Dear Friends on the Journey,

I just spent eight days at the American Needlepoint Guild's conference in Chicago. While there, I took classes where other people taught me new needlepoint stitches and inspired me with creative design. Throughout the year, I take online classes as well, where others provide the design and teach the stitches. I have only taken one class where the goal was for me to design my own layout, choose the fibers myself, and employ stitches I already knew-- and I failed utterly! I never even started the project.  

I also paint. I like watercolors and I have studied with two different teachers and like both their approaches. But what I realized after several years of trying is that I don't have their eye, their focus. I can master the techniques, but my work lacks that appeal.

So why am I telling you all this? Because I need your help and your input to design the ministry I am called to do: to help me design a budget that truly reflects the work and the mission of our Presbytery.  

As I look at the process we have traditionally used to put together our budget, I realize that it is uninspired. We look to how we did things in the past, (specifically, we look at the past few years) to try to predict the future. I was called to this position as the Treasurer because I believe we constrain ourselves when we use this process, and we don't allow the money to flow to the right places.  To do this right, to build a new three-year budget from the ground up, I need your input and your Holy Inspiration to help fill in the details.  

We all know we are Journeying with Jesus to Touch the World[...] To fulfill that mission statement, I often ask myself this mantra: What is God calling us to do, and what does that require(cost)? I need your help

discerning the 'stitches' you employ to create the tapestry that is MVP. I can lay down the background for the picture you want to paint of our future, but I need you to fill in the details.

I am inviting you to come to the September 23 gathering of Presbytery to collaborate and play with us, to share your ideas, to stitch our tapestry, to sketch the details, so that together we can discern the plan God has for our future.

With blessing and thanks for you and your service,

Joan Brode   

September 23, 2014

Genesis Conference Center

10265 Wooster Pike (State Route 3)

Creston, OH  44217

Registration begins at 9:00 am

Meeting begins at 9:30 am