Author: Rev. Katrina Hebb

Hello Church,

We haven’t seen the sun in almost 2 weeks, but it is shining brightly today! (Hallelujah, thank the good Lord!) Sometimes, when it’s been so long since we’ve seen it, I almost forget what sunshine feels like. Do you too?

Now for the news: 

For those of you who are Presbyterian down to the marrow of your bones, you will already know intuitively that our annual Congregational Meeting is coming up! On Sunday, January 31st, following the worship service, you will be invited to our zoom congregational meeting. 

Sometime earlier that week we will send out an email to everyone with the invitation to the zoom meeting. Then, you will be able to join us “live”(!) to discuss the going’s-on of our congregation in 2020 and to discuss what 2021 might look like. I hope you will join us!

Also of note for January, the Rev. Dr. Shaun Whitehead will be preaching on Sunday, January 24. Shaun has become a beloved preacher for us, and brings uplifting messages to our weary souls. I give great thanks for her ministry! 

Since this is the beginning of a new year, and many of us are cleaning out the old to make space for the new, I wanted to ask if there is anyone who would like to be taken off this weekly email list. Email is one of those places where it’s easy to get inundated with an overwhelming amount of notices, newsletters, and well, junk! If you need to declutter some, please just email me back, and I’ll be happy to honor your request. 

For those of you who have been attending our worship services online, you will know that for the next while or so we have to let go of having someone be our song leader when we sing hymns. Keilor, our new musician, is there to play the songs on the piano, but I wanted to offer you access to another way to listen to the hymns. Starting this week, I will include in my weekly email to the church the list of hymns we will be singing and links to Youtube that have people singing these songs. That way, if you need someone to sing along with, you can! 

This week we will be singing: 

“Rock of Ages” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM7gt_cSxjw

“How Firm a Foundation”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDy-FSGORVY

“How Can I Keep from Singing?” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLPP3XmYxXg

Friends, this week I have some hard, difficult news to share. Terron Baxtron, the 20-something year old son of Jennifer Baxtron–the woman who has organized and led the Black Lives Matter movement in the town of Potsdam– has died. 

Some of us know Jen well, but others of us don’t know her at all. Since BLM became active, she has been on the periphery of our church family– organizing events with us to teach people about the racism that has existed in our neck of the woods, and helping me to learn more about how our church might be able to bring the love of God to the town of Potsdam. 

Jen has not had a church family to call home for quite some time, but has wondered about coming to our church with her three young grandchildren when the pandemic is over. And she often reaches out to me as a minister. 

Tonight I will be going over to her house to sit a spell with her, and to find out if there are any ways that we might be able to serve as her church family. 

Right now she is grieving and hurting immensely, and so I ask that you be praying for her. In addition to that, Julie Miller (who knows Jen well from going to the daily BLM rallies) is organizing a food train to bring meals to Jen and her family over the course of the next few weeks. If you’d like to contribute to that effort, please click on the link below and sign up for a day to bring a meal.

https://mealtrain.com/30llmy

This week has been one for the record, folks– and not because it has been filled with joy and celebration. Please be praying for our country– not that your’s or my will be done, but that God’s will might become manifest among us. We are living in a fractured land, where next-door neighbors regard each other as enemies, and a major split exists in how we choose to see and describe the world around us. This battle stands over the very heart and soul of our nation.

Please be praying for our current president and his wife, for our congress members, for our president-elect and his cabinet, and for our nation as a whole. 

In all of the mayhem this week, if there is anything to remember about our faith, it is these words penned from the Apostle Paul to the Christians living in Rome–

 “I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

–Romans 8:38

May we find our strength in the love of God, dear Hearts. 

Standing in the light,
Pastor Katrina

Hello Loves,

Merry Christmas Eve to you all on this wet and rainy afternoon! I wonder what you are all doing today. Do you find yourself doing Christmas activities, or is this just a normal day, like all the others? 

If you’d like, you are invited to tune in to our Christmas Eve service starting at 7pm. You can find it on our church’s Facebook page– just like all of our worship services. Or, it will be available to watch on our church’s webpage. 

Keilor Kastella is playing both organ and piano from the sanctuary for tonight’s service. This is the first time we will be trying to add the organ into our recordings, and we’re not sure how the sound quality is going to be. If it’s disappointing, don’t be dismayed. This is our first try at it, and every week from hereafter we will have the chance to make adjustments. 

Ranota Hewitson was supposed to sing “Silent Night” for us at the end of the recording of the service, but she had an emergency and had to leave in the middle of our recording time– before it was time for her to sing. Thankfully, we still have Keilor’s beautiful instrumental version of “Silent Night” in the service, and what’s more, Keilor, Ranota, and Renee (our wonderful tech person) all met up later to make a second recording of “Silent Night,” with Ranota singing. You should be able to find this recording in the comment section of the Facebook post containing the service. 

