Fr. Jamie Our environments have direct impact on our behavior.  Walking through the woods in the North Carolina mountains, surrounded by the mountain laurel and the rhododendron strolling along the beach with the sound and smell of breaking waves have their effects upon us.  Being surrounded by those we love and who love us cannot help but impact the way we feel and think about ourselves and the way we look at the world around us.   That's the value of taking time away from our ordinary lives.  We seek to change our environment, at least for a time, with the hope that we might be changed, renewed, given a new vision for the road ahead, a fresh prespective.  We seek out the company of loving people to remind ourselves of our own value and the value of life and living.   We seek holiness and we find it in holy places and holy people: places and poeple whch both reflect and draw us into that other life we disire so much yet seems to elude us in our ordinary lives.   The gread good news of the gospel is that this has already happened.  The gread good news is that God has come into our ordinary lives and made them extraordianry.  The great good news is that we are the living and breathing sacraments of God walking in his kingdom and that we are prepared in every way to advance God's purposes so perfectly shaped by the life, death and resurection of Jesus Christ.   All that we lack, from time to time, is an awakening.  All that we sometimes fall short of is the awareness that God in Christ is already at work among us and through us.   Make no mistake about it, my sisters and brothers, God is building us a house here at St. Clement: a holy house for holy people.  The sheer volume of e-mails I have seen about Grace Place and J2A are a testimony to something happening, to environments changing and folks changing with it.  There is a fresh wind bolwing through our parish, a sacred wave.   Now is the acceptable time!  Now is the day of the Lord!   In Christ, Jamie+     from the deacons desk...    From the deacon’s desk…. One Sunday morning over twenty years ago, Ino and I were impressed by a visitor to St. Mary’s, Crystal Lake, Illinois, Heidi Smith…I can’t remember her maiden name. Heidi spoke about her call to serve God as a missionary. Fr. Bill had invited her to speak to us from the pulpit about her missionary work with SAMS, the South American Missionary Society which is an Episcopal society based in Ambridge, Pennsylvania.   SAMS' purpose is to recruit, send and support missionaries to be witnesses and make disciples for Jesus Christ in fellowship with the Episcopal/Anglican Church primarily in the Americas. SAMS' missionaries share the Gospel, establish churches, train national church leaders, and minister socially through medical clinics and Christian schools. SAMS sends adults to serve from a month to a career. SAMS also sends teams from churches for one to two weeks for assignments such as building homes for the poor or running a VBS. SAMS supports individuals and churches who are called to go, give, or pray. Individuals who sense a call to serve as missionaries are assisted through a careful discernment, training and placement process. Short-term mission teams are given support through comprehensive training, logistical coordination and debriefing. Soon after we met Heidi, she met and married Russ Smith, also a missionary with SAMS. Eventually they were sent to the missionary field in and around Santiago, Chile. Several years later, Russ was ordained to the priesthood. The Smith’s have served in Chile a number of years in various locations. They have four beautiful children, two boys and two girls. Ino and I have been privileged to visit with Russ and Heidi through the years and watch their children grow up! Every four years the Smith’s have time to spend in the USA to visit and share the good news of their ministry with the churches who are supporting them. We, at St. Clement’s, have supported Russ and Heidi’s missionary work for over twelve years! Four years ago they visited us and the congregation enjoyed getting to know them and learning about their ministry in Chile. In November Russ will be flying to Atlanta and will be visiting the churches on the East Coast which support their ministry. Unfortunately, due to financial considerations, Heidi and the girls will not be able to come to Atlanta. They will fly directly to California. However, Russ will visit St. Clement’s on December 13, the Third Sunday of Advent. We will be planning a wonderful Mission Weekend when he can speak to us of their work and show slides of their activities and the area in which they live. Following his weekend with us, Russ will fly to California, so they can visit the churches on the West Coast which support their ministry. Please watch for more information and mark the weekend of December 13, 2009, on your calendars! Plan to be with us for an exciting and Spirit-filled weekend! Faithfully, Deacon Lucy+ ECW Riverfest Fund Raiser   Riverfest is coming soon! Dates are Sept. 25 set-up: 3-6 PM; Sept. 26 & 27 the fair; Clean up begins 5:00PM, Sunday afternoon, the 27.  If you are new to St. Clements, we love first timers in our funnel cake booth. St. Clements has been making funnel cake at Riverfest for as long as the fair/arts&crafts show has been around. We are starting now to recruit volunteers for our funnel cake booth. If you wish to reserve your two hour shift, please email me at emilyjmikkelsen@hotmail.com. For complete details on the many local charities and projects that benefit from Riverfest visit http://www.riverfest.org/ . Emily J. Mikkelsen    G.R.A.C.E. Place   It’s Not Your Average Sunday School St. Clement’s is excited to announce the implementation of it new Sunday school program, G.R.A.C.E. Place (where God Reaches All Children Everywhere). The new program will be available for the upcoming 2009-2010 school year for our preschool to fifth grade children. Within this rotation style program the children will have the opportunity to learn about one lesson for 4-8 weeks in a variety of different ways. The children will move to different workshops or classrooms once a week to experience the same lesson through different teaching mediums. Lessons will be learned through workshops including art, games, drama, video, kitchen, garden and more. This new program will give the children an opportunity to be immersed in the lessons. GRACE Place teachers will volunteer for one lesson’s rotation cycle which is only a four to six week period. Teachers will teach by workshop and not by grade level. Teachers will be able share their gifts by choosing the workshops and lessons they have the most talent for and interest in teaching.  Through GRACE Place and our new Rite 13 and J2A programs for older children we are creating a Christian life skill training program for the youth of St. Clements and the community. We look forward to helping children develop a living relationship with God. GRACE Place is now enrolling for the upcoming Sunday School year. Sunday School starts on August 23rd. J2A - Journey To Adulthood   "The Journey Begins"        In just a few short weeks, St Clement's Youth will embark upon a journey that will guide them through the wonders of adolescence on their way to young adulthood. This journey will help them get to know God and how he fits into their lives as they grow up. It will be a journey to explore their every day lives and to start building a foundation that they will be able to strengthen as they grow into young adults. This journey is a full commitment by the parents and the youth to be a part of something greater than themselves. The journey begins on August 23, 2009 after the 9:00 a.m. service with a special ice cream social and then a pool party at Bridgemill's Pool for the J2A group. Please join us!  "Parent's Night Out"       A Special Parent's Night Out Meeting will be held August 7, 2009 at Father Jamie's home in Towne Lake. This is for the parent's of 6th graders through 12th graders. This meeting is also for those potential leaders of J2A on Sunday mornings as well. We will be serving dinner and having an in depth discussion about J2A. We will have information packets to hand out and  go over some of the things that the children will be learning. We will also go over the activities that they will be a part of for the year. Contact Amy MacNeill at 770-479-3193 or akmacneill@comcast.net to let us know that you will attend this meeting. Please RSVP by August 5th.