Sweet Mungarians

Below is a message from our beloved Kate Miner following her last Sunday after 11 years of ministry at Munger. May God bless her in her retirement.

Sweet Mungarians:

I am filled ALL UP! Your outpouring of emails, texts, letters, artwork from kids, flowers and gifts have
been so delightfully silly and generous. Just SO MUCH. I LOVE IT ALL!

Let me tell you:

At Thursday night’s service, during rehearsal, I was coming undone. It didn’t get much better during the service - here’s why:

I looked to my left, up to the balcony windows, and I saw my favorite Tiffany blue diamond-shaped piece of glass.

I looked out to the sanctuary and spotted the cool portholes in the swinging doors that separate the foyer from the sanctuary.

I looked down at the stage carpet and watched the shapes of my Gibson Girl and my lion emerge from the paisley design - as they have for the 10 years I’ve been standing there.

I heard Kelly singing with me, harmonizing as I say “like stink on a pig”, so effortlessly - I remembered how much he did not like me when I came on the scene. (Kelly will tell you differently, but I am telling you the truth)

I remembered where I was, in a parking lot on the phone, watching a 12 year old Ethan playing soccer, when Greg told me that MAYBE he would consider playing drums, but he wasn’t sure...

It wasn’t until I was driving home that I realized God was walking me back through beautiful “firsts”. I realized then that our whole time of worship that evening, and the great time with Andrew’s “Dan Rathering” of me, had been held “in Remembrance of Me”. God brought me out of Egypt, and into Munger - He did that for me - and He wanted me to remember.

I did, I do, and I will, always.

Finale Sunday:

Andrew knew that I didn’t want anything to be different. I wanted it to be normal. I truely (hard to believe) didn’t want any attention.

Per usual, Andrew threw my wishes out the window and I got a fan club, sensational sticky snacks, a wall of infamy, and A FUNERAL. IT WAS SO PERFECT!!

Everyone should get a funeral before they die. Every day is a gift. Our ministry to those we love and value should encompass eulogical whispers every single day.

And then - in another brilliant stroke of knowing me, Andrew dedicated the offering to my heart’s cause, CureDuchenne. Thank you to Andrew and the staff for loving me so generously.

Final thoughts; If/when you get lost, feel unseen, wonder why you are still breathing - let me remind you of two things.

1) It’s not about you, and you thinking that it is, is what is making you miserable
2) God’s call on your life is this: Rejoice always. Pray always. Be thankful in all ways, for all things,
always. (1 Thess. 5:16+)

God’s great gift to me in the last 4 months of retirementing has been an extravagant peace. I have had a particular love for you for 11 years, a kind of love that doesn’t quit. I will remember you in prayer, beseeching God on behalf of YOUR deliverance into extravagant peace.

Kate