Do you remember how clunky our first online services were, when we were first trying to figure out how to set them up? Now that we are changing the location of the music part of our services to the sanctuary with Keilor, I need to ask you to stretch your graciousness out again and be willing to adopt a little more change. When Gui and Feryal were our music leaders, we had the luxury of having a singer who lived in the same “germ pod” as the piano player. This meant that we had a song leader to carry the tune for us, as we sing along or listen at home. But this, my dear hearts, is something else that we are going to have to give up for a little while. Ranota will be singing Silent Night for us tonight, but after that, Session has decided that it’s taking too great of a risk to have someone sing along with Keilor as he plays the piano. The Covid numbers in our county are skyrocketing at the moment and singing is a high-risk activity, and it’s not worth exposing any of us to serious illness or death. So, for the time being, we will listen to the hymns instrumentally– until a time comes when it is safe for singing.

This decision was not one that session came to easily. Having someone to sing our hymns each week is important, and it feels like a real loss to have to let this go for right now. But someone on session came up with a creative alternative. Starting next week, at the end of my emails, I will include links to recordings of choirs singing the hymns that will be played instrumentally in the upcoming worship service. That way, if you want to sing along with the choir at some point during the week, you will be able to. 

Oh friends, this is such a difficult thing we are doing. The pandemic affects our lives in major, upsetting ways, but it also changes so many of the small things– like having a song leader for our hymns. And sometimes, the small things are harder to deal with than the big things. Often, we’re able to prepare ourselves for those big shifts, but the little things we don’t see coming– they sneak up on us without warning, and hit us where we’re not expecting. 

I suspect that you will run into more of these small losses tomorrow on Christmas, when our usual traditions have been set on the sidelines. Please be willing to honor that tomorrow might be a tough day, and give yourself some space to grieve. 

On the flip side of that grief, you can also give yourself permission to take delight in something else that you might not have ever thought to try for Christmas day. I have a friend who is going through cancer treatment right now, and it is too risky for her to be around any of her family, so she will be spending Christmas alone in her house. Rather than cry over this loss for the whole day, she has decided to imagine that her little house has magically turned into a retreat house for writers, and plans to spend her day writing letters to her grown-up children. The letters will include telling her kids special stories she remembers from when each of them were growing up, and all the things she loves and appreciates about each of them now that they are grown. 

Friends, it is possible to turn lemons into lemonade. We just have to put on our creative thinking hats, and imagine what is possible out there beyond the boundaries we have always lived with. What beautiful, lovely thing might happen in your life, if you opened yourselves up to the possibilities?! 

Whatever, and however, your day turns out to be tomorrow, I pray that you know that you are loved by God and your whole church family. 

And may the grace and peace of Christ rest upon you now and always!

Resting in God’s great love,
Pastor Katrina

Hello Lovelies!

Can you even believe it? The sky is blue today!! After weeks on end of dreary, grey skies, we get a perfect, wonderful day of sunshine. My heart is soaring!

Today I am in my 8th day of quarantine, stuck in my bedroom until December 23rd. Unfortunately, I don’t have any south-facing windows in my room, so I’ve had to wait for my scheduled “yard time” to feel the sunshine. But the wait was worth it. The warmth on my skin was heavenly!

I haven’t started climbing the walls quite yet, but I can feel it coming on. There’s only so much computer work, knitting, and embroidery a person can do in a small space before she starts to go nuts. LoL! Have any of you had to go into isolation? I’d love to hear what got you through your two-week stint.

Here’s the news for this week:

The Sunday after Christmas, Dec. 27, Dr. William Lake (beloved professor at Crane) will be leading worship, and he has a special request! He has asked me to request that, if you are able, please watch the movie entitled “Jingle Jangle” before December 27. It is available to watch on Netflix.

Here is the link to check it out: https://www.netflix.com/title/80232043

Friends, I also have some bittersweet news to share. This coming Sunday, Dec. 20th, will be the last week that Gui, Feryal, and Leila will be providing music for our worship services. Gui and Feryal are both working 7 days a week right now, and it’s too much for their family. I think we all understand that having a day of rest is really important, so we will wish them well on their adventure down in South Carolina, and give thanks for the time we’ve gotten to share with them during our pandemic worship services. (If anyone would like to send them a card, email me and I’ll provide you with their address.)

That is the bitter half of the news. The other part– the sweet half– is that while we are saying goodbye to Gui and Feryal, Keilor Kastella will be taking over as our music leader. Keilor has already substituted in for us, so you might recognize him when you see him. And some of us have had the joy of actually meeting both him and his partner, Brian, in person at our monthly outdoor coffee hours over the summer. Both Keilor and Brian started at Crane this semester, and we are delighted to have this opportunity to have Keilor join us for worship. He will be the one playing for our Christmas Eve service–and in the sanctuary, no less!

