AUTUMN SAINTS

Greetings, as you can see we are in the midst of making the Autumn Saints material more available and user friendly. It is our hope that you will find this space especially helpful in leading your senior adults as they transition to this latter part of their lives. I will try to connect you to resources that I have found helpful in developing this material. You are invited to share your experiences in ministry to seniors. You are also encouraged to ask for specific help for your group. One of the obvious changes you will notice is the change from curriculum packets and disks to single books and online attachments that you may download to support your group leadership. Previously customers purchased a permit to copy the material for reproducing at their own worksite. This was time-consuming, expensive, and led to bulky bunches of pages that were hard for everyone to keep track of. The disks for Transitions and Facing Mortality will be available until the books are completed. I am presently working on Unit Four, Well Done! and hope to have it online by spring. Then I will proceed to Unit Five, Friendship with God and then go back to redo units two and three to the book format. As you can see there is a lot of work ahead. I have tried to keep the cost of the book modest so that your group members will not find it too expensive to purchase. I have included material for individual Bible study for five days of the week. If a group member has faithfully done their preparation work they will have a great deal to share with the others in the group. We all love to hear others stories and insights. It broadens our own understanding. There is room for each member to journal one question per day that connects with the biblical material they have studied. I have included a short paragraph of insights and thoughts that have impacted me in my own study of the material. Each chapter has a worksheet that will aid the group member to explore the topic more deeply. The individual work is more intimate than the group sharing. One is free to select what they want to share from their individual work without being forced to an intimacy with which they are uncomfortable. There are loads of resources for the leader to expand the study to include activities, movies, and additional resources. I think that you will find an abundance of possibilities. You as a group leader know your people and can select from the abundance what will best suit your group. May God bless you all as you undertake this exciting and meaningful work.

Sandy Escontrias