Here are the Next Steps for your faith journey:
Establish daily practices of word, prayer, and getting outside.
Pray: “Lord, fill me anew with the Holy Spirit.”
Greet others when you are out -- show love across social distancing.
Give to help those in need via food gifts or extra financial gifts.
The most powerful fulfillment of prophecy from Old Testament Joel to the New Testament words of Jesus was the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It is just like God to use and honor feast days, and what a day this was. With heavenly and earthly phenomenon the Spirit as promised came with a grand entrance: Wind, Fire, Tongues, Sound, Commotion. Just as the law came on Mt Sinai -- with trumpet blast, lightning, wind, thunder, so the Spirit came, the NEW LAW, the NEW coming of covenant. “He will be IN you,” Jesus had promised and IN the Spirit came. Dynamically. This event, so visually inspirational impacted the world -- for the whole known world was in Jerusalem that day.
Power of the Spirit that day was to make the disciples into new people. It was the Spirit who changed them. This powerful coming was not just an announcement of how God would work in the disciples, so that others proclaimed later “See how they love one another,” but an announcement of how much God cared for the world. God’s Spirit brought language -- so that every heart language was spoken that day of those present.
God puts his power on display. In the middle of covid, how do we long to see God’s power? Are we seeing the power of Holy Spirit today? What do we expect?
Remember— come to worship! We need to connect with you as we look for the new Pentecost now. Let’s join in Sunday worship and look for Jesus in this unique season. Join in at 9 am Sunday
Some of you may have received an email from shimer.westside@gmail.com. This is not from Pastor Brian. Please do not open or respond to this email.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
You won’t want to miss a single Sunday in June!
June 7: Pastor Brett Stuvland (pronouned Stoovland) will be joining in, and a pre-recorded Q&A session with him will be shown.
June 14: A special video, created with your photos, will be shown in honor of Pastor Brian.
June 21: Pastor Brian’s last solo Sunday.
June 28: Pastor Brett will be joining Pastor Brian for the “passing of the baton.”
We will continue to meet online through June.
Don’t forget to upload your photos of Pastor Brian and events throughout his years at Westside.
We need them no later than June 10 to assemble into a slideshow.
Here’s the Shutterfly link: https://brianssendoff.shutterfly.com/
When you encounter the miraculous, how have you responded? What is the most amazing thing you have seen Jesus do?
Martha - Miracles will happen...healing will come…we need those words right now! Thanks!
Kaitlyn - Community coming together to help our family within hours of their house fire. My aunt and her partner are alive. They were being watched over!
Debbie - This week at work in triage area of urgent care. A guy standing in line asked what is the meaning of life? She responded To love God and walk justly. How do you know God is real? He speaks to me. What’s the last thing he told you? Hang in there, I am with you always. He looked at me and I stared at him and there was this big pause. The guy said Wow! Coworker agreed with Deb, He speaks all the time and we just need to listen! The guy replied, I guess I better listen.
Wendy F. – I love that story! So often we hesitate to talk about God at work. Thank you for role-modeling.
Martha – Deb: I admire your ability to share your faith with others in so many places. That is my Jesus moment!
Laura – When I encounter the miraculous, I say THANK YOU, THANK YOU JESUS!
Sally – Jesus showed up daily (hourly) as I ministered over my brother and the love & care from the nurses.
Kari – Because the donation places are closed, my coworker has furniture she can donate to a family getting an apartment through Family Promise.
Celebrating family that have gone before us at the Dufur Cemetery yesterday and visiting family members still living!
Bonnie – We took Spanish Bibles to camp last night.
Son in law, Ray, had a successful surgery.
Michele – God always put people that need help or support in my life. Mainly people in my life that need support. I figure it’s something God wants me to do & I do the best I can.
The message today is preparation for Pastor Brian leaving. We are taking a new step with Pastor Brett. Look at the fact Pastor Brian is leaving. We are taking another step with Pastor Brett to take us on our journey.
Wendy F. – That’s beautiful, Michele!
Laura – I love your faithful obedience, Michele!
Krista – This weekend marks a year of rebuilding for Ivan & I and what an amazing year it has been.