Which reminds me–you are invited to join Keilor and I at our first-ever online Christmas Eve service at 7pm next Thursday evening. Like usual, it will be aired on our church’s Facebook page and at our church’s website– potsdampresbyterian.org

This week we also said goodbye to the large maple tree that has graced the front yard of the church for more than 100 years. As I had mentioned previously, it has been dying for some time and needed to come down before the wind caused a calamity. Thankfully for us, Mike Cliff and Mike White of Paradise Valley Tree Services dropped the tree for us gratis. This is a significant gift considering the costliness of tree removal. So we offer a major shout out of gratitude to these fellows, along with Ron Kaiser, Bob Pickard, Rick Waters, and Dick Partch, who helped with the clean-up effort. Thanks fellas! You are much appreciated!

And thank you, big beautiful Maple, for sharing shade, oxygen, and beauty with us across the years. For so many decades you watched over our church building– from the days when people came by horse and buggy, and lit lanterns and candles for light, through two world wars, a flu epidemic, and many other difficult times. We offer our gratefulness to you for the life you shared with the world.

Dear hearts, I have been reminded today by my 5-year old niece that Christmas is exactly 7 days away. Are you prepared? Not only for the joy of that day, but also for the twinges of sorrow, or anger, or frustration that it will most likely stir up in us? We often experience more than one emotion at a time, and I hope you will give yourself permission to acknowledge all of the “feels” as we make our way through the holiday season.

Joyfulness usually makes it easy for us to get along with the people around us, but when we experience challenging emotions–and we don’t recognize what’s happening to us–sometimes those difficult emotions end up coming out sideways as anger and frustration, directed at the people around us.

I hope that you will hold grace for both yourself and those in your life in these coming weeks, and learn to pay attention to what your heart needs. If you need some “time out” from your family–because they’re driving you bonkers– give yourself some quiet space. If you’re isolated and alone, make it a priority to find a safe way to connect with people you love– whether it’s over a phone call, a zoom chat, a written letter, or standing in the front yard waving a big hello.

When we are able to honor our heart’s deepest needs, we create the space for God to restore our souls and rejuvenate our spirits. And this, in turn, opens us up to the strength of joy and gratitude, which God provides to see us through difficult times like these.

What does your heart need right now? I invite you to spend some time with yourself, discerning, and some time with God in prayer. How can you meet these needs right now, so that you will have the energy and strength to care for those around you in the days ahead?

In his letter to the believers in Philippi, Paul reminded them (and now us, as well)–

“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” 

–Phil. 4:5-7

If we pay attention to what our hearts need this week, and ask God for help, we will likely find in the very midst of what troubles us, this peace which surpasses all understanding.

Sending Christmas Greetings of Love and Joy to You (from my bedroom)!
Pastor Katrina

p.s. Next spring the Tisdales have offered to have a sapling planted in the front yard. Maybe that will be the day we find ourselves gathering together to sing! I will hope….

Hello Dear Hearts,

How are you faring today? We finally had a few spots of blue sky earlier. Did you see them? I hope so!

This week the pandemic hit close to home for me and life has been topsy-turvied. Today I am writing to you from my bedroom. This last week I started tutoring students at Little River Community School (as my other part time job), and one of them tested positive for COVID on Wednesday. So I have been sent into quarantine for 14 days.

The good news is that I feel well (thus far) and I get to come out on the 23rd– before Christmas! The hard news is that I’m learning what it’s like to live in isolation. I have people bringing me hot food each night and I have a little fridge and a microwave in my room with me, so I am eating well, but other than that, I have to stay away from people.

Thankfully, I am still able to sit outside if it’s warm enough. Today I was overjoyed to get to be outside and see that little bit of sunshine! It’s funny. You would think that being stuck in a small room would make you feel overrun with energy, but I’m experiencing the opposite. This is absolutely exhausting! LoL!

I have just a couple of things to tell you about today.

The work has been finished on the east entrance to the Center– Trillium’s entrance! The door had not been shutting or latching properly, ice was building up right in front of the door making it dangerous to enter, and the entrance was not handicap accessible. Both C&C Construction and Northern Seamless Gutters came and worked their magic hands and things look great. We’re very grateful for these contractors (including Pat Rhoda’s son Patrick!). They went out of their way to get the work done before snow flies, even though they both have a backlog of jobs to do right now.

While things were getting fixed at that end of the building, things at the other end were falling apart this last week. They say that when things happen, it often happens in 3’s and that’s exactly what happened in the basement under the sanctuary and the Head Start classrooms. In the course of 6 days one of the circulation pumps (that keeps the heat circulating) died and went to heaven, the sewer system backed up, and the sump pump died a soggy death and is now stranded somewhere in quarantine on the way to sump pump heaven.

If you happen to run across Ron, our sexton, congratulate him on his new title. He has risen to every wet, fetid task laid before him down cellar this week and he has been deemed fit for promotion. You may now refer to him as Bishop of the Basement!

