Dear Friends,

I know you are going to say, “How many attachments?”  There are a lot!  There is the bulletin for this Sunday, the minutes from the meeting for business last Sunday, all necessary documentation for that business meeting, information for the SCYMF Annual Meeting, and information from the food bank for the summer food drive.  All of these are important as we make the transition from spring into summer. 

Transitions take lots of information sometimes, and many of us dread the thought of taking in all of that information to make it from one thing to another.   Many times transitions can feel overloaded, especially if we are still in one phase while getting information for the next, like in spring being prepared for summer.  But please don’t let the massive amount of information keep you from opening the attachments.  There is good news in each if only that something positive is being offered to offset a problem area. Hang-on please and stay with us through this transition.  Things do and will get even better.  They already are.

Thank you for the evaluations. They were very thoughtful and obviously prayerfully filled out with a lot of constructive feedback. The consolidations of these are in two of your attachments, one for the pastor and one for the associate pastor.  For your input into how we can improve, let me say, “thank you.” Many of you noted that this year has been better than last in different but important ways, as last year was a huge transition for us as a family and individually. We left a place where all was settled, and there weren’t many large transitions left ahead.  But we felt led to come to Klamath Falls, totally unaware and unprepared for such a transition.

In the moving truck as we were leaving the driveway in Indiana, my phone “rang,” and my older son told me that his father, my ex-husband of thirty years, had only weeks to live.  Part of me scattered on that lawn in Indiana, pieces that weren’t even known to be lost until recently. Who was showing up for this church was someone incapable of showing up for anything completely.  It was the beginning of a very rough year that had begun with losing my best friend to cancer and ended with my only sister dying from cancer as well. 2023 into 2024 was tumultuous for both of your pastors.  And as a result we as a church are smaller and our finances show it as well.  We are growing, a person or a family at a time.   But for all of you who worried about returning, the time is right.

I grew up as a teen in what is known as “tornado alley.”  Tornadoes this week are tearing up the South as hot air is bumped by cold.  And almost every community I am aware of, if it has more than five hundred citizens, has two alarms that will be listened for.  The first is the sound that means to take cover, a long-extended siren blare that can be heard for miles.  A tornado has been positively spotted and is in the area able to cause destruction.  The second is a set of three short siren blasts that repeat – It is an all clear. 

I look forward to being with you another year and feel like we can listen as Spirit sounds the “all clear” for us spiritually here for Klamath Falls Friends.  And I look forward to a post-transition pastoral position this year. We have come through a lot as a church and as its pastors, and we are stronger in many ways for it.  We are dedicated to being a place where Positivity and Truth are counted on for spiritual renewal and uplifting. We are tighter and more strongly attached in our commitment to the church and each other.  With almost as many attachments as this newsletter has, we stand together waiting for Spirit to lead us forward into a new future with our legs safely on solid ground.  In many ways I feel like the moving truck has just arrived, and there is much to be done (and that has been done) to hold us in the Palm of the Creator through all the turmoil.  So please join us.  I am confident that together we can rise and be for this community the church that is needed to offer a place of joy and spirit-led actions.

Here are the announcements for the rest of June.

Announcements

·       June 8 – 9:00 – Bible Study

·       June 9 – 5:30 – M&C

If anyone has any feedback or questions for the meeting or the pastors, please contact Wendy or Bernie.

·       June 15 – 9:00 — P&SC

·       June 15 – 11:00 — Final Book Club Meeting for Quaker Ecology

·       June 22 – 11 — Art and Spirituality with Sue

·       June 27-29 – Annual Meeting at Reedwood Friends in

Portland – All are encouraged to attend – Joe will be

being recorded as a minister on the morning for June 28.  To access via zoom please go to  https://forms.gle/smqZcHT4pPYhMH8ZA to register for zoom workshops or to be present via zoom for the business meeting on Saturday morning when Joe will be recorded.

Link for Schedule Below:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeqR4D878k-V69D2tOoHoPj9QgkEcoqPh9m60gekHw14dlcQw/viewform

The Bible Study at 9:00 AM on Sunday the 8^th will be on the first chapter of the book of James.  This is a book that follows the sermon on the mount in most of its writing and is centered on how we treat people in the community and in our lives.  We organize our bible classes like we do other things at KFFC, in a Quaker way that is not scripted and not judgmental.  Together we share what it means to us, or if it doesn’t mean anything at all, we either say so or allow the discussion to just flow forward.  No one is expected to know it, like all of it, or have the same viewpoints.  It’s just a time to listen for Spirit and share.  We learn a lot from each other.

We also learn a lot from each other as we interact with other Quakers. The information on the Yearly Meeting workshops goes with the information from the bulletin for signing up for zoom sessions.  Joe will be recorded as a minister at about 10:30 on June 28, if you want to join via zoom.  Also there is a list of workshops attached.  Some are very interesting looking.  The link for zoom registration is https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeqR4D878k-V69D2tOoHoPj9QgkEcoqPh9m60gekHw14dlcQw/viewform

The information for the pantry is very important as we try to respond to the lack of food stability in the Klamath area, especially for children out of school.  Please look at the list that is in the attachment and fill a grocery bag for a child or children in an impoverished family.  Please mark your bags “Summer Food Drive” since these will be weighed and counted apart from the regular donations.  You can still make regular donations to Klamath Interfaith Food Pantry either through your church or by dropping off needed items such as cleaning products, hygiene products and/or laundry products at the church or when you attend.  I am in the office every Monday and Friday and can take donations.  Right now there are problems with how the funding is being messed with at the top of the giving tree in the country, and we are expecting to lose services and funds to people who are serviced by the food pantry.  So we need your help!  These kids and these families need your help.

Blessings,

Leigh