Happy 4th of July Community!

As we stop to thank those who have sacrificed for the freedom we enjoy in this great country I want to reflect on my husband’s prayer at lunch this Independance day. He not only thanked God for those that have died for our freedom but he said something in his prayer that was truly profound,  “And, thank you most of all for the one who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, Jesus Christ!”

What an awesome testament to his faith and a way to put back into perspective what this country is all about. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” Psalm 33:12. Have you ever stopped to think about what that verse says about the United States of Ameica? When we sing “God Bless America” are we truly asking for God’s blessing or just  singing words we memorized as a child? When we follow with the line “land that I love” do we really mean it? As believers, we need to sing “stand beside her and guide her” as a prayer to our Heavenly Father, asking for His guidance and protection over us. No other country has the freedom we have and we should stop and thank Jesus who died on a cross over 2000 years ago so that we can have those freedoms. Our founding fathers set up this great land believing that God would bless it and that Jesus died so that we could be free. Let’s do all we can to insure that the upcoming generations remember what the United States was founded on and teach them to not only thank those that died for our freedom but especially to thank Him who died for our ultimate freedom.

Please join us this Thursday, July 7, at St Lukes Unitied Methodist Church, 3708 45th St., Lubbock for our July Community Gathering. If this is your first time to join us, the Babe Chick meeting starts at 6:00 PM. Food and fellowship begins at 6:30 PM followed by the worship service at 7:15 PM. Don’t forget to bring food or snacks, “Emmaus style”. If you can bring a meat or vegetable dish, please do. Many travel from out-of-town, have to come early for a board meeting or to set-up and would certainly appreciate it.

Our next Walk to Emmaus is Women’s Walk 139 to be held from August 4-7 at the Mercy Retreat Center in Slaton. Join us at this month’s community gathering to pray over Tina Thompson and her team. God has put together a great bunch of guys and gals to lead this walk and as always we’ve been promised it will be the “Best Walk Ever!” I hope to see you at as many of the walk activities as you can attend. Send-off  is Thursday, August 4, at 7:00 PM on the Holy Spirit Patio of Mercy Center; Candlelight at St Joseph’s Catholic Church at 8:00 PM, Saturday, August 6 with closing at 4:00 PM, Sunday, August 7 back at the church. Mark Meurer sent an apology for the heat in the church during candlelight for the June walk and assures us that the new air conditioner is in and working with all the kinks worked out so heat should not be a problem. Let’s remember however why we are there…for the pilgrims! Regardless of the temperature in the building, the Holy Spirit is working and we need to show up to support the ladies and the team.

One final note! We still have lots of room available for the women’s walks in August and October, the men’s walk in September and both Chrysalis Journey’s in September, so get those applications in! Their are no cost to those attending the Journey’s and we have half scholarships available for the walks.

DeColores,
Sheila Kirby

“We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

Today we celebrate Memorial Day and I wanted to start by sending a big thank you to all those that have served and continue to serve our great nation in whatever capacity so that we can live in freedom. The freedom to come and go as we please…the freedom to speak our minds…the freedom to defend ourselves…and most of all the freedom to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. Many have served and died for our rights and for that we are forever thankful. May all of you that have lost loved ones protecting our freedoms be comforted in knowing your sacrifice was not in vain. We are honored you were willing to give up someone you loved for us and pray the one who gave the ultimate sacrifice will hold you in HIS arms and giving you the “peace that transcends all understanding…” Philippians 4:7

June is a very busy month for our community and we hope to see you at all or at least some of our upcoming events. First, we have our monthly Community Gathering this Thursday, June 2, at Lakeridge United Methodist Church, 4701 82nd ST. Be there at 6:30 to share a meal together followed by a wonderful time of worship. We can look forward to hearing an awesome message from Dustin McEwen as he ends his year of serving us as our Community Spiritual Director. Dustin, it has been such an honor serving next to you these past few months and I can’t wait to see what God has in store as you continue to follow HIS path for you, your family and your ministry. Thank you so much for your service.

Please join us June 16 at 7:00 PM for the send-off of Women’s Walk 137 on the Holy Spirit Patio at Mercy Center. Let’s show up in full force to send these beautiful women off on their weekend of a lifetime and to show our support to Melanie Morris and her team as they embark on THE BEST WALK EVER!!! Candlelight starts at 8:00 PM, Saturday, June 18 over at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. Please come and help us give the ladies just a small glimpse of Heaven. Lastly closing is at 4:00 PM back at St. Joseph’s on Sunday, June 19. It’s always great to hear the pilgrims testimony and to welcome them to our Emmaus family. Come to as many of the events surrounding the walk as you can and send your pilgrims!!! We still have places available and scholarships for 1/2 their fee are already approved. Go to llanoemmaus.org to download the application, sponsorship form and scholarship request straight from our website.

I’ll close this month’s letter with a note to everyone about how much I love being YOUR community Lay Director. I am the one that is truly blessed to get to represent you to Christ and more importantly Christ to you! Thank you for allowing me this privilege and thank you to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for giving me the ability to Shepherd HIS flock.

DeColores,
Sheila Kirby

Good morning my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, what a beautiful start to Summer or is that Spring, maybe Fall? My 88 year old mother’s life passage is from Ecclesiastes 3, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the Heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot…” I know it goes on from there but my question is, when God gives us all of that in West Texas in the same weekend does he laugh a little? I think so. I can’t wait to get to hear that laugh in Heaven and see Jesus with a big old smile on His face like the picture that hangs in the foyer at Church Without Religion. I know we can make Him smile and I pray I do that daily, even if it’s with my silliness.

