It is the beginning of the holiday season…a time when people think about going home. Through our ministry at The Bridge, I find myself thinking about home, and what actually is home. I have had conversations with guests about home. For some, it is a physical place where their family lives. Others think of home as the community where they were raised, and some consider home to be where they are at the present moment. There is something really powerful about the feeling of being home. For most, it is a place that is safe, nurturing, and hopefully full of love.
One of the most joyful aspects of serving our ministry at The Bridge is being able to help many people go home. Whether through helping with transportation home, or providing referrals to places which provide transitional housing, or helping women escape a domestic violence situation and find safety in a new home, helping people go home is exciting!
This past month, our Juarez team built a new home for Jesus, Carmen, Jonathan, Candy, and Jose. I hope you hear some of the wonderful stories they have about how important it was to this family to help them build their home. Both Jesus and Carmen (husband and wife) worked along side of our team to build their home. Jesus took off two days of work. On the third day he worked from 8 am to 1 pm, dashed off to the factory where he worked a ten hour shift at his factory job. After returning home he mixed cement and put two more courses of block on top of his home and was waiting for our team when they arrived the next morning.
We have helped several families experience the joy of owning a home through our Juarez VIM teams. We have built 7 homes in Juarez in the last five years. Each year we visit the last year’s family (after all, they are now our friends.) It is always a great joy to see the improvements they have made over the ensuing year.
Back in the late 1980’s Lafayette Park was a home for people who had a strange illness, which was later named AIDS. People who were abandoned by their families of origin found deeply caring families and a home at Lafayette Park. The people of Lafayette Park adopted people who were struggling with AIDS, and lovingly cared for them as they lived and died with dignity.
I guess all these thoughts about home make me realize that I truly feel like I am at home at Lafayette Park. As I begin the season of Thanksgiving I am reminded of how thankful I am to be at home at Lafayette Park. Wherever your travels may take you this holiday season, I hope that you always feel the warmth and love of being home.
Grace and Peace,
~Pastor Kathleen
Monday, November 9, 2009
Time with Sharon: Thanks”—giving
November 2009
It’s that time of year again. Time to begin thinking about sending my letter. Most of my writing happens through texting or email these days, but this special letter I actually write long-hand. Yeah, can you imagine? Here’s how it happened…
Some years ago, I began sending letters of thanks to folks who had offered me a hand of friendship somewhere along the way, provided care or comfort, or inspired me by their example. This practice began with our first next door neighbor, who 15 years earlier, had come over and mowed the lawn of newlyweds who couldn’t yet afford a lawnmower. With our first fall frost, this dear man came into our basement to show us how to light our furnace after we had slept in our coats and mittens. We were a couple of dopey kids who didn’t know squat, and he thoughtfully looked over us as we bumped through our first year of home ownership. Our first wonderful neighbor has long since moved away, and we have too. But every year, when it’s time to light the pilot light on the furnace, I think of his kindness, and wished we could thank him again for his care to us. I decided if I could not tell him, I would appreciate others in his honor. So I began writing letters.
One year I wrote to the man who taught me how to gently share my Christian witness with others, freeing me from the fear that had always kept me silent. Another year, I sent my thanks to my most memorable Sunday School teacher, who made every kid in the class feel like they were her family. Of course, I was family, but Aunt Marjorie never played favorites. Then there was my knee surgeon, who gave me back the hop in my skip, enabling me to take VIM teams to high places to build churches and provide medical care. There have been many letters over the years, and each time I finish one and post it, I giggle just a little inside to think of the surprise the recipient will feel upon receiving heartfelt thanks for long-past deeds. Moreover, it has blessed me to be able to remember their goodness, and to thank God for the gift of their presence in my life.
During the Thanksgiving season, we are prompted to think more about our blessings, and make a special point of saying thank you to God. Is there someone who has cared for you when you needed a helping hand? I believe God urged that person to help you, through the Holy Spirit working in their heart (even if they didn’t know it). That’s surely what prompted our good neighbor years ago to leave his warm house to go check on the two young goofballs living next door. I believe that God connects people with needs together with people blessed with resources through this Spirit-prompting. So if you think about it, for every good turn we receive, we really have two thank you’s to deliver. One to the person, and another to thank God for answered prayer.
So, whoever I send my thank you letter to this year, I’ll also be thanking God for sending them into my life.
Who does your heart yearn to reach out to with a letter or phone call of thanks? Do it…it feels as good to send these letters as it does to receive them!
