st. herman sock club

I am interested in learning to knit socks. I know this is a HUGE step beyond scarves but what is life without challenges, right? Is anyone else? I was thinking how fun it would be to have a small group learn together. We could may implore one of our crafty friends of st. hermans to lead us in this endeavour through the summer months... so that we are ready to roll when it is time to actually wear socks again.

If you think this is something you might want to do let me know.

ramona

Prayer request on behalf of Sandy F.

My beloved Auntie Tilly in Pennsylvania has been diagnosed with "Pulmonary Fibrosis". I don't know what it is exactly, but the doctors give her 5 years at the out- side to live before the disease fully overtakes her.
I'm still in shock. She is 77, but very active and mobile. Please feel free to post this where ever you think it is most appropriate to do so. She was to visit this summer, but has now cancelled and I fear that I may not be able to see her again.

Sandy

The Newest Francis

Basil catching up on rest after an exciting journey into the world.

Matthew gave me the go ahead--so it is with abundant joy that I give news of my sweet nephew, Basil Philip -- born to my brother Matthew and his wife Krista on May 19th. Basil arrived at 34 weeks and is a strong 4lbs 7oz. Please pray for continued strengthening for baby and mama, (and papa too!) xo

Prayer request for Mike Andruff

Fr. Lawrence asked me to post this today:


Please pray for Mike Andruff, a member of St. Herman's. Mike and his wife Natalie find it difficult to make the trip from White Rock to Langley each Sunday, and so Fr. Lawrence brings them Holy Communion once a month. Mike is in hospital in White Rock, undergoing tests and treatment for his gall bladder.

Online Homilies

While poking about the net for content for the Facebook group promoting Fr. Lawrence's books etc. I found some of the old homilies on the saintherman.net site. I thought some of the newer folks might not be aware of these, so here are some of the links. The old website needs an overhaul, and these things are not well organized, but there are lots to explore for anyone so inclined. I do know that an overhaul of that site is on the agenda for sometime in the future, but I don't know when. We are very grateful to the work Fr. Justin did for us in this regard when he was with us, but he is much too busy with St. John's to help out any further!

So here I've pasted in what I posted in the Facebook group-- I'm not certain if all the links will work or if the downloads will work either, but for what it's worth, here they are:

St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church: Finally caught up with the homilies...
http://www.saintherman.net/200...

MORE HOMILIES FOUND! Audio files at this page....beginning with an Annunciation homily, soon to be seasonal...I haven't checked each one carefully, so please let me know if any of them don't download properly!

Another homily, seemingly from August 05... I love Fr. Justin's little sales pitch! Many thanks for the work he did putting these up back then, before he got too busy with his own mission!

http://www.saintherman.net/2005/08/homily-blasphemies-of-christ-and-his.htm


And another-- Lazarus and the significance of names. I thought this one was gone, but here it is. http://www.saintherman.net/homilies/FrLawrence2006-10-22TheParableOfLazarusAndTheSignificanceOfNames.mp3

Another-- Cultivating the Soil of the Heart Oct 2006http://www.saintherman.net/homilies/FrLawrence2006-10-15CultivatingTheSoilOfTheHeart.mp3

Sorry these are not in any real order-- I am just posting them as I find them The Fears of St. Peter Oct 2006http://www.saintherman.net/homilies/FrLawrence2006-10-15CultivatingTheSoilOfTheHeart.mp3

This seems to be the main page with homilies indexed by date but no titles. So if you're looking for a particular topic, you'll have to root around. When I have time, I may look through and plan to message the membership or post one at a time at appropriate feasts or seasons.

http://www.saintherman.net/homilies/

This week's bulletin Info

REGULAR SERVICES this week:

Wed & Sat 7 pm VESPERS

Sun. 9:30 am MATINS
10:00 AM LITURGY


Coming up: YOUTH Gathering
Friday May 30th 7 pm at Syd & Melissa’s


DIAKONIA charitable ministry’s next project is:

ST. ARSENY ORTHODOX YOUTH CAMP.

