Radiant At Baptism
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "Radiant at Baptism"
Shining Moments: "Your Dad Likes You" by Kit Slawski
Good Stories: "Two Traveling Angels"
Scrap Pile: "Wanted"
What's Up This Week
by John Sumwalt
"This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17b). So said the Spirit on the day that Jesus was baptized.
It is no small thing to know that you are wanted, loved, cherished. It was something that Olympic long jump record holder Bob Beamon never had until he was in his middle 30s. Beamon's long jump at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City was once viewed as the single greatest individual achievement in sports. His fiance was in the stands to cheer him on. This was a new experience for Bob, who had never had any family members rooting for him from the time his career began at the age of 17. Years later he was to discover why he had been denied this comfort. Check out the Bob Beamon story in this week's Scrap Pile, and see Kit Slawski's touching testimony in Shining Moments.
For more baptism stories, click on the Cycle B and Cycle C editions of StoryShare for Baptism of the Lord Sunday.
A Story to Live By
Radiant at Baptism
And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he was coming up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending...
Matthew 3:16a
The brothers at St. Isaac of Syria Skete in Boscobel, Wisconsin, known for reproducing beautiful icons, reported a remarkable epiphany which occurred during a baptism recently.
"We (are) just returning from baptizing Elizabeth, the mother of Father Deacon Samuel Woolums, in a hospital nursing home, where she had lain for years in excruciating pain, wondering why God had let her live. She became radiant at baptism, and looked 30 years younger, even the next morning. The handmaiden of God Elizabeth went to God in her 85th year just a month later."
(Father Simeon, St. Isaac of Syria Skete Holy Orthodox Mission News, Vol. 10, No. 1, November 2004)
(St. Isaac's is now offering their new 8th edition catalog. It includes extensive reference material about the history, iconographic technique, and the spiritual significance of the imagery; 65 new stock icons; and 300 custom icon images. It features over 1125 icons, a large selection of metal and wood devotional goods, and has the largest selection of mounted icon prints manufactured in one place in America, prints drawn from many countries from the 5th century until today. Every image has an informative description accompanying it. The catalog makes a magnificent addition to any library or home, and is a beautiful gift. The cost is very reasonable for a work of this size -- just $10 -- and the catalog will last for years. 160 pages; full color; 8.5" x 11". For more information, click on http://www.skete.com).
Shining Moments
Your Dad Likes You
by Kit Slawski
And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
Matthew 3:17
My favorite memory will always be the special way the Peanuts characters helped my father celebrate his daughters' 13th birthdays. In the strip appearing on October 4, 1970, Peppermint Patty called Charlie Brown over to her house to show him what her father had given her for her birthday. Charlie Brown admired the roses, and Peppermint Patty said, "He said that I'm growing up fast and soon I'll be a beautiful young lady and all the boys will be calling me up so he just wanted to be the first one in my life to give me a dozen roses! He calls me a 'rare gem.' " Charlie Brown replied, "Your dad likes you... happy birthday..."
My father, Matt Wey, saved that comic strip. On my 13th birthday, I received from my father one dozen beautiful red roses and a statuette of Peppermint Patty that read: "To my Rare Gem." When my two younger sisters, Eileen and Molly, reached their 13th birthdays, they too were honored with this special Peanuts treat from our father.
Thank you, Charles Schulz, for this and many more special memories!
Kathleen A. Slawski has been known as Kit forever. She and her husband, Rob, have three sons, Andrew, Ryan, and Daniel, and are members of Christ the King Catholic Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Kit has been a stay-at-home mom for ten years and is a volunteer in parish and school activities.
(This story also appears in the Baptism of the Lord edition of StoryShare for Cycle C.)
Good Stories
Two Traveling Angels
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
Acts 10:39b-41
Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room. Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, "Things aren't always what they seem."
The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep in their bed, where they could have a good night's rest.
When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field. The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel, "How could you have let this happen? The first man had everything, yet you helped him," she accused. "The second family had little, but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die."
"Things aren't always what they seem," the older angel replied. "When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn't find it. Then last night as we slept in the farmer's bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead. Things aren't always what they seem."
Scrap Pile
Wanted
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights...
Isaiah 42:1a
"This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
Matthew 3:17b
Through it all -- the Olympic gold medal for the long jump, the world record that stood for 23 years, the private audiences with heads of state -- Bob Beamon always felt like the untouched, unloved, unwanted child he was raised to believe he was.
