Good morning, people!
It’s graduation day in our home, which means a lot of virtual reality with a real High School Degree for Sam. Congratulations to all graduates in our congregation! By now you surely have sent in your picture for our June 14 Graduation Sunday. For this coming Holy Trinity Sunday (June 7) I have invited Pastor Charles Quann from Bethlehem Baptist Church to share a message with us. I had to tell his lovely Administrative Assistant that the message is supposed to be 5-7 minutes long, and that for a black Baptist preacher… We will see how that goes, but Pastor Quann told me he could do it! We will have some of our Stephen Ministers and trainees join us for the recording this Saturday. Thank you all for your wonderful feedback about last Sunday’s co-production with our friends in Puerto Rico. Every weekend is a small adventure of people getting together around a theme, reading, praying, recording music and giving you something that hopefully brightens your Sunday and gives you food for this long journey through the wilderness of COVID 19.
On Friday night I invite you to a BASIC Session. BASIC stands for “Brothers and Sisters in Christ,” and it basically is a form of adult education in a relaxed setting. This Friday’s session will be offered via Zoom of course. It is titled, “Learning to walk in the dark,” based on the book by Barbara Brown Taylor. It’s an inspirational book that helps us appreciate both physical and spiritual darkness. You don’t need to have read the book. We will read short excerpts and talk about content. In fact, here is a small excerpt: “Once you start noticing how many important things happen at night in the Bible, the list grows fast. Jacob wrestles an angel by a river all night long, surviving the match with a limp, a blessing and a new name. His son Joseph dreams such dreams at night that he catches a pharaoh’s attention, graduating from the dungeon to the palace to become the royal interpreter of dreams. The exodus from Egypt happens at night; God parts the Red Sea at night; manna falls from the sky in the wilderness at night – and that is just the beginning.” – Too bad it won’t be dark when we meet at 7:00 pm. on Friday night, I started to consider moving it to 9:00 p.m., but that would not agree with our early sleepers. Here is the invitation to the session:
Today I would like to ask you for your prayers on behalf of Amy S. again. As many of you know, Amy was diagnosed with one of the worst brain cancers last year – glioblastoma, which took the lives of people like Ted Kennedy and John Mc Cain. A year after surgery and treatments, Amy will go back to the University of Pennsylvania for a round of ten radiation treatments delivered over two weeks. They discovered a small growth again, which is not unusual at all and almost to be expected in this scenario. Amy has struggled with word recollection, which is very annoying to her. She is a retired Methodist pastor who used words all the time. Please keep her and her husband Tim in your prayers as they walk their own wilderness path of dealing with an aggressive and lethal illness. Blessings and love to you, Amy!
The SEPA Synod Anti-racism Team invites you to online conversations about race based on the book – “America’s Original Sin” by Jim Wallis. These interactive discussions will take place on Tuesday evenings, from 7pm-8:15pm on June 9th, June 16th, June 23th, June 30th, July 7th and July 14th. They will be led by members of the SEPA Synod Anti- racism Team. You may participate in one or all of the conversations. The Team encourages you to read the book. An excerpt of “America’s Original Sin” can be found here: https://americasoriginalsin.com/read-an-excerpt-of-americas-original-sin/ I will share the link to participate in this discussion.
Mrs. B’s Children’s Hour will take place every Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m., starting next week on June 10. We encourage our families with young children to take advantage of this interactive program and to tell your neighbors with children about it.
Also, please don’t forget the Red Cross Blood Drive on June 8. Specific precautions are being taken and have been described in recent emails. Drive Details: Date: June 8th, Times: 2 – 7 PM;
TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT, PLEASE GO TO WWW.REDCROSS.ORG, ENTER SPONSOR CODE St. Peters North Wales or CLICK ON
As always, be blessed and be safe! Pastor Andreas Wagner