Each month we salute a member who has become vitally involved in God's
family by using his or her gifts and time in the fellowship, service, outreach and education opportunities within and beyond the walls of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. PREVIOUS MEMBERS OF THE MONTH.

Member of the Month — May 2008
Mary Jo Keeble
There are many volunteers at FAPC who give. And they give big. But sometimes, they also want to give small.

Mary Jo Keeble (far left in photo), May’s member of the month, has served during her 23 years at FAPC in major leadership roles with Compass (30s/40s), as an elder,
and as a member of the current Pastoral Nominating Committee. But at one point last year, she wanted to “take a backseat for a little while,” serving on a project with a more limited time commitment that met a focused need.

The seed was planted when Mary Jo was asked to create some items that showed off the church’s 200th anniversary logo to be sold at various bicentennial events. Mary Jo’s vision and passion for the task led her a little further, to create FAPC’s Bicentennial Store, which turned on the lights and was open for business in the hall behind the sanctuary by November.

And to Mary Jo’s surprise, God took her ideas further and started connecting the congregation through more fellowship and creation of volunteer opportunities, while impacting the church body financially and psychologically.

“God leads us to unexpected places and situations,” says Mary Jo, a Georgia native who moved to New York for a “year-long adventure” more than 20 years ago and has been a member of FAPC for more than a decade. “If you’d told me a year ago that I would have orchestrated and then implemented a gift shop at FAPC, I would have told you that you were out of your mind!"

“Well, here I am and I absolutely love the opportunity to serve God in this way. It truly is a blessing for me and as it turns out, for the church! I look forward to volunteering on Sundays in the shop because it gives you the chance to interact with FAPC friends that we might otherwise not see at the service.”

The shop, open each Sunday since its inception, has given back to FAPC in a big way, raising more than $19,000 at the time this issue went to print. In coming months, the shop’s products will also be available outside of FAPC via an online shop on the church’s Website.

The Bicentennial Store project has also brought together church members who staff it and those who developed the various items for sale, including
FAPC-themed mugs, T-shirts, baseball caps, Christmas ornaments and lapel pins. Two best sellers are a women’s silk scarf, custom-designed by Deacon Ken Mulligan, that colorfully depicts our fish and loaves logo, along with a new history book of the church entitled “A Proud Heritage.” The hardcover book brings together over 160 rare and historic photos from the church archives, with eight pages in color, charting the history and mission of our church. Longtime member and former officer Kathy Henderson is the author of the book; its layout was designed by Christie Recheck, an active member of Next Ministries (20s/30s).

If you ask Mary Jo, who is the national sales manager for a women’s clothing company, about how volunteering has impacted her life and what God has taught her through her service, she apologizes for the cliché and says the same thing we often hear – we forget how much we receive in the act of giving.

God’s plans for our small ideas can indeed be bigger than we expect. As God’s servants, we may also look at the story of the new Bicentennial Store and ponder whether we’re in a position to find our own service project and say “Yes – we are open for business.”

Respectfully submitted,
Wendy Eilers

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7 West 55th Street, New York, NY 10019, 212.247.0490