Good morning, dear friends and members of St. Peter’s!
As promised (or threatened), you will hear more often from me during these unprecedented times. Normally I am very conservative about sending out emails because we all get inundated with messages all the time. But this is a different situation, and I want to communicate with you often. You can always skip, delete or even unsubscribe.
First of all, apologies to those of you who tried unsuccessfully to watch us on Facebook Live yesterday morning. The problem apparently was caused by an inadvertent switch to the personal Facebook page of Jenn Bodolus. We did not realize that the feed no longer came from the St. Peter’s Facebook page but from hers. Some people figured it out and were able to follow us in real-time. Others saw the recording, which is on our church Facebook page now. Let me also tell you that the church has been absolutely deep-cleaned several times, and even as we came together yesterday morning in a small group for “virtual church” we were very careful in terms of touch and sanitation. As we move toward next Sunday, we will learn from this experience and further improve our capabilities.
I would like to offer all church committees and ministry groups our own church teleconference capability. We used it when we had an ad-hoc meeting of staff and the executive committee last week. If you’d like to use it, please reach out to me or Martha H.
Our elderly and homebound members are naturally on my mind as I reach out and make phone calls, but the other group I am concerned about is families with young children. Our own children are older now, Sarah is still home from college, and we actually enjoy more togetherness. But I imagine it must be difficult for parents who have young children, in terms of their work-life, in terms of kids getting bored, etc. Thank God, the weather has been nice enough to go outside and enjoy sun and fresh air, which are natural allies in the fight against viral infections. I saw lots of people out yesterday afternoon, a good thing!
Finally, I would like to ask you as a church community bound together by faith to pray for one person, in particular, every day. I would like to begin with Pastor Amy S. who has been an associate member of our church for over five years now. (She is a retired Methodist pastor – that’s why Associate). Amy was diagnosed last year with an aggressive brain cancer. It was a shock and a very sudden change of perspective for her life. As most of you know, Amy is a very positive and generally optimistic person. She is also practical and likes to help out wherever she can. This was something totally unexpected for her and her husband Tim. Her follow-up results have been on the positive side, but this is a very serious condition that still begs for a cure. I want to ask you to pray for Amy and Tim today, not for any particular reason, but because we love them and care for them and they need our prayers. Don’t ask me what to pray for, but certainly, pray for blessings and healing power and strength. And try to identify with their plight and bring it before God.
Thank you, church!
Blessings and peace to all of you,
Pastor Andreas Wagner
I was delighted to about some of your responses yesterday and especially this one from one of our young mothers, Tricia R.:
“Thanks so much for the service this morning and for sending out the Gospel and sermon. We are truly grateful for this spiritual nourishment during this time of confinement. We feel blessed to still feel a part of our church community while we spend so much time apart. We were not able to watch it live due to some technical difficulties but we watched it later. It’s so good for our kids to see that faith and church continue in this time. We add it to the list of blessings we are finding during this time of inconvenience. We are spending so much time together as a family and that is a gift. It’s also nice to be free of our ”have to” list for a while. We also play outside so many hours each day that I predict we will all be healthier by the end of this quarantine!…”