Beginning Sunday, September 12th - Youth Bible Study IS BACK!

We are going to resume Youth Bible Study hour on Sundays throughout September and October. Kaylea Robertson will be leading this time.  Many of you had the opportunity to meet her this summer at Kellye’s house.  We’ll start September 12th and carry on till October 31.  Depending on interest level, we’ll decide how to proceed after October.  Bible Study/discussion time begins at 9:30am and ends at 10:30am in the “youth cave.”

 We will continue our 2nd Sunday Pizza lunches beginning on September 12th.  Future dates for lunches this Fall are October 10th  and December 12th.  The only exception is November.  Instead of Pizza Sunday we will enjoy the 6th Annual Pot-luck Thanksgiving!  The fun happens on November 21st at 9:30 during Bible Study hour.

 We also want to play!  Most students have a school holiday on October 11th.  So, after our lunch together on the 10th, we’ll go across the street to Highland Lanes for bowling.  I’ll limit our time there to 2 hours so those of you who do have school on Monday can get home before it gets too late in the day.

We are also looking for new service opportunities.  If any youth or parents have ideas for us, please pass them along via email to Kellye at coolchic@stic.net

All Journeyers, old, new and indifferent, are invited to a special gathering being held directly after worship on Sunday, September 12th. This gathering will be led by YOU, the community. This is a Community Check-In, a conversation, and an opportunity for all Journeyers to share their hearts and thoughts around Journey as we move forward as a faith community. This is about connection, communication and community within all aspects of Journey. Your leaders, your Shepherds, your fellow Journeyers want to hear from you. What you have to say is important.

*Food and drinks will be provided.

*Childcare for 3rd graders and below will be provided.

 *Also, a prayer space will be available from 7am to midnight on Monday, September 13th in the living room at Journey. This space is available to anyone and everyone for continued discernment and sharing of thoughts and prayers around this imperfect faith community we call Journey.

Parents – September 12 is our official promotion Sunday - the week all the kids will move up into their new grades!  This year we will be trying something new with our Children’s Ministry: all of the K-5 children will be combined into one large class.  This class will meet in the library and use the small classrooms for projects.  (The Preschool class will remain in their room).  Our new curriculum is multi-age and experiential, and we are excited to launch a new year of learning with and from our youngest Journeyers.  All of the children (preschool – 5^th grade) will be participating in similar, age-appropriate lessons during Sunday school, and those in Children’s Worship will be building on what they did in Sunday school (although it is not necessary for a child to have attended Sunday school in order for Children’s Worship to make sense). 

If you would like to volunteer to help out with our children or have any questions about this new system or curriculum please contact Bethany Paul (bpaul@journeyifc.com) or the Mind Team (terryz@io.com or julieclawson@gmail.com)

Tom Kimmel is a soulful and unique singer and performer who has captivated audiences from Birmingham to Bhutan, from San Francisco to Stockholm, winning fans and garnering critical acclaim in the worlds of folk, rock and spiritual music. Add to that the fact that he’s an award winning songwriter whose songs have been featured in film and television and recorded by the likes of Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Nanci Griffith, Randy Travis, Shawn Colvin, Dianne Reeves and many, many others, and you’ve got a night you won’t want to miss!!

“…not only one of the finest songwriters alive, but an incredible performer—mixing his songs, humor and story-telling to create an experience that is pure theater.” —Pierce Pettis

Come join us at the Journey Warehouse (3009 Industrial Terrace) for this amazing show -- and bring a friend or two!

Doors will open at 6:30 and the show will begin at 7:00.

Coffee, tea and desserts will be available.

Tickets will be $15.00 in advance and $18.00 at the door. To reserve your tickets please mail a check for $15.00 per ticket made out to Tom Kimmel c/o Judi Sawyer, 2307 Campden Drive, Austin, TX 78745. Please include your name, telephone number and email address. You will receive a confirmation email upon receipt of your check and tickets in your name will be held at the door.

All proceeds go to the artist.

For further information please contact Judi at jsawyer1@austin.rr.com or 512-470-3879.

JOURNEY IFC 2010 FALL WOMEN’S RETREAT

Thursday, Sept. 23 – Saturday, Sept. 25

THE JOURNEY WAREHOUSE & HOMESTEAD STUDIO SUITES

The way we communicate matters.  Words have power…the power to encourage, inspire and support, or the power to discourage, humiliate and undermine.  Paying attention to both the positive and negative ways which words have affected us in our lives can be quite eye-opening.  And examining how we are communicating to the world about who we are and what we think can be empowering.  Each of us has a story to tell.  Each of us has a “living voice” which deserves to be heard.

