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Evergreen Outreach

By Charlene M. Jett
Thank you, FAYCO,  for coming to our meeting. We did miss our Long Term Care, Sweetbriar and Vandalia Rehab friends. We had perfect spring weather for an outing, hope to see you all next week. We were also missing Miles Filer and his sister.

Beulah, where were you?
We listened to Donna Smith,  our pianist, as she played a few welcoming songs, and we enjoyed our refreshments. We sang our "Welcome" and meeting songs, to the tune of "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Auld Lang Syne." These songs, which were custom-made for Evergreen Outreach, provide a light-hearted yet meaningful foundation and purpose for our meeting. Not so with the Rev. Jim Fackler’s joke book, which is audaciously funny.
Seriously, Fackler was our leader, and his joke book is GREAT. Did it surprise you that he was our entertainer, too?
Let me start at the very beginning. We sang "Happy Birthday"  for several members and volunteers. My list of all the names got lost in the joke book – sorry!  Happy birthday to everyone,  anyway. We then moved forward to the  devotions, where Fackler told about how important it is to try and think like Jesus. This explains the relationship of Jesus being a shepherd,  and how we are his sheep. Jesus can lead us (through all aspects  of human life) and even if we occasionally get lost, he will find us and bring us back to his fold (the church).
He just wants us to love one another. That is pretty simple, but sometimes very difficult.   Fackler is masterful at weaving in and out of the Bible and his joke book, so at this point he moved into the joke book.  BEWARE! Stand-up comedy act below!
He hit our comedy stage with so many one liners that I couldn’t keep up! I probably couldn’t remember the punch line of half of them, so they will not be repeated here!  Seriously, his act is one you NEVER want to follow! You will just need to join us for his next performance. With a twinkle in his eye and slicking back his thick head of hair,  he moved into about 22 testing tongue twisters, which left some of us jabbering like a 3-year-old, trying to keep up with him.
Most of his jokes are short and playful jabs at some of life’s most difficult, sad and complex moments and issues. His control and expression of humor helps us all find release in the tragic circumstances in which we may find ourselves. He was the only person last year who could name all the seven dwarfs of Snow White. The entire audience had forgotten about Happy. I will never forget about Happy and how easy it is to lose him!
One refreshing joke was about the church’s  senior choir sending out a singing  invitation  to everyone to join them in sinning! Bad typo! What did I tell you about his book – just full of love and yet RIDICULOUS!
Brenda was happy to show us a "bird's nest” hat she knitted, and Fackler even tried it on for size! Please see the funny photo above that was taken by Karen to share with you all! He finally allowed Donna and I to do a couple of sing-alongs with everyone. We made it through “Amazing Grace” and a few more before it was time to leave. Chad was a song leader with Fackler for one of them. Way to go, Chad!
The pinochle participants  were very preoccupied with their game. Rosamund Hobler and Mary Woolsey TOTALLY lost out to Ruth Ann Scott and Richard Kruenegel.
We missed Shirley Locke, too. Hope you all can come to our meeting next week! 

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