Sally – I had a short dream the night before my brother passed away. Went to sleep praying to God about a sign to have doctors do for her brother. Brother was an engineer. Always fixed things at the Sully’s house. A can-do guy. In the dream only saw a pair of hands and tube of caulking in the upstairs bathroom the line between the bathtub and the floor – just a thin strip of caulking. I have been looking at that and thinking it needs caulking. I interpreted the dream that “we need to keep fixing Dave.” But his body stopped working that day and couldn’t fix him. I also asked 3 other people for interpretation of my dream. Marsha—Sally, that was your brother Dave fixing one last thing. You can do this. Susan said, “Sally, I find it curious that it was a hard floor that represents earth and another object that can be filled with water that represents baptism. Your brother was moving through baptism.” Bucky said, “the thin line between earth and glory.” Thank You!
Martha – When we lose someone…memories are the treasures we hold in our hearts. Maybe the caulk was a seal between you and our brother…a sign that he will always be with you and watching over you.
Susan – Charity Virkler Kayembe - Dreams class started on May 21st.
Pursinger – Old Green Van. That is a Miracle!
Rich – Amen
San Jacinto UMC July 1, 1988 - June 30, 1994
Karen and I, with Anna (3) and Grace (1) in their carseats, drove for four days, in blistering heat, from Kentucky across the country to Southern California. We put a bucket of ice on the floor under Karen’s feet, opened all four windows and the air would circulate over that ice and get cooled a bit. Soon the ice melted, then, we’d dip bandanas into the ice water and tie them around our necks, and we’d fill our hats with ice and wear them on our heads so water could melt all over us. At around 8 in the morning, we turned off I-10 onto California 79 and began a winding drive down through Lambs Canyon into the San Jacinto valley. As we rounded a corner, the valley opened up before us. It looked like an agricultural checkerboard to me. A mini San Joaquin Valley, the Big Valley of California, where I had grown up. It looked inviting to me, exciting, and was a bit unnerving. But to Karen, it looked like a desert, which it technically was; she burst into tears, “I cannot live here.”
The folk we had spoken with before moving had told her that the San Jacinto Valley was lush and green, and full of vegetation. But Karen is an Oregon girl, and she pictured Multnomah Falls and the green of Oregon. What she saw was a dismal, dry place opening up to her, felt like an impossible burden.
For months after this she would say, “There’s something wrong with the sky here.”
It took awhile but one day she called me at the office saying, “I figured it out!”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“I figured out what’s wrong with the sky here,” she said.
“Oh, right. What is wrong with the sky here?”
“There are no clouds!” She exclaimed.
Indeed, for several months in San Jacinto, there had not been one cloud in the sky.
We arrived at the parsonage a couple hours early that first morning, and Nita the current pastor, answered the door, a towel around her head and said, “You are just too early, come back later,” and closed the door.
Welcome to town, Pastor Brian.
We drove around the area, found the church building a mile from the parsonage, eventually met up with Pastor Nita later and then met Helen Reeder. Helen took us under her wing, like lost chicks from her flock. She and her husband Harold had a little cottage behind their place where we stayed off and on for a few weeks until the parsonage was ready. The next night was our first time to meet with the SPRC -- the local HR team of the church. The group met with both Karen and I and the children. After they had been speaking with me, Maxine Divine turned to Karen and asked her, “What do you see as your role alongside of Brian in his pastorate?”
Just before that point in time, Grace needed to nurse, so Karen was nursing her under a light blanket as Maxine asked her question. Every ounce of people pleasing had been scoured from Karen during our year at Perseverance Chapel. She’d learned what she need not do as the pastor’s wife. I was on payroll, she was not. She looked at Maxine and said, “You are looking at them. I’m a mom first and these two children are my responsibility alongside caring for Brian. If there is something I can be part of, I will.”
Maxine loved this response and it endeared her to Karen from the start. She would tell us later, “Travel while you are young! Take out a loan and go! When you get old like us, you can’t and you have the money to do it! It’s the pits!” We never took out the loan to do it, but have heeded her advice.
