Dear Gloria Dei family…

Wow!!!! You really know how to celebrate, and I am so grateful to have been on the receiving end of so much love and joy and laughter.  August 15^th was a wonderful day for all of us – filled with those Gloria Dei hallmarks of worship and music and the warmth of gospel welcome that seemed to spill over onto all of us who came together to mark the milestone.  Thank you is completely insufficient, but let me begin with that and pray that the gratitude and thanksgiving I feel will somehow grow into memories that are rich and treasured forever.

The worship services were beautiful – the choir (with only 3 rehearsals) pulled off that new Stephen Paulus piece with such beauty and grace.  And to sing the “Pilgrim’s Hymn” at the end of the morning program put the appropriate Amen on that part of my life with you.

Sunday evening should be bottled and sold to any organization that needs to know how to celebrate well with great humor, perfect timing, and the appropriate amount of sincerity and hilarity that leaves one smiling for days on end…  THANK YOU for all of the creative effort and the wonderful words of blessing that came together in that evening’s entertainment…THANK YOU for the endless hours of planning that went into such a day, and THANK YOU for being such a powerful sign of God’s grace remembering so well the history we shared and still embracing the future.

I have been richly blessed in your presence. And your expressions of love and gratitude will warm my heart for years to come.  I thank you for the generous gifts I received – that beautiful vase, the promise of fresh flowers in it, the gift certificate to our favorite French restaurant  for our family to enjoy, and, of course, that wonderful gift for travel that we shall take pleasure in for some time.  Most of all, I thank you for the words -- spoken and/or written that conveyed the power of relationships grounded in this great love we have been given by God.  I thank you for the hugs, the tears, the children’s drawings, the youth’s baptismal prayer blanket… the powerful embrace of Gloria Dei that now goes with me.  You have been a rich treasure in my life, and I will forever be astounded and so grateful that God’s grace brought us together.

“For all that has been --- Thanks!

For all that is yet to be --- Yes!”

By God’s grace,

Rev. M. Susan Peterson