Dear Dave,thanks so much for including your last weekly message.  It took
me back to many after-walk times.  It also caused me to reflect on God's
amazing plans.  I am thinking especially of His plan to send you and Karen
to our Emmaus Community.  I don't think any of us had an idea of the great
plans he had for you!  I give thanks to God for His plan for your lives
and for our Community.  None of us knows where God will take us next if we
are willing to serve Him without reservation.  But oh, how great it is to
serve Him and to see what He has in mind for us!  Your faithful service is
inspiring and your faithful support of our ministry is uplifting - a true
gift of God.  Well done, good and faithful servants!  De Colores, Steve


On Fri, January 11, 2008 2:18 pm, DKShumway wrote:

We pray a Happy New Year for our Savior and his will and ways!


Dear Steve and Carol,
It is always great to hear from you - about how you are and how your
ministries are going. We have had many blessings this holiday season, the
biggest being a first grandchild from our bay area son and his wife.  All
are well, praise God!  Our other two grandchildren have moved from Houston
to West Virginia.
Steve, you asked about Men's Walk #42 and it being special.  It was only
truly special in the ways God makes every Walk truly special.  One thing a
bit different was three months before the Walk I was called to do a series
of Walk Weeklies (e-mails) where I talked about what was happening
team-wise, added some encouragement, then did a brief meditation related
to the Walk Scripture: "Come all of you who are thirsty, come to the
waters" (Isaiah 55:1a).  Some of the meditations were truly exciting as
the content wasn't mine, but was coming through me.  I watched the screen
as I typed to see what was being said.  I believe these e-mails helped
with preparations for our Team Meeting where, without rushing, we
previewed all ten laity Talks and all five clergy Talks [Craig Dale, Ray
Dowdy, Gary McAnaly and Lois Black
(part-time)].  We had twenty-four Pilgrims until the last minute when we
lost five due to service related to the fires in Souther California.  I
went through a great deal of spiritual growth and maturity preparing and
'leading' this Walk  I clearly remember my own Walk and knowing, without
a doubt, I could never lead a Walk - have responsibility for the weekend -
absolutely no way!  I can't do that, and, what's more, surely God has far
more sense than to let that happen!  But little did I know God's plans for
me.  Emmaus changed, and continues to change my life in important, eternal
live-saving ways.   I could go on, but will spare you.  I will, however,
attach a copy of the last Walk Weekly to give you some idea of the flavor.


Your e-mails are important to all of us here.  They are inspirational as
we watch God at work through the two of you and those with whom you
interact.  We feel the freezing wind on your walks, we share the joy as
you find what it is you can do to help a pastor and then start to see
results, we share the frustration of dealing with Russian visas and try to
assimilate the lessons of patience as you experience them, we share in
praying for you and your work, .... we are with you in so many ways.

May you bask in His Grace and His Peace in the coming year!
Dave
~~~~~~~~~~~
De Colores!
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This will be the last of the weekly Walk e-mails, but not my prayers for
you. Along with other clear evidence, the testimony of the Pilgrims at
Closing confirmed that our earthside contribution to Men's Walk #42 was
a success.  We can be confident we were successful in praying, listening,
discerning , loving and obeying.  We had God in our hearts and we were
working for his glory.  Every big thing, every little thing, everything we
did was for Him.  It took all of us, and all that each of us did, to make
the Walk the rich, beautiful experience that it was - and what it will
continue to be as this class of Pilgrims applies leverage to our efforts.
God planted seeds in all the Pilgrims and we
used his waters to nurture them.

While our focus was on our nineteen Pilgrims, as it should be, we need
to remember we were all Pilgrims on this Walk, as we are on all Walks. God
called each of us to this Walk for a purpose.  Was it something we needed
to hear from someone else he had placed there?  Did he have us say
something that a brother or sister in Christ needed to hear?  Did he want
us to form a new friendship, or deepen an existing one because this is
something he will use later in his plan?

At Closing, we asked each of our nineteen Pilgrims two questions.  "What
did this weekend mean to you?"  And, "What are you going to do about it?"
Since you were also a Pilgrim on this Walk, I ask you to deeply
reflect on the following questions.  "What did this weekend mean to you?"
And, "What were the seeds God planted in you there?"  Then deeply
think about and commit to what you are going to do about it.  Your answer
is an opportunity to form a new covenant with our loving God.

Each of you will receive a letter acknowledging my gratitude for your
contribution.  I am going to take my time with them for I cherish all that
you did and would like to savor the parts I know of.  Please understand,
however, there will likely be a lull in the correspondence. Karen and I
have a son and daughter-in-law who are on the cusp of having their first
child, a son.  I ask for your prayers for Michael, Jennifer, and, for now,
the Shumbino.  The parents plan to name him when they meet him.

We will never know but a sliver of what God will use our efforts on the
Walk for, and the same will be true for our response to, "What are we
going to do about it?"  We can, however, have faith that the continuing
impact of this Walk, as with all Walks, will only end with Jesus' return.


With this e-mail we close the Weekend phase of our Walk - this prayer we
call Men's Walk #42.  Wherever you are as you read this, join me in saying
aloud,  AMEN!