Helen Reeder chaired this team and supported us as we left and returned from Annual Conference, painted the parsonage, with the assistance of Click Sharp, a retired painter, hung border paper, and moved in. He helped us remove 6 or 7 layers of old wallpaper from the kitchen dating back to the 1940s.
Harold and Helen Reeder were in their late 50s when we arrived, and actively involved in every aspect of the congregation. Harold raised watermelons, and we could count on a melon every week on our front porch when in the parsonage from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Helen complained his shirts were hopelessly stained with watermelon juice for he would often break a melon open and eat it in the field.
The most interesting thing about Helen and Harold is this: they moved from San Jacinto about when we did to settle near family in Oregon. They have been members of the Marquam UMC ever since. Two of my best friends in ministry, Rand Sargent and Bill Seagren, were their pastors for all but 2 years since 1994 when they moved. And their next pastor will be Karen! It is a small, small world.
If you’d checked the member roles at SJUMC you would have noticed that they had 166 people on record. But when I began an audit I found 35 had died already, but their names were counted as if they yet lived! I didn’t know church membership extended into glory. Many had been gone for decades. When I had to get a vote to remove the names, this caused such turmoil for some members of church council. They felt like I was removing their friends from redemption. I assured them it was only from the church rolls; Jesus had these friends and loved ones in his Hand.
Those who came to church were for the most part over 75 years old. So, to have this young pastor and his family was a boon. They knew young people would flock to their church because of me. But, of course, that was not how it happened; my age and zeal disrupted them.
I wrote in the newsletter in October 1988 that first year about the need to embrace change. No one likes change. Laura Geiser, 80, spry, wirey, deeply in tune with Jesus came in the next Sunday. Laura was the one who had told me, “During the 70s we had to bootleg Jesus into the Sunday School Curriculum!” She knew all about change and growth. But that Sunday after the article, she was madder than a hornet. I said “Good Morning, Laura,” and she responded with a growl, “When I read that article of yours, I wanted to punch your lights out!” I laughed, “Okay! Did you want to share more?” And there, in the fireside room, before church ,we sat and she shared her heart.
I think the hardest thing in life is change. When the normal and the familiar get stripped away replaced by we don’t know what yet, it is such a challenge. We are in such a season now, aren’t we? This Covid-19 brings change, no matter the real source or the truth behind all the facts and misinformation and truth and error, whatever is going on. No matter what, we have lost what is normal and familiar. And folks, that hurts!
I’m thinking the truth is -- we will not be going back. The normal will not return like we might want. And the familiar may be out of reach for a while. Just like for these dear saints in San Jacinto, the world was changing around them and they were invited to walk in it and didn’t like the changes.
We may not like them either, but are being told, ordered even, to adjust. That’s just hard, isn’t it? I think back to Laura and I sitting by the stained glass windows above us on those cushioned floral seats that banked the sides of this open, carpeted area, near the glass doors with the yellow, beveled glass that opened to the sanctuary. To her the change I called for was too much, too soon, too hard, too abrupt. And it felt like she might lose what was church to her. Can you relate?
Some of you may have read the Bishop’s Guidelines for reopening. Those have been challenging for many. There are so many things to adjust to within them. And who knows what is needed or not needed, but bottom line is this: there will be changes no matter how much we would like to avoid them.
The best part is this: together we can change and shift and be creative and still rediscover Jesus and worship in the middle of change.
The people of San Jacinto did this then. They embraced this crazy, wild, troubled young preacher and together we saw God change us and change the church and shift ministry to a new horizon. They caught a vision for the homeless and began a weekly homeless meal. They wanted people set free from addictions and hurts, so we started recovery groups and began a sexual recovery group too.
Alongside these ministries, God started using me in counseling others, something I didn’t know I was equipped to do out of my own broken past. But there I was helping others heal. Allean Stewart reminds me every time I see her, “Brian, it was you who helped me get set free that day when you told me, ‘You must forgive your mother!’” Okay, there are gentler techniques, but this changed Allean’s heart and life when she did.
