Prayers Needed

Meet Maria Mendez.

Her 6 month old son, Adrian, is hospitalized with a brain injury just blocks away from our church in Encanto.

Needing spiritual sustenance, she walked into the sanctuary Sunday morning. I happened to be present when she came in, and introduced myself to her. We were both visitors. I listened to her talk about her son, about her family, about his injury.

It seemed eerily familiar: my own daughter is the survivor of a traumatic brain injury. I asked my wife, Mimi, to come meet Maria. The two would sit with each other throughout the service.

Seeing Maria reminded me of the time we spent in the hospital with our daughter; of the many who lifted us up in prayer while with her; of the churches we would visit on the Sunday mornings we spent with our daughter while she lay in a coma. Mimi and I knew what she was going through. The Deacons would stand with Maria at the close of the service, lay hands on her, and pray for her and her son.

I asked her permission to take her picture, and to ask for prayers from all of you on her behalf. Would you please lift her and her son up in your prayers?

May it please God to abide with Maria and Adrian; to heal them both and remove their fear, their pain, and their anxiety.

Jimbo

You met my family a few days ago, but not the family I grew up with. I want to slowly introduce you to them. There were seven children in our house growing up - six of them boys. The consensus among us (as if there is any real question about that) is that the most difficult of us to raise was Jimbo.

Jimbo is one of those hail fellows well-met. He knows no strangers, and treats everyone as if he's known them his entire life. There's nothing subtle about him. His mischevious ways have never really disappeared. My mother's only solace - having endured his childhood (through his first seven years of gradeschool, every single one of his teachers either quit or retired after just one year with him and his classmates) - is that he has a daughter just like him.

He loves golf. Here we are in Hilton Head last year on a golf outing with a few of the brothers.He'd be upset if I didn't mention that he birdied the 15th at Harbor Town, the PGA tour's 2nd most difficult par 5 - so there, I mentioned it.















He loves Cardinal Baseball. Here we are on the day St. Louis played their first game at the new Busch Stadium. I stood by his side outside Busch and watched the tears roll down his face as, at the end of that 2006 season, our beloved Cards would defeat the Tigers and end the year World Series Champions.

And he loves our Missouri Tigers: with a passion.

He has two daughters, Sammy and Tori - and a wife, Vicki, who will be revered as a Saint when it becomes known what she has had to live with all these years.

I'll introduce the others to you over time, but I start with Jimbo - the fifth of the seven Dorhauer children.

SWC Family News

While I was away in Orlando, some news came in to the office: Desert Heritage United Church of Christ voted on Sunday, June 22 to become Open and Affirming.

I celebrate that their discernment and prayerful deliberations have led them to make this statement, and pray that the Spirit continue to enrich them and bless them.

I am proud both of them, and of their Pastor, Paul Whitlock - who, though a Dodger fan, clearly has SOME moments of lucidity.

If you or your church is interested in finding out more about the Open and Affirming process, about going through a period of discernment to discover whether you feel called to be or become Open and Affirming - then by all means call the Conference Office and we will be most happy to help facilitate such a process.

For now, let us all together give thanks for Desert Heritage as we give God thanks for their mission and ministry.