This coming week the Shabergs will be heading south and we wish them God-speed and good health for this winter. Do you know of anyone else migrating south in the next few weeks? If so, please do let me know so that we can be praying for them! (I still don’t yet know you well enough to be aware of such things.)

Related to all of this, JoAnne and Dick Partch asked me to send along this message–

“Members, Families and Friends.

We have not been patrons of the Zoom church sessions coffee hours but that does not mean that we have not always had all of you in mind. Yes we have.

So, now is the time of year that our “snow birds” venture south for several months and we pray that your journey will be comfortable and safe. We plan on going to our annual time share unit on Hilton Head the first two week of March.

There are many times over many years that each of us has declared, maybe silently, “why do we live in NNY ! ! ??” There are no skyscrapers, no noisy metro airports, no Disney meccas for personal and social enjoyment, etc. etc. etc. Thank God. We wouldn’t remain here if we didn’t feel that NNY does have attributes like friendly neighbors, trees, rivers and lakes and for this year a rural living area not so scary during the pandemic.

Please accept our best wishes for the season and into 2021. Let’s all thank God for Jesus’s birth and life and risen tidings for all we have and enjoy.

Love to you all.
JoAnne and Richard Partch

Dear Ones, this has been a rough week for many of us– all related in some way, shape, or form to the pandemic. Please, please be praying for each other. Pray in the way that Pope Francis is talking about when he states, “You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. This is how prayer works.” Prayer is as much a verb, as it is a wish for someone. 

I will now leave you off with a poem I wrote a number of years ago when my world was crashing in around me on every level and I could barely stay above the roaring waves. It is written in the style of the Sufi poets.

It’s the absurdity of it all—
of the upside-downness
to be exact—

which hides in plain sight the plumpest rubies
from The Cuff Links and The Loud Ones.

Don’t you know, O dear One?

Yes, you! 
The one who laughs bitterly to spite her tears 
when renter’s insurance is required.
(How exactly will they price bare cupboards, sorrow, and empty pockets?)

Don’t you know the Ocean’s love pours into the deepest cracks first,
as water seeks to find its own level?

Do you think it an accident
that angels sing to shepherds?
That a woman cradled the Counselor?

Empty pockets
are the first to bloom in the fullness of the sun’s tender light.
And sorrow leaps to its feet
before joy has even had time to blink,
when the band begins to play.

May you know the effects of prayer this week, 
Pastor Katrina

Advent Greetings to you Church!

It’s another soggy, rainy, wet day out, but I’m warm and cozy inside by the cookstove today. I’ve been knitting like a madwoman by the warmth of the stove for the past couple of weeks, making Christmas ornaments. 

One thing I’ve realized for myself during the pandemic is how much my extended family means to me– and especially my aunts. So, I decided to articulate my appreciation by making them each something special for Christmas. The only complicating factor is that I have seven aunts– which is a lot of knitting! But that’s ok. It makes my heart happy to be able to make my Christmas presents, rather than buy them. 

I wonder if you’re doing anything different this year in your gift giving routine as a result of the pandemic. If you want to tell me about it, I’d love to hear! Just drop me a line. 

This week I have a number of things to tell you about: 

Caroling

Back in the fall we had discussed the possibility of going out caroling for Christmas. Session discussed it this week with Julie Miller (who volunteered to organize things) but we decided that it’s just not safe enough to do this right now. Thankfully, Julie had another idea. She’s going to solicit for some of us to record ourselves singing a song at home, and take all of those recordings (of those of us who are brave enough to participate), and splice them together to make a compilation. I offered to be one of those brave souls, and I hope you’ll at least consider it. I know that most of us don’t have beautiful singing voices, but if we all do it together, it might be a fun way to get to sing “together.” She will be emailing us all soon with details on this project.  

The Giving Tree

Last week I had mentioned how to participate in the Giving Tree this year– by donating money directly to the Potsdam Holiday Fund (who will then purchase gift cards to give to the children). If you’d like to donate on their website, you’re welcome to do that. But you’re also welcome to do it the old fashioned way– by filling out a form and sending it in with your check. 

If you’d like to send a check, there are special forms and accompanying envelopes on the table in the conference room. You are welcome to stop by anytime that Ron is here and pick one up. He’s got the doors unlocked M-F from 11am-4pm. 

If you’d like donate online, here’s the link again: www.potsdamholidayfund.org

Christmas Eve

Friends, I have some hard news to share with you about Christmas Eve. Session met last night to discuss our plans for that evening, and it was decided to refrain from gathering together outside of the church building to sing. Every day Covid numbers are rising and the death toll climbs, and it’s just not worth jeopardizing anyone’s life. So this is what we will do instead: Keilor Kastella, Renee Stauffer, and I will record a cozy Christmas Eve celebration for all of us to participate in from our homes on Christmas Eve night. It will include instrumental Christmas music, the lighting of the advent candles, and a few Christmas readings. 