"They said my mother never held me," recalled Beamon... "When I was born, they said she left me in the hospital."
In his recently published autobiography The Man Who Could Fly, Beamon describes how at age 35 he finally summoned the courage to confront his grandmother about a lifetime of things left unsaid. Only then did he discover he had been lied to. Not only had his mother held him, there was visual proof of it. A black-and-white photograph shows his mother standing on a street corner holding her son in her arms. His mother, who had tuberculosis at the time of his birth, died shortly after the picture was taken.
Bob later... established ties with his great aunt, Emmie King, who wanted to raise Beamon and tried, unsuccessfully, to locate him and his brother... Beamon later found out that his aunt and uncle were literally just around the corner.
Emmie said that when Bob's mother died, she "...kept asking about her children and I never got an answer... Bob shouldn't have had to go through life thinking he was unwanted because that wasn't the case."
(Lena Williams, New York Times, January 2, 2000)
For more information about Bob Beamon, click here.
Father Randolph Bragg touches on this same theme in a January 13, 2002 sermon:
...one of the worst commonplace American insults is to call someone useless, of no use. That's just the way our society is structured, and as most human societies are probably structured. That we tend to value ourselves and to value others in terms of our capabilities is certainly true of our culture. Therefore, if it is true that when we are presented with an opportunity or a call to ministry, to a task entrusted to us by God, we feel ill-qualified or disqualified or unworthy, then that is a very serious spiritual problem...
Some of you may have read Peggy Noonan's column in the New York Times... She was writing about how struck she was by a small piece of dialogue in a new movie called Black Hawk Down. In this movie, an American military contingent has been badly shot up and the commander is trying to get some of the wounded out of the fire zone. He gets them into a truck and says to one of the enlisted men, "Drive this truck out of here." The enlisted man says, "Sir, I have been shot," to which the colonel replies, "Everybody's been shot. Drive." Everybody's been shot. Everybody's been hurt. The question is, "How does the Lord see us in our hurt-ness and what is His response to that?"
God does not judge the way we judge. God is not interested in whether you are useful or useless. You are precious to God, not because of what you can do... I think it's very important to state the positive case, and there are many, for infant baptism. One of the positive cases for infant baptism is that it models so clearly the idea that God does not call to Himself, pull to Himself and shed His love and inclusion only on those who are useful to Him. There may have been a time; there was a time, two or three hundred years ago and beyond, when children were a great help, an economic help. Children were a practical help. Now, they're utterly useless. Trust me! You take care of them. It's difficult enough to get them to make their beds, much less milk the cows if you have any. We do not value our children because they are useful to us. We value them because we love them. It's as simple as that, the best of us at the best of times. We value our children because God has entrusted them to us, because they represent hope and they represent an opportunity to give.
(Excerpts from a sermon by Father Randolph Bragg on January 13, 2002, at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia. For the complete sermon, click on http://www.standrewsarlington.org/sermons/sermon11302.htm.)
**********************************************
How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and e-mail the story to us.
How do I get a free sample of StoryShare?
Discover for yourself the real value of StoryShare. Click here http://www.csspub.com/storysample1.lasso to see some of our weekly editions.
How do I subscribe to StoryShare?
Subscribing online is convenient using our secure server -- or you can all CSS toll-free at (800) 537-1030 Monday - Friday from 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM (Eastern Time) or send an e-mail to orders@csspub.com, and our customer service team will be happy to assist you. Subscribers receive weekly installments of StoryShare -- plus full access to the StoryShare archives -- for an annual subscription rate of only $19.95. A two-year subscription is available for only $34.95. We think this is the best value in preaching, teaching, and devotional resources available anywhere. If you don't agree we will refund the balance of your subscription payment. To subscribe online, click here http://www.csspub.com/css-secure/storysubscribe.lasso.
We invite you to forward this offer to all of your friends who are looking for good stories.
**************
New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Anne Sunday, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
**************
About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions," "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today," and coming this spring: "Soul Growth: Discovering Lost Spiritual Dimensions." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
**********************************************
StoryShare, January 9, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "Radiant at Baptism"
Shining Moments: "Your Dad Likes You" by Kit Slawski
Good Stories: "Two Traveling Angels"
Scrap Pile: "Wanted"
What's Up This Week
by John Sumwalt
"This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17b). So said the Spirit on the day that Jesus was baptized.
