Virtual Reflections – Ellisforde Church of the Brethren

March 29, 2021 Reflection

This will be my final weekly reflection, as next Sunday, Easter, we meet in person for worship and hopefully will be able to continue worshiping together in our church building. I will, however, plan to offer this Reflection/Check In at the end of each month as some choose not to worship in person before they’ve been vaccinated or might prefer to stay away from in-person gatherings until our state and country are truly at the end of this pandemic.

As we celebrated Palm Sunday yesterday with Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem that last week of his life, as we remember how different his parade was from the parade Pilate was shown when he arrived in town a few days earlier, and also as we remember how different Jesus’ reign was and is from the reigns of rulers before and after him, I wonder if those memories will make a difference in how we treat each other tomorrow, in how we teach our children, in how we treat women, in how we vote and encourage the ability to vote in every state in this country, in how we listen to each other, and maybe especially after these recent shootings and anti-voting legislation and our ongoing disagreements about this pandemic, will this Palm Sunday experience we celebrated yesterday make a difference in how we listen to those whom we often overlook? The response of Jesus’ closest friends was disappointing in the moments Jesus was most vulnerable during his time in Jerusalem. They couldn’t muster the courage to speak truth to power. They’d had all that time to listen to him and to glean from his wisdom, but they couldn’t do it. We’ve had more time to reflect, but still, can we do it? Can we stand up in Jesus’ name to the practices of violence and hatred that surround us like they surrounded him and that he stood up to?

There is a poem I came across last week that reminds me of the burden of Holy Week, that we have to face what is in front of us, as well as our accusers, before we can celebrate the victory of Easter at the end of this week. The poem is both pedestrian and prophetic, simple and profound. It has nothing and everything to do with Holy Week.

America is a Gun
England is a cup of tea.
France, a wheel of ripened brie.
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.
America is a gun.
Brazil is a football on the sand.
Argentina, Maradona’s hand.
Germany, an oompah band.
America is a gun.
Holland is a wooden shoe.
Hungary, a goulash stew.
Australia, a kangaroo.
America is a gun.
Japan is a thermal spring.
Scotland is a highland fling.
Oh, better to be anything
than America as a gun.
by Brian Bilston

Holy Week calls us to look at the resurrection through the crucifixion. We cannot get to the celebrations of next Sunday without going through this week of trial, torture, horrific death, and grief. It shouldn’t be an easy week, rather a week of introspection, repentance and action. For Jesus is crucified again every time hate happens in our world, every time a shooting occurs, every time someone is disrespected, every time someone leaves our presence without having been heard by us. I hope this week we will commit ourselves, again, to acting out Jesus love in such a way that his crucifixion will stop, once and for all – that the students from the Florida high school where 17 of their friends died from a shooting three years ago can rest in the knowledge that we are indeed confronting gun violence, that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders don’t need to shout out for us to wake up and to stop the hate crimes against them, that women feel heard and respected, that those in the south whose voices once again are being squelched by voting legislation will see justice prevail, that the science that guides us in our actions during this pandemic will be accepted by all of us. You can name others.

May we all be ready for Easter next Sunday. May we recommit ourselves to Jesus’ way of loving, of serving, of building community, of preparing his spirit to meet power with truth.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,
Debbie

We’re on target to gather next Sunday!

As we prepare for Easter Sunday, April 4, at 10:30 a.m. our church needs some spring cleaning and preparation for worship. We’re all in this together, and as things are finally beginning to look up, please consider helping with the details of gathering again! There is a list on the table in the Narthex of tasks needing to be done. Please choose one chore and then check it off after you have finished. We have just one week left to get some good cleaning done! You will need to bring your own cleaning supplies. Thank you!

Whitestone will continue with zoom worship

For those who do not feel comfortable or who are at a distance and cannot attend church next Sunday, Daniel will continue to offer Whitestone’s service in a hybrid model, with folks meeting at the church and him on the screen leading worship and offering the message. Whitestone’s service is at 9:30 a.m.

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

Thank you for your continued donations for our general fund as we have continued being the church without in-person worship! Next Sunday we will again meet in person. If you prefer you can also continue mailing your donations to Miriam, or leave them under the office door at the church. Miriam’s address: Miriam Caddy, 16 Orchard Loop South, Tonasket, WA, 98855.

In our Prayers

-Cara Johnson, who had an abscess removed from her spine and remains in the hospital in Spokane, as medical staff continues to treat an infection that manifested after her surgery.
-Martha Bosch, who is resting at home after suffering sepsis from a hip replacement and returning to the hospital in Wenatchee.
Kay Sibley, who had a heart ablation procedure two weeks ago, which seems to have been more successful than previous attempts of treatment. She is slowly regaining strength and energy.
-community member Montie Smith, who fell while volunteering at the food bank and broke her pelvis. She is healing at home.
-Effie Lea’s grandson Cameron, who walked away from his mission project in Astoria two weeks ago. We pray for his safety, his healing from the personal and health issues he grapples with, and peace of mind for Effie Lea and his family.
-Pat Pyper’s sister, Elain after successful esophageal surgery and now resting comfortably at home.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, a year and medical opinions after knee replacement surgery.
-Health Care Professionals in our valley and around the country
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where more kidnappings have occurred in recent weeks, but also where one kidnapped victim was released and is at home again with his family and the church. May we pray for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast and northwest.
-Those whose hearts have been hardened, who have caused harm to others and/or themselves, who have mental health issues, who have lost their way.
-Others, please let Debbie know

March 22, 2021 Reflection

As we move into the week before the week before Easter, we have seen a stinging indictment of our human ability to do harm in the shootings at the Spas outside Atlanta last week. I grieve the hatred that sparks violence against sisters and brothers – this time mostly Asian Americans and mostly women. 3,795 anti-Asian hate incidents were reported across the country between March 2020 and Feb. 2021, according to a report compiled by nonprofit coalition Stop AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Hate. The number of hate crimes in 2020 was up by nearly 150% over 2019. As we look toward Holy Week and then Easter, may we begin our response to violence by prayerful discernment and preparation as we examine those things in our own lives that spur inner and possibly outer harm to ourselves and/or to others. To aid us, I am including a new poem by Steve Kinzie, performed for our district Spring Event two weeks ago. Inspired by the Lord’s Prayer, he offers new images and vision to the ancient words we all know so well and recite together at each Sunday worship. As we read these words, may they help prepare us to be transformed as Jesus guided us to be.

To the One in Whom we sing
Eclipsing all imagining
Hallowed be your Mystery
That eyes of love were made to see
May Your whatever will be done
On precious earth and radiant sun
That day by day provide the bread
By which our hearts and lives are fed
And lead us not into the pit
Where greed and hate and judgment sit
But lift the weight of our despair
As we lift weights that others bear
Life’s gift to give to die to live
In Your forever everywhere
S.K. 2020

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,

Debbie

We’re on target to gather on Easter Sunday!

We continue to lookat Easter Sunday, April 4 for being able to worship together, our church needs some spring cleaning and preparation for worship. We’re all in this together, and as things are finally beginning to look up, please consider helping with the details of gathering again! There is a list on the table in the Narthex of tasks needing to be done. Please choose one chore and then check it off after you have finished. Thank you!

