President's Blog

What a month! Well October has been a very busy month here at the Wesley Foundation! Since it was such an epic month, I think I should recap it all today, before everyone moves on to the excitement of November and preparation for Thanksgiving. However, I think I will start with the most recent events and proceed backwards in time since a very exciting event happened yesterday. And no, I’m not referring to Halloween, I’m talking about the WF volleyballers’ total domination at their second game of the season.  The opponents were the “Blacklung” of Sigma Phi Epsilon (who just happen to be our across the parking lot neighbors!)The game started slowly, but soon the Wesley team was warmed up and was blocking and hitting despite Sig Ep’s attempts to stop them. And so, with a final score of 25-7, 25-10, the Wesley team gained its first victory of the season.

This past Saturday, October 28, under the initiative of Roy’s small group, a group from Wesley joined efforts with other service organizations to help clean and paint the house of a senior citizen.

On Thursday the 28th we had our Wesley Halloween Celebration.  Thanks to Kristi and Kellie we had some delicious but disgusting snacks. We had a spectacular costume contest with many people dressing up and some winning the coveted paper plate awards. Drumroll please….The Only at Tech award went to Jenna. The Coat of Many Colors award went Kellie. The Fazenbaker Award (for a good and joyful costume) went to Kristi. The Ostrich Award (for silliest costume) went to Steve. And the John 5:4 award (there are no words for this costume) went to Patrick. Everyone had a splendid time playing Beatles rockband, decorating cupcakes and carving pumpkins. Oh, and we even had a visit from Mr. Joe (Sam’s dog) who dressed up as Robin.

The weekend of October 22 was the Wesley Walk for Others at Stone Mountain. A group from Wesley camped the night at the park and then helped clean up after the walk on Saturday.

The weekend of October 8th was Homecoming at Tech, and we had many people stop by Wesley on their way to the game. 

And last but not least, the first Friday of October was Wesley night at the Braves. We all had a great time despite the chilly temperature!

Whew! What a weekend it has been at Wesley! Friday evening we had a wonderful time with the women from the Breakthru house. They joined us for dinner which consisted of delicious burritos (thanks to our always lovely chef, Kristi Painter!) Then we headed over to O’Keefe Gym to watch the GT Women’s Volleyball team take on Duke. It was a thrilling game up until the last moment when we lost in the tie-breaker. Nevertheless, we all had an awesome time. The Breakthru Ladies had a chance to see all of our crazy antics during sporting events. They joined in on each song while adding in their own dance moves. Even our intern, Sam, joined in on the singing, despite knowing only a few words to each song.

Also, since this past weekend was family weekend, at Sunday morning’s service we were joined by some families for breakfast. This was a great time for the families to see who we are and what we do.

Then, to wrap up an eventful weekend, we all gathered at Gordon Biersch Sunday evening for the program “A Jew, a Christian, and an Atheist Walk into a Bar”. The panel consisted of Rabbi Rachael Bregman (The Temple, Atlanta), Rev. Mary Lou Gilbert (Haygood Memorial United Methodist Church), Dr. Pete Ludovice (faculty advisor, GT Free Thinkers) and of course our own Rev. Steve Fazenbaker serving as the bartender ( well, actually the discussion facilitator). This was a great program in which many different views from a wide variety of subjects ranging from morality to beliefs were discussed. A wonderful aspect of this event was that questions were constantly being taken from the audience, which really made this a discussion instead of a lecture.

Thank you to everyone who was involved and to all who came to the program!!!

Oh, and I almost forgot one of the most exciting details from the weekend- our second box of Wesley Foundation t-shirts came in!

So, now we have all the sizes that we ordered- not just smalls. We will be selling them for $12 each, so just get in touch with me if you are interested in getting one!

Thanks to models, Matlock and Jared!