Well, Sherry, Buffy, and I are now settled in the Chicago area. As you may know, we were blessed to sell our home in RI at full list price, in a last-minute transaction that even our realtor called "divine intervention." We have also been blessed with a wonderful place to live and we had a great Thanksgiving with our family in New York.
God has been very good to us, and it looks like I may have found a church... where the songs are singable and the sermons are short. Things are good... but we miss you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I miss seeing your smiling faces and I miss both of our Bible Studies and both of our Men's Groups. I miss the kids on Sunday mornings and I will miss not being with the Thompsons this Christmas eve. I miss many things, except for the meetings, but the point of this brief letter is not to lament about what I miss... but to thank you all.
I want to thank each one of you who gave us cards and/or gifts at either one/both of my retirement parties. All of them were thoughtful and many of them were most generous. I want to thank those who opened their homes to Sherry and me- some of you on many occasions- and I want to thank those who have contacted us after I retired and even after we've moved to Plainfield, I want to thank each member of our Session for their support, leadership, and commitment to the church. I also want to thank every member of the church staff and most particularly, Donna Reedy, for doing her work with excellence and faith!
We have been overwhelmed with leaving, moving, and resettling, and I confess that I am not the best at writing thank-you notes. However, even though I served bigger churches along the way, I am convinced that my time at SPPC was the best time of my ministry! You gave me the opportunity to love and lead, to teach and minister, to baptize and bury, and to know and be known, as we worked, planned, and played together. You gave me the opportunity to serve Christ in your midst and what is more- you supported me as I did. No man could ask for more!
I have every confidence that you will continue to serve our Risen Lord with energy and grace, and I know that He will bless you when you do. I served SPPC for seven years, and as anyone in "my" Bible Studies would know, seven is a very good number! May our Lord bless you richly- collectively and individually- and may He be ever so present to you this Christmas! Sherry and I will never forget you and we thank you in ways that words really can't express.
Remember to speak the truth in love,
pk and Sherry
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