May 21st, 2010

Dear Fellow Pilgrims,

I’ve been working to set the date for the June gathering. Many of you have sent me e-mail to let me know what your vacation calendar looks like for the summer, as requested at the last meeting and on the Blog. The results show that June is a very busy time for us! In fact, the week that interrupts the fewest plans is the very first week. So we will plan our get-together on Wednesday, June 2nd, at 5:30 PM. We had no volunteers to gather at a home this month so we will plan right now to meet in the 1st Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall. Kitchen facilities are available, but the cover dish plan has worked well so far. Let’s stick with that for June.

The second day of touring for us will focus on sites around the Sea of Galilee. We spent some time during our May discussion to talk about this area of Israel. On this day we will visit the hills overlooking the Sea where Jesus is thought to have given the beautiful Sermon on the Mount, and Tabgha, the site where he fed the multitudes with just a few loaves and fish. (see John, chapter 6) In the afternoon we will actually take a boat across the Sea to visit Capernaum, and go to the Jordan River where Jesus may have been baptized. One of our discussions at the gathering will be about the spiritual significance of baptism, and what a “renewal of baptismal vows” might mean to us while at the Jordan.

Please plan to come prepared to set a time for our July meeting. There are a couple of special considerations that we should keep in mind. One is the proposal made at our April meeting that we should plan a picnic during the summer. Several of our pilgrims have boats they have graciously offered to share. The other is that some of our travelers cannot join us for these meetings on weeknights but would like to get to know the folks planning to travel. A weekend gathering would give us more time for a nice picnic and give these persons a chance to meet with us and “catch up” on our plans and materials. I would therefore like to propose that we meet in July on Sunday afternoon, July 18th. Please consider this and come prepared to agree, or offer another time for us to meet. We’ll determine other specifics about the place and picnic arrangements as well. If you cannot join us for the June meeting then e-mail me your response about the July proposal.

One last thing, I’ve received several positive comments about the materials that we’ve shared at the meetings about the places we are visiting. You’ve also let me know that it helps to have digital copies of these available in our GoogleDocs folder on the Internet. Some have not been able to collect materials from the early gatherings. I am trying to get more copies of these materials so that I can make them available to you. I’ll let you know as I make progress.

Till next time...Rejoice Always