Last week I told you that I promised that we would come together to sing outside, and I feel very sad to disappoint you. Even though it’s not going to happen for Christmas Eve, you have my word that we will gather together to do so when it is safe– even if it means we have to wait until July! 

Accessing our Worship Services

It’s come to my attention that some of you are still having a hard time finding the service on our church’s Facebook page. So I wanted to let you know that there’s a second way to be able to watch the service. Just go to our church’s webpage, and you’ll find it located at the bottom of the home page. Dale Hobson updates it each week! 
Here’s the link: www.potsdampresbyterian.org/ 

A Covid Book Group! 

Last night at our monthly session meeting, folks were talking about how sad it is not to see each other right now, but out of that discussion came a creative seedling for a way to stay connected this winter– a book group! 

Terry de la Vega is organizing it, and this is what she asked me to share with you about it: 

This book group will be separate from the longstanding congregational book group that already exists, which some of you are part of. This one will focus itself on spiritual formation and last for just as long as it is needed during the pandemic. Terry would like to start with a book written by Sue Monk Kidd entitled Dance of The Dissident Daughter. She will buy a copy for the church, which you are welcome to borrow if it’s available. (Otherwise, the rest of us can either check copies out from the library system or buy a copy online. I recommend buying used books from betterworldbooks.com. Used copies often only cost $4-5 dollars, which makes it easier to afford to buy them.) 

Terry would like to begin the group discussions in January and meet for 2-3 sessions to give ample time for discussion. This provides plenty of time for those of us interested in participating to locate the book and start reading! Please consider inviting friends who might be interested– they can be either local or distance because the group will meet via zoom. 

If you’re interested in participating, email Terry to let her know. Her email address is: delavega@twcny.rr.com.

Dear hearts, are you feeling as weary as I am right now? I have good weeks and bad weeks, but this has been a particularly terrible one for me and I completely fell apart a few days ago. It seems to happen for me after a build up of stress from reading the newspaper and worrying about how much closer Covid is inching in towards our little town, and realizing how much it is affecting my family. I’m feeling better today– now that I released all of my pent up emotions, but it reminded me of something I’ve been meaning to share with you. 

I want for you to know that it’s ok to break down. It’s okay to fall apart– it’s okay to have yourself a good cry or a giant scream into a pillow. It’s ok to eat all of the ice cream in the house (at least on occasion), or to collapse under the covers and take a nap. Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves is to manifest on the outside what we’re feeling on the inside. It’s an important type of truth telling, actually. It’s a way to acknowledge what we’ve been hiding from inside– afraid to let out. 

God did not design us to be able to hold our big emotions inside. We’re not wired for that– which is why it’s necessary to let those feeling out when they start to pile up inside. You are no less of a man for saying aloud that you feel scared, or tired and weary. You are not a weak woman to admit that you’re struggling. Owning our feelings is actually a sign of strength. This type of vulnerability is the first step we have to take if we’re going to welcome God’s deep strength into our lives– the type of strength big enough to hold us together when we aren’t strong enough to save ourselves. 

This week I invite you to fall apart if you need to. Tell someone what you’re struggling with if that helps. Or write down all of your feelings on a piece of paper and then burn it up. Or go out into the woods and howl with the coyotes. None of this will change our circumstances, it’s true, but this honest talk will serve as a balm that soothes your soul. 

As the Psalmist says:

“Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you…”

~Psalm 55:22

Passing you the box of Kleenex,
Pastor Katrina

Good Afternoon Church!

After a wet and chilly morning, the clouds are clearing off and the sun is peeking through. What a lovely surprise after a few days of grey skies! 

How did Thanksgiving go for you this year? Was it enjoyable? Or a struggle? Or maybe both? It was certainly different this year. This was the first time I’ve ever been in charge of cooking the turkey. All of my life there has always been someone more “senior” than me around to take on that responsibility. But not this year. I was worried about how it would go, but somehow I pulled it off! I remembered to start the thawing process on time, and got it in the oven early enough to pull it out fully cooked for the planned festivities. It was good practice for someday in the future when I become the matriarch of the family and all the relatives come to my house for holidays. 

What interesting or different things did you do at your house this year? I’d love to hear if you want to share! 

Now that Thanksgiving is over, let’s talk Christmas! Did you receive your special Advent star yet? The church elves are driving around today delivering them to your doorstep! (Or, for those of you who live further away, they’re coming via the USPS.) You don’t know this about me yet, but I have a really hard time with surprises. Not because they’re not exciting, but because they’re too exciting. I struggle with the waiting part– both when I know a surprise is coming to me and when I have to keep my mouth shut about what’s going to be given to someone else. Well…. you wouldn’t believe how hard it’s been to keep my lips zipped for an entire month about this surprise while members of session and ladies in the knitting circle spent 4 weeks whipping up these fun surprises. It’s been torturous! But now that you’ve received them I can shout YAYYYY! I am so grateful to all the crochers and knitters who helped on this project. A big thank you to Sue Waters, Renee Stauffer, Jane Wells, Vernice Church, Marlu Peet, and Jean Dawson. And another big thank you to the delivery elves– Sharona and Bob Pickard, Sue Waters, Jane and Dave Wells, Juster Gichovi, and Renee Stauffer. These stars may be just a little token, but they’re meant to remind you that your church family is helping to hold you together right now with God’s grace and strength. 

