It finally transpired…a mission, service, worship, fun weekend for our INSPIRE Middle high youth. From early Saturday morning, October 3 through Sunday, October 4, we spent the weekend in Chase, Kansas. Chase is a great small community just northwest of Hutchinson. Why Chase? It’s simple really. We have a connection with one of our members, Scott Randle, who preaches there on a monthly basis. Scott was instrumental in working with the Chase Community Presbyterian church to host our group for the weekend.
Nine middle school, high school and college youth and adult sponsors, along with their local youth and leaders, spent the weekend serving in the community. They cleaned yards and garages, picked up trash on the school grounds and in the city park, helped organize rooms at the local Baptist church, polished and cleaned the woodwork in the Community Presbyterian sanctuary and organized and moved a kindergarten class room.
Much was done in service for this community. What they gave us was even more incredible:
One of my favorite parts of this ministry is working side by side with other people and organizations. It reminds us that we are all one under God created to serve and praise Him. We get the chance on November 11 to show Chase and Caldwell our love and hospitality as we host both communities for worship and lunch.
I hope you join all of us and welcome them in the same love of community and Christ that they showed us.
Earlier this month the Steamer Group took a tour of the Orpheum. They enjoyed learning the history, seeing the updates, and having their name in lights.
Children’s Ministry Update by Jennifer Snook
“Don’t blink,” they say. “Take a lot of photos,” they say. “It all goes so fast,” they say.
I think the only way to silence the voices of fear that tell us as parents that we are somehow missing something, is to make memories. To be sure, memories are made right along the breakfast aisle in the grocery store, and memories are made with each bedtime story we read. We make memories every single day. Some memories are good ones that we want to dip in a cup of warm cocoa. Some, we would rather just forget. Either way, I want to take a moment to champion parents who are living busy, fearless, messy lives as they race from one soccer game to a piano recital and then manage to feed their family and watch a movie together at the end of the day.
We need not fear what is meant to be, but rather embrace the eternity of the moment that we have right in front of us. This November 15, from 4:30 – 6 pm, the Children’s Ministry Team invites you to bring your family to Grace for an Advent Family Night. Each family will create a set of Jesse Tree ornaments to take home and use for years to come. The Jesse Tree ornaments retell the biblical tales that trace the family tree of Christ from the Garden of Eden to Jesus’ birth. This Advent Family night is a chance for your family to come make a memory that includes the story of your faith and your commitment to raise God-centered children. We look forward to launching into the Advent season with you.
Dear Grace Community,
In his book, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner tells the story of the Bundren family. Addie Bundren, wife and mother, dies, and the family must transport her body from their home to its burial place. They plod across Mississippi with Addie’s casket in the back of their wagon. It is a punishing journey. At one point they cross a river, and catastrophe ensues. The casket floats away, living bones are broken, and whatever pride was left is lost. While fraught with disaster, at its core, the Bundren’s journey is a familiar ritual, that of moving from death to burial.
The Bundren family needed someone to help them ford that river. Today when families are faced with death there is figurative water they do not know how to cross. My role is to help them. Others might be able to lead the grieving so far, but when it comes to crossing the water, it is my job to offer a steady hand.
This year as we approach All Saints Sunday onNovember 1, I decided to share this metaphor with you as it informs how I approach death, funerals, and memorial services as your pastor. I am the one who stands in the water. Standing in the water is not for the faint of heart, but it’s what I was called to and trained for. In time I’ve learned how to bend my knees at the right moment so the current doesn’t overwhelm me, though I still get wet and weary sometimes.
In five years at Grace I’ve led more than fifty funeral or memorial services. Each time I find myself, pants rolled up, wading into the waters of grief, holding out my hand, and helping to guide people to the other shore. This means being with them after a loved one dies, making service plans, and leading a service that both witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection and honors the one who died.
I cannot carry someone through the water. I cannot make the journey from death to the grave easy. It is hard work, and work that must be done by those grieving. My role is to guide them as they carry their loved one.
When a family makes it across the water, I don’t keep going with them. I stay by the water’s edge, which can be hard for others to understand. It’s not that I don’t want to go with them; it’s that I know there will soon be another family coming to ford the river. It may not be the next day or week, but soon someone else in our community will die, and there are others who can walk with a family beyond the shore: friends, family, neighbors.
On November 1, we say aloud the names of saints who are no longer with us. I give thanks for those people I’ve been privileged to know, to love, and to serve as their pastor. In our tradition, saints are not only the dead but the living, and so I give thanks for you who serve as witnesses and inspire me in my faith. It is my privilege to be your pastor.
In Christ,
Catherine