ALS WALK
NOV. 6, 2010
Atlanta: November 6, 2010 at Centennial Olympic Park
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!
When you sign up, be sure you choose Melissa's team, called "Fiver's Flamingos."
Melissa Kern, one of our most excellent alto choirsisters, was diagnosed with ALS in December of 2007. She and her husband Chris (our bass choirbrother) have been a lesson to us all with a continued display of their most excellent sense of humor, their joy and their love. Chris and Carla created a choir anthem "Christ has no body but yours," set to a prayer text from St. Teresa of Avila. Dedicated to Mel.
I dedicate this song to my loving wife Melissa Theresa Petrey Kern, on the double-advent of our 10th wedding anniversary and St Gabriel's 10th anniversary, both of which happened on May 10th, 1998. We felt such a strong connection to this church from our first visit, when we left already drafted into the choir by Carla! This church has has given us a place to belong, to be strengthened, comforted and renewed in our faith and commitments to God and to each other. No other church has provided this to us along with such caring, laughing fellowship as St. Gabriel's. We couldn't imagine our lives without being part of this church now, just as we can't imagine how we would deal with our current troubles without the support and fellowship that St. Gabriel's provides us.
The words of this song, "Christ has no body but yours, yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world," ring so true to our life now. Truly, we are the vessels that Christ uses to deliver his will and do his good on the earth. To me, the greatest miracles of Christianity have never been the direct actions of God or of his son--Parting the seas, healing the blind, walking on water-- the most incredible things have come from the combined actions of those who follow Christ. The small efforts that his millions of followers can do together add up to miracles that even the Lord may not have dreamed. Even down to the small gifts of love and goodwill that one person can do for another-- some food for families who are going through a rough patch, a prayer quilt sewn and knotted with wishes of healing from the congregation-- these are the greatest miracles that can be done on Earth, and Christ depends on us to make these good things happen.
So this is for Melissa, and for St. Gabriel's which has become our family in faith.
~Chris Kern
May 2008
The words of this song, "Christ has no body but yours, yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world," ring so true to our life now. Truly, we are the vessels that Christ uses to deliver his will and do his good on the earth. To me, the greatest miracles of Christianity have never been the direct actions of God or of his son--Parting the seas, healing the blind, walking on water-- the most incredible things have come from the combined actions of those who follow Christ. The small efforts that his millions of followers can do together add up to miracles that even the Lord may not have dreamed. Even down to the small gifts of love and goodwill that one person can do for another-- some food for families who are going through a rough patch, a prayer quilt sewn and knotted with wishes of healing from the congregation-- these are the greatest miracles that can be done on Earth, and Christ depends on us to make these good things happen.
So this is for Melissa, and for St. Gabriel's which has become our family in faith.
~Chris Kern
May 2008