Communion during Zoom Worship next Sunday (Palm Sunday)

As we celebrate Palm Sunday next week, we will also participate in Communion at the end of the worship service. As we did in the fall, please have some bread ready to break and a beverage to drink as I guide us through this part of our traditional love feast.

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

Thank you for your continued donations for our general fund as we carry on being the church without in-person worship! For mailing your donations to Miriam, and for leaving them under the office door at the church, we are grateful, as it’s so important that we keep up our regular giving during this difficult time – serving the church and serving the people! In person worship is in our future, especially as more and more of us are getting vaccinated! In the meantime, please mail your financial gifts to Miriam Caddy, 16 Orchard Loop South, Tonasket, WA, 98855, or continue dropping them by the church and sliding them under the office door.

In our Prayers

-Cara Johnson, who had an abscess removed from her spine last week. She remains in the hospital in Spokane as medical staff continues to treat an infection that manifested after her surgery.
-Martha Bosch, who remains in the hospital in Wenatchee after suffering sepsis from a hip replacement.
–Kay Sibley, who had a heart oblation procedure two weeks ago, which seems to have been more successful than previous attempts of treatment. Hallelujah!
-community member Montie Smith, who fell while volunteering at the food bank and broke her pelvis. She is healing at home.
-Effie Lea’s grandson Cameron, who walked away from his mission project in Astoria two weeks ago. We pray for his safety, his healing from the personal and health issues he grapples with, and peace of mind for Effie Lea and his family.
-Pat Pyper’s sister, Elain after successful esophageal surgery and now resting comfortably at home.
-Wayne Verbeck with recent surgery to clip some nerve endings in his knees, in order to get around more comfortably until his knee surgery this fall.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, a year and medical opinions after knee replacement surgery.
-Health Care Professionals in our valley and around the country
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where more kidnappings have occurred in recent weeks, but also where one kidnapped victim was released and is at home again with his family and the church. May we pray for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast and northwest.
-Those whose hearts have been hardened, who have caused harm to others and/or themselves, who have mental health issues, who have lost their way.
-Others, please let Debbie know

March 15, 2021 Reflection

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
Luke 10: 27

We celebrate and rejoice….because what was lost has been found.
Luke 15:32

In our Sunday worship we positioned the question that introduced the good Samaritan story next to the parable of the prodigal son, to encourage a bigger picture than one story brings. As important as is welcoming home the lost, and we all know we could do better at that, I have often wondered what the story would look like if it had been a daughter rather than a son who had rebelled and left home. During March, Women’s History Month, I invite us to consider what might be left out of this prodigal son story. After all, it was written by men, about sons and fathers, in a patriarchal culture. If a daughter had decided to leave her parents home and asked for some notion of inheritance before she went, could she have expected the same outcome if her travels weren’t successful and she came groveling back home, as the son in this story did?

Well first of all, she wouldn’t have had an inheritance. Inheritances went to sons, not to daughters. Any inheritance she might have had would have been given to her future husband to control. But let’s just say, for imagination’s sake, a daughter rebelled, left home, and squandered what little money she might have had. One commentator reflected that she would have eventually had to turn to prostitution because there would have been no other way for her to sustain herself after having spent her last coins. Like the son, when she could tolerate neither her circumstances nor herself any longer, and went groveling back to her father to ask forgiveness and hope for re-entry back into the household, more than likely she would not only have been dismissed but she would have been stoned. Because there are some sins too big to accord any response except judgment and punishment, even if she seemed to have had no choice. We couldn’t put her mother in place of her father for her to appeal to, as women had no say in such matters. And even if Jesus’ response was to have the father behave with forgiveness and welcome, it’s hard to imagine his hearers could have condoned that kind of response. It was difficult enough for them to understand ‘sin’ in the parable as simply ‘missing the mark,’ rather than having to do with unrighteousness. Today, still, the reaction to women’s sexual exploits and sexual abuse, even when they don’t bring it upon themselves (that’s why it’s called abuse), is more often than not one of judgment than one of forgiveness, or compassion, or outrage. Fortunately the #MeToo movement has grown out of that judgmental response.

If we look at the Luke 10 passage regarding the lawyer’s response to Jesus, that God’s greatest commandment includes loving neighbor as yourself, then perhaps we can begin to imagine what it would mean to love ourselves, and after that, how the love of self is connected to the love of neighbor. Putting the prodigal son story alongside the greatest commandment story gives us some room we didn’t have with the prodigal son story alone. In Luke 15, a clear directive is that though we might feel unworthy, we are worthy. Though we might be shunned, God does not shun us. We probably use this parable of the prodigal son more than any other New Testaments story when we consider what it means to forgive and to welcome back those who have gone astray. But we still need other stories to assist us where this story ends. In our own time, how do women who have been neglected or abused read this parable? Do they feel compelled to welcome back their abuser, to celebrate them no matter the cost to themselves, to trust that God is with them and that is enough? Unfortunately there is a long history of scriptural teachings about forgiveness being twisted and misapplied in deeply harmful ways, used to perpetuate oppression, or abuse, or violence.

We are fortunate to have this second passage in Luke 10 to also guide us. Here we are not called to love our neighbors and denounce ourselves. We are instead called to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. So we can’t really love our neighbors if we know nothing about loving ourselves, or if we haven’t practiced loving ourselves, or if we’re so encouraged not to love ourselves that we don’t know how to love ourselves.

Of course there is much more to say about this, but the gist to me is that sometimes we know we are called to forgive, to welcome back, to restore the relationship. The prodigal son story makes that clear. And often that is the case. We do need to be more generous with our love. But there are also times when we need to draw a line in the sand and say “enough.” We’ve talked about this for the last several months regarding Black Lives Matter. And we should be talking about it this month during Women’s History Month. We have some work to do on reflecting and working out what it means to love ourselves, what it means to allow women to love ourselves. This is one of Jesus’ teachings and an important consideration to have this month, and any month, as we learn more about being good neighbors to ourselves and others.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,

Debbie

We’re on target to gather on Easter Sunday!

We continue to lookat Easter Sunday, April 4, as a target for being able to worship together, depending on the number who have received the vaccine and how Okanogan county is looking regarding numbers of new cases

Our church will need some spring cleaning and preparation for worship. We’re all in this together, and as things are finally beginning to look up, please consider helping with the details of gathering again! There will be a list posted in the sanctuary this week of what needs to be done. Choose one chore and then check it off after you have finished. Thank you!

Worship in March by Zoom

March 21, Daniel will lead worship and share the message.

