Dear Serving People of Good Samaritan Episcopal Church,

Greetings from Augusta, Georgia!

Kim and I are very excited to be coming to Brownsburg for me to serve as your Vicar-in-Charge! We have been impressed with your tenacity, open-mindedness, and your vision statement of “ Love, serve, and include all people, no exceptions.” We are eager to get to know and build relationships with you and are excited about the ministries that you have continued and look forward to contributing to them and discovering where the Holy Spirit will lead us.

A good question your Bishop’s Committee asked me was “why I wanted to become a priest?” I shared with them the following story. I was a camp counselor at Waycross and Hickory Hill back in the day! I remember telling someone it was the best job I ever had. And I would be totally happy if I could be a camp counselor the rest of my life.

Kids from all over the diocese would attend, and I taught them all about nature, God’s Creation, naming all the kinds of different trees, snakes, and other wildlife. In addition, I got to teach them to prepare worship services! We worshiped together each day, hiked, learned together, and ate all our meals together. In doing so, we were able to build a faith community, and that is something I cannot wait to do at Good Sam’s as your Vicar-in-Charge.

Here is a prayer for Guidance in our ministry from our Book of Common Prayer page 832.

Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, by your mercy obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Please watch for our next communication in the coming weeks.

In His service,

Jim+ and Kim