Benita Powers, a tiny woman with a bleeding heart for her family, and for others and a deep belief that these people at church had betrayed everyone and kicked people out, and been unkind, bent my ear plenty. I listened and believed her. I fasted for two three-day fasts for the congregation grieving what sins she had told me about them. Then, Jesus showed me some of the inaccuracies and I began to understand Benita sought attention through her stories.
Preaching in San Jacinto was a weekly battle for me, because so much of my heart was still at war with myself. In the middle of helping others discover forgiveness and hope and life, I was mired in self hate because of the full scale impact of abuse. A friend named Bob Beckett, another pastor in the community, would receive my panicked calls and pray for me often on Saturdays. He would do his best to encourage me. One week on a Saturday afternoon he said, “Brian, the Holy Spirit will preach through you. Go home. Work in the garden. Get away from it. Breathe, brother.” I look back at the drivenness of my heart then. This was the best advice.
Margaret Miller counted how many times I said “um” during a message and told me! A former English teacher she wanted to grow my use of the English language. One week she told me, “Today it was 28 ums!” Nothing like that reminder to upgrade your awareness of yourself. Truly, Margaret I had plenty of interior critics! But, she would have really gotten on my case a couple weeks back. I watched the video, and haven’t learned yet to extract all the “ums!”
San Jacinto was a season of growth. Two more daughters joined the family, and this congregation loved being their grandparents. I wish you could have met Bob and Joann Corrao and their 8 yappy dogs, Hilda Johnson, Phil and Sue Allen, Click and Joyce Sharp, The Pisas, Bill Rickman, and so many others. Real, dear, life-impacting people whose lives changed ours.
Dorothy Lambiotte was a hoot. She was in her late 80s and loved movies. Her deceased husband had run a movie theater back when they only had one big room and it was the only theater in a small town. She and I went to see Schindler’s List together when it came out. Karen never has been big on some movies especially. That was a wild movie to see with her. She loved it!
We attended the Walk to Emmaus, and I began to offer more leadership in that movement and at the Summer Redwood Christian Ashram. The discovery of more of the abuse in both of our childhood pasts happened while there. God used this season to reveal secrets we had not yet seen. The church became family to us, threw surprise parties, hosted concerts of prayer with us, planned healing services, and of course had numerous potlucks. Ray Geiser would reload the dishwasher “correctly” after every event, until others just gave up trying to help in the kitchen!
During my time in San Jacinto I was involved with a large group of spiritually dynamic pastors in praying for revival. We saw God move in powerful ways until the story of healing and revival got told in a once well-known documentary called Transformations II. Drug dealers and prostitutes were coming to Christ. Strongholds over the area broke. Some churches were overflowing with new believers. The spiritual real became real to me while at this congregation. People began to have visions and dreams, words of prophecy, and dynamic spiritual encounters.
It was at Charge Conference, November 1, 1992, while the District Superintendent was giving a message as part of the time together, that the Lord spoke to me directly, a word alongside the chosen text: “I have new places for you.” I heard God say.
I responded, “I’m ready. Where?”
“Oregon,” was the response.
It was such a tangible move of the Spirit, so dynamic, so otherworldly, it felt like everyone in the room must have noticed. But they were still listening to Wille Foreman preach. Karen was in Oregon then, for her sister’s wedding that coming weekend, and I flew up to join her the next day. When I told her, she was beyond thrilled. She wanted to move back to Oregon so badly. So, I called two District Superintendents, while in Oregon, met with them, and began the process to request a transfer to the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference. That occurred in June 1994.
Here are the Next Steps for your faith journey:
Establish daily practices of word, prayer, and getting outside.
Pray: “Lord, I look to you and find my hope in you.”
Greet others when you are out -- show love.
Give to help those in need via food gifts or extra financial gifts.
This morning as I dragged out the trash can to the street I realized that I had walked through the place where my car normally sits in the driveway. My car was gone. Stolen. Sometime between 11 pm when my neighbor, Rita, last checked out her window if everything was right with world, and 630 am when I was dragging out the trash can someone had come to our place and taken it. It felt surreal. Somehow violating. I walked back into the house and said, “Karen, my car is gone. It’s been stolen.”