March 28, Debbie will lead worship and share the message

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

In our Prayers

-community member Montie Smith, who fell while volunteering at the food bank last week and broke her pelvis. She is now resting at home and can do no weight bearing activities for 6 weeks.
-Effie Lea’s grandson Cameron, who walked away from his mission project in Astoria last week and hasn’t been heard from yet. We pray for his safety, his healing from the personal and health issues he grapples with, and peace of mind for Effie Lea and his family.
-Pat Pyper’s sister, Elain after successful esophageal surgery and now resting comfortably at home.
-Wayne Verbeck with recent surgery to clip some nerve endings in his knees, in order to get around more comfortably until his knee surgery this fall.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, a year and medical opinions after knee replacement surgery.
-Health Care Professionals in our valley and around the country
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where two more kidnappings have occurred in recent weeks. May we pray for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast and northwest.
-Those whose hearts have been hardened, who have caused harm to others and/or themselves, who have mental health issues, who have lost their way.
-Others, please let Debbie know

March 8, 2021 Reflection

Last week I mentioned Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass, which combines her Potawatomi indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons our natural world teaches us. There is a section in the book called “Allegiance to Gratitude,” where Kimmerer describes an indigenous school ritual that begins each school day for the Onondaga reservation school near her home, like the pledge of allegiance begins the day in many of our public schools. That offering of gratitude first focuses on the people who are present, and moves into the natural world with a section on the earth, on plant life, on medicine herbs, trees, the waters, fish, birds and animal life, the sun, the moon, the four winds, our Teachers, and finally our Creator. Each section ends with the words, “Now our minds are one.” And as each section concludes, the whole group present joins the one reciting as they say, “Now our minds are one.”

As winter is slowly turning to Spring and the world is alive with chirping birds, flowing water, budding plants, baby animals and other signs a new season is ready to sprout, I want to share these words of gratitude that students memorize and take turns leading each day in that school in New York. If we recited these words each morning, I’m sure they would remind us of the gratitude that always beckons to us and that is included in our own scripture lessons.

Today we have gathered and when we look upon the faces around us we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now let us ring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People. Now our minds are one.

We are thankful to our Mother the Earth, for she gives us everything that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she still continues to care for us, just as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send thanksgiving, love, ad respect. Now our minds are one.

We give thanks to all of the waters of the world for quenching our thirst, for providing strength and nurturing life for all begins. We know its power in many forms – waterfalls and rain, mists and streams, rivers and oceans, now and ice. We are grateful that the waters are still here and meeting their responsibility to the rest of Creation. Can we agree that water is important to our lives and bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to the Water? Now our minds are one.

We turn our thoughts to all of the Fish life in the water. They were instructed to cleanse and purify the water. They also give themselves to us as food. WE are grateful that they continue to do their duties and we end to the Fish our greetings and our thanks. Now our minds are one.

Now we turn toward the vast fields of Plant life. As far as the eye can see, the Plants grow, working many wonders. They sustain many life forms. With our minds gathered together, we give thanks and look forward to seeing Plant life for many generations to come. Now our minds are one.

When we look about us, we see that the berries are still here, providing us with delicious foods. The leader of the berries is the strawberry, the first ot ripen in the spring. Can we agree that we are grateful that the berries are with us in the world and send our thanksgiving, love, and respect to the berries? Now our minds are one.

With one mind, we honor and thank all the Food lants we harvest from the garden, especially the here Sisters who feed the people with such abundance (corn, beans, squash). Since the beginning of time, the grains, vegetables, beans, and fruit have helped the people survive. Many other living things draw strength from them as well. We gather together in our minds all the plant foods and send them a greeting and thanks. Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to the Medicine Herbs of the world. From the beginning they were instructed to take away sickness. They are always waiting and ready to heal us. We are so happy that there are still among us those special few who remember how to sue the plants for healing. With one mind, we send thanksgiving, love, and respect to the Medicines and the keepers of the Medicines. Now our minds are one.

Standing around us we see all the Trees. The Earth has many families of Trees who each have their own instructions and uses. Some provide shelter and shade, others fruit and beauty and many useful gifts. The Maple is the leader of the trees, to recognize its gift of sugar when the People need it most. Many peoples of the world recognize a Tree as a symbol of peace and strength. With one mind we greet and thank the Tree life. Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds together to send our greetings and thanks to all the beautiful animal life of the world, who walk about with us. They have many things to teach us a people. We are grateful that they continue to share their lives with us and hope that it will always be so. Let us put our minds together as one and send our thanks to the Animals. Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together as one and thank all the birds who move and fly about over our heads. The Creator gave them the gift of beautiful songs. Each morning they greet the day and with their songs remind us to enjoy and appreciate life. The Eagle was chosen to be their leader and to watch over the world. To all the Birds, from the smallest to the largest, we send our joyful greetings and thanks. Now our minds are one.

We are all thankful for the powers we know as the Four Winds. We hear their voices in the moving air as they refresh us and purify the air we breathe. They help to bring the change of seasons. From the four directions they come, bringing us messages and giving us strength. With one mind we send our greetings and thanks to the Four Winds. Now our minds are one.

Now we turn to the west where our grandfathers the Thunder Beings live. With lightning and thundering voices they bring with them the water that renews life. We bring our minds together as one to send greetings and thanks to our Grandfathers, the Thunderers. Now our minds are one.

We now send greetings and thanks to our eldest brother the Sun. Each day without fail he travels the sky from east to west, bringing the light of a new day. He is the source of all the fires of life. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to our Brother, the Sun. Now our minds are one.

We put our minds together and give thanks to our oldest Grandmother, the Moon, who lights the nighttime sky. She is the leader of women all over the world and she governs the movement of the ocean tides. By her changing face we measure time and it is the Moon who watches over the arrival of children here on Earth. Let us gather our thanks for Grandmother Moon together in a pile, layer upon layer of gratitude, and then joyfully fling that pile of thanks high into the night sky that she will know. With one mind, w esend greetings and thanks to our Grandmother, the Moon.

We give thanks to the Stars who are spread across the sky like jewelry. We see them at night, helping the Moon to light the darkness and bringing dew to the gardens and growing things. When we travel at night, they guide us home. With our midns gathered as one, we send greetings and thanks to all the Stars. Now our minds are one.

We gather our minds to greet and thank the enlightened Teachers who have come to help throughout the ages. When we forget how to live in harmony, they remind us of the way we were instructed to live as people. With one mind, we send greetings and thanks to these caring Teachers. Now our minds are one.

We now turn our thoughts to the Creator, or Great Spirit, and send greetings and thanks for all the gifts of Creation. Everything we need to live a good life is here on Mother Earth. For all the love that is still around us, we gather our minds together as one and send our choicest words of greetings and thanks to the Creator. Now our minds are one.

We have now arrived at the place were we end our words. Of all the things we have named, it is not our intention to leave anything out. If something was forgotten, we leave it to each individual to send such greetings and thanks in their own way. And now our minds are one.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,

Debbie

We’re on target to gather on Easter Sunday!

If you have views on gathering in person again, please let me know by phone or email. We have invited Whitestone to join us! Our church will need some spring cleaning and preparation for worship. We’re all in this together, and as things are finally beginning to look up, please consider helping with the details of gathering again!

Worship in March by Zoom

March 14, Debbie and Daniel will share the message.

March 21, Daniel will lead worship and share the message.

March 28, Debbie will lead worship and share the message

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

Upcoming Leadership Team and Ministry Support Team meeting

We will meet this Friday at 4pm at Ellisforde. Please bring your mask and plan to sit at a distance from each other.

