Thursday MEMO
Don't miss the P.S. at the close of this post.
Join us this Sunday, May 3rd, for our
return to our restored sanctuary! ONE Service only at 9:00 am. In the spirit of celebration, we have
declared it (optional) “dress-up” Sunday!
It’s not required, but if you’d enjoy putting on your spiffy duds, dresses, and
hats, please do! Who knows? Maybe
we’ll have a few haberdashery awards!Daffodils, please!!! We would like to enliven our worship space with daffodils, and perhaps a few branches of forsythia, this Sunday. If you have some to offer, please call Gretchen (323-7459) or Heidi (367-8220) and arrange a time for drop-off or pick-up. We don’t need a lot from any one person, but if you have six or twelve to space, it would be great! Thanks.
Readings for this Sunday: Acts 8:26-40; Psalm 22:24-30; 1 John 4:7-21; John 15:1-8.
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| Set design in the works |
Mark your calendar: The Lakes Region Convocation will hold a shared Ascension Day service on Thursday, May 14 at 6 p.m. at St. Mark's Church in Ashland. Ascension Day is the “Principal Feast” of the church year that falls on the Thursday before the Seventh Sunday of Easter. We will arrange details for car-pooling when the date is closer.
Food for thought…
I have been thinking a lot about this little group of
Nepalese children this week. I took the picture in 1976 when I was on a
three-week trek out of Pokhara (near the
epicenter of last week’s earthquake) up to the Tibetan border. Then, as now,
there are virtually no roads into the mountain villages, only well-worn
footpaths used by locals, their flocks, herds, and pack animals, and trekkers.
As you can see from the picture, much of the region is dry and barren.
Nevertheless, children find ways to amuse themselves with simple games with
sticks and rocks and versions of tag. I stopped long enough with this little
group to goof around with them a bit (I was a total failure at their stick
game, which amused them no end!), and they were very pleased to pose for me at
the end of our time playing together.
I have this picture near my desk in my study at home and have
thought about them often during these intervening years – their wonderful
individual differences, their apparent ethnic diversity, their warmth and
eagerness to connect. That was almost 40 years ago. They would be in their 40s
and 50s now, if they are still alive. Even under the best of circumstances,
lifetimes are shorter there than here.
I will never know if last week’s terrible earthquake took
the lives of all of them and their children, some of them, or none. Perhaps some are working feverishly with rescue efforts as I write. Some are tending their
wounded and others are struggling for life. No one
would have escaped unscathed emotionally. All, I am sure, are praying.
Meanwhile, we here at Saint Andrew’s have been working hard to
recover from our comparatively trivial “plaster
fall.” The earthquake in Nepal certainly puts our situation in perspective: No
one was hurt, we were slightly inconvenienced, and almost all the repairs
covered by insurance. Privilege and geological good luck. I invite you to hold these seven lovely faces in your thoughts and prayers and may their specificity lead you to respond.
We will
continue to lift the people of Nepal in our prayers, but I also encourage each
of us, as we are individually able, to contribute financially to the relief
effort. Episcopal Relief and Development
is collaborating with regional teams to support the relief and ultimate effort.
For more specific details, click here: http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2015/04/27/episcopal-relief-development-issues-statement-on-nepal-earthquake/
Checks can be made to Saint Andrew’s Church, with “ERD Nepal Earthquake Relief” in the memo line. Contribution envelopes will also be available on Sunday. In contributing through the church, we will have the satisfaction of knowing our combined generosity.
Checks can be made to Saint Andrew’s Church, with “ERD Nepal Earthquake Relief” in the memo line. Contribution envelopes will also be available on Sunday. In contributing through the church, we will have the satisfaction of knowing our combined generosity.
May the newness of life that we know in the Risen One be made manifest where it is most needed through our gifts and prayers.
Eastertide
blessings,
Heidi+
Heidi+
PS. Two images of our last sweet Sunday worshiping in the Parish Hall.
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What a gift to have this as our alternate sanctuary space!
Special thanks to those whose gifts of vision, energy, and creativity made it possible, especially members of the Liturgy Committee, the Altar Guild, the Choir, Bernice (for graciously adjusting to a borrowed electronic keyboard), sound techs Bill May and Duane Dale, Debra, and all who helped prepare the space each week by 
arranging chairs and distributing books.
arranging chairs and distributing books.
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom then shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
of whom then shall I be afraid....
One thing have I asked of the Lord;
One thing I seek;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life;
To behold the fair beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:1, 5-6
whom then shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
of whom then shall I be afraid....
One thing have I asked of the Lord;
One thing I seek;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life;
To behold the fair beauty of the Lord
and to seek him in his temple.
Psalm 27:1, 5-6
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