Those were also strange words to say. “Did you park it someplace else?” But I had checked. Sometimes I have left it on the street when we needed to move things in and out of the garage, but it was gone.
What do you do when you encounter the realities that everything is not right with the world? How do you make sense of what makes no sense?
The officer who came to my door at 7:15 am told us that people are taking cars not to do huge crimes but sometimes simply to get from one place to another. They drive from Beaverton to Portland and drop the car in some parking lot and leave it. He also told me that Hondas are the easiest cars to steal. I guess you can file down any key and if you jiggle it enough in the door lock and the ignition, it will open and start! Well, that’s helpful!
This was Monday morning.
The discovery that my car had been stolen underlined what is already true for all of us: everything is not right with the world. How can it be? We are still in quarantine and there are as many opinions on this as there are people, but mine is, we have been co-opted into the ridiculous. However, what can you do but adapt into the reality you are facing. Some stores disallow patrons without masks, and although I don’t agree with the mask thing, I go along in the store. But please, if you agree with masks, do not wear a mask while driving your own car or while running or walking in the air! Your lungs need real oxygen not your own filtered CO2!
But everything is not right with the world in this time. It is troubled and broken.
So, how do we walk in this. One place I continue to turn is to the fact that Jesus is king. This is what his ascension announced and it is what we can return to in the middle of all the things that are wrong and right, Jesus is Lord and King. He really is the one in charge, not that he planned any of this, necessarily, but certainly has allowed it.
This doesn’t mean that we cannot stand up and say, “But the emperor is not wearing any clothes!” But it does mean, we know that no matter what is wrong, no matter what is a lie, no matter what is true, Jesus is Lord and Jesus is King. Jesus is ruling. Jesus is here with us in the middle of all of it.
We are certainly in a huge cultural and world shift. I’ve recently read that culture shifts every 50 years and we are 20 years into this cultural shift. And we are in a shift of the church world as well, which happens every 500 years. The last people who experienced this kind of shake up lived in the 1500s.
So, my car was stolen, and Jesus is still Lord. We need to wear masks in certain stores, and Jesus is Lord and King. We will need to adopt new policies about worship once together in the sanctuary, but Jesus will still be Jesus and Lord and King even then. We need to stand 6 feet away from others in stores, true, but this does not hinder our ability to speak to others, or reach out, or talk, or be present behind a mask or not.
So, this week in worship we are looking at the ascension -- why did it happen? What does it mean? And how can it impact you and me as we live in this life? So, let’s join in Sunday worship and look for Jesus in this unique season. Join in at 9 am Sunday!
Dear Family --
We are in unprecedented times and our conference leadership is leading to their best of their abilities and to the utmost of care for people. This document details the Conference plan for us to reenter worship. Currently, we are in Phase 1 -- in which we have all been walking. Currently, this is to last through June 15. The bishop may decide to move to phase 2 at that point in time. Phase 2 still does not allow for in-person worship, as I read this. This means, likely, we will not be able to meet for worship before the end of June. There are four specific phases but all of them do not allow public singing. There is a lot of data out there, I know, but the data being followed and aligned with by leadership reports that singing can be dangerous in the spread of tiny droplets that have the potential of spreading COVID-19.
I wanted you to have this document. For Westside, especially, the idea of not singing in worship might feel about as outlandish as can be. This means your worship design team and you all will need to be walking into new creativity of what worship will look like as we all move forward. The document is for your perusal. We will be reporting to the District Superintendent what we plan to do as we move toward in-person worship. But obviously, that is still a bit in the future.
One thanksgiving, first service has been practicing worship without singing for years and years. We have watched a song, often, but not sung with it, except in the rare week. This says we have experienced impactful worship without singing. We can do this.
So, read this document. Feel free to ask any questions you might have to me or the worship design team, Susan Brehmer, Fred Cooper, and Sandy Holt.
Grace and mercy.
Brian
Family Promise is working with Beaverton High School to distribute necessities to houseless families.