In our Prayers

-Pat Pyper’s sister, Elain after successful esophageal surgery and now resting comfortably at home.
-Wayne Verbeck with recent surgery to clip some nerve endings in his knees, in order to get around more comfortably until his knee surgery this fall.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, a year and medical opinions after knee replacement surgery.
-Martha Bosch, following Sid’s death
-Health Care Professionals in our valley and around the country
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where two more kidnappings have occurred in recent weeks. May we pray for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast and northwest.
-Others, please let Debbie know

March 1, 2021 Reflection

Each Spring for several years our district has gathered for a Spring Event at a camp near Olympia, to meet the first weekend in March over a chosen theme where we fellowship, share ideas, sing, and try to stay away from nuts and bolts business. This March we will gather again, but this time by zoom, which means perhaps some will join us that haven’t been able or willing to travel all the way to Olympia in the past. Our theme is “Danger and Opportunity: What does it mean to live our values today?” We chose the theme with the Chinese character for conflict in mind, which combines the ideas of danger and opportunity. These days are full of potential conflicts – disagreements over the pandemic, over civil rights issues, over political candidates, over drastic climate changes, you can name others – and in the midst of these we are called to enter into sometimes difficult conversations and make difficult decisions. We will begin with a panel discussion by four presenters who will offer us a glimpse of how their values influenced their response to a particular situation. Through stories and experiences, they will share their thoughts with us and invite their fellow panelists to respond. After lunch, the rest of us will have a chance to respond as well.

As I consider values in the context of conflict (danger and opportunity), I am reminded of a description of two creation stories in the beginning pages of our current book study, Braiding Sweetgrass. The author, from the Potawatomi Nation, describes the indigenous story her tradition tells, where Skywoman fell from a hole in the skyworld, landed in the soft feathers of a group of geese who saw her falling and determined to cushion her landing. The geese called to all the animals of the world, who dove into the deep waters looking for mud at the bottom, which they spread on the back of a turtle she could rest upon. Being a good guest in her new surroundings, Skywoman arrived clutching fruits and seeds from the Tree of Life that she had gathered before she fell. She danced her thanks on the back of the turtle, spreading the mud to make a wider living space and scattering fruit and seeds, which then grew into crops and orchards for nourishment. Her gift added richly to the food of the animals and all flourished and multiplied on Turtle Island, the name they gave to the world that was created. It is a creation story of generosity, of sharing, and of plenty. Kimmerer ends her story, “Images of Skywoman speak not just of where we came from, but also of how we can go forward.”

While one tradition is the story of people who were in relationship with the living world, in our own creation story is another woman with a garden and a Tree of Life. But in tasting the Tree, she was banished from the garden to wander in the wilderness. To eat, she and her ancestors were instructed to subdue the wilderness instead of partnering with it.

There is danger and opportunity in looking at these two stories side by side, and they value each offers. Danger might be felt by those who cling to the story we have been given and feel threatened by a new story intruding into our understanding. An ordered way of living has come from our story and many of our values have been molded by this story. How do we have conversation around a different understanding? Does the willingness to consider a different story disrupt our own values? The opportunity might be in considering it’s not one or the other, but historical context, lessons offered, and possible connections between the two traditions. Can values be explored and possibly expanded rather than destroyed in taking in a new tradition and its belief system? There are other ways of considering danger and opportunity as we share stories from our lives this coming weekend, and the questions/comments they invite. I look forward to our conversations this Saturday and hope very much some of you will join us. The link to register (no cost) is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3178516703?pwd=SFBNTG45WUp6amdyK1lYb3diRlRzUT09.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,

Debbie

COVID-19 Vaccines

If you have not yet registered for the vaccine and you are 65 or older, live in multigenerational households where there is a person aged 65 or older, or you are a healthcare worker or work in an essential industry, go to httw:www.nvhospital.org/covid-19 to register. There is a description of eligibility under A1, A2, and B1 tiers, and a registration form to fill out and return. If you don’t have access to a computer and would like to register, call me and I will help you register (509-486-2192).

The sooner the majority of us receive the vaccine, the sooner we can join together again in in-person worship. We are looking at Easter Sunday, April 4, as a target for being able to worship together, depending on the number who have received the vaccine and how Okanogan county is looking regarding numbers of new cases. I have included here some links to help us discern what opening might look like and when.

WA state guidelines for religious organizations

https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/COVID19Phase1and2ReligiousAndFaithBasedGuidance.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

CDC considerations for communities of faith

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwie-p3Zn_7uAhXS6Z4KHeAJBXgQFjAAegQIARAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fcommunity%2Ffaith-based.html&usg=AOvVaw0oETANgaONefCXgI8Y_3pn

I’d like to hear your views on gathering in person again. Please send an email with your thoughts. We’re all in this together, and things are finally beginning to look up!

Keeping Connected

How are we doing with keeping up connections while staying apart? Are you getting the calls you need, the porch visits you’d like, the weekly congregational check-in calls we set up early in the pandemic? Please let Debbie know if you feel overlooked or if you have a need that has not been addressed.

Worship in March by Zoom

March 7, Daniel will lead worship and share the message.

March 14, Debbie and Daniel will share the message.

March 21, Daniel will lead worship and share the message.

March 28, Debbie will lead worship and share the message

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

In our Prayers

-Pat Pyper’s sister, Elain successful esophageal surgery yesterday. She remains in the hospital and is doing well, for which we are all grateful.
-Wayne Verbeck had surgery to clip some nerve endings in his knees last weekend. He was released the same day and is able to get around without the pain he had before. This should help until his knee replacement surgery in the fall.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, a year and medical opinions after knee replacement surgery.
-Martha Bosch, following Sid’s death
-The family and church friends of Galen Miller, a member of Sunnyslope Church in Wenatchee, who died of cardiac arrest as he was hospitalized for the after-effects of COVID 19.
-Health Care Professionals in our valley and around the country
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where two more kidnappings have occurred in recent weeks. May we pray for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast and northwest.
-Others, please let Debbie know

February 22, 2021 Reflection

With last week’s Ash Wednesday to begin the Lenten season, we are now in the heart of it for the six weeks until Good Friday. Curious about Lenten practices in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, I looked into the split between the Catholic (Western Orthodox) and Eastern Orthodox churches. It began as my curiosity about what the different Lenten observances and exercises might be, but then moved into the split itself in the 11^th century. I read way more than I could hang on to, but one thing that struck me is the often pettiness of our disagreements. Of course they seem so important at the time, but eventually their importance shrinks until years later we can’t remember what the argument was about, only that we are still holding a grudge. Does anyone who isn’t a religious scholar know what the arguments were about between the Eastern and Western Orthodox traditions? Part of the rift comes down to one side viewing the pope having honorary authority among the bishops, and the other side insisting the pope has ultimate authority among the bishops. Most religious thinkers now agree that the rifts were small but many, and the many is what led to the split. If you have enough arguments with someone, no matter how small, they build up and often eventually explode into an irreparable rift for a time (sometimes for a very long time!). But since theology changes as the world changes, do the details of a thousand year old argument really deserve to keep the sides in conflict? The last couple of popes, our current Pope Francis included, have been working hard at reconciling these two groups.

