News for the Church, 3/26/21

Good Day to you Church! 

The rain has stopped for the afternoon, but this morning we had quite the thunderstorm where I live. Did you experience it too? After a looooong winter, it was so nice to hear the crash of thunder and see the flashes of lightning. The only problem with getting rain in early spring is the M-U-D. It’s everywhere right now. I accidentally stepped in some this morning on my way to tutoring and got my shoes very mucky. And I’ve already witnessed a couple of cars getting stuck in the mud. (No tractors yet, though!) It’s for good reason that they say there are only 3 seasons in the North Country– Winter, Mud Season, and 4th of July!

This Sunday, Palm Sunday, Rev. Shaun will be preaching and leading worship– though I will be making a short guest appearance for the kid sermon. It’s time for the first episode of the annual Holy Week peep show! (This year our marshmallow peeps and chocolate bunny will be telling us John’s version of the story of Easter.) I hope you’ll tune in for a word of encouragement from Rev. Shaun and some creative fun with peeps! 

This week I chatted with a couple different young women who are interested in coming to worship with us when we open back up for in-person worship. One of these young women has a small toddler, whom she would like to keep with her. (He’s in the “stranger danger” phase, and coming to a new environment with people he doesn’t know will be unsettling.) I would love to be able to welcome her and her son to worship with us, but I’m going to need your help to make that a reality. As we grow closer to returning to the sanctuary, I need to ask you to start preparing your hearts –and your ears– for little kid sounds to pop up during our worship time. I also need you to dig through your attics and see what toys and books you might have that would be good for toddlers to play with at the back of the sanctuary. 

A few years back, after we no longer had children in our congregation, you all consciously chose to turn the empty Sunday school rooms into space for Trillium Wellness Center. This was (and still is) a wonderful use for this space, and I think you followed God’s heart in making that decision. Now that we will have younger kids coming to grace our presence, this reality will also help us to get to practice our creativity with how we welcome these little ones in! I’m so excited– to have kids and to have an opportunity to practice being creative together. When the time comes for us to make our Big Shift, this small practice at adapting will help give us courage to see that God gives us the capacity and ability to adapt in bigger ways too. 

In the book of Isaiah, the prophet tried to help the people cope with their very difficult lives– of having been exiled to Babylon after the fall of Jerusalem in 587BC. After 70 years in exile, he helped them to see that out of their terrible and challenging situation, God would bring them new life. 

Speaking on God’s behalf he writes, “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and stream in the wasteland.” 

-Isaiah 43:19

God is good, dear Hearts! In so many different ways, living through “the winter of our souls” brings about the spring. 

Reveling in the mud,
Pastor Katrina