How would your life be different without Good Sam?

by Beth Hannaman

Bill and I were driving down the road the other day and I was talking about something I had to do for church.  And Bill asked me how would our lives be different if we had not joined Good Sam.   The first thing I said was “I’d have a lot more free time on my hands!”   But it started us thinking.

We began attending Good Sam a little over 30 years ago.  We would sit in the back row, put some money in the offering, and leave shortly after the service. No big commitments for us.  

And frankly, there was not a lot of spiritual payback either.  It was only after we started to become involved in church activities, as ushers, on auction committees, and as sunday school teachers, that we began to realize the depth of what Good Samaritan had to offer.  

And since then this church has helped  shape our lives in ways that we could never have imagined. 

We have always lived far from our biological families and clearly Good Sam has become our chosen family.  It’s where our children were baptized, attended Sunday school, where we went to Advent chili dinners, in-gatherings, Shrove Tuesday pancake suppers, and where our daughter got married.

This community continues to support us, nourish us, and challenge us spiritually, and intellectually.

It is here that we are reminded of God’s love for us,  and the love we feel here is palpable.  Not just when we say the peace, but when we pray for one another, when we join hands for the Lord’s Prayer and in so many other ways.

It is here where we are given opportunities reach out to love and serve our neighbors. And the relationships we have formed here while doing Good Sam’s work are deep and rich and like no other.   

And so this is where I come every week to center myself, stand at the communion altar, and be reminded by Chris that when I go out into the world, I am not alone.   How can I measure all of that?  I can’t, but I do know that this church has become a part of my very being, I cannot imagine my life without it.  I thank God every day for that gift.

And because Good Sam is our family, when it is time for Bill and I to look at our budget, we put Good Sam right there with our family responsibilities.  It took us a long time, and some hiccups along the way, but right now we are able to tithe to Good Sam.  We are grateful that we are able to do that.  

We give not because the Senior Warden is supposed to be concerned about the budget, but because Bill and I love what Good Sam is doing with our treasure. It comes from our heart and it is a joy to watch how it unfolds in front of us every week. This is such an exciting time for Good Samaritan, and Bill and I feel so  blessed to be a part of this journey and I hope you all feel that way as well.   

Now I ask you, “How would your life be different if you had not joined Good Sam?”

Finding Peace

by Tracy Jewell

I grew up at Good Sam, left to go to college, and came back to marry Brian at Good Samaritan in 1994.  We moved to Northern California for our jobs and came back to San Diego—and Good Samaritan—after we had Emily.  We've stayed because we love the people in the church, Chris Chase, and being in a church with a traditional liturgy. 

Good Samaritan reflects its namesake in that it is so welcoming to each individual.  It is an accepting, diverse church. Each of us brings a different perspective, a different take on things; our own life experience.  Yet we have a common bond, common ground. This helps us be even more accepting and compassionate. We can all worship together and be willing to help anyone where they are.  

I feel closest to Christ during our music, especially the praise music, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow", and the Lord's Prayer.  When I'm singing, I get a chill; I feel it's the Holy Spirit, and I think "Gosh, You're there!"  I look at the stained glass windows, especially the shell, and can feel Christ within me. 


Being in church gives me peace.  Things in life can be frustrating and hectic, and then I go to the service and can let everything go. I get the most calming feeling of peace. Peace so I can go out and be—or at least try to be—more Christ-like.

(This is reprinted from "40 Days of Devotions in Lent", 2011.) 

Giving Thanks #1

by Ruth Lim

I give thanks to my parents! For raising me and my younger sister, Angela. And especially for sending me to California to high school and college! 


I had this burning desire to go to high school in California. I blame it on dad's Reader's Digest and Time magazines. My parents did not have to send both daughters so far away, and spend most of their life savings. Most of their friends' daughters would stay home, get married and have children. But, they knew an education was the ticket to a better future back on Borneo or where ever we ended up. 

Ruth, at 2 months, with her Dad

So, I ended up here in America's Finest City with my family and my Good Sam family!

