Good morning church,
It’s been ”March in May” temperature-wise, but toward the weekend it will feel more summer-like, and we can FINALLY get out the T-shirts and shorts for good! Man, I haven’t felt this cold in the month of May since I left Germany. When I grew up we used to go on family outdoor trips on May 1, a national holiday, and all I remember are lots of cold and wet outings that sent us back home. This has been déjà vu!
I would like to apologize for a glitch in the beautiful Mother’s Day presentation. Six or more pictures were inadvertently left out, lost in the communications between here and Texas. They have since been added and the show has been re-posted on our website. We hope you enjoy this show one more time with all the moms included. Technically I am one of the “victims,” since my wife was left out too if that is a small consolation to those of you who were affected. It was a difficult week. Lisa put this together from a road-trip to a relative in the last stages of life, and she did a marvelous job, but somehow those few pictures were missed, and we still don’t know exactly why.
This morning I would like to highlight one of the moms who were included in the picture show. Meet Diana S., one of our choir and long time St. Peter’s members. She is married to Sundar who grew up in southern India where it is hot, hot, hot, all the time. I wonder how Sundar reacted to the recent cold spells? (“Diana, let’s move to Arizona!”) (I say, “Diana, please don’t!”) They raised two wonderful daughters at our church. Shamala is married and lives in Philadelphia and Karina works as a pharmacist in Wisconsin, the state where Diana grew up in a family of German and Italian descent. I remember meeting Diana’s mom in church and talking in German to her. She is now in a Nursing Home, isolated like so many elderly people, and unable to maintain a full conversation. Those are some of the sad realities people are coping with, both the elderly and their children. Diana is in charge of one of the little but important things that we do at St. Peter’s, and she does it quietly, efficiently, and mostly behind the scenes. She is our Red Cross Blood Drive Coordinator. We do have a Blood Drive scheduled for Monday, June 8. Of course, these are different times and the organization is putting in lots of safety precautionary measures, such as: masks (required by both donors and staff); distancing; people may need to wait in their cars until they receive a text saying they are ready for them; no guests allowed and walk-ins will not be accepted – appointments only. Blood Drive volunteers are considered “essential workers” during this COVID-19 Pandemic time. We left this Blood Drive on our schedule for two reasons: 1) blood donations are needed as ever or more than ever and donors are probably harder to come by and 2) we believe that the American Red Cross is an organization that can safely carry out a donor drive in our Fellowship Hall, which is by the way cleaner than it has ever been and hasn’t been used in months now. So, Diana will reach out to folks, and as always, she is one of the first volunteers to donate blood. Thank you, Diana!
Please don’t forget that we have switched our Food Drive to Wednesdays from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. because Manna on Main Street is closed every other Friday now for special cleaning. On Thursday people from our Social Ministry Team will participate in a zoom call to determine the strategy for a community-wide Food Drive on the last weekend of May. Several churches are involved, but we also want to reach and involve our non-religious neighbors. Also, this coming Sunday we will offer an Adult Forum via Zoom at 11:00 a.m. It will feature a conversation with Sue Zomberg from the Interfaith Housing Alliance. While it is extremely unlikely at this point that we will house anyone in the month of June as originally planned, the issue of homelessness in Montgomery County and the response of the various faith communities is something we will get involved in. Needless to say, the Adult Forum session is open to all and the Zoom Invitation will come later this week.
I spoke to Bernie and Martha yesterday and thanked them for organizing Sunday’s Mother’s Day Drive-through. Bernie said one of the most touching moments was when a family with an adult daughter, who was intellectually disabled, stopped by. She got such a kick out of seeing Santa in his full glory. It made her day and it also made Bernie’s day. In addition to many parishioners, we had a few people who saw the action and just decided to drive by, which was nice.
- Tuesday noon: Staff Meeting
- Wednesday, Prayer Ministry Meeting, 6:00 p.m. (Z)
- Thursday, Bible Study, 12:00 noon (Z)
- Thursday, Community Food Drive Planning Meeting, 1:30 p.m. (Z),
- Saturday: Graveside Service for Lois Geehr, 11:30 a.m. (Flourtown)
- Sunday: Adult Forum with Interfaith Housing Alliance, 11:00 a.m. (Z)
Today are the birthdays of Bill B., Cate H., and George W. Happy birthday y’all !!!
Be safe and be well!
Pastor Andreas Wagner