It is relevant for us to know about this split because our own differences are often as intractable as theirs have been. They are also differences that could well be reconciled with attention to listening, to learning, and to simply acknowledging there are indeed differences of opinion – so why not learn from them rather than fight them?

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Lent is referred to as A Circle of Bright Sadness. What an image, a circle of bright sadness. There is so much sadness of which to repent, but also so much hope to about which to move us forward. During this season, could we work on moving through our disagreements – as petty or as significant as they are, and perhaps both – in order to see the brightness that’s right in front of us. Could we so honor each other, and all of life, that the sadness could be overcome by the brightness? That is the story of Easter, that the sadness has been overcome by the brightness. This season invites us to prepare to arrive at that brightness.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,

Debbie

COVID-19 Vaccines

WA state guidelines for religious organizations

https://www.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/COVID19Phase1and2ReligiousAndFaithBasedGuidance.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

CDC considerations for communities of faith

I’d like to hear your views on gathering in person again. Please send an email with your thoughts. We’re all in this together, and things are finally beginning to look up!

Keeping Connected

Worship in February

*February 28, Daniel will lead worship and share the message.

*Please note that Debbie and Daniel have changed places in the preaching schedule for the 3^rd and 4^th Sundays in February.

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

District-wide Spring Zoom Event

Saturday, March 6, 10am-3pm with meal break included

Danger & Opportunity: What does it mean to live our values today?
This past year has brought us an abundance of challenges and crises.

Some we’ve never experienced—a global pandemic disrupting almost every part of our lives. Some have been with us all too long—a reckoning with white supremacy and the drive towards meaningful social justice and equity.
In moments of crisis, we find ourselves faced with both danger and opportunity. Danger both in what has been lost and in where destructive decisions might lead. Opportunity to build something different and to bring alive new possibilities in the world.

Our values can be the compass steering us through these uncertain waters of crisis. Where do our values steer us today? What will it mean for us to live those values individually/collectively?

Join us for a day of honest conversation and spiritual exploration. With song and celebration, creativity and authenticity, we’ll consider together what this moment holds for us.

Featuring a panel discussion with
Ben Green

Sarah Kinsel

David Morrow

Elizabeth Swenson

moderated by Debbie Roberts & Howard Ullery

…and an afternoon of discussion, music, and creativity.

All are welcome, and attendance is free. Please register for this Zoom program at http://www.cobpacificnorthwest.org/event/2021-spring-event/

In our Prayers

-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, a year and medical opinions into knee replacement surgery.
-Martha Bosch, following Sid’s death
-The family and church friends of Galen Miller, a member of Sunnyslope Church in Wenatchee, who died Saturday of cardiac arrest as he was hospitalized for the after-effects of COVID 19.
-Health Care Professionals in our valley and around the country
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where another kidnapping and attack has happened in the northwest. May we pray for them and their families, and for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast.
-Others, please let Debbie know

February 15, 2021 Reflection

Yesterday was Valentines Day and this month is black history month. In honoring the theme of love, the following is a tidbit of St. Valentine history, as well as a story of love’s reaches in a personal experience told by Isabel Wilkerson, writer of Caste, a book which several of us studied last fall to be more informed about the reality and reach of racism.

St. Valentine is believed to be a priest who performed secret marriages for Christian couples in the 3rd century CE. Why secret marriages? Emperor Claudius ordered all men into his military, but by Christian marriage, St. Valentine provided an escape from conscription which was a bit upsetting to Claudius since men were scarce. Thus, marriage was not only a declaration of love to a betrothed, but a counter-cultural act. There are many St. Valentine stories, but this is the one we celebrate on February 14 each year, which was the day of his death. In his courageous action he broadened love to include the culmination of a romantic relationship in marriage, but also the love that resists fighting against state-identified enemies. So St. Valentine reminds us of a life lived in great love.

Isabel Wilkerson’s story: As a black woman Wilkerson has been challenged by racism her whole life. In 2016, a month after the 2016 election, and after recently having lost her husband and her mother, her basement flooded with water. She called a plumber and when he arrived, she noticed a white man wearing a MAGA hat, surly, rude, and steadfast in his seeming contempt for her. He did little to help her with her water problem, rather expected her to sweep up the basement water, move boxes to find the drain, and examine the sump pump herself. He mostly stood by and watched, while still expecting payment for his “services.” She was grieving family loss, grieving an election, and becoming more and more inwardly enraged as his treatment of her was so obviously his reaction to the color of her skin. But instead of the explosion she felt inside, she reigned in her steaming emotions, reached beyond the gulf of racism that divided them, and began speaking about her mother who had just passed. Before long they were trading stories about their mothers, and not long after that he began working on her water problem. As he left her house for the second time, yes, he even returned after his first departure to offer her additional advice about a bad water heater, he noticed some old Polaroid photographs she had salvaged from some wet boxes and said to her, “Oh, you want those, that’s memories right there.” And he walked out of her house with a clip to his step.

In Wilkerson’s response to his insolence, she offered a way beyond a justifiable response of anger to his overt prejudice. She offered him an invitation to engage with her by telling a story, which led to a connection he hadn’t felt with her when he arrived. In turn this connection led him to offer her the water help she needed. Somehow she was able to create an opportunity, to build a bridge of empathy between them. This is the way of love, to create opportunities of connection that were not present before.

During black history month we might want to consider that there is work for white people to do. On task is to reflect on the fact that it was Wilkerson who had to find a way through a white man’s prejudice so that she could be helped by a worker who was paid to help her. In her book she explained with multiple examples that people of color are often left to clean up the racism that has been piled on them. At the same time, this story is also an example of love given a personal face, carrying the day.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,
Debbie

COVID-19 Vaccines

The sooner the majority of us receive the vaccine, the sooner we can join together again in in-person worship. We are looking at Easter Sunday, April 4, as a target for being able to worship together, depending on the number who have received the vaccine and how Okanogan county is looking regarding numbers of new cases. Also, I’d like to hear your views on worshipping in person again. Please send an email with your thoughts. We’re all in this together, and things are finally beginning to look up!

Keeping Connected

Ellisforde needs a good spring cleaning

Have you signed up to assist with a deep cleaning of a section (very small or larger) of our church building? Sanctuary windows and sills? Clean the pews? Clean our refreshment space? Cleaning a bathroom? Kitchen? Sanctuary Room downstairs (or a section of it)? Basement floor? You get the picture. Please let me know if you would be willing to volunteer. This way we can keep our distance and help restore our building!

Worship in February

*February 21 Debbie will lead worship and share the message.

*February 28, Daniel will lead worship and share the message.

*Please note that Debbie and Daniel have changed places in the preaching schedule for the 3^rd and 4^th Sundays in February.

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

Six-Week Lenten Book Study

Our Lenten Book Study begins this Wednesday, 6-7 pm, with Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kemmerer. The book combines Kemmerer’s vocation as a scientist with her Anishinaabekwe’s indigenous knowledge as she retells the myths she grew up with and lays them beside current understandings (or misunderstandings) of the earth and its resources. Braiding Sweetgrass is a continuation of our journey to discover what we have gotten wrong and to discuss how we might learn and act for the sake of the people of this earth and the earth itself. In the spirit of Lent, a period of preparation and penance as we await Jesus’ death and resurrection, this book seems is a helpful aid on our journey. If you are interested in joining us, please contact me by email or 509-486-2192). We will continue for 6 weeks.

