Stephen Ministers

The Stephen Ministry program is a confidential one-to-one lay support group to members of our congregation and community. Stephen Ministers play an important role during difficult times in people’s lives by showing their care, concern and love.

Our care receivers are people who are referred to us by our pastors, friends, or family or those who seek our help for themselves. Their anonymity is closely guarded as are the conversations that they have with their caregivers.

Stephen Ministers have an initial training program of at least 60 hours and then continue to meet twice monthly to support each other and learn new skills.

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"I AM THERE"

By James Dillet Freeman

Do you need Me?

I am there.

You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by.

You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.

You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.

I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.

I am at work, though you do not recognize My works.

I am not strange visions.  I am not mysteries.

Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.

Yet I am there.  Yet I hear.  Yet I answer.

When you need Me, I am there.

Even if you deny me, I am there.

Even when you feel most alone, I am there.

Even in your fears, I am there.

Even in your pain, I am there.

I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.

I am in you, and you in Me.

Only in your mind can you feel separate from Me, for only in your mind are the mists of "yours" and "mine."

Yet only with your mind can you know Me and experience Me.

Empty your heart of empty fears.

When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.

You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.

And I am in all.

Though you may not see the good, good is there, for I am there.

I am there because I have to be, because I am.

Only in Me does the world have meaning; only out of Me does the world take form; only because of Me does the world go forward.

I am the love that is the law's fulfilling.

I am assurance.

I am peace.

I am oneness.

I am the law that you can live by.

I am the love that you can cling to.

I am your assurance.

I am your peace.

I am one with you.

I am.

Though you fail to find Me, I do not fail you.

Though your faith in Me is unsure, My faith in you never wavers, because I know you, because I love you.

Beloved, I am there.

(A copy of "I Am There" is now on the moon…carried there on the Apollo XV voyage by Astronaut James B. Irwin, and left on the moon for future space voyagers.)