Building Up the Body of Christ

On Sunday, we had a lovely worship service of music, scripture, and prayer. Thanks to all who participated, particularly Bill and all our musicians! We also welcomed 4 new members, and because they have all started attending our church within the last year, I wanted to give you the opportunity to learn more about them. All 4 of them have jumped right in - among other things, Andi has joined the choir and sang a solo on Sunday, Chris has read scripture in worship, Kate has joined Bible studies at church, and Delphia has participated in women's retreats. They all bring many gifts to our congregation, and I hope you'll take the opportunity to greet them and get to know them better!

Every one of you is a treasured and important member of the Body of Christ. Paul wrote, "The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:12). So even as you get to know our 4 newest members, I hope you'll let them - and all of us - get to know you better as well. We need each other to build up the Body of Christ.

Hope to see you at one or more of our opportunities to gather and worship this week.

Blessings,

Manda

Kate Booth was born and raised on a farm in Northwest Missouri until her family moved to town, where she discovered the joys and drawbacks of neighbors.  She attended Missouri Western State University where she received her B.S. in Economics and Business Administration. After graduating, Kate was the Director of Childcare Services for the Saint Joseph School District and oversaw the District's 15 childcare centers. Miraculously, all 1000 children survived her tenure in the position.  In 2009, she accepted a position with the local Community Action Agency as the Director of Research and Planning.  Currently, Kate is the Assistant Director for the Cayuga Heights School Age Program. She is helping coach two elementary basketball teams at CHES and loves to be physically active: working out at the gym, hiking, and playing softball, basketball and golf. She enjoys cooking, taking naps, and being with her wonderful new Ithaca  friends! She is a huge women's basketball fan (Go Lady Vols!) and the proud mother of Stella, a 1-year old puppy. She does not like spicy food but is committed to trying at least one bite of everything.

Delphia Shanks is a second year PhD student in the department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University where she studies poverty, inequality and social policy. She loves living in Ithaca and has been excited to become involved at FCC so early in her residence here. Although she had hobbies before graduate school, she no longer remembers what they were and now divides her time between reading at the library and reading at home. She has taught swing dancing, nonprofit board management, and long division. Previously, she lived in St. Joseph, Missouri, where she worked for a Community Action Agency, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she completed Teach for America, and in Grinnell, Iowa, where she completed her undergraduate degree and a GrinnellCorps fellowship.

Andrea (“Andi”) and Chris Dietrich both grew up in Michigan,met in 1998, married in 2005, and moved to Ithaca in 2008. They jus discovered our church, and dove right in!
 

Andi works at Cornell as a C-Print Captionist, attending classes with deaf and hard of hearing students and transcribing lectures in real time. When she's not working, she spends a lot of my time in various choirs – the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton, the Ithaca Community Chorus, and of course our choir and handbell choir. She is a certified geek, and enjoy gaming, sci-fi and fantasy, Muppets, and dice, among other things! She crochets, and does a lot of gluten-free baking when she has the time. Andi is thrilled to have found such a wonderful church to call “home!” :)

Chris is the sort of person that spends a long time on a bio where he is depicted as being raised by a pack of wild Esperanto-speaking turnips before settling for an accurate description of himself. He grew up in Michigan, but has lived in Ithaca for the past few years. Chris is an avowed geek-of-all-trades, repository for an amusing excess of trivia, and a self-described “conversational black hole.” While Chris hopes to professionally return to the field of disability rights and advocacy, he is currently working as a research assistant at Cornell's Survey Research Institute and as a freelance educational game-master.

From Left: Delphia, Kate, Andi, Chris