District-wide Spring Zoom Event

Saturday, March 6, 10am-3pm with meal break included

Danger & Opportunity: What does it mean to live our values today?
This past year has brought us an abundance of challenges and crises.

Sarah Kinsel

David Morrow

Elizabeth Swenson

moderated by Debbie Roberts & Howard Ullery

…and an afternoon of discussion, music, and creativity.

All are welcome, and attendance is free. Please register for this Zoom program at http://www.cobpacificnorthwest.org/event/2021-spring-event/

In our Prayers

-Martha Bosch, following Sid’s death due to two strokes and various other ailments connected to his strokes.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, almost a year and medical opinions into knee replacement surgery.
-The family and church friends of Galen Miller, a member of Sunnyslope Church in Wenatchee, who died Saturday of cardiac arrest as he was hospitalized for the after-effects of COVID 19.
-Health Care Professionals in our valley and around the country as they juggle vaccine distribution. We appreciate the dedicated leadership we and others have, as vaccine availability grows along with the various strains of the virus.
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where numerous churches and homes continue to suffer after attacks by Boko Haram, with church leaders and citizens killed or abducted. Several of the girls abducted 4 years ago have recently escaped their captors. May we pray for them and their families, and for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast.
-Others? Please let Debbie know.

February 8, 2021 Reflection

This last week has felt like stepping out of a dark night, into the shadow of early morning and looking toward an increasingly brighter day. I’m thinking in part of the availability of a vaccine at long last. I am reminded of a favorite Spanish Carmelite priest and saint of the 16^th century, St. John of the Cross, who wrote a poem explaining his “dark night of the soul.” When I was in college I spent a year in Spain, studying religion and history, and I was drawn to this priest along with his mentor, St. Teresa of Avila. When I had a chance, I would travel to the village of Avila, several hours from where I lived in Valencia, and I would sit on the wall surrounding that hill top village looking out to the valley below, imagining living 300 years before when St. Teresa and her student were dealing with similar anxious predicaments in which we find ourselves today – sicknesses and the suffering they cause, a world refusing to acknowledge any religion but one’s own, hierarchies that don’t attend to ‘the least of these,’ and division within the church as well as outside it. I would read St. Teresa’s and St. John of the Cross’s words and know they were words for me too, and for us in the church today.

For John of the Cross, darkness represented mystery, the unknowingness of our journey toward God, who is the greatest mystery of all. Of course this journey is a life-long one and there is both darkness and light along the way. But the darkness for that mystic monk did not refer simply to life’s difficulties, as darkness often does for us. Rather, he embraced the dark as an integral part of the journey of faith, embracing the unknown, letting go of the demand to understand and own every detail of both the present and the future. His message was to prepare one’s inner life for a Presence that was beyond knowing the everyday particulars. This letting go was and is uncomfortable, but it is also part of that journey into mystery which can help hold the present up when the inclination is to be overcome with burdens and personal anguish.

We generally stake our happiness on knowing, not on not knowing. So the last year has been particularly difficult as we’ve journeyed through a pandemic that has left us with more questions than answers and that has not guaranteed the light we feel we need for sustenance and comfort. So again 30 + years later, I have gained some comfort in St. John of the Cross, that life is more than what’s on the outside – what we can see and hear and touch – and that preparing our spirits for the ongoing journey, as full of shadows as that journey will surely be, is as important as knowing the particulars of the present and the future. This has not been an easy journey, but we are called to travel it despite the mountains we have to climb along the way. In fact, those mountains help our spirits endure the next one, and the next after that. And now, as it looks like we might be able to travel downhill for awhile with the vaccines being distributed as we continue the safety protocol we’ve learned this year, we are all the more aware that darkness can indeed lead to light!

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,
Debbie

Keeping Connected

COVID-19 Vaccines

The sooner the majority of us receive the vaccine, the sooner we can join together again in in-person worship. We are looking at Easter Sunday, April 4, as a target for being able to worship together, depending on the number who have received the vaccine and how Okanogan county is looking regarding numbers of new cases. We’re all in this together, and things are finally beginning to look up!

Ellisforde needs a good spring cleaning

Would you be willing to sign up for a deep cleaning of a section of our church building? Sanctuary windows and sills? Clean the pews? Cleaning our refreshment space? Cleaning a bathroom? Kitchen? Sanctuary Room downstairs (or a section of it?) You get the picture. Please let Debbie know if you would like your name on a section to be cleaned. This way we can keep our distance and help restore our building!

Worship in February

February 14, Daniel will lead worship; Daniel and Debbie will share the message

*February 21 Debbie will lead worship and share the message.

*February 28, Daniel will lead worship and share the message.

*Please note that Debbie and Daniel have changed places in the preaching schedule for the 3^rd and 4^th Sundays in February.

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

Thank you for your continued donations for our general fund as we carry on being the church without in-person worship! For mailing your donations to Miriam, and for leaving them under the office door at the church, we are grateful, as it’s so important that we keep up our regular giving during this difficult time – serving the church and serving the people! In person worship is in our future, especially with the vaccines coming to all of us! In the meantime, please mail your financial gifts to Miriam Caddy, 16 Orchard Loop South, Tonasket, WA, 98855, or continue dropping them by the church and sliding them under the office door.

Six-Week Lenten Book Study

Next week we will begin our Lenten book study, Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kemmerer. The book combines Kemmerer’s vocation as a scientist with her Anishinaabekwe’s indigenous knowledge as she retells the myths she grew up with and lays them beside current understandings (or misunderstandings) of the earth and its resources. The result is a kind of sacred wisdom pitted against western culture’s assumed wisdom. Her stories are moving as well as instructive, sacred as well as critical of religious pretense, hopeful as well as heart breaking. At the end of one of the chapters she talks about the idea of learning, that western knowledge has led us on a different path of knowing than have indigenous traditions, often to our detriment, but that we can relearn something of that earlier way and in fact many are thirsting for this older knowledge. Braiding Sweetgrass is a continuation of our journey to discover what we have gotten wrong and to discuss how we might learn and act for the sake of the people of this earth and the earth itself. In the spirit of Lent, a period of preparation and penance as we await Jesus’ death and resurrection, this book seems is a helpful aid on our journey. If you are interested in joining us, please contact me (droberts8487@gmail.com, or 509-486-2192). We will by Zoom on Wednesday, February 17, from 6-7 pm, and continue for 6 weeks.