I pray our community makes Jesus smile too. Smile by bringing His people all to one place to worship Him without the confinements of religious background, ethnicity and gender. Once a month we can all get together and just love Him. That’s what Emmaus is all about. One of my favorite things about our ministry is it’s ecumenical spirit. We all just love each other and more importantly, we all love Christ!

Join us at community this Thursday, May 5, at 6:30 at First Assembly of God Lubbock for fellowship immediately followed by a beautiful time of worship. If you’ve never been to a community gathering please come to the Babe Chick meeting at 6. This is an Emmaus event so don’t forget to bring food if you can. Snacks are great but many come from out-of-town so if possible,  please bring a meat, vegetable dish or a dessert so we can share a meal together.

One of the three main focuses we have identified as a community is to get our walks and journey’s full and to increase our attendance at our community events. The season we have gone through over the past couple of years is ending. We haven’t had to cancel walks or journeys in a while and God’s been filling our weekends up or at least sending more pilgrims and caterpillars then we have in a long time. When I went on my walk back in 1996 there was a long waiting list and every walk was full. That season is long gone but we can do it again. That would make my heart happy and I know bring a smile on Jesus’s face. Won’t you please help us accomplice that? The Holy Spirit already knows who is supposed to go. It’s our job to be His hands and feet and go out and reel them in! Just pray about who you can sponsor and I promise Christ will send them your way. Don’t forget there are half scholarships available. Please don’t let money stop you from sponsoring. The Lord will provide if you listen to the Holy Spirit.

Have a beautiful May and I can’t wait to see what season God has us in as weather wise and for OUR Emmaus family!

DeColores,

Sheila Kirby
Community Lay Director

He Makes All Things New!!!

On this beautiful Spring morning, I sit in my living room amazed at God’s awesome creation and how “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17. Gary and I started a new fence over Spring Break and that, like all of us, is definitely a work in progress. I have been amazed at the strength God has given me to help in this project and know that through HIM, I can keep at it until it is finished. This time of year we are reminded HE does make all things new, even if it’s a fence, and it is beautiful to see what HE has in mind for HIS creation. Sometimes HE calls us to do things we never dreamed we could possibly do and as long as we follow HIS lead, we can accomplish anything.

To those that don’t know me, let me introduce myself. My name is Sheila Kirby and I have been a part of the Llano Estacado Emmaus Community since Women’s Walk #30 in March 1996. St. Naomi’s table to be exact. My husband, Gary, was my sponsor and I have never ceased to be amazed at what a difference Emmaus has meant in our lives. Our daughters, Mandy and Sara, both attended Chrysalis’s here and my son-in-law, Martin, attended a Chrysalis in Kerrville long before he met Mandy. Kris is my other son-in-law, married to Sara. He hasn’t been on a walk, but we are continually praying about sponsoring him when the time is right. I have two beautiful grandchildren, Kylin 8, and Kaitlyn 5 and I have the privilege of being their full time Nana. God has given me the perfect job since my retirement in 2012 and I can’t thank Him enough. I get to hang out with those two daily and watch them turn in to the remarkable individuals God created them to be. I also thrive on being a fulltime wife, mother, daughter, friend and all the things God leads me to be!

And now, I am blessed that He has called me to be the new Lay Director for our Community. I want to thank Frank McLelland for the fantastic job he has done this past year. Some may laugh that we’re going from the biggest to the “least of these” so to speak, but I am confident I can continue what has been started by those that served in this capacity before me if God is allowed to be the true leader!

April marks several exciting events for our community. I hope to see you at as many of them as possible.

First, Kairos Outside #11 kicks-off on Friday evening. Walking in Love is Saturday at 8:45 PM on the Holy Spirit Patio at Mercy Center. If you have never attended one, please put it on your calendar and come! You are in for a true blessing as well as being able to blessing some beautiful women. Closing is Sunday at 2:30, back on the patio. The testimonies of what the ladies experienced over the weekend are always amazing so you’ll want come back for that as well.

Next week is the April Community Gathering on Thursday, April 7. There will be hamburgers with all the fixings, chips and drinks provided. Bring a dessert, if you would like. This is a fundraiser for Mercy Center. It’s time to give back to the place that has been, and continues to be, a blessing to our community. The meal is free, but there will a bucket for you to leave whatever monetary gift you feel lead to. Dinner will be served at 6:30 on the Holy Spirit patio and then we’ll move across the street to St. Joseph’s for worship at 7:30.

On April 14-17, Men’s Walk #96 is all set to go. Mark Meurer and his team can’t wait to see what the Holy Spirit has in store for everyone there. There is still room for more pilgrims so GET THOSE APPLICATIONS IN. Join us for all the weekend festivities that you can. Send-off is at 7:00 PM Thursday at Mercy Center, then Candlelight at St. Joseph’s on Saturday at 8:00 PM, followed by closing at St. Joseph’s on Sunday at 4:00.

James M. Barrie said “Those that bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” That is my favorite quote and I pray I can bring a speckle of sunshine in all your lives just like you do mine. Thank you so much for trusting me to be YOUR lay director this next year and I cannot wait to see what the LORD has in mind for us. It’s going to be awesome!

DeColores,
Sheila Kirby