First,
I was honored to be asked to be a guest speaker as a part of the stewardship
campaign. When Barbara and Billy asked
me to speak about what St. John's means to me, two words came to
mind..."family" and "support". I also became very nervous at the thought of
speaking in front of everyone and quickly told Glenn that we "both"
were to speak. You didn't know you were
getting the 2 for 1 deal this morning.
I
am from Fayetteville, born and raised here.
I grew up in a small Presbyterian church in Linden. Like many, once I graduated from high school
and went off to college, I did not attend church very often. I moved away after graduating from N.C. State
in 1984 and I did not return to Fayetteville until the fall of 1992.
What
brought me back to Fayetteville was the need to be near family, as I had just
gone through a divorce that hit me pretty hard.
I basically went into a bit of a depression. I felt it was time to return home and be
close to family. My parents had since
moved back to Rockford, Illinois which is where they were both from
originally. I still had siblings in the
area, however. Other than work, I pretty
much hibernated in my apartment. I
dreaded the weekends and preferred to be at work to stay busy. My brother convinced me that I needed to
reconnect with old friends. Well, one of
those friends was Joyce Chandler, who is now my mother-in-law. I used to bowl on a bowling league with her
when I was married to my first husband.
She invited me to attend church with her at St. John's. Since it had been a while since I had
attended my church, I didn't really feel like I had a church home anymore. So, I figured "why not?". I was given a crash course on Episcopal
aerobics (stand, sit, kneel...), how to read the prayer book, how to take
communion, etc... Amazingly, I felt very
comfortable with the service and enjoyed it very much. The music was wonderful, with the second best
choir master Jean Ishee...Pat being the best choir master! My check is in the mail, right Patrick? So, I continued to join my mother-in-law for
church. I was confirmed at St. John's in
1993 and became an Episcopalian; I saw the light.
Well,
I do believe things happen for a reason and God truly intervenes throughout our
lives. At about the same time that I
returned to Fayetteville, my now current husband, Glenn was being reassigned to
Fort Bragg. I knew of Glenn and I had
gone to school with his brother and sister, but I did not know Glenn very
well. Well, to make a long story short,
we got to know each other and the rest is history, as we got married at St.
John's in 1994. Pinkie Jackson was our
wedding planner and David Chamberlain married us. Glenn and I moved in the fall of 94', as
Glenn was assigned to Seoul, Korea.
Other than visits to North Carolina we did not return permanently until
the end of 2001. During one of our
visits in 1996 David Chamberlain baptized our daughter, Elizabeth, in the
chapel. We had just returned from Korea
and we were about to move to Glenn's next duty assignment in Alabama. In between all of our moves we managed to find
other church homes, but we always compared them to St. John's. St. John's was the only Episcopal church that
did things the right way. One of the
reasons we came back to Fayetteville was family, but the other reason was St.
John's. Any time we visited many people
always welcomed us back and made us feel at home. I still remember Isabelle Patterson and Mary
Coit Tillinghast coming up to us and saying how much they missed us and were so
glad to see us.
When
we were at St. John's from 1992-1994 we were not very involved other than
attending the service at 10:30. We
wanted to be more involved. We had
always felt we were on the outside looking in.
We didn't want to just be bench/pew warmers. We wanted to get into the game, so to
speak. When we returned in 2001 we
slowly got our feet wet and became greeters.
Glenn joined the hand bell choir.
I volunteered to assist with children's chapel and I helped direct the
Christmas pageant for a couple of years.
Our children became acolytes.
Soon we found ourselves being Good Shepherds. I was approached by Dee Dee Kells to consider
being on the Altar Guild. Dee Dee was
quite persuasive and I said yes. Dee Dee
could sell you a car with no tires and tell you it drives smoothly and you
would believe her. I never imagined
myself one day chairing the altar guild with Arlene Young. Joining the Altar Guild was one of the best
things I ever did, as it allowed me to get to know more people and become even
more a part of the church. Soon after
that I was asked to be on the Search Committee, which also allowed me to form
friendships that I would not have probably formed otherwise. Of course, I didn't know that would become a
3 year commitment. I wouldn't trade that
experience in though and I may be a bit biased, but I think we did an
outstanding job. The more Glenn and I
got involved, the more we wanted to be involved. The feeling we get by giving of our time and
talent is hard to put into words. It is
a spiritual feeling of contentment. We
feel like we get back 10 fold what we give.
In
March of 2007 I lost my Dad and February 13 of 2008 my Mom passed away. That was an extremely difficult time in my
life. I still remember Dee Dee Kells
holding my hand and talking to me when I fell apart at church because I had
received some bad news regarding the health of my father. The support I received from my church family
with all of the calls, visits, and great food that was given meant so
much. I still remember George Bender's
wonderful corn bread with real pieces of corn in it. That was so good! Thank you George.
Besides
our time and talent we increase our pledge every year and give what we feel
like we can. I encourage everyone to
give of your time, talent and treasure.
Like I said, the feeling you will get by becoming more involved cannot
be put into words. I would like to see
the wonderful programs that we have at St. John's continue and it would be
great to be able to eventually get an assistant rector for Robert. He works so very hard and we don't want him
to burn out and leave. So please,
please, please, I encourage you to get involved by giving of your time, talent,
and treasure. Not only will you be
helping the church, but you will benefit spiritually as well.
I
will now "let" Glenn
talk.
Good
morning, I'm Glenn Chandler and I was born, baptized and raised in the
Episcopal church. My father was in the
Army and was assigned to Ft. Bragg in the summer of 1977 when I was a teenager,
when we began attending St. John's. I
remember we used to sit in the pew behind the Webb Family every Sunday. I attended St. John's for a couple of years
before joining the Army myself in 1979 and moved away, but often returned for
the holidays.
Since
moving back and returning to St. John's in 2002, as Lenora said, we felt it was
important for our family to become more involved in our church home.
Several
years ago, I was approached by Dick Kells who asked me if I was interested in
taking over the Acolyte Program at St. John's.
I told him that I would have to give it some prayerful thought as I
don't like to do anything unless I can give it 100 %. After some time and consideration, I
contacted Dick and told him that I was willing to take on the challenge. That was a decision that I have never
regretted because I do enjoy working with the youth in our church and find this
responsibility to be a very fulfilling and rewarding experience.
St.
John's continues to be a very important part of our lives. Like Lenora said, we feel that giving of
one's time, talent and treasure provides us with a feeling that we are
investing in our church and that we get back ten times what we are giving.
Thank
you for your time.
Lenora and Glenn Chandler
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