Diakonia will raise funds to help families needing financial assistance to send their children to camp this year. See Maria or Angelina for details. For information about the camp, see Dn. Kurt.

To have an item included in a future bulletin, contact matdonna@shaw.ca
___________________________________________________

while I am here-- does anybody have a scanner? I would like to get the Saint Herman Logo from the church stationery (the same iconic-style line drawing image you see on the coffee cups) into electronic form so I can use it in the newsletter etc.

Fr's surgery, Greg's stress test

Fr. Lawrence's surgery went well today, and the doctor says there is no reason for him not to be at church this weekend though we want him to take it a little bit easy if possible. We just hope he won't get the stomach flu everyone else in the family has had.If you missed it, the pirate priest photo is here. ;-)

Greg's stress test showed him to be healthy as the proverbial horse-- all the doctor wants is for him to eat more salt to raise his blood pressure!

Thanks everyone for your prayers. See you at church!

Prayer Request for Matthew and Krista Francis in Edmonton and their baby-to-be

Matthew Francis emailed me today and asked for our prayers. I asked him if he would like me to post his email on Spruce Island and get everyone praying and he said yes. So here it is:

Can you please add Krista and the 'child to be born' of her to the prayer chain? It's not an emergency, but Krista has a condition called a "PPROM" - pre-term, pre-labour rupture of membranes at 33 weeks of pregnancy. So Krista is not in labour, but the waters have broken. We're at the Grey Nuns Hospital. Dr. Griffiths (Krista's obstetrician) came in yesterday (Wednesday, May 14th) morning and talked with Krista and I. We were glad to talk with her, as she is an excellent doctor. They're going to keep Krista in hospital until delivery, but if no labour starts this week, will likely begin induction this Sunday (May 17th), when Krista will reach 34 weeks. Going beyond this time with the waters broken can increase the possibility of infection, so likely we will have a baby this Sunday or Monday! : )

Until that time, Krista's on bedrest at the hospital, which is mainly just ho-hum. The baby's still doing really well. I'm getting Krista magazines and crossword puzzles to pass the time.

We just wanted our Brothers and Sisters to know, to ask for your prayers.

Thank you.

In Christ,

Matthew

The photo you've been waiting for....

God willing, after today's surgery, it won't be long before the pirate priest look is a thing of the past.....

On today's prayer list

As well as Fr. Lawrence's eye surgery today, Gregory G. will be going for his stress test on his heart to make sure that the swooning spells last week really were a result of that flu virus everyone seemed to catch, and not a heart problem. His family does have a very serious history of heart problems resulting in early death. All of his grand father's brothers died before the age of 40, two of his first cousins died of heart complications as babies and two other first cousins have had surgery to correct serious heart defects. To add to this, his elder sister has been suffering from heart palpitations for a year and Greg's heart has always beat kind of funny (skipping a lot). So please pray that the test comes back good.

Thanks everyone!

RHI

An update on my Dad's condition

So my Dad (Dave) went to the specialist twice in the last week to have his face checked. Just a reminder - he had a benign tumour removed from his cheek. It was attached to his salivary gland and now whenever he salivates his face blows up like a chipmunk and the spit doesn't drain properly. Plus he is a lot of pain.

So they put a tube in his throat to help the draining. But that means that all the spit he produces goes out of his throat and drips on his shoulder and chest instead of draining down his throat. So gross. He says he feels like Quasimodo. My Mom says he kind of looks like him too. :)

Apparently the tube will stay there for a little while still until his face heals. But they have no idea how long that might take. So please keep praying for him. After a botched back surgery a few months ago, this is all my poor Dad needs right now.

Thanks!

The Passion of the Christ

Hi, all,

Gelu passed this interesting article

http://www.laurentiudumitru.ro/The-Passion-of-Christ.php

on to me but with everything that's been going on I didn't get it posted sooner.

Father Lawrence's next surgery

....is scheduled for this Thursday May 15, to insert an artificial replacement lens. Please keep him in your prayers. This is apparently a relatively simple procedure and God willing, recovery should not take too long.