If you would like to help with this program, we are collecting Toiletries, Paper Towels, Toilet Paper, Diapers, Baby Food, and nonperishable food. You may leave items in the Lighthouse if you have a door code. Then email or text Bonnie B to let her know.
There is also an opportunity to deliver these boxes to families in need. You pick up the boxes at the Day House on Friday afternoon and then deliver them Saturday morning between 10:00 am and noon.
If you have questions or would like to volunteer, please contact Bonnie. Or if you prefer, you may donate to Family Promise at https://www.familypromiseofbeaverton.org/donate.
Next Tuesday, May 26, will be the last “Prayer and Connection” gathering.
If you’d like to participate, join us at https://zoom.us/j/900550485 at 1:00 pm.
With the Help Build Hope date rescheduled for August 1st, we are continuing to move forward with the t-shirt design contest. It’s open to all ages, so we hope you’ll participate!
This year we are using the following scripture as our focus: 1 Timothy 6:8 “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.”
Here are the t-shirt design details:
—We need all submissions done on 8.5x11 white paper.
—All drawings must be in black ink (marker or heavy pen).
—The theme should incorporate the following concepts:
Building shelter for those in need
Community
Volunteering
Faith
—The deadline for turning in submissions is June 1st.
—To submit your design, please scan it or take a picture with your phone and email it to Ben Yarger at benjamin.yarger@gmail.com. The subject should be “Help Build Hope”. Please hold onto your original design paper, as we would need to collect the original from the winner, after voting is complete.
Here’s the first of three parts -- a glimpse back over 33 years.
Perseverance Chapel July 1, 1987 - June 1, 1988! What a name, right? Perseverance! As a fourth-year seminary student, I took the weekends-only pastoral position at this small, country, Southern Indiana church. The church’s name seemed to be my own life motto -- to “try harder,” to “work more.”
The congregation was thrilled to welcome us, with Grace due to arrive July 27th of that first month among them. The stone block edifice located in the midst of many fields outside of the town of Corydon hosted a dynamic group of people, mostly middle aged, mostly farmers, under the Matriarch of the congregation Mother Gerdon. Her son, Bill and his wife Imogene directed traffic in that church, told people what to do and where to go. He let me preach!
Imagine his shock and dismay when we told him we were not meat eaters. “Well,” he pondered this revelation as if seeking to fathom why anyone would do that, and said, “Well, you will eat chicken, right?”
Actually, we were not eating meat and that included chicken, but we saw there was no way around this one. “Sure,” we agreed. When Bill introduced us that first Sunday and announced to the congregation, “The pastor won’t eat meat, but he’ll eat chicken!” They fed us plenty of chicken and in our idealism we missed out on some of the best ever, freshest, home-raised beef and pork.
In that community was a couple who didn’t believe in the spring and winter hour time change, told me we had not really landed on the moon, and lived without electricity or running water. There was a woman whose fifth child had come when she turned 47 and at 49 she was still mad about having had that boy, who at two was a handful! Mother Gerdon had us eat lunch with her one Saturday. She served lunch in courses. We thought it was going to be a snack lunch, when she started us with crackers, celery and carrot sticks and peanut butter. So we ate those up. But then came soup! She served mine in a huge serving dish. Then the main course, and we already were getting full. And I again was served the largest portions. And then, came dessert. This was how Joseph treated his younger brother Benjamin! We needed no more food until lunch the next day!
At Perseverance Chapel our organist was one of two sisters and a brother who lived together, and raised cows and pigs in their old age. The milking had to be done Sundays right at noon. If we were not done with worship on time, this dear, small, woman with her salt and pepper black hair pulled into a tight bun, a hair net over it would just pack up. She sat on the front left nearest the organ. She would stand up, get on her coat, grab her purse and take her keys out, jangling what must have been 40 keys on that ring, while still up in front, then she walked down the center aisle and out. We never quite understood why she needed to make such an exit as she left, but I began to believe it was her way of saying, “Pastor, you have gone over again!” As she walked down the aisle, we’d pause whatever we were doing, wave and I’d call to her and say “Have a great day Erma!”
