by Dave Andersen, elder for the Nominating Committee

Every year, a new class of elders is elected to assist in leading the church. We thought you might enjoy reading a short “introduction” for more of our new elders, continued from the July 2009 Briefs.

Jane Frissell, our new Party elder, I mean elder for Congregational Life, has a vision for building and nurturing community within our church body—bringing long-time members and newcomers together, creating opportunities for friendships to grow and relationships to develop. Congregational Life hosts the monthly Soup & Bread lunch, weekly coffee and tea, and annual camping trip and baseball game. She hopes to gather a team that has a similar vision.

Jane is a second generation Seattle-ite. Her grandmother occasionally took Jane to church, and she gathered some sense of the historical importance of Jesus simply by virtue of the Christmas and Easter holidays. As she grew up, and she particularly observed the care and modeling of a high school science teacher, it became ‘obvious’ to Jane that there was a God who was just and that Jesus was part of God’s plan. So, when she clearly heard the gospel presented at a college retreat, responding to Jesus as her Lord and Savior was not a difficult step at all.

During the work week, you can find Jane at a large downtown law firm, where she works as a paralegal, concentrating on non-profits and charitable foundations.

Janette Plunkett grew up in a small community in Southern Oregon, where her family regularly attended church. During those formative years, Janette grew in her love of Jesus and the beauty of the natural world God created. Janette’s faith deepened at SPU, where she met her husband, Mark, who is now a marine biologist at the Seattle Aquarium. Janette is Bethany’s Stewardship elder. Her past career with Safeco and her passion for caring for God’s creation makes Janette a wonderful person for this elder role.

Janette and Mark have two wonderful children, Natalie and Christopher. Their daughter attends SPU and their son is a junior in high school. Both are Jesus followers and both are long distance runners.

Janette would like to continue the current stewardship projects, but would appreciate input and energy from anyone so interested. Janette sees stewardship quite broadly; it is not simply a matter of money and giving, but it includes issues of time, justice, and the environment as well.

Bob Gerstmyer is our Group Life elder. He heads up the team working with small groups. Bob, together with his wife Debra and their youngest daughter Anna are relatively new to Bethany, but it seems like they have been here much longer. Bob’s mother was instrumental in taking him and his brothers to church, and - at a young age - he had a sense of God’s love and care for him. In Jr. High, he was invited to attend a youth group, and in that context came to a new and vital understanding of God’s love and the importance of prayer and reading the Bible. And in Sr. High, while walking home from a Sunday evening youth group, Bob says that he realized that while his earlier professions of faith were sincere, he was at a point where he needed to affirm his commitment to follow Jesus as his Savior and Lord. So he prayed.

Bob works with computers, currently as a software tester with Microsoft. He enjoys the responsibility of being able to say when something is of sufficient quality for ‘real people’ to use.

Bob has been blessed with many Christian friends who have prayed for him and who have shown him what it means to follow Christ every day. Particularly those friends in small groups and Sunday School classes have meant a lot to him, which explains his interest in working with small groups at Bethany.

Mark Russo and his wife Becky came to Bethany in early 2001, shortly after relocating here from Chicago. Mark is our elder of Local Outreach. While majoring in political science in college, he was very active in faith-based community organizing. His vision for local outreach is to enlarge our vision of expanding God’s Kingdom, to broaden the tent of Christ by growing relationships across lines of race, class and economics. Mark is encouraged by the local outreach team and would love to talk with anyone about local outreach ministries.

Mark's faith was formed by growing up in the Catholic church and by his involvement with Young Life when he was 14 or 15. After a YL camp, he spent wonderful times with his mother, reading the Bible and praying. She died shortly thereafter,- and his Young
Life leader walked-with Mark during-this time of grieving and sorrow, and provided Mark with a listening ear and wise words of counsel. Mark and Becky have two lovely daughters, and during the day, Mark works for UBS as a financial manager and loves working with people.