“Greetings Members and Friends of Hazelwood Christian Church. I look forward to joining you beginning October 8th as your Interim Senior Minister. It will be good to meet you, and I wanted to let you know a little bit about me as well.
“My husband, Jerry, and I will celebrate our 30th anniversary of both marriage and our ordinations this year. We met at Christian Theological Seminary, and after many years of living away from Indiana, we have made our way back here and it feels like coming home. That is probably because our family is here. Jerry’s mother, brother, and sister all live here, as well as our older daughter Jennifer, her husband Andrew, and our two grandchildren, (Atticus, 14 and a freshman at Carmel High School, and Colette, 12 and in the 7th grade at Carmel Middle School.) Our younger daughter is single, lives in Baltimore and her life’s work and passion is to sing! In November she and her quartet will participate in an international competition where they currently hold 5th place in the world. Of course, they want to go for first, so I’ll be joining her for that week in November.
“During our 30 years, we have served churches in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Northern Kentucky. As we moved back to Indiana, I became the Interim at Carmel Christian Church, which I completed last June. So I had a 4-month taste of retirement. I believe I was as busy as when I was in ministry (but those of you who are retired know of what I speak!)
“What else can I tell you? I love interior design, and I like to think of it as ‘creating sacred space.’ I love being a grandmother. I love God who has brought me through rough places, and given me mountaintop views of life. I love the church, where God’s people strive to love God and live life fully, as we make our witness to God’s world.
“I’ll be in Muncie from Wednesday through Sunday, and go to Indianapolis Sunday afternoon. Monday will be my day off with Jerry, and Tuesday before I return to Muncie, I will spend the morning and early afternoon at Christian Theological Seminary, where I am supervising five seminary students as they fulfill their student pastorate assignments.
“I look forward to being with you, as we work together to discover what God is opening up for your lives, and for Hazelwood Christian Church.”
See you soon, Diane.