Just like Thanksgiving has been, this year Christmas is going to look different, but even while our traditions are going to have to change some, we need to make sure that we continue to engage with them. This includes our holiday giving. This year the Giving Tree is going to be collected in a different way. Instead of taking a tag off of the Christmas tree that has the gender and age of a young child in Potsdam, and then going out and buying a gift for that child, we are being encouraged to give monetary donations directly to the Potsdam Holiday Fund. And they, in turn, will buy gift cards to be distributed to children in need. 

If you’d like to participate, there are two different ways you can send in your donation. 

1. You can give online by going to http://www.potsdamholidayfund.org, or…

2. You can write a check and send it to them in the mail at this address:
The Potsdam Holiday Fund, PO Box 827, Potsdam, NY 13676

If there’s ever been a year that you’ve thought about participating in the Giving Tree, this is the year for it because there are so many extra families who will be struggling to find a way to make Christmas joyful for their kids this year. When my younger brother and I were kids, we were often on the receiving end of gifts like these, and I’ll share with you a short little story about their impact. A few years ago my brother sat down next to a man he’d never met before at a luncheon that followed the funeral of an elderly woman at the church we grew up in. He and the man greeted each other, exchanged names, and started chatting while they ate their lunch. All of a sudden, my brother recognized the man’s name. Decades earlier, he and his family had chosen to sponsor Christmas presents for my brother and me. That was the year my brother received a pair of soccer cleats, which allowed him to join a local soccer team. We had never had the money to be able to afford to be on sports teams, and this was a really big deal for my brother. Sitting at that table with this stranger, my adult brother broke down in tears as he told the man the story of those soccer cleats. He never went on to become a star soccer player–he was not very good at soccer, even– but the chance to play on a team with other kids, and participate in something bigger than he was made a lasting mark on my brother’s life. And it happened because a total stranger, who had more than he needed, decided to share what he had with a little kid who did not have enough.  

Even if you do not get to know the outcome of your giving, someone is still benefiting. So please, if you have extra, be generous with those who do not have enough. 

On another note, let’s discuss Christmas Eve. I know that some of you are wondering (and worrying) about what Christmas Eve is going to look like this year, but take heart! Session and I have a plan. We won’t be able to join together in our sanctuary to sing our favorite Christmas hymns, take in the view of beautiful Christmas decorations, and snuggle cozily into the people standing next to us as we light candles and sing Silent Night, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get creative! Instead of coming together in the building, we will plan to meet up in the front yard of the church that night. We will all have to bundle up with our warmest boots and mittens, and our trusty masks, but we will gather together on that special night to greet one another and sing! Here’s how we will do it: There is a sidewalk that runs around the entire periphery of the triangular front yard of the church. We will meet there on Christmas Eve with our flashlights and/or candles, and we will s-p-r-e-a-d out across the length of the sides of that large triangle, and we will sing Silent Night together. It will have to be short and sweet for those of us who struggle with standing out in the cold, but we will make it happen, ok? We can even bring a few chairs out for those who cannot stand for that long. (And I have a wheelchair, if someone needs transportation from the car to the front yard.) [If we get a rainstorm or a huge blizzard we may have to wait a day, but I promise you that we will figure out how to gather together to celebrate and sing (a tiny bit).]

Oh dear Hearts, this is so hard. It’s painful, actually, isn’t it? But each day we come one day closer to the end of what we are dealing with today. We may not know what the future holds exactly, but we know that what this is…. “this too, shall pass.” 

The book of Lamentations discusses the deep strife that comes with being alive in this world, but it holds darkness and despair in tension with the hope of God’s loyal love and graciousness. For millennia people have suffered, and for millennia God has been present. So do not lose heart. 

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” 

Lamentations 3:22-23

Holding my star and thinking of you,
Pastor Katrina

Hello Everybody,

How are you holding up these days? Are you feeling grey and overcast today like the sky? Are you dragging across the finish line of the work week? Or are you holding together pretty well? 

Even when we are healthy, the pandemic takes more energy from us just to get through a regular day, so if you find yourself feeling extra tired right now, be gentle with yourself. 

Today there are just a few notes to mention: 

Last week I gave thanks for a couple of folks who worked on the church grounds, but I was missing the bulk of those who contributed time and effort. A big thank you to Bob Pickard for organizing the event, as well as Dave Wells, Roy Schaberg, and Neil Johnson. Thanks fellas! 

The Sunday after Thanksgiving, the Rev. Shaun Whitehead will be preaching and leading worship for us. Please plan to join us for worship that Sunday! 