In our Prayers

-Martha Bosch, following Sid’s death due to two strokes and various other ailments connected to his strokes.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, almost a year and medical opinions into knee replacement surgery.
-The Tonasket Food Bank, as we juggle volunteers during this pandemic, and as clients are in more need. We have had tremendous response in financial and food donations from our community during this time! If you are interested in joining us for our annual meeting to learn more about what we do, please let me know and you can join our zoom conversation on Feb 23, 5:30-6:30 pm.
-North Valley Hospital and Extended Care as folks have experienced both loss and recovery from COVID, and as hospital administrators continue to work on vaccine distribution. Hurray for our hospital CEO, John McReynolds, and the leadership he has offered through this pandemic!
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where numerous churches and homes continue to suffer after attacks by Boko Haram, with church leaders and citizens killed or abducted. Several of the girls abducted 4 years ago have recently escaped their captors. May we pray for them and their families, and for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast.
–All of us, as the vaccine is here and will continue arriving, and some of us are waiting to be called to receive it! Before it reaches all of us, may we continue to exercise wisdom as we discern how best to stay safe, and may we sign up for the vaccine when we are eligible for it. As well, may we think and pray creatively for each other, and be present in creative and nurturing ways.
-Others? Please let Debbie know.

January 25, 2021 Reflection

Jonah cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
And the people of Nineveh believed God… When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed God’s mind about the calamity that God had said would be brought upon them; and God did not do it.
Jonah 3

In the story of Jonah, God requests that Jonah go to the city of Ninevah (in present day Iraq) to prophesy to a flourishing power structure that their day of doom was at hand because of their evil deeds which prospered the rich and powerful. Jonah first argued with God that he didn’t want to go to Ninevah, and when that didn’t work he tried to hide, and eventually he was thrown overboard on the boat where he had hidden and was swallowed by a fish. Once he finally agreed to carry out his prophetic call, he walked the streets crying out to the citizens of Nineveh. And what did they do but believe him, and repent! Just like that. What’s more, instead of the destruction that God had promised, God changed God’s mind and had mercy on Ninevah.

This story is a folktale, a satire, written using one group to represent another group, with a lesson for those who would hear it. The tale addressed issues at a time when the Hebrew people were either still exiled in Babylon, or when they were just beginning to return to Palestine. At the end of their exile, the refugees were afraid they would be assimilated into a neighboring people who were now living in Jerusalem, their religious center. So a message was delivered through a tale about Assyrians, inviting the Hebrew community to reimagine their own story in order to help them find a way out of their fear, to help them envision a new reality for themselves. It’s a kind of “what if?” story. What if things could be better than they imagined they would be when they returned to their homeland? What if they listened to the Spirit-Among-Them with their hearts and minds and became again the community God called them to be? What if repentance of evil and injustice came to pass in the power houses of one’s nation, and people were treated with the respect and dignity all deserve?

The questions coming out of this folktale are ones for us today also, where there is so much of which to repent as a nation. So this tale from Jonah encourages us, also, to think differently and to imagine more broadly. It also gives us a break from the negativity and the bleakness that surround us – that an impossible situation like this one in Ninevah could come to pass; that a writer in the midst of the great prophets of Israel, and in the midst of a refugee community afraid of what they would find when they returned to their beloved homeland, could write about the way things could be; that God called a whole people to turn and they did; and finally, that even God turned also, to embody mercy rather than retribution. This is visionary writing, and as odd and how foreign its message rings, it was included in the canon for a reason. With the reminder of the state of our nation this morning, as well as the corner of the world where Nineveh is located, as well as the public outcry about what happened in our Capitol on Jan. 6 and what continues to happen to those who are losing jobs and losing housing and losing sleep, we need a story like this. We need moments when we’re invited to live in the what-ifs.

I hope you were able to catch the poem that was read at the end of the presidential inauguration last week, “The Hill We Climb,” written and read by U.S. poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, a 22 year old black woman, one of twin daughters born and raised by a single mother, a young woman with visions of one day being our president, and then invited to recite a poem for our president. A few stanzas of her poem follow:

We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another…
We will not march back to what was,
but move to what shall be…
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid,
the new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
Amanda Gorman

May we repent of whatever we’re doing that blocks the light for others, that inhibits us from being able to reach out our arms to one another, to bravely see and be a new light for each other. Maybe this is what the writer of Jonah had in mind so the people might set aside images of bleakness, chaos, sorrow, and sleepless nights, and welcome the wonder of surprises and miracles.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,

Debbie

Keeping Connected

COVID-19 Vaccines

If you have not yet registered for the vaccine and you are 65 or older, live in multigenerational households where there is a person aged 65 or older, or you are a healthcare worker or work in an essential industry, go to http:/www.nvhospital.org/covid-19 to register. There is a description of eligibility under A1, A2, and B1 tiers, and a registration form to fill out and return.

The sooner the majority of us receive the vaccine, the sooner we can join together again in in-person worship. What a day that will be!

Ellisforde needs a good spring cleaning

Would you be willing to sign up for a deep cleaning of a section of our church building? Sanctuary windows and sills? Clean the pews? Cleaning our refreshment space? Cleaning a bathroom? Kitchen? Sanctuary Room downstairs (or a section of it?) You get the picture. Please let Debbie know if you would like your name of a section to be cleaned. This way we can keep our distance and help restore our building!

Worship in January

January 31, Daniel will lead worship and share the message (There will be no Reflection/Check-In next Monday)

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

Thank you for your continued donations for our general fund as we carry on being the church without in-person worship! For mailing your donations to Miriam, and for leaving them under the office door at the church, we are grateful, as it’s so important that we keep up our regular giving during this difficult time – serving the church and serving the people! In person worship is in our future, especially with the vaccines coming to all of us! In the meantime, please mail your financial gifts to Miriam Caddy, 16 Orchard Loop South, Tonasket, WA, 98855, or continue dropping them by the church and sliding them under the office door.

Six-Week Lenten Book Study

Braiding Sweetgrass is a continuation of our journey to discover what we have gotten wrong and to discuss how we might learn and act for the sake of the people of this earth and the earth itself. In the spirit of Lent, a period of preparation and penance as we await Jesus’ death and resurrection, this book seems to us a helpful aid on our journey. If you are interested in joining us, please contact me (droberts8487@gmail.com, or 509-486-2192). We will likely begin by Zoom on Wednesday, February 17 (date and time to be confirmed once we know who is interested and their schedules).

In our Prayers

-Cara Johnson and her mother, Eleanor, as Eleanor battles with end of life issues at Extended Care in Tonasket; thankfully, it looks like Eleanor is recovering from COVID!
-Sid Bosch, and Martha, as Sid’s condition continues to weaken after two strokes and various other ailments connected to his strokes.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, 11 months and medical opinions into knee replacement surgery.
-The Tonasket Food Bank, as we juggle volunteers during this pandemic, and as clients are in more need. We have had tremendous response in financial and food donations from our community during this time!
-North Valley Hospital and Extended Care as folks are experiencing both loss and recovery from COVID, and as hospital administrators continue to work on vaccine distribution. Hurray for our hospital CEO, John McReynolds, and the leadership he has offered through this pandemic!
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where numerous churches and homes have been attacked by Boko Haram, and church leaders and citizens killed or abducted. May we pray for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast.
–All of us, as we grapple with the need for distancing and masking, and the discouragement and even tension among our community that health protocol has brought. The vaccine is here and will continue arriving! But before it reaches all of us, may we continue to exercise wisdom as we discern how best to stay safe, and may we sign up for the vaccine when we are eligible for it. In the meantime, may we think and pray creatively for each other, and be present in creative and nurturing ways.
-Others? Please let Debbie know.

