Sunday Forum meets Sundays at 9:45 a.m. in the basement classroom.
May 6: May Mission Focus: The Kijabe AIDSRelief Ministry
Dr. Jon Fielder will speak about the Kijabe AIDSRelief ministry and the larger
problem of HIV in Africa. Jon and his family (wife Amanda and son Matthew) served
in Kijabe, Kenya with Africa Inland Mission from 2002 until 2006. Jon has been
a member of Christ the King Lutheran Church since 1995 and is a graduate of
the Baylor College of Medicine. In Africa, he oversaw a large AIDS ministry
and treatment program at Africa Inland Church Kijabe Hospital. The Kijabe AIDSRelief
program has served both as a model for other such treatment efforts and for
local church engagement with the HIV epidemic. Amanda worked as a counselor
at Rift Valley Academy, a boarding school for missionary children.
The Fielders are currently on home assignment for the year and living in Dallas, where Jon is an assistant professor of medicine at UT Southwestern Medical School and works at the Parkland Memorial Hospital HIV clinic. See also Jon’s article on Kijabe Hospital AIDSRelief.
May 13: “Doing life” in a Healthy Way
Dr. Richard Hofmann returns
Dr. Richard Hofmann, a clinical psychologist and director of the Canadian Chatsworth Pavilion Intervention Center, returns after only a few months to Christ the King Lutheran Church’s Sunday Forum. The philosophy of the Chatsworth Pavilion states, “We believe that recovery is much more than just overcoming self-defeating patterns and/or dependencies. We believe recovery is about “doing life” in a healthy way and “being well”. It is conquering our fears, mastering our inadequacies, restoring communication in our relationships, and nurturing our “inner strength of being”.
May 20: ReFirement instead of Retirement
Retirement used to be understood as the next phase after a long work life, retiring
from many if not most activities and spending the rest of one’s years
focusing on the challenges of aging and ailing, at best getting a bit of traveling
in and helping with the grandchildren. This concept and its assumptions have
changed dramatically. We are living much longer than our ancestors. There will
be more retired folks than the still-working generations can support through
taxes and charitable giving. And sitting around “doing nothing”
indulging ourselves is not good for our health—mental, physical, or spiritual.
It’s also a tragic waste of a lifetime worth of experience and education.
So, don’t retire. Just re-fire! Come to Sunday Forum on May 20 to participate in a conversation about a variety of key issues, facilitated by Linda Schoene and Pr. Kathy Haueisen. The conversation is based on the book ReFirement by James Gambone. Gambone, old enough now to retire, is too busy helping others enjoy this stage of life to even think about such a thing. This Forum is intended to be the start of an ongoing conversation on the topic to be continued at a Sunday evening table talk in early summer.
May 27: On electing a new bishop for the Synod
The Sunday Forum on Pentecost Sunday invites all to a conversation on the upcoming
bishop election at the Synod Assembly in The Woodlands on May 31 - June 2. Bishop
Paul Blom has served the Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod for sixteen years,
having been re-elected twice. Synod council member and Christ the King Church
member Nancy Cook and advisor to the bishop Pr. Kathy Haueisen will facilitate
an informed conversation on the procedures and on the role of the bishop in
the lives of the congregations.