Last week, you received a packet of information containing a proposal for a new staffing model at Broadway. Please make sure you received this and take time to review it carefully. Copies are also available in the Atrium and Friendship Hall. 

There will be several opportunities for church members to hear more about this plan and bring questions or concerns. These meeting options are listed below:

Church-wide Presentation – Sunday, August 28 – 4 p.m., Friendship Hall

 Listening Sessions (a time for church members to ask questions and share concerns):

    - Wednesday, August 31 – 12 p.m., Friendship Hall
    - Sunday, September 4 – 9:45 a.m., Chapel
    - Wednesday, September 14 – 6 p.m., Friendship Hall

Town Hall Meeting - Wednesday, October 5 – 6 p.m., Friendship Hall
(Facilitated by Bill Wilson, Director of the Center for Healthy Churches)

Promotion Sunday is inevitably one of the busiest days in the life of a children’s or youth minister. The day typically falls on the heels of back-to-back playdates and camps taking place throughout the summer, but should be a momentous occasion for those children or youth moving into a new grade or Sunday School class. As the minister overseeing the day, its meaning can get swept away in all the details. 

But on Sunday afternoon, I came home from church refreshed and excited. 

Last year, the staff met and decided to try a “Blessing of Teachers and Students” in worship along with our traditional Promotion Sunday activities. We knew we wanted to invite teachers and students from the area in order to bless them along with the host of teachers and students we already have at Broadway.

After the second year of blessing teachers and students, I can say without hesitation that this is quickly becoming my favorite service at Broadway. I love seeing educators from the community, hearing the voices of children and youth lead worship, and watching as people lay hands on one another. The service is such a joyful and affirming way to start the new school year.

This year, our parking lot was filled with educators from Chenoweth Elementary and the West End School, our two mission partner schools. Guests posted on Facebook about how blessed they felt at Broadway!

When I asked the children what it felt like to have people lay hands on them, they said, “It made me feel like someone cared a lot about me.”

The Blessing of Teachers and Students has truly become a model for the hospitality and blessing we offer at Broadway. Thank you for entrusting your ministers to plan and execute such meaningful opportunities to bless and affirm such a selfless group of people.

     -Emily Holladay

We will resume the Wednesday night fall semester programming on August 17.  The featured event will be the BBC Jazz Trio. Please make plans to attend this fun event as we resume our time together as a church family on Wednesday nights.

Please call the church office at 502.895.2459 to reserve your spot!

-----

With Wednesday Night Activities resuming on August 17, it is time once again to make your dinner reservations! If you would like to make a permanent dinner reservation, please contact the church office at 502.895.2459 before noon, Tuesday, August 16. If you would like to make a reservation for just one week, please remember that they are due by noon on Tuesday of that week. 

Emily Dotson 

In Košice, for four mornings, we went to a crisis center for women and children.  Whether the issue is domestic violence, poverty, or other conflict, these families have somewhere safe to live at the crisis center. During the summer, the kids get bored because, without school, they are in the same place all day every day, so we went and played games with them. We played baseball, basketball, and soccer, as well as other small games teaching the kids about Jesus. We also taught the children to make small friendship bracelets and used face paint to make them look like cats, tigers, butterflies, and much more. By the end of the week, the kids were trying to chase our van down the road as we left. 

In the afternoons, we went to a village outside of Košice called Keseroce, we intended to be working with older youth, but as the week progressed, more children and youth of a wide age range came to join our games. Just like at the crisis center, we played games, made bracelets, and used face paint with the kids from the Roma community. They especially loved beating us at soccer. Each day, a couple of us gave our testimonies in front of the group. We explained how God has been present in our lives in hopes of showing the kids that God wants to be present in their lives.  

While working each day, we were challenged to think of where we saw God. I found that during the week, I saw God everyday in the way the kids, both at the crisis center and the village, wanted to know us. Even though we didn’t speak the same language, we learned each other’s names and we played for hours. The games didn’t require us to talk, we could show God’s love to them through our actions. 

One thing I learned while working in Slovakia was the difference between being materially rich and being rich in love. The kids we played with weren’t materially rich like we are. They were, however rich in love for each other, rich in community, and rich in acceptance. The moment we got out of our van, all of the kids wanted to know us, play with us, and be with us. They were an example to us of how to love and accept others like Jesus did. 

Cassie Lyles 

    It was an honor to make the journey to Slovakia with Chris, Christy, Carter, Wil, Meagan, Summer, Rebecca, Katherine, and Emily.  I loved getting to know each of them better, and seeing glimpses of God revealed in them.  We all grew and we all saw God, sometimes in ways we never imagined. 
     I saw God in the power of music. Music is part of what drew me to Broadway in the first place.  It is the vehicle through which I worship.  This was also true of the Roma people we worked with throughout our week.  Music commanded respect, communicated love, and crossed all boundaries.  It was a valuable experience for me to not be able to participate in the way I normally do because of language barriers.  It caused me to have to take a step back and observe which allowed me to see the lovely process of how a guitar and one voice could turn into many voices singing praises.  I saw people turn from jeering to receptive to the message because of the undeniable vehicle of music.
    Before our arrival, I had some idea of what sort of tension may exist between Slovaks and Roma, and I expected that to be part of the experience.  Cultural competency is something that has long been a passion of mine, and it grew into a desire for justice for all people.   In my day to day life, I teach students who live in poverty.  The work we were doing in Slovakia echoes what I do in my daily life.  The children in the crisis center cared for each other the way my students care for their siblings; the kids in the village could have walked right out of my classroom.   The growth I experienced on this trip had more to do with making global connections in experiences I already had, but also because something happened to me on a very personal level.  I am no stranger to conversations with students about injustices involving race, gender, and class.  I have witnessed its impact on their lives, and I try to take action when I can, but I usually escape the sting of injustice towards my own person. 
     On Wednesday, we stayed with host families.  My host family was Roma and had several women my age who embraced me into the fold.  I went into a cosmetic store inside the mall with them.   They were nicely dressed.  We had an adorable young child with us.  None of that mattered.  As soon as the security guard saw us, he followed us at an extremely uncomfortable distance, inches, not feet.  Because they were Roma, he assumed we were going to steal.  Dasha, one of the women, turned and said something to him and we left the store.  In the corridor of the mall, she asked me if I saw what happened, and if I understood what she said.  I asked if it happened often.  (All the time.)  I asked if it ever made her angry.  Of course it made her angry sometimes, but how did she deal with it?  She handled injustice and hate with love.  Instead of insulting him, she jokingly asked if he would like to finish the rest of the shopping with them as well.  
    I was inspired by her beautiful example of responding with love while also not allowing the injustice to go unaddressed.  As I enter a new school year in a new building, this is an idea I want to carry with me.  I hope to address injustice at every turn, but do so lovingly.  I will show God’s love instead of giving in to anger or standing by passively.