
• 300+ guests got free haircuts from local cosmetology schools
• 400+ guests received reading glasses, sunglasses, and vouchers for prescription glasses
• $5,704's worth of dental service was performed
• Our store was filled with 700+ backpacks, 1,300+ toiletry packs, 1,000+ jackets, and tons more!
• By the end of the event, our store was completely bare!  All our guests got to leave with some wonderful goods thanks to you all!

Let me thank you all once again for all your help (have I said "thank you" enough yet?)!  Without your support, we wouldn't have been able to help all these people in need!
 
Also, while I have your attention, I wanted to share that we have a new website focused on what we're doing to end homelessness here: http://unitedway.vibeglobe.com
This website has a really powerful video focusing on homelessness in our own backyard.  Check it out and tell us what you think!
 
I appreciate all your hard work and I hope that we can work together in the future!
 
Regards,
 
Yuri Kim
United Way of King County

 Sidewalk Repairs Complete!

 

Thank you everybody!