It is no small thing to know that you are wanted, loved, cherished. It was something that Olympic long jump record holder Bob Beamon never had until he was in his middle 30s. Beamon's long jump at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City was once viewed as the single greatest individual achievement in sports. His fiance was in the stands to cheer him on. This was a new experience for Bob, who had never had any family members rooting for him from the time his career began at the age of 17. Years later he was to discover why he had been denied this comfort. Check out the Bob Beamon story in this week's Scrap Pile, and see Kit Slawski's touching testimony in Shining Moments.
For more baptism stories, click on the Cycle B and Cycle C editions of StoryShare for Baptism of the Lord Sunday.
A Story to Live By
Radiant at Baptism
And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he was coming up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending...
Matthew 3:16a
The brothers at St. Isaac of Syria Skete in Boscobel, Wisconsin, known for reproducing beautiful icons, reported a remarkable epiphany which occurred during a baptism recently.
"We (are) just returning from baptizing Elizabeth, the mother of Father Deacon Samuel Woolums, in a hospital nursing home, where she had lain for years in excruciating pain, wondering why God had let her live. She became radiant at baptism, and looked 30 years younger, even the next morning. The handmaiden of God Elizabeth went to God in her 85th year just a month later."
(Father Simeon, St. Isaac of Syria Skete Holy Orthodox Mission News, Vol. 10, No. 1, November 2004)
(St. Isaac's is now offering their new 8th edition catalog. It includes extensive reference material about the history, iconographic technique, and the spiritual significance of the imagery; 65 new stock icons; and 300 custom icon images. It features over 1125 icons, a large selection of metal and wood devotional goods, and has the largest selection of mounted icon prints manufactured in one place in America, prints drawn from many countries from the 5th century until today. Every image has an informative description accompanying it. The catalog makes a magnificent addition to any library or home, and is a beautiful gift. The cost is very reasonable for a work of this size -- just $10 -- and the catalog will last for years. 160 pages; full color; 8.5" x 11". For more information, click on http://www.skete.com).
Shining Moments
Your Dad Likes You
by Kit Slawski
And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
Matthew 3:17
My favorite memory will always be the special way the Peanuts characters helped my father celebrate his daughters' 13th birthdays. In the strip appearing on October 4, 1970, Peppermint Patty called Charlie Brown over to her house to show him what her father had given her for her birthday. Charlie Brown admired the roses, and Peppermint Patty said, "He said that I'm growing up fast and soon I'll be a beautiful young lady and all the boys will be calling me up so he just wanted to be the first one in my life to give me a dozen roses! He calls me a 'rare gem.' " Charlie Brown replied, "Your dad likes you... happy birthday..."
My father, Matt Wey, saved that comic strip. On my 13th birthday, I received from my father one dozen beautiful red roses and a statuette of Peppermint Patty that read: "To my Rare Gem." When my two younger sisters, Eileen and Molly, reached their 13th birthdays, they too were honored with this special Peanuts treat from our father.
Thank you, Charles Schulz, for this and many more special memories!
Kathleen A. Slawski has been known as Kit forever. She and her husband, Rob, have three sons, Andrew, Ryan, and Daniel, and are members of Christ the King Catholic Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. Kit has been a stay-at-home mom for ten years and is a volunteer in parish and school activities.
(This story also appears in the Baptism of the Lord edition of StoryShare for Cycle C.)
Good Stories
Two Traveling Angels
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
Acts 10:39b-41
Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room. Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, "Things aren't always what they seem."
The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep in their bed, where they could have a good night's rest.
When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field. The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel, "How could you have let this happen? The first man had everything, yet you helped him," she accused. "The second family had little, but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die."
"Things aren't always what they seem," the older angel replied. "When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn't find it. Then last night as we slept in the farmer's bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead. Things aren't always what they seem."
Scrap Pile
Wanted
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights...
Isaiah 42:1a
"This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
Matthew 3:17b
Through it all -- the Olympic gold medal for the long jump, the world record that stood for 23 years, the private audiences with heads of state -- Bob Beamon always felt like the untouched, unloved, unwanted child he was raised to believe he was.
