Reflections on Diane
One of the most exciting weekends of the year is this weekend and we will not let the dreary weather stop us! It is our annual Trunk or Treat celebration on Sunday and also our All Church 5th Sunday pancake breakfast hosted by our wonderful Methodist Men. Trunk or Treat has officially moved indoors so please plan to attend and bring a friend! But I want to turn your eyes for a moment to Saturday.
On Saturday we will be celebrating the incredible life of Diane DeLaney Doughty who served this congregation for so many years in a time of incredible growth. Diane and her husband, Jim, have loved this church for so long and you see that in the way that they have poured themselves into hospitality, missions and the children of this congregation. One of Diane’s best friends was the former pastor of this congregation, Rev. Linda Harker, and she has agreed to come preside over her service. She and Diane had offices side by side and tackled a lot of ministry together. When Linda hired me to be the Youth Director in 2006 is when I first met Diane. For a little thing, she was incredibly passionate and bold. I remember her standing down front and proclaiming that we needed 2 more Sunday school teachers for the kids by the end of the day. She created and implemented the Safe Sanctuary policies to protect our children and added the Prayer Bears to the sanctuary. Diane, Laura Eldridge and I heard stories from my family members with autistic children that broke our hearts and we crafted the Special Angels ministry and even received a grant to fund it. With Diane, I always knew that I had a friend and an advocate for the ministry that I was doing. She was incredibly loyal to the people she loved. We were both raising teenagers at the same time and she was always a voice of wisdom in my life. More recently, she and I would share photos of our grandsons who are not too far apart in age. I even took Henry with me once to see her and she was much more interested in him then me. Her grandson Whitaker has been the light of her life these last few years. It is appropriate timing that we would celebrate her life on the same weekend that we are having a huge party for children. She would like nothing better. For those of you who never knew her, so many of the things that you love about this congregation are because of her incredible strength of leadership. So say a small prayer of gratitude for this Saint of Faith UMC.
I want to turn your attention to special events coming up for the Women of Faith and anyone else who is interested.
On Saturday, Nov. 4th @ 9:30 am Rev. Jeff Jaynes will be here speaking in the Chapel about our partnership with Restore Hope Ministries. This United Methodist ministry helps those in Tulsa County. Come here about this amazing work being done.
On Nov. 10-11th, the annual Women’s mission trip “Tool Tyme” to Cookson Hills takes place and you can register for this event here. It begins on Friday at 4:30 and is all day Saturday.
This is our last Sunday in our series on Covenants and we will finish strong with Jesus as the New Covenant. I hope that you can join us in person or digitally as the body of Christ.
Love,