It was my first pulpit experience and my first attempt to preach weekly messages. I did not have that many thoughts going through my head then, so pulling together a message became an effort in pleasing people and achieving some status. I look back astounded at this.
I was sitting under some of the best teachers and preachers in the world those years, and twice a week heard a great sermon in the chapel. But instead of taking the outline, the line of thought, the point from one of those, and just positioning myself around that for the upcoming Sunday, I had to come up with something myself. What hard soil was in my heart then, and Jesus was plowing it! But it was so unyielding to the gentle Shepherd offering to lead me. Those precious people were so patient! What poor preaching they tolerated! Karen learned all the things she would not try again as the “pastor’s wife,” so it was great training ground for us both. My heart took a little longer to really get the learning down. Well, you all know, I’m still learning.
The congregation fixed up the caretaker’s cottage for our house on the farm of Bud and Rena Mae Reed, the sweetest people on God’s earth at that point in time and by now in glory. They raised pigs and cattle. Do you see why they would be so confused by our “refusal to eat meat?” They no longer had anyone living in their cottage and so the two-bedroom house sitting just a few feet from the pigs’ home, on their vast acreage, became our weekend place. That summer the air wafting through our little house from the pigs next door was especially fragrant. It would have been a good place to read Charlotte’s Web to add a sense of poetry to the experience!
Jesus showed up through that congregation in their generous hearts for us. When Grace arrived, I drove to the church for two weekends alone while Karen stayed home with our then two girls. I walked into the chapel, that first weekend, and there was this mountain of gifts at the front of the pews to surprise us. So many presents, all wrapped and on display. The weekly dinner at Imogene and Bill’s place was an amazing feast with fried chicken, mashed potatoes with “a cube of butter,” green beans with bacon, etc. They embraced us as a family again and again demonstrating the love of God for us in every way they could manage.
But even more, Jesus showed up at a revival we hosted at which a friend came and preached several nights and Sunday. It was the best thing I planned and I remember the beautiful night as one of the members of the congregation, another Bill, met Jesus for the first time, even though he had sat in that church, in the same pew for decades. That night, under CV’s gentle preaching, Bill came forward in that small chapel to the altar rail, knelt and confessed his need for the savior. That man’s life was altered by Jesus that year.
For me the name of that little place, Perseverance Chapel, has been a moniker and reminder to me. I need to persevere, indeed, but it is not all up to me. This life is something we walk and sometimes run in, as in a marathon. But it is not made by our effort, our seeking to force ourselves to fit into some mold. Rather, it is made by God working and living in and through us. When I think back to that year there, I think to this passage of scripture from Psalm 37:34a in which the Psalmist wrote, “Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act! Travel steadily along His path.” That’s the call. Travel steadily along His path. Keep taking what may feel like a “tiny next step,” one foot after another.
If you missed worship on Sunday, catch it here:
Don’t miss your opportunity to share photos and video from the time you’ve spent with Pastor Brian. The memories are being collected to bless and honor Brian as he enters the next phase of his ministry.
Cindy L has created a Shutterfly site: https://brianssendoff.shutterfly.com/ If you have any questions, please contact Cindy.
In a season when divided from others, when and how have you seen God in community? How does Jesus show up in surprising ways even during this week?
Kari - I think people are more patient and understanding.
Sawyer T. –“ I’ve seen God work through my mom making masks.”
Brian - Our lives are so impactful!
Barrett says he saw Jesus through this – “I’m very grateful that when I went to the ER this week for very low blood pressure, fainting and abdominal pain, the doctors checked on my heart and the tests came back saying that my heart was very healthy.”
Sally – getting phone calls from people in Dave’s life and what he meant to them & how he was there for them. Love & blessings through sharing I have been getting so emotional! I could not be there with him, none of us could be there, because of COVID-19. Yesterday, we were helping Julie & Jamie with a retaining wall project and this Blue Jay kept showing up and was watching us, digging in the dirt & eating worms….I felt like it was the spirit of my brother.
Martha – Oh Sally…that bird was him! Nothing is as hard as losing a sister or brother. I send you prayers and hugs!
Stephanie – Learning to identify emotions rather than just having things to keep me busy and avoiding them.