"They said my mother never held me," recalled Beamon... "When I was born, they said she left me in the hospital."
In his recently published autobiography The Man Who Could Fly, Beamon describes how at age 35 he finally summoned the courage to confront his grandmother about a lifetime of things left unsaid. Only then did he discover he had been lied to. Not only had his mother held him, there was visual proof of it. A black-and-white photograph shows his mother standing on a street corner holding her son in her arms. His mother, who had tuberculosis at the time of his birth, died shortly after the picture was taken.
Bob later... established ties with his great aunt, Emmie King, who wanted to raise Beamon and tried, unsuccessfully, to locate him and his brother... Beamon later found out that his aunt and uncle were literally just around the corner.
Emmie said that when Bob's mother died, she "...kept asking about her children and I never got an answer... Bob shouldn't have had to go through life thinking he was unwanted because that wasn't the case."
(Lena Williams, New York Times, January 2, 2000)
For more information about Bob Beamon, click here.
Father Randolph Bragg touches on this same theme in a January 13, 2002 sermon:
...one of the worst commonplace American insults is to call someone useless, of no use. That's just the way our society is structured, and as most human societies are probably structured. That we tend to value ourselves and to value others in terms of our capabilities is certainly true of our culture. Therefore, if it is true that when we are presented with an opportunity or a call to ministry, to a task entrusted to us by God, we feel ill-qualified or disqualified or unworthy, then that is a very serious spiritual problem...
Some of you may have read Peggy Noonan's column in the New York Times... She was writing about how struck she was by a small piece of dialogue in a new movie called Black Hawk Down. In this movie, an American military contingent has been badly shot up and the commander is trying to get some of the wounded out of the fire zone. He gets them into a truck and says to one of the enlisted men, "Drive this truck out of here." The enlisted man says, "Sir, I have been shot," to which the colonel replies, "Everybody's been shot. Drive." Everybody's been shot. Everybody's been hurt. The question is, "How does the Lord see us in our hurt-ness and what is His response to that?"
God does not judge the way we judge. God is not interested in whether you are useful or useless. You are precious to God, not because of what you can do... I think it's very important to state the positive case, and there are many, for infant baptism. One of the positive cases for infant baptism is that it models so clearly the idea that God does not call to Himself, pull to Himself and shed His love and inclusion only on those who are useful to Him. There may have been a time; there was a time, two or three hundred years ago and beyond, when children were a great help, an economic help. Children were a practical help. Now, they're utterly useless. Trust me! You take care of them. It's difficult enough to get them to make their beds, much less milk the cows if you have any. We do not value our children because they are useful to us. We value them because we love them. It's as simple as that, the best of us at the best of times. We value our children because God has entrusted them to us, because they represent hope and they represent an opportunity to give.
(Excerpts from a sermon by Father Randolph Bragg on January 13, 2002, at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Arlington, Virginia. For the complete sermon, click on http://www.standrewsarlington.org/sermons/sermon11302.htm.)
**********************************************
How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and e-mail the story to us.
How do I get a free sample of StoryShare?
Discover for yourself the real value of StoryShare. Click here http://www.csspub.com/storysample1.lasso to see some of our weekly editions.
How do I subscribe to StoryShare?
Subscribing online is convenient using our secure server -- or you can all CSS toll-free at (800) 537-1030 Monday - Friday from 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM (Eastern Time) or send an e-mail to orders@csspub.com, and our customer service team will be happy to assist you. Subscribers receive weekly installments of StoryShare -- plus full access to the StoryShare archives -- for an annual subscription rate of only $19.95. A two-year subscription is available for only $34.95. We think this is the best value in preaching, teaching, and devotional resources available anywhere. If you don't agree we will refund the balance of your subscription payment. To subscribe online, click here http://www.csspub.com/css-secure/storysubscribe.lasso.
We invite you to forward this offer to all of your friends who are looking for good stories.
**************
New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Anne Sunday, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
You can order any of our books on the CSS website; they are also available from www.amazon.com and at many Christian bookstores. Or simply e-mail your order to orders@csspub.com or phone 1-800-241-4056. (If you live outside the U.S., phone 419-227-1818.)
**************
About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions," "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today," and coming this spring: "Soul Growth: Discovering Lost Spiritual Dimensions." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
**********************************************
StoryShare, January 9, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