Work is scheduled to be done on the Community Center by the Trillium entrance in the next couple of weeks. Pat Rhoda’s son Patrick, who owns Northern Seamless Gutters, will be installing a gutter system around that end of the building to draw water away from the entrance, which becomes dangerously icy in the winter. And Chris Wallace will be doing work on the door of that entrance, because it currently does not latch when it closes. I am very grateful to the session for staying on top of this project, and to all of those who have given money in the past, which is helping to pay for the work now. Thank you for your faithfulness to your church! 

Friends, if you are struggling to stay above water right now, remember this: we hold our faith together collectively. God’s kingdom is not made up of a collection of individuals. We are one whole body, and we need each other. When one part of us is aching and having a hard time, the rest of the body holds things together. 

Do you remember a while back, I told you a story about my farming friend Dulli, who is part of the Birdsfoot Community with me? 

I told you the story of a day when I was having a hard pain day and I couldn’t help out with a project, and Dulli told me, “Today I will work for you and you will rest for me.” Do you remember that?

That’s how God’s body of believers works. We hold each other up with the gifts we each possess. Sometimes those gifts are strong faith, which we use to cover over those who are struggling. Other times, the gifts we bring are our doubts and our troubles. 

Whatever we are, we bring to the body to share. 

If you are bringing your weariness, today I will be strength for you. Another day I may be the tired one, and need you to help hold me together. But for today, I will hold the faith line while you collapse for a spell. 

Ecclesiastes reminds us– 

     “Two people are better than one, for they get a better return for their work. 
     For if one flags, the other gives support; but woe to the solitary person who falls and has no one to provide support.
     And if two sleep together they keep each other warm;
how can a person stay warm while alone?
     One alone is easily overpowered; two provide protection for each other; 
     and a rope of three strands is not easily broken.”  

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

As Thanksgiving draws near– a day that will likely be hard for some of us– if you have extra positive energy to share with your brothers and sisters, offer it up. Hold the faith while someone else falls apart. And if you’re having a rough day, make sure you reach out to someone for help. It’s ok to say that you need some love and encouragement. A body needs to be able to communicate within itself, if it is to stay whole. 

Holding the faith line for us today,
Pastor Katrina

Hello Dear Hearts,

It’s Friday the 13th, and a chilly one at that–well, at least by the standards of that delightful warm spell we had for nearly a week! Wasn’t that something? I hope you were able to get out and enjoy some of it. We’ve been discussing at my house that even though climate change is frightening, sometimes it can have silver linings– like those delicious warm days. 

A handful of volunteers took advantage of the weather this past week to work on putting the church grounds to bed for winter, and to plant over one hundred daffodils and tulip bulbs for a celebration this spring! A big thank you to Dick and Joanne Partch for the bulbs, and to Brian Wilkinson and others for your raking, clipping, and pulling! I can’t wait to see what joy those flowers bring after the end of this difficult winter. 

Along with the yardwork, Ron and Dick took down the large Black Lives Matter banner that Renee Stauffer had made and wrapped around the large maple tree in the front yard. The tree, which is almost entirely dead, will be coming down within the week. I will be saying a prayer of thanks for all of the decades it has lived, and breathed, and brought life to the corner of Elm St. and Lawrence Ave. 

Also, a thank you to Dale Hobson for offering to serve as our church’s newest commissioner to Presbytery. He joined me this week at the November Presbytery meeting.

Continuing on with the spirit of thanksgiving, I am overjoyed to let you know that Father Rocker, the priest serving at St. Mary’s Catholic church, is sending a $200 donation to put towards the Free Little Food Pantry. Last week I had explained to you about how all of the congregations involved in the Potsdam Interfaith Community had volunteered to collect donations for the pantry each month, and how overwhelmed I was by the grace of it all. But this gift from St. Mary’s will be on top of their food collecting efforts. 

I have served in churches in the past where bad blood lived between Protestants and Catholics. It brings me great joy to know that in Potsdam, we support one another. If any of you have any ideas of how we might be able to offer a bit of grace back to St. Mary’s, do please let me know! I haven’t been around long enough to have even had the chance to meet Father Rocker, so your input is most welcome. 

It helps me to hold onto my faith on my dark days, to know that God’s beloved community is at work in the world right now. My gratefulness for the kindness in our community is helping to hold me together right now. 

As we grow closer to Thanksgiving, I would encourage all of us to sprinkle some form of gratitude into our Pandemic Soup Pot. Even just a pinch will season the flavor. I know that things are hard right now– and getting harder with each passing day– but this is the funny thing about the life that God gives to us: We can be stressed out, and worried, and filled with sadness, and still find room in our hearts for giving thanks. It’s possible to do both things at the same time! So, even while we might be grieving the fact that we won’t be together this Thanksgiving with the people we love, we can also hold space for other goodness that surrounds us. 

