St. Francis Bulletin

I hope that all of you enjoyed your summer and that you were able to get to some place cool, at least for a few days. With the coming of September things begin to wind up again and that is true at St. Francis as well.
 

You may be wondering where our building program stands at present. We are currently working with an architect to provide us with a design for our new church which will be located on Oak Creek Drive. We have been working with representatives of Aquila, a commercial real estate firm which handled our buying and selling transactions, to help us wend our way through the maze of proposals and approvals needed for and by the City of Austin in order to make our plans a reality. I’m sure Mark Rambin will keep you updated on the specifics when there are some. Please keep praying that our plans will come to fruition so that we can get to the building aspect of the plan.
 

As I mentioned to you in church a few weeks ago, there will be a city-wide prayer service on Thursday, September 5 at Great Hills Baptist Church on Jollyville Road to kick off the seven week Explore God program being launched in Austin beginning September 8. Explore God is designed to help those who are interested in thinking about God, perhaps a little more than they have in the past, investigate some of the questions many people have about God. There are different aspects of this program, including a sermon series which I will undertake beginning September 8, and discussion groups which we will probably not undertake as a parish unless the small groups want to take on these topics for themselves. I realize that most of you are well beyond the investigation stage in your relationship with God. My purpose in undertaking this is to help all to think about some of the questions many people have and perhaps have skipped over because the answers to them are not all that easy. This is for me, too. Although I have been accused in the past of thinking too much, I don’t always do it when the questions are really hard. Also, one of my responsibilities as a pastor is to equip the saints for ministry. You come into contact with far more people than I do. Many of them may have these questions and you may have been reluctant to engage in this type of conversation with them because you thought you weren't equipped to do so. I hope that this will help. The topics for the sermon series are as follows:

You may have from time to time investigated some or all of these questions with varying degrees of success. The answers to them are life-long pursuits. Perhaps this will help all of us to delve more deeply into them.
 

40 Days for Life will begin its fall campaign of prayer vigils in front of Austin’s four abortion clinics on Wednesday, September 25. You will have the opportunity to sign up at St. Francis or on line. But I encourage you to do this if you are able. Your commitment is only one hour a week unless you want to do more.

On the evening before the 40 days begin, the Austin Pregnancy Resource Center will have its annual banquet and fundraiser at the Doubletree Hotel. St. Francis will have a presence there. As you know, St. Francis has actively supported APRC for several years because of the work they do to help parents avoid the tragedy of abortion. I am proud of the support we have given to them and all of the Pro-Life organizations we have supported throughout the years of my ministry at St. Francis.
 

A couple of quick notes at the end here. I want to thank Becky Hunt for leading the summer bible study for women on the Book of Judges. Every-one seems to enjoy these series and studying the bible is never a waste of time. I also want to express our sincere condolences to Dinah Arce and her family. Dinah’s husband, Roy, passed away on August 16. Please keep the Arce family in your prayers.
 

From September 25th - November 3rd we will unite with hundreds of cities across the country and world for a simultaneous 40-day prayer vigil. 40 Days for Life is a 40-day campaign of prayer, fasting and a constant peaceful prayer vigil in front of abortion clinics. This international movement has resulted in 40 abortion clinics closing, over 100 abortion clinic workers having conversions and leaving their jobs, and over 7,536 women choosing life for children they were going to abort. Here in Central Texas at least 160 women have changed their minds and chosen life! An information table will be setup in the reception area for two weeks in September. Many St. Francis members register online -- so now is the time to do this! Go to this site to register. You can also call the Coalition for Life office at (512) 296-2071 for more information or speak to Rory Motl or Fr. Len to find out what this is about. The commitment is an hour of praying one day a week for 6 weeks. Most of us can spare an hour and it does make a difference.

A group of mothers is planning to gather on Mon-day, September 16 at noon for an hour of prayer for our children and grandchildren, plus the chil-dren of St. Francis. Every mother should consider attending this service, especially if your children are now adults! The parental influence greatly changes when the child grows into an adult. Pray-er helps us as mothers to focus on seeking God's will for us and for our children. The influence of the world is a tremendous pressure on everyone and prayer helps us keep the focus on God. Using the special relationship of mother to child, to know when and what to say something and when to be quiet -- needs God's guidance at all times.

5th Sunday Activities