The Reverend Battle Beasley      

Dear People of God,

     Rally Day has come and gone which means opportunities to grow on our spiritual journey abound. Your time and talent survey is not simply a list of things going on here at St. Mark’s, it is in a real sense, an opportunity for you to evaluate your Stewardship of yourself. 

What are you doing for yourself to deepen your relationship with God? Many of us are tempted to stay within our comfort zones, to do what we have always done and nothing more. Yet if we are to grow, if we are to learn more about who God created us to be, who God is calling us to become we need to expand our horizons, our safety zones. 

A good rule of life includes 3 areas of discipline: Work, Study and Prayer. 

The area of work focuses on that which we consciously dedicate to God as an offering of ourselves, this may include our vocation, our outreach ministry, and our physical work for or at the church. 

The area of study includes formal classes, EFM, Companions in Christ, Sunday School, or our more solitary commitments such as private Bible study, reading Forward Day By Day, or reading other books. 

The area of Prayer includes corporate worship and personnel devotions, including Centering Prayer or Group Spiritual Direction. 

Soon we will be involved in our Pledge Drive and the vestry and stewardship committee will be asking us to examine our Stewardship of ourselves financially.  I urge you before you make that examination and commitment to look at making a rule of life for yourself this year trusting that out of the commitment to deepen your relationship with the living Christ your financial stewardship will more clearly follow. 

If you would like to talk or read more about making a rule of life please speak to me. 

God’s Peace 

Battle +

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St. Mark's Visitors at Santiago Apostle

Three members of St. Marks visited our companion church, Santiago Apostle in La Pila, Ecuador during the summer 2002-mission trip. Frank Brannon, Holly Granger, George Kurz (St. Marks), Sarena Pettit, (translator, St. Joseph of Arimathea), Judy (nurse) and Gene Hines, and Haley Beadle
(Messiah) accompanied Dr. Alfonso Morante to conduct a clinic at the church. This clinic was made possible in part with $760.00 contributed by St. Marks parishioners at the Ecuadorian dinner held in June. Contributions covered the cost of transportation, supplies, and assistance given to the
church there for building improvements. Additional medicines were contributed from the Diocese of Tennessee.  Although this was only a small clinic, it represented an important contribution to this community. Sadly, the hospital workers were on strike again this year, and the poor people do not have access to any health care or medicines except for these clinics. The economy is still very weak, and the reason that these strikes occur is that the hospital workers, themselves have not been paid.

We left our hotel in Guayaquil early on 17 July. The Rev Susan Crane (Coordinator for Hispanic Missions) arranged for a small bus before we left the USA. It took about four hours to reach La Pila, which is north-northwest of Guayaquil - near the coast. The roads were paved most of the way and were in fair condition. There were many times we had to travel slowly due to road repairs, through small towns, or animals on the road. On our arrival, we were pleased to see the new addition (funded by St. Marks) to the church structure. This is intended as the sacristy. It still only has a dirt floor; however, we used it for our pharmacy. Previously, we experienced problems with crowd control, so this made for a better situation, because the medicines could be dispensed through a window to people after they had seen the doctor. Dr. Morante is a hard worker and managed to see about 70 people during the clinic.

There were a variety of problems: respiratory infections, high blood pressure, skin infections, malnutrition, and parasites. Just about everyone received anti-parasite medicine and all the children were given vitamins. Also, dental kits for 108 adults and 144 children were distributed or given to Pd. Cristobal Leon for use later. Haley Beadle is a pharmacy student and works in a pharmacy in Pulaski. She and Frank did a great job of organizing and sorting medicines under

primitive conditions and responding to Dr. Morante. Holly
worked with Nurse Judy to collect medical histories, and helped to keep the children occupied.

There were so many people that we did not stop for lunch until about 4:00. The senior warden invited us to his home for dinner (chicken and rice). Afterwards, we asked him to bring out some of his latest ceramic, and we made some purchases for presents. We also inspected the progress of the work on the sacristy. It appeared that the steel needs a coat of anti-corrosive paint. Additionally, flashing was needed where the roof of the structure joined the wall of the main church. Our trip back to Guayaquil was uneventful, but it was a very long day by the time we arrived back at hotel about 10:00 PM.

  Our expenditures were: $230.00 for the bus, $313.00 for the dental kits, $80.00 for Dr. Morante, and we left $150.00 with Bishop Morante to be used to buy the needed paint and flashing and materials for the floor. All of us deeply appreciate the opportunity to represent St. Marks during this mission visit and we thank you for your contributions and continuing
support for this on-going relationship.

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