January 18, 2021 Reflection

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so I thought we might look briefly at King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” alongside Jesus’ inaugural sermon in his home synagogue as his ministry was just getting started. As we all know, King was an instrumental leader in the civil rights movement in the 50’s and 60’s. In 1963 King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference had joined with Birmingham, Alabama’s local human rights movement in a direct-action campaign to confront the city’s segregation system. This nonviolent desegregation campaign used actions such as boycotting local merchants, lunch counter sit-ins, marches, and nonviolent trainings, bringing an increased number of volunteers to its side daily. After the city government obtained a court injunction against the protest actions, King, along with city leaders, decided to disobey the court order. On Good Friday, 1963, King was arrested after violating the injunction. While in the city jail, he read a local newspaper editorial written by eight Birmingham religious leaders critical of his campaign, and penned his response on the margins of the newspaper while being held in solitary confinement.

Among the clergymen’s complaints were that the campaign was unwise and untimely, that it didn’t observe the principles of law and order, that King’s group were outsiders arriving to bring chaos to their city, and that he was an extremist. King’s famous response included a distinction between just and unjust laws, that just laws uphold human dignity and unjust laws degrade some humans while lifting up others; people have a right to question and even disobey unjust laws in order for important conversation about justice to take place. He then expressed his disappointment with white moderates (the clergy who were criticizing him) who were more interested in order than in justice, preferring a negative peace where there is the appearance of peace, rather than positive peace where justice prevails and its journey is ongoing. In this vein, he also accused the white church of being a voice for segregation in that their behavior continued to pit the status quo with its adherence to not rocking the already-segregated-system, against justice. In response to their accusation of poor timing, King explained that in matters of justice the time must be now or never, that there will always be those who demand patience and waiting rather than action. But blacks folks had been waiting, and waiting, and nothing had been done on their behalf. They felt their actions were indeed “timely” and he laid out his “4 steps to a nonviolent campaign” to show his attention to 1) obtaining accurate information, 2) to negotiating with those with whom there was disagreement and by whom harm had been done, 3) that if they refused to negotiate then to attending to the spiritual preparation needed for 4) direct nonviolent action. You can read his letter by clicking this link, https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/sites/mlk/files/letterfrombirmingham_wwcw_0.pdf

Jesus faced a similar response when he preached his first message to his home synagogue community. He had just arrived in Nazareth, his hometown, and on the Sabbath he went to the synagogue, was handed the scroll, and chose to read from the prophet Isaiah, “The spirit of the lord is upon me because God has anointed me to bring good news to the poor and to set the captives free.” But in his case this wasn’t the part of his message that angered the people, as he was speaking to them as one of their own, unlike King’s circumstances. Jesus was admonished because he refused to offer his hometown a privileged seat at the table, assigning them special status simply because he had been born there. So much in their lives had been against Jews prospering. The emperor of Rome was his own god, and expected to be worshipped as one; the taxes were more than Jewish citizens could bear – temple taxes, emperor taxes, growing food taxes, selling food taxes, buying food taxes, taxes on their homes, on their villages, taxes for those in authority in their villages, even taxes on the bridges they walked on. Jews were not respected nor treated well. Jesus could have uplifted them that day as his own people, but instead he talked to them about a universal ministry, claiming the whole world as his people. They were weary and they needed this now famous man to allow them their claim to fame, as small as it might be. They wanted to be first for a change. But Jesus not only wouldn’t do it, he revealed their own thoughts to them, thoughts they never would have voiced aloud – that they should be special because he was special.

Jesus had a different ministry in mind. He identified himself as a prophet, not a healer, and prophets were known to call people to accountability for their selfishness, and for their lack of justice and mercy toward others. Jesus proclaimed in this passage that that was the calling he was taking on, and when the people of Nazareth heard Jesus’ judgment of them, they snapped. They would rather kill him than have him expose them, even to themselves. And as they were herding him out of town, ready to throw him off that cliff, he slipped away. In Luke’s gospel he never returned to Nazareth.

My take-away from the ministries of these two men, MLK Jr. and Jesus: Walk our talk; practice the golden rule; assume we’re no better than the one for which we have the least regard; if harm is being done to ourselves or others, respond by confirming the information we have is correct, attempt dialogue before taking action if possible, and make sure any action we take is grounded in prayerful preparation and in principles of nonviolence.

I’m grateful this holiday falls where it does this year, helping us remember our own peace heritage in the midst of national violence and chaos, and helping our country remember nonviolence as a strategy that can bring about important change on behalf of justice for all.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,
Debbie

Keeping Connected

Ellisforde needs a good spring cleaning

Would you be willing to sign up for a deep cleaning of a section of our church building? Sanctuary windows and sills? Clean the pews? Cleaning our refreshment space? Cleaning a bathroom? Kitchen? Sanctuary Room downstairs (or a section of it?) You get the picture. Please let Debbie know if you would like your name of a section to be cleaned. This way we can keep our distance and help restore our building!

Worship in January

January 24, Debbie will lead worship and share the message

January 31, Daniel will lead worship and share the message (There will be no Reflection/Check-In after 5^th Sundays)

Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Our Finances

Thank you for your continued donations for our general fund as we carry on being the church without in-person worship! For mailing your donations to Miriam, and for leaving them under the office door at the church, we are grateful, as it’s so important that we keep up our regular giving during this difficult time – serving the church and serving the people! In person worship is in our future, especially with the vaccines coming to all of us! In the meantime, please mail your financial gifts to Miriam Caddy, 16 Orchard Loop South, Tonasket, WA, 98855, or continue dropping them by the church and sliding them under the office door.

Six-Week Lenten Book Study

In our Prayers

-Cara Johnson and her mother, Eleanor, as Eleanor battles with end of life issues at Extended Care in Tonasket; thankfully, it looks like Eleanor is recovering from COVID!
-Sid Bosch, and Martha, as Sid’s condition continues to weaken after two strokes and various other ailments connected to his strokes.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, 11 months and medical opinions into knee replacement surgery.
-The Tonasket Food Bank, as we juggle volunteers during this pandemic, and as clients are in more need. We have had tremendous response in financial and food donations from our community during this time!
-North Valley Hospital and Extended Care as folks are experiencing both loss and recovery from COVID, and as hospital administration continue to work on vaccine distribution.
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where numerous churches and homes have been attacked by Boko Haram, and church leaders and citizens killed or abducted. May we pray for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast.
–All of us, as we grapple with the need for distancing and masking, and the discouragement and even tension among our community that health protocol has brought. The vaccine is here and will continue arriving! But before it reaches all of us, may we continue to exercise wisdom as we discern how best to stay safe. (We are seeing the toll in our valley and around our country from the lack of distancing during Thanksgiving, Christmas and likely, New Years celebrations. ) May we think and pray creatively for each other, and be present even as we stay apart.
-Others? Please let Debbie know.

January 11, 2021 Reflection

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage. When King Herod heard this, he was frightened…
Matthew 2

We are now at the end of Epiphany. The wisemen have arrived to honor the baby Jesus and are now on their way back home, though on a different route than their journey to Judea because of a warning to avoid King Herod