Over the years I have authored some thoughts about the various seasons in our lives and how they are significant and meaningful.  We know what it is like to involve our lives in springtime, summer, fall and various world events during winter such as Thanksgiving and especially Christmas.

When we read from Ecclesiastes we know there is a season of time for everything.  What is actually meant by seasons of time? 

We know in the dead of winter in our northern hemisphere above the 45th parallel it is a time when flowers, shrubs, and trees, are all experiencing a silence in their growth patterns.  Even bacteria present in warmer times fortunately become almost dormant, nonexistent and non productive.  Leaves decay and wither away forming a decay base, particularly during the dead of winter.  By springtime the soil will be nourished and ready for planting.

February is a time of preparation between winter and spring, because it won't be long before days are longer and the frozen enriched soil will thaw and plowing and planting will commence. 

When we lived on Drummond Island for twenty years, we noticed that islanders prepared during the warm months to get ready for winter, while most of our southerly friends prepared for summer during the winter months.

What are you planning on for spring time? What besides Valentine's Day?

How is this season of your life going to spring forward and reward you with a bountiful harvest during the fall season?  Our lives do operate in seasons because God has planned it that way.  So, what is a season?

A season is that time which God has given us to make something happen.  Our lives operate in seasons just like Genesis 8:22 says.  "As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat; winter and summer, day and night."

This is the way it is with us, as we pass through the various seasons by doing what is right.  We can't skip a season, or neglect the proper time for doing what we are supposed to accomplish.  Yes, God will support us and that is why I feel we live in the greatest country in the world.  We have been truly blessed by God.

Discover as I did, Psalm 100:  "Shout praises to the Lord, everyone on this earth.  Be joyful and sing as you come in to worship the Lord!  You know the Lord is God!  He created us, and we belong to him; we are his people, the sheep in his pasture.  Be thankful and praise the Lord as you enter his temple.  The Lord is good!  His love and faithfulness will last forever."

Click on links below to read newsletters from some of our congregation that send their publications to the presbytery office electronically. (If your church newsletter is not linked here, contact the presbytery office to ask how you may be included)

Alpena

Bellaire 

Beulah 

Big Bay

Escanaba 
Florence 

Gaylord

Harbor Springs

Houghton

Marquette 
Northern Lakes Community Church

Petoskey
Pickford

Rogers City 

Sault Ste. Marie

 Administrative Personnel Association of the PCUSA web site

Al has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Sault Symphony Orchestra for the past nineteen years and served four years as president.  Our international orchestra performs in both Ontario and Michigan.  In 2004, he received a commendation from the Federal Parliament of Canada for Outstanding Volunteerism.

Al served as the elected Moderator of the Presbytery of Mackinac and has been the Stated Clerk of the Dafter Presbyterian Church for fifty years.  He is church pianist for the Dafter congregation.  He also served on Presbytery committees; Personnel, Budget and Finance, Committee on Ministry and currently on the Committee for Worshipping Communities.  He served on the Chippewa County Jury Board for twenty-six years, having been the elected chair for many of those years.  He is one of Sault Ste. Marie's two representatives on the Michigan-Shiga Sister State Board and a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Chapter of People to People International.

Administrative - Financial Assistant-30 hours per week. Must be pro-active and detail oriented. Proficient in computer operations, website management, filing, general office procedures and knowledge of accounting practices, QuickBooks, Excel spreadsheets. Mail resumes to P.O. Box 31, Petoskey, MI 49770. Application deadline is March 4, 2014.