This past weekend approximately 45 members from St. Peter's, Savannah, attended their annual Parish Retreat at our beautiful Honey Creek. The Reverend Joshua Varner was the Spiritual Leader. His theme, Altars in the Wilderness, explored the journeys and growth of spiritual communities in the tasks of walking more closely with God and with each other. 

St. Peter's marks each year with a return to Honey Creek and the opportunity to grow together. Highlights of the weekend included their traditional campfire, a community service project in the Honey Creek Chapel, and a concert featuring the amazing hammer dulcimer and guitar talents of Joshua joined by our youth and musicians. The closing Eucharist allowed the group to build an altar of their memories from another joyful and enriching time together.

The mission team from St. Patrick's Albany, is home from a week of work in the Azua area of the Dominican Republic, returning for the fourth year. They worked on concrete block walls for the church in La Carreras. This year, they also worked more on homes for families in the Espiritu Santo Church, Las Carreras, and did some minor repairs and fixes to the church building under construction. The next step involves putting on a roof, which will cost $15,000.  St. Patrick's is looking for more partners in accomplishing this, because until the roof is on, nothing else can be done. Through the years, St. Patrick's years has partnered with St. Pauls and St. John/ St. Mark (both Albany), St. Anne's Tifton, and St. Michael's Savannah in this work. 

by Archdeacon Sandy Turner

What comes first, the ministry or the diaconate? For me, as a nurse, my ministry grew out of my work in communities of need and my desire to help others with their health care needs. At some point, the vocation and avocation can merge and define you. Nurse Practitioner, teacher, and advocate for the poor can all come together in a made-to-order ministry. Caring for those in need has become the ministry I bring to my parish community.

I began working with a small community 30 miles west of Augusta in 1999. My students surveyed the area and found there was no health care provider in the area at all. Families there lived on an average income of $6,000 a year in this rural town of 600. By bringing a free clinic into the area, patients were able to have diabetes, hypertension, and respiratory issues addressed between regular visits to their physician without having full days away from work.

Volunteers (pictured at right with Deacon Turner) support the clinic from the Church of Our Savior, Martinez, and the Dearing Baptist Church. Both churches and the community support the clinic financially while students still provide support and energy, most recently creating and planting a community garden on the property to help patients with their nutritional needs.

As health care reform offers hope for the uninsured, patients need care now.  Our service area has expanded to surrounding communities, resulting in over 1,000 visits a year. The hope is that some day affordable and accessible health care will be available for everyone, but the reality is that it may be many years away.

Archdeacon Sandy Turner is a Nurse Practitioner who has served on medical mission teams in the Dominican Republic and Peru ten times, combined. She retired last year from a long career of teaching nursing at Georgia Regents University but continues to serve in a family practice clinic and the free clinic. She also mentors an elementary school student and leads health care education and events in the church and community. She serves at Church of Our Savior, Martinez, and was named Archdeacon of the Diocese in January.

 Come on out to the Creek for Spring Rally!  The Spring Rally leadership team has been hard at work planning a packed weekend.  There will be singing, worship, games, small groups, large groups, prayer stations, and event a talent show!  The retreat with a leadership component. Young people not only learn more about being who Christ is calling them to be, but they are also given resources that increase their leadership skills to help them  lead both diocesan youth events and events at their home parishes.  

 Spring Rally will be held at Honey Creek April 25-27.  The retreat is for youth in grades 6-12; cost is $114.50.

These photos were culled from the Facebook pages of congregations of the Diocese of Georgia. How active is your church's Facebook account? Holy Week is a great time to keep your page active, letting everyone know your schedule of services. Need ideas? See this article on Bearing Witness through Like and Share with some tips for churches, and this one A Church Event Photography Primer.

Send Us Your Holy Week Photos

As in recent years, we will create an album of pictures of Holy Week and Easter around the Diocese, some of which will be shared here in From the Field on the following two Tuesdays. Pictures of Palm Sunday must be in by the Tuesday morning following to be in From the Field and the remainder of Holy Week and Easter by Tuesday morning in Easter Week. Have your Photo Minister send the pictures to newsandevents@gaepiscopal.org or instead of sending the photo files, send us a link to your Facebook album with the pictures and we'll take it from there. You can see last year's photos in the 2013 Holy Week and Easter Photo Album.

This past Sunday at St. Thomas Isle of Hope in Savannah.  

A new cross was added to the memorial garden at Christ Church Valdosta.  

 Two views from the recent Strawberry Festival at St. Philip's, Hinesville.

Participants in our Episcopal Campus Ministry at Georgia Southern in Statesboro enjoy an evening of fun at The Clubhouse. 

On April 4-6, 2014, St. Anne's Tifton held a iconography workshop at the church, joined by an Episcopalian from Bainbridge. Under the guidance of the Rev. Lonnie Lacy and St. Anne's member Lisa Kent, each participant prayerfully created an icon of their Lord using a modified Russian style. Participants described the weekend as peaceful, serene, and highly rewarding. If you would like to learn more about iconography and the style in which this workshop was taught, see Peter Pearson's book A Brush with God: An Icon Workbook.