Can you pay extra attention this week to discovering what you do have? Is your car in working order right now? Can you feel the air filling your lungs? Did you have a chance to laugh at a good joke today? Or maybe you had yourself a good cry and were able to let it all out. Maybe you got a hug from someone this week, or you found delight in sending a note card to someone in the mail. Did you get your yard put to bed or listen to a spectacular piece of music? Maybe you just barely made it through the day, but you did in fact make it (and tomorrow will be a new day). 

When we can find the secret joys that live hidden in the cracks and slivers of what is hard, God strengthens us anew. This is why Nehemiah told his weary and grievous people, as they returned to the rubble of Jerusalem after having lived in exile for 70 long years, “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” 

Joy gives us strength. Gratitude gives us strength. They’re God’s secret sauce for making soup taste good– even a Pot of Pandemic Soup. 

So…. may you be mindful to find the secret sauce this week!

In God’s joy,
Pastor Katrina 

p.s. If you haven’t already sent it in, please remember to drop your pledge cards for 2021 in the mail to:
First Presbyterian Church, Potsdam
42 Elm St., Potsdam, NY 13676

Hello Church! 

Have we all survived the election (thus far)? As of the date and time of this email, we still don’t have a clear winner for the presidency, but it’s looking like Biden will win in the end. I have to say, I am feeling very grateful that there hasn’t been violence in the streets while we wait for all of the votes to be counted. Our democracy is holding steady thus far. 

And what a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Have you been out enjoying the mild weather? This afternoon both Julie Miller and I were down at the Black Lives Matter rally. They’re being held from 4- 4:30pm now, while it’s still light outside. We had a great time chatting with the new friends we’ve made, and hearing from Jen Baxtron about the racial equality work that still needs to be done in our corner of the community. 

Sometime in the last week you should have received a letter from Dale Hobson, along with a pledge card for 2021. Dale was writing to all of us to let us know that we’ve fallen behind in our regular giving in 2020. For some of us this will be because the pandemic is squeezing our finances, but for others of us it’s because we’ve simply forgotten to send in our pledges. (It’s not so easy to remember when there isn’t an offering plate being passed around every Sunday!) If you are not able to meet your pledge because of financial reasons, please just send a note to the church to let us know. There is no need to feel shame for having to say that times are tough right now– most of us are feeling the pinch in one way or another. Just let us know what you can or can’t commit to for the rest of the year, so we know what we have to work with. But if you’ve simply forgotten, tie a red ribbon around your finger! Our church needs us right now! Like all other organizations, we’re feeling the squeeze.

This is why I urge us all to spend a little extra time praying about what we might be able to afford to pledge for 2021. Don’t just ask your pocketbook what the numbers look like. Spend some time in prayerful consideration with God about what God might be needing from you right now. At the end of the day, our giving to the church is not just about keeping the lights on and the services running. It’s about our faithfulness to God’s call in our lives. What is God saying to you? 

Now for the exciting news! Some of you may (or may not) know, but our church participates in what’s called the Potsdam Interfaith Community. I just recently started attending the meetings (COVID had shut things down for a while), and I’m getting to know folks. We had a meeting this last week, and I’ll tell you the truth– I was in tears by the end of it. PIC has helped to support our Free Friday Lunch program in the past, but while it’s down for the count because of the pandemic, the other congregations in PIC wanted to know how else they could be faithful. Our Session discussed it some after talking with some of the folks who used to come regularly for Friday Lunch, and we decided that the best way for PIC to support us is to help keep the pantry shelves filled. So each congregation will focus on collecting certain non-perishable items for each month, and bring them in for us. Do you have any idea how many people are going to be sending in their love? Folks from the Christian Science Church, and the Methodist Church, and the Catholic Church; people from the synagogue, and the local mosque, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and the Lutheran Church! Can you picture this in your mind– this beloved community, made up of people who sharply disagree on many things, choosing to come together to share what they have? If that weren’t enough, the Mormon Elders– the three young men who are serving their mission through the Potsdam LDS church– are going to help us do the grocery shopping each week for the perishable food items that we keep stocked in the fridge. (Yup, there I go getting teary eyed again…)

In a country where we are divided right down the middle by bitterness and suspicion of each other, I find myself groping around in what feels like darkness, to catch even a sliver of the light of hope. I cannot see how God is going to lead us to a place where we can call ourselves the United States of America, but I have a hunch that the light shining from within PIC has something to do with it.

Friend, how can you be a light of hope this week in our country? How can you shine the love of God on people you find yourself cursing against under your breath? Will you light your own candle from the flame being held by the Potsdam Interfaith Community, and carry it out into the community? If there’s ever a time for courageous compassion and kindness in the world, it’s today. 

The writer of First John knew this well. He writes, 

“God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and matures in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day– our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear.”

I John 4:17-18 (Message Version)

Come take your candle, and spread the light of God’s love this week!

Holding onto hope,
Pastor Katrina