Grace to you,
Pastor Sharon
It’s that time of year again. Time to begin thinking about sending my letter. Most of my writing happens through texting or email these days, but this special letter I actually write long-hand. Yeah, can you imagine? Here’s how it happened…
Some years ago, I began sending letters of thanks to folks who had offered me a hand of friendship somewhere along the way, provided care or comfort, or inspired me by their example. This practice began with our first next door neighbor, who 15 years earlier, had come over and mowed the lawn of newlyweds who couldn’t yet afford a lawnmower. With our first fall frost, this dear man came into our basement to show us how to light our furnace after we had slept in our coats and mittens. We were a couple of dopey kids who didn’t know squat, and he thoughtfully looked over us as we bumped through our first year of home ownership. Our first wonderful neighbor has long since moved away, and we have too. But every year, when it’s time to light the pilot light on the furnace, I think of his kindness, and wished we could thank him again for his care to us. I decided if I could not tell him, I would appreciate others in his honor. So I began writing letters.
One year I wrote to the man who taught me how to gently share my Christian witness with others, freeing me from the fear that had always kept me silent. Another year, I sent my thanks to my most memorable Sunday School teacher, who made every kid in the class feel like they were her family. Of course, I was family, but Aunt Marjorie never played favorites. Then there was my knee surgeon, who gave me back the hop in my skip, enabling me to take VIM teams to high places to build churches and provide medical care. There have been many letters over the years, and each time I finish one and post it, I giggle just a little inside to think of the surprise the recipient will feel upon receiving heartfelt thanks for long-past deeds. Moreover, it has blessed me to be able to remember their goodness, and to thank God for the gift of their presence in my life.
During the Thanksgiving season, we are prompted to think more about our blessings, and make a special point of saying thank you to God. Is there someone who has cared for you when you needed a helping hand? I believe God urged that person to help you, through the Holy Spirit working in their heart (even if they didn’t know it). That’s surely what prompted our good neighbor years ago to leave his warm house to go check on the two young goofballs living next door. I believe that God connects people with needs together with people blessed with resources through this Spirit-prompting. So if you think about it, for every good turn we receive, we really have two thank you’s to deliver. One to the person, and another to thank God for answered prayer.
So, whoever I send my thank you letter to this year, I’ll also be thanking God for sending them into my life.
Who does your heart yearn to reach out to with a letter or phone call of thanks? Do it…it feels as good to send these letters as it does to receive them!
Grace to you,
Pastor Sharon
Young Adult Ministry Update
November 2009
God truly is doing great and amazing things at LPUMC! This week, a group of young adults gathered to pray, converse, plan and dream for the future--and of course, eat. We will meet every 1st & 3rd Tuesday at 6:30 in the parlor. However, because we are dedicated to our mission of "being a church without walls," we will be discussing other opportunities for gatherings outside of the building. At our next gathering on Tuesday, Nov. 3, the topic of discussion will be outreach.
Some of the earliest European settlers in North America came to the frontier of this continent in order to establish a life in faith that would be free from the constraints of the old world churches. The founders of the Salem colony arrived in what would become Massachusetts as a community dedicated to God and one another. Their covenant to one another was "to walk together in all God's ways, known or to be made known to us, at whatever cost." This mission statement was a tall order, and one that they eventually would corrupt with power struggles and the notorious "Salem Witchcraft Trials."
But the ideals of this first generation were not that different from our own. The Salem pilgrims did not have to travel across the Atlantic, but were drawn to the promise of greater freedom and a deeper walk with God. The people of Lafayette Park UMC do not have any obligation to become part of the church, but are drawn here for similar promises of liberty of conscience and a spirit-filled community that walks in faith. As we gather together in Sunday worship and in smaller groups throughout the week, we think of all of our spiritual ancestors that had the same drive toward community that we have today.
Aaron Ban
Young Adult Minister
God truly is doing great and amazing things at LPUMC! This week, a group of young adults gathered to pray, converse, plan and dream for the future--and of course, eat. We will meet every 1st & 3rd Tuesday at 6:30 in the parlor. However, because we are dedicated to our mission of "being a church without walls," we will be discussing other opportunities for gatherings outside of the building. At our next gathering on Tuesday, Nov. 3, the topic of discussion will be outreach.
Some of the earliest European settlers in North America came to the frontier of this continent in order to establish a life in faith that would be free from the constraints of the old world churches. The founders of the Salem colony arrived in what would become Massachusetts as a community dedicated to God and one another. Their covenant to one another was "to walk together in all God's ways, known or to be made known to us, at whatever cost." This mission statement was a tall order, and one that they eventually would corrupt with power struggles and the notorious "Salem Witchcraft Trials."
But the ideals of this first generation were not that different from our own. The Salem pilgrims did not have to travel across the Atlantic, but were drawn to the promise of greater freedom and a deeper walk with God. The people of Lafayette Park UMC do not have any obligation to become part of the church, but are drawn here for similar promises of liberty of conscience and a spirit-filled community that walks in faith. As we gather together in Sunday worship and in smaller groups throughout the week, we think of all of our spiritual ancestors that had the same drive toward community that we have today.
Aaron Ban
Young Adult Minister
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