Paige – I was blessed with community this week, Mother’s Day with the family on Sunday, joining with friends in support of Sally, and celebrating Dad’s birthday with family and a friend showing up at the door to just chat.
Brian – numerous memories of Jesus showing up for us: 3/2010 - Carpet for Educational building paid for by visitor, 5/2010 - $5,000 short for paying monthly expenses and we received a check in the offering for $5,000. 5/2012 – Bonnie explaining needs at migrant farm & crying – we received $5,000 for the migrant farm from a visitor. 8/2012 – Cindy’s car catches on fire in church parking lot when she came to drive youth to event in Eugene. Fire was put out, car a total loss however, her wooden Walk to Emmaus Cross survived on the floorboard! Plus someone allowed her to drive their car to Eugene! Moving rocks from the inside Alter to outside….lifting heavy rocks representing heavy burdens and letting them go as you sat down the rocks. 5/2015 – Fire in the Educational building; people working together to transform this building. 8/2015 – 50K check from Grant received for Brian’s sabbatical. Spring 2018 – Family Promise started…..And more examples…….
Here are the Next Steps for your faith journey:
Establish patterns of worship in your home -- time to read, pray, be.
Practice prayer five times a day-- morning and night, and at each meal.
Be present to the people around you now: be loving, listen.
What is your pattern of self care in this season? Exercise? Food? Getting outside?
What a season -- post resurrection. We are back on day ONE of the resurrection in this week’s passage. Back to the upper room and the return of the 2 disciples from the path to Emmaus and in the midst of their joyous telling of how Jesus was alive, the alive Jesus appears to them all, right there. What joy and fun Jesus was having with his followers. Appearing here and there, encountering and disappearing, He was, it appears, enjoying being with them, immensely. And today’s topic, the idea of seeing God in community is a tough one in a season of quarantine when we have less opportunity to SEE God in community together for we are not able yet to be together as we once were together.
But even if we cannot be together, we can remember. We can remember days together in community, sharing hugs, songs and the experience of the presence of God with us. We remember those moments when God descended upon the place bringing Word through one another, and expressing love.
Two images came to mind as I wrote that sentence, one was how Martha Tunall, on March 8th, our last week together testified to the presence of God with us. She spoke up in a quiet moment and said, “I just want to say God is here. There is a power of love in this place.” Do you remember? Were you there? When she began to speak, I thought, “Martha! It’s quiet now!” But as she spoke, it was clear to me and everyone, God had spoken to her and was speaking through her. Little did we know how much we would need that reminder!
And another was of Debbie Gabel taking the microphone to speak during worship. But as she opened her mouth, tears came first. And after they had come, this profound testimony of a Word from God for us all.
A third image just came of Jan Harlan standing and sharing her stories of sharing the love of Jesus with others, the boy in the park, the family from another country, the family at the strawberry stand. And most wonderful was the story of praying for God to help her find a certain bottle of perfume for her daughter’s birthday at Ross. She walked in and there, on the front counter, on the top shelf was exactly what she had looked for. As you can imagine this gift became an overflowing testimony to the cashier that day and a blessing emerged from that simple find.
We have experienced God together. We know what that is like. And we shall experience God again.
What I love of this appearance is the surprise, shock, joy, and fear of the disciples. Even after having seen Him already, to have Jesus appear, suddenly again still takes their breath away. Like laughter in the middle of tears, suddenly the atmosphere changed. The beauty of this scene, and how Jesus puts them at ease, even asking for some food, is captivating. Like the presence of God actually is. Remember to join in worship, connect in with the body, so that we can be together as closely as possible. And anticipate worshiping as a community again. Sunday 9 am!
On Saturday, June 20, there will be an opportunity for you to meet with Pastor Brian before he leaves us.
We must still practice physical distancing, so there will be three timeslots available, limited to 20 people each (including children.) You must reserve a slot for each family member attending.
You should have received an email invite earlier today. If not, please contact the church office.
And don’t forget to send your messages of love and welcome to Pastors Brian and Brett! You may email or mail Kari and she will assemble the journals.