Come and talk about all these ideas and more at our fall retreat, Viva Voce.  During the retreat, there will be 3 large group sessions, led by Janettee Henderson*, that will help us learn more about ourselves and the way we communicate.  Leslie Diamond will also be leading some shorter discussions throughout the weekend.  For the first time we will have a different format and there will not be any elective sessions.  Instead, we will have time for some more small-group activities.  And in the tradition of Journey Women’s Retreats, we will also find a way to work in large amounts of fun, gut-busting laughter, and great times spent with other women.

Again this year, we will be having our retreat at our own Journey Warehouse!  In an effort to respect that we are all facing these stressful economic times, we decided to hold the cost of the retreat as low as possible so that more people would be able to attend.  The retreat sessions will be at the Warehouse, and we’ll spend our nights at Homestead Studio Suites located only a block away. In order to make sure that we didn’t lose any of the aspects of the retreat that make it a true “retreat,” we will be staying together at the hotel and not in our own homes, and all of the food will be catered by a variety of local restaurants.  The Warehouse will be completely off limits for all other Journey activities during the weekend.  We will be the only people using it. It’s going to be a fun, creative experience.

The cost for the retreat will be $110.00 per person for a room with 4 women, $120.00 per person for a room with 3 women, $135.00 per person for a room with 2 women, or $180 per person for a room with 1 woman.  The cost is all-inclusive and will cover lodging, all meals, and supplies for the retreat.

The retreat will begin at 6:00 pm on Thursday night and will end at around 4:30 pm on Saturday. 

The retreat is planned so that each part builds on the previous sessions.  Because of that, everyone is encouraged to plan on being at the retreat for the entire time in order to get the most out of the experience.

Register ASAP!    The retreat will be here soon…so get your registration forms in now!  Please invite friends and family.  The retreat is not limited to Journey members only.  Everyone is welcome!  Registration is due by Aug. 15.

Download Registration Form

Download Release Form

IMPORTANT NOTE:  It is very important to the Women’s Ministry at Journey that every woman who is interested in attending the retreat be able to.  There are funds available to help make that happen.  Please do not let finances be the reason why you do not attend the retreat!  If the fees present a difficulty at this point in your life, please contact Leslie Diamond (leslie@journeyifc.com) about possible scholarship opportunities.

*Janettee Henderson has a Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy, and is in private practice here in Austin.  Her amazing insights into the human soul and her talent for making those insights accessible help to make the retreats challenging and meaningful.

Would You Like to Help?

Would you be willing to volunteer to help out with one small part of the retreat (i.e.:  an activity, set-up, etc.) that would take only about 1 hour of the entire weekend?  We are planning on asking many people to help with individual parts of the retreat so that no one person will need to work the entire retreat and miss out on being a participant.  No matter what your talents and gifts...there will be a great diversity of ways to help.  Please let Leslie Diamond know if you are interested in volunteering to help out with the retreat in some capacity by emailing her at leslie@journeyifc.com.

Scholarship Donations

There will be scholarships available for those who might need some financial assistance to attend the retreat.  If you are interested in donating to the Scholarship Fund to help these individuals, please contact Leslie Diamond at leslie@journeyifc.com.

Ways to Volunteer to Help

Registration

Specific activities during the retreat

Audio/Visual during the retreat

Audio/Visual ahead of time

Drama

Music

Decorations/Environment

Liaison to help with needs of the participants (1 person per day of ½ day during retreat)

Preparing supplies ahead of time

Donate to the scholarship fund

The Death, Dying and Bereavement Series is held at the Journey Warehouse 7-9 p.m. Everyone is welcome!

Monday, September 20th "Spiritual/Theological concepts around Dying” Rick Diamond, minister at Journey IFC, will discuss what he believes about heaven, God, God's judgment, God's grace, what happens when we die.

Monday, October 18th Topic: Spiritual/Theological concepts around dying

Monday, November 15th Topic: cultural diversity and the difference between grief and complicated grief

Monday, December 13th "Grief and the Holidays"

When light passes though a lens, it is bent or "refracted." It is changed. We all see the world through the lens of our own experience. Here, Journeyers share some of those experiences and lenses with you. Refractions is a new feature of the Journey website that will present stories, images and sounds that show how Journeyers see the world and the Divine. This project was very dear to our late pastor David Gentiles and is dedicated to his memory.

If you are interested in contributing to Refractions, please contact Margaret Zimmerman.