New Things Afoot for our Youth!

by Rev. Rebecca Edwards

If you swing on over to the Youth Group page of the Good Sam web site, you will see that there a lot of new ways we are continuing to build a youth group (for middle school and high school) this fall. We now have a pretty full calendar of youth activities, brimming with old favorites and some new opportunities.

Youth Christian Ed: One of the most significant elements in building our youth program at Good Sam is a Christian ed program just for youth. Called CnC: Confirm not Conform, this program takes an innovative approach to helping young people build their own spiritual lives. CnC focuses on helping young people ask tough questions and search out the answers. Through innovative classroom work, field trips, mentor relationships and the challenge to do a whole lot more than just learn a few facts, CnC lets kids take real responsibility for understanding their faith and its power. When they do—when they see the church and faith as something that truly belongs to them, rather than something they’re forced to accept—it builds a bond that lasts. 

Homework Help: Our youth came up with a completely original request, one that I have never heard in all my years of youth ministry! Since they are all drowning in homework as it is, there was a lot of energy around the idea of getting together on a regular basis with their assignments, to support and encourage each other. We are working on putting together a schedule of tutors/mentors from the congregation to offer extra help on the first and third Sunday of each month during the Christian ed hour. Please contact me if you can help – we need helpers in all subjects, including foreign languages!

Impossible Games with Paul Phillips continues every month. This is a great program and we are grateful to Paul for his energy and commitment to this offering! As the year progresses, we hope to add a second level of Paul's amazing program for high school youth – stay tuned!

Diocesan Events: Good Sam youth have been very involved in diocesan events in the past (thanks especially to supermom Ruth Lim!) and there are fun events planned for every month of the year.

If you need more information about any of these events or if you would like to volunteer to be a tutor, you can:

• visit the "Youth Group" web page on the Good Sam web site, which will always have the monthly calendar(s) available
• contact Re(v)becca at 858-458-1501 or rebeccae@goodsamchurch.org
• find the "Good Sam Youth Group" page on Facebook and "Like" it to receive updates that way

See you at church!

How Do You Deal with the Tornadoes in Your Life?

by Leanne Shawler,

Communications Director

You might think that working in a church office is a pretty quiet job.

You’d be wrong.

Sometimes it feels like I work in Tornado Alley. 

One of the shows I got hooked on this year is “Storm Chasers”. There’s something about the way the tornado forms, how these “extreme meteorologists” can predict it and then still end up in its path.  Tornadoes have both tremendous beauty and gut-wrenching destruction.

There are folks who blow through our office who are like that.

If it’s an anxiety tornado, then its contagious and the tornadoes multiply as we react instead of responding.

Why are people tornadoes? When losses are felt, change occurs, the anxiety builds into a super-cell and before you know it.... Sometimes it’s a person’s anxiety about non-church stuff, sometimes it’s a person’s brokenness as they seek help, sometimes it comes through extending the gift of hospitality, and sometimes it comes from biting off more than we can chew.

For the last couple of weeks, the tornado has been me. 

My grandfather died a couple of weeks ago and as I’d gone home in August to say goodbye, I couldn’t go back to Australia for the service.  The homesickness was an added whammy. My Number One Support Guy (aka my husband Dan) was overseas in a totally different time zone, so you can add a good dollop of loneliness. 

Some days I was just fine and some days... I stormed through minor setbacks and actually went home early for a few days so my reactiveness and grieving didn’t negatively affect the rest of the office. (Besides, it was good to go home and have a really good cry.) 

The winds have died down now and having been the tornado instead of the tornadoed, I have a bit of new perspective. I still don’t like it when a tornado comes through--they’re pretty awful--but now I have more empathy.

So when the tornadoes whirl, I try not to take cover under my desk and pray that they soon blow over.  Because it’s as little fun to be a tornado as to be hit by one.

How do you deal with the tornadoes in your life? Have you ever been a tornado yourself? How did you get through that?