“Family Planning”
As many of you may know, our administrative assistant Ashely Sparks is expecting a child in the next few days or weeks and is thus preparing to take some maternity leave. The anticipated time off will begin April 23, and she hopes to return on May 21 (but as we all know with childbirth, neither Ashely nor the church is fully in control of baby’s exact arrival time). At this time, however, I wanted to share with you four (4) things to know about, and do, as Ashely prepares for this exciting time in her family’s life.
Be Prayerful. First and foremost, we love and care for Ashely as a person and wish to surround her, Alex, Ourin, Kisa and baby with all of our spiritual support. Specfically we invite you to pray for a safe delivery and for health and joy for the entire family.
Be Informed. To help with Ashely’s most visible duties, we have some volunteers coming in to assist us.
Theresa Fulk will be preparing The Visitor and worship bulletins, so you will see her in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Kathy Matherly has helped with attendance documentation and will continue to do so.
Additionally, we would like to have volunteers sit at Ashely’s work station to do three (3) things: a) answer the phone; b) take messages; and c) buzz people in the west entrance. Note: we are not asking these volunteers to have all the answers to queries from callers, but rather to direct them to appropriate staff. Volunteers will sit in the Welcome Center Monday – Friday in two shifts: From 8 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. and from 12:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Be Helpful. Thanks to Sandy Garver, all of the morning shifts for the Welcome Center receptionist position are covered! But there are still openings on some afternoons. If you are free to help us out from 12:30 – 5:00 p.m. on any of the dates listed below, please email me ( ), and we’ll get you on the schedule. Thank you in advance.
April 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25, 30
May 1, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 25
Be Flexible and Patient. Every one of our staff persons are valuable to us and were any of them to be gone for an extended time, we would notice just how much they do. Therefore, no one is going to be expected to “replace” Ashely during her leave. That would be asking too much of anyone. Rather, all of us on staff – and the volunteers coming in – hope to chip in and do what we can to make Ashely’s absence less noticeable. But we ask you to be reasonably flexible in your expectations and patient in your handling with us. We trust that if we all afford one another these gifts and courtesies, things will go as smoothly as possible until Ashely returns. Should you need, you may email Yvonne Boyd ( ) with office questions you may have.
Blessings – Michael