Wooden-Legged Winners

Think for a moment about the world of 1904. The Wright Brothers' famous flight at Kitty Hawk occurred the previous year. Gasoline-powered automobiles, motion pictures, and the "wonder drug" aspirin were introduced to the public only 10 years before.
Electric lighting and telephones were less than 25 years old, and still a novelty only read about by most Americans. Food was stored in iceboxes, and the horse-drawn ice wagon was a familiar site.

The World Exposition of 1904 was held in St. Louis, Missouri, marking the then-incredible achievements and advances of modern man. It was also a celebration of the 100th anniversary (a year late) of the Louisiana Purchase. As a major feature of the fair, the expansion and growth of the United States was celebrated in grand style.

That same year, St. Louis served as host to the third modern Olympiad, with top athletes from clubs and associations (they didn’t represent nations at that time) competing in such sports as dumbbells and croquet. The various competitions were spread out over four-and-a-half months and became lost in the chaos of a World’s Fair. The 1904 Olympic Games were the first at which gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded for first, second and third place.

One of the most remarkable (though now forgotten) competitors was the American gymnast George Eyser, who won six medals even though his left leg was made of wood!

The past year has been one of great change and achievement for our congregation. We’ve gone from being spread across several buildings (and even meeting at other churches), to being under one roof. We not only finished our building, but paid it off as well! Incredibly (and due to your consistent year-round faithfulness and generous year-end response), we closed the year with less than sixtenths of a percent difference between what our Finance Committee budgeted and what we actually spent. That’s an incredible feat, considering so many unknowns and variables (such as utilities)!

While doing so well in terms of our fiscal matters and physical plant milestones, we also celebrated many noteworthy moments in ministry and mission. Youth and Young Adults met weekly in prayer, study and covenant groups. A new worship service began to meet the needs of previously unreached people. We had an outstanding Vacation Bible School, with more adult, youth, and children participants than in many years. Our fall semester of Supper-n- Study offered a time of teaching, fellowship, and spiritual growth for all ages.

The Livingston Parish Emergency Food Pantry served over 1,000 households in 2012. Three-dozen nursing home residents felt the love of Christ through your Nursing Home Ministry. Dozens of families were served meals through Cooks for Christ, while
Christmas was made special through the Angel Tree, Operation Christmas Child, and Needy Children’s Christmas Fund. Groups traveled to the UMCOR Depot at Sager-Brown, to Joplin, Missouri, and Cullman, Alabama for tornado relief work, and ministry to the homeless was done at St. Mark’s Community Center and St. Vincent DePaul. Work teams from our church hammered and painted at Habitat for Humanity and mowed yards and trimmed hedges in our neighborhood. The list goes on and on…

It’s good to look back, whether it’s at a century or more, to see the advances of humankind, or to simply glance over our shoulder at the most recent of years to enter the past. It gives us perspective and it gives us hope – for we can only imagine what the future could hold.

Now, think about George Eyser, that Olympic gymnast with the wooden leg, who has all but faded into the shadows of the history of sport.

How much like him we are, carrying the Gospel message to all people, to the best of our ability!

How’s that, preacher, you say?

“…we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves…” (2 Corinthians 4:7)

It’s not about how great we are. But how great God is, and what God can do through a few “cracked pots.”

Looking forward to the year together and all God will do,

Rev. Bob