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Lay Witness Speakers Highlight Personal Stewardship Messages
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How beautiful are these stewardship
messages from the heart!
Shank & Kathleen Marquart shared their stewardship thoughts at the 9:00am Mass.
Hello, my name is Kathleen Marquart. My husband is Everet, but everyone calls him Shank. We are lifelong members of SFB parish. We have been blessed in so many ways.
Our parents and grandparents were
members also. Shank’s grandparents were part of the beginnings of St. Gertrude Parish, and mine were one of those twelve stars in the new parish logo. Shank’s mom and dad raised eight kids, and he recalls they brought an envelope to Mass every single Sunday. I remember my grandma telling me once, they didn’t have money so they brought chickens to the priests!
So, when we married, we knew what we had to do…bring an envelope to church. Over the years, we raised six children of our own, and they went to SFB Grade school. And I guess that’s when the “had to” changed to “wanted to” bring an envelope to Mass. We realized the labor of love and sacrifice of our parents, along with the dreams we had for our own kids and we WANTED to give back to God.
Think for a moment. Everything we have is a gift….from God…free.…our talents
…this beautiful church
…our families
…our jobs
…every single breath is a gift…no strings.
Since then, we have met so many wonderful people!…in my job at the grade school for over 15 years
…CHRP
…working at the Food Pantry
…volunteering at JMJ
…all the fall festivals, dinners and breakfasts
…we have had book/bible studies in our home and here at the parish
…made friendships that have lasted over fifty years. ALL gifts from our good God!
Please consider how you are blessed. Pray over what God has given you. What are your gifts?…financially?
...spiritually?
I mean, we live in the USA, the Midwest, Washington, and are members of SFB. We could be in Puerto Rico, Middle East, so many other places. But God put us right here. How can we possibly give back to the Lord for all he has given us?
Thank you for listening!
Scott and Jaime Obermark offered their stewardship thoughts at the 11:00am Mass.
Good morning! My name is Scott Obermark. My wife Jaime and I received an email from Jennifer Hill a couple weeks ago, asking if we would “prayerfully consider” speaking about stewardship at one of the masses on this weekend. I thought “oh man, I wish she wouldn’t have added the ‘prayerfully’ before the 'consider'. It would have been easier to say no! So, I did pray about it, and despite my many excuses and reasons why I thought it was a bad idea…I still felt that God wanted me to say YES. I did, and here I am.
So in reflecting on what I could possibly say about stewardship, the word YES kept coming to mind. A few years ago a friend of mine approached me and asked if Jaime and I would consider (thankfully he didn’t say ‘prayerfully consider’) co-chairing the Sausage Dinner which was in a couple of weeks. They were in a jam. They hadn’t had any luck finding anyone yet. I told him to keep looking because I didn’t think we would be able to do it. At that point in time we hadn’t really volunteered for any parish functions.
I went home and spoke to Jaime about it, thinking I already knew the answer would be no way! But she said YES. Absolutely! She could see the shock on my face. She explained that we are members of the parish to be sure. But we haven’t been a part of the parish. We needed to start participating in the parish. She was of course right. So I called my friend back and told him the good news. He was as shocked as I was. That was six years ago. It has really opened our eyes to see what we were missing out on. Jaime and I are still running the dinner with Martin and Sharon Eckhoff (and looking for someone to take it over…wink, wink).
The day we said YES to that couple who were in a jam looking for help, we didn’t just say YES to them. We said YES to God as well. You see, God gives us the gifts of Time, Talent and Treasure. He didn’t give us these gifts to keep for ourselves. He wants us to share them. When we volunteer to work a shift at one of the breakfasts or dinners or festivals or craft fairs or any of the parish functions, when we usher at a mass or serve or lector or sing or play music or quilt or use any of our talents for the parish, when we put money in the basket or give to the ADA etc., or go to the breakfasts or dinners or spend money at the festivals, we are saying YES to God. We are saying YES Lord, I will share that which thou have given to me.
I guess that’s why God didn’t listen to my excuses and wanted me to say YES. He wanted me take the time and really think about how I see stewardship. So now I will ask you all to ‘prayerfully consider’ saying YES as often as you can.
Thank you for listening!
