Lay Director's Message
May2023
Emmaus Community,
Well now the Men have had a weekend! As Travis Dodson would say! (Cover Your Ears!) Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh!!
So now we have completed a women’s weekend and a men’s weekend to celebrate and a
Chrysalis weekend to boot in January!!!
Now for the Great news as we have exciting weekends ahead for this fall. Teaming has started for our summer Chrysalis weekend C-105. This summer, teaming will begin for the women’s weekend of E-196, followed by the men of E-197. These are exciting times, and we are truly blessed to be here during these times! Everyone in our community is starting to come together again. We are family and we are back together to grow His Kingdom.
Support the Ultreya this Friday 19 May 2023: Pot Luck beginning at 6:30pm and the singing and worship to start at 7:30 PM at First United Presbyterian Church of Dale City and meet the new pilgrims of E-195.
The 4H Center has been a blessing to our Emmaus weekends. We all need to take time out every day to pray for others and give thanks to the Lord for our many Blessings.
Our board covets your prayers as we continue to go forward with our weekends this year. And we (the board) want to personally thank all of those who have brought food and drink to the weekends, signed up for the prayer wheel, colored placements, provided Palanca, Stations, worked the data base or website work, closing or other components of the weekend.
Thank You , Thank You, Thank You! No Team could do it without that support!!
God is Good All The Time and
All The Time God is Good!
In His Grip
Dan
Community Lay Director
April 2023
CHRIST IS RISEN!! ALLELUIA!!
I have been reminded several times lately of the quote from John Wesley:
“Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.”
This is great advice for daily, Christian living.
We only have the time God has given us to do the work listed above. It really isn’t work if we
love one another as we have been taught by Jesus.
It has been great seeing many of you at the Ultreyas, and other functions. We all need to come
together. We are family! Recently, we quickly embraced the new pilgrims of E-194 and in May,
we will embrace those of E-195. The community is growing but don’t let this growing make you
think you don’t have to do anything. We need you! We need your joy to be seen and we need
your help. There are plenty of things to do in preparation for weekends. We need your
enthusiasm and joy at the Ultreyas. Please join us.
This is World Autism Awareness month. I have a nephew who is on the autism spectrum. He
complains often how people treat him. Again, I refer to the quote from John Wesley. John
Wesley is not referring to only a certain people, but to ALL. “DO ALL, BY ALL, IN ALL, AT
ALL, TO ALL! We need to help ALL people reach their full potential.
These weekends are a testimony to God’s abundant and extravagant LOVE! It begins with you.
We have Emmaus weekends, Chrysalis weekends, and Kairos weekends in progress. Do you
want to get involved? YES? Fill out an application to team, or sponsor someone, or the many
other areas where we need you - especially praying.
In His Grip,
Community Lay Director
Dan
March 2023
Hello Emmaus Community,
As we enter into the 40 days and nights of lent we know the devil will be testing us.
I personally feel like I am being challenged in this job every day. This was one of God’s
surprises. God is good all the time!
The past two months Chrysalis and the Emmaus Communities are moving forward for the future weekends with all the little things and not so little things that have to work together after our three year hiatus.
We had an awesome time at the February Ultreya with the introductions of the Women’s E-194(ever) team and the wonderful 4 th day talk given by Debbie McCluskey.
We have reservations for 2024/2025 at the 4H Community Center. As I was asking about the 2024 dates, I discovered many of the weekends were already booked. We were able to secure four dates. I asked about 2025, and to my surprise, many of those weekends were also reserved. I did not want to take any chances on not having a facility to hold our weekends, therefore, 2025 is also scheduled. People are ready and willing to get back to normal as much as normal will allow. I want to thank the Board for their help in securing these dates. Our Emmaus board is now back in full swing with in person meetings and tackling many issues.
We still had fees to keep the community together with shed rental expenses, insurances, etc. Our attendance is growing as well as our offering so these weekends can come together again. We are not “back to normal,” but we are on our way. We are still running at a deficit, but God is in control. I give God all the glory and praise for keeping us grounded in His love, faith, and determination.
I am excited that the youth started with an amazing Chrysalis weekend in January and are now planning for a summer weekend. In a couple of days the women’s team of E194(ever) with 27 pilgrims will be up on the Mountain top as God planned it! This women’s team has come from all over Virginia and also has a team member from Ohio. The men’s team of E195 is going strong and this weekend they will be making assignments and cleaning up after the women’s weekend. They, too, have men from all over Virginia and one from North Carolina on the team.
These weekends are powerful. We know this by the dedication of those on the teams and their families, and especially those willing to travel from great distances. We need lots of mens pilgrim applications as we only have approximately 20 currently in the data base.
Looking forward to seeing you at the March Ultreya at Bethel UMC in Woodbridge.
In His Grip!
DeColores!
Dan
Community Lay Director
February 2023
Hello Emmaus Community,
This new year has certainly proved to be a powerful and wonderful year and we are only in the
first month getting ready to start February.
We had a Chrysalis weekend which proved “With God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:26).
They had nine bugs who were all excited when turning into butterflies. Those butterflies did
“Give It to God!” which was their theme. It is always amazing to see the transformation taking
place which only God can do. This community, as the Chrysalis banner showed, is indeed rising
out of the ashes like the phoenix. C-104’s scripture was “Cast your cares to the Lord and He will
sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken.” Psalm 55:2. Those kids are on fire for the
Lord.
They showed their zeal at the Ultreya. We had over 90 people at the Ultreya. I look forward to
those numbers growing as we continue to rise out of the ashes. It has been a difficult three years,
but God sustained us. Raise a Hallelujah!
The women’s weekend E-194-ever is set to go March 2-5, 2023. Raise another Hallelujah!
They are currently in the process of calling the pilgrims. Team is set; assignments made; talks
given. They are excited to serve the Lord and meet the pilgrims. The theme for E-194 is: “Praise
and Worship Him Always!” E-195 starts teaming on February 18, 2023. We are well on our
way to have all our weekends this year as “Jesus answered , I am the way and the truth and the
life.”
Our weekends will be held at the 4H Center in Front Royal. I had an excellent meeting with the
Event Coordinator, who is as excited as we are to move onward and upward. Finding a place to
hold our weekends can be difficult. We had to put down a deposit for each of the four weekends
to hold the dates.
We are working at a deficit but we are relying on Christ just as we say when we begin to leave
the mountain: “Christ is counting on you; I am counting on Christ.”
DeColores,
Dan Dietze
January 2023
Grace and Peace to my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am Dan Dietze; I attend Above and Beyond Ministries; I walked on E-47 and sat at the Table of Pure Hearts.
I have accepted the call upon my heart to be your new Community Lay Director for 2023. I want to thank all the CLDs before me especially those who have kept this community alive and together during this difficult time of Covid. I also want to thank the Emmaus Community for keeping the love of God foremost and centered during this time of suffering and sacrifice.
Where do we go from here? The tough work is ahead as we are preparing to go forth with our weekends:
E-194 to be held March 2-5, 2023 (Women);
E-195 to be held May 4-7, 2023 (Men);
E-196 to be held September 28 – October 1, 2023 (Women); and,
E-197 November 2-5, 2023 (Men).
I know these are tough times for everyone: spiritually, emotionally, and financially. We are to walk by faith; however, we need to also be cheerful givers – “Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:7-8. I do not like asking for donations; however, over the last two years of Covid, we have continued to have all the fixed costs to operate our Emmaus community. Our Emmaus community, though no fault of our own, is currently operating at a deficit. We need to increase our donations during Ultreyas and Sponsor’s hour so we can continue to have the same quality weekend that you had. My wife, Gail, and I love this community and the weekends. This is why we came back to this community. Please consider giving generously with a cheerful heart.
We are always in need for Pilgrim applications. Please pray concerning sending anyone on an Emmaus weekend. There is more to being a sponsor than having someone fill out an application. The sponsor has responsibilities to support the person before, during, and after the weekend. The blessings are great for both the pilgrim and sponsor.
As 2023 begins, I see a lot of joy and hope for the future since we are beginning to open up our community to loving, serving, and bringing others to know Jesus in a powerful way. I enjoy the watching the sunrise in the morning as that gives me hope for the day. I see the sunrising for our community as we serve the Lord.
Chrysalis C-104 will be held this month, January 13-16. We, the Emmaus Community, need to support these “bugs” through our prayers and agape love (the Bug List is at the Bottom of this email).
If you have a desire to help in a support role, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or anyone on the board. The board is here to serve the community, and that is you. There is much to be done.
De Colores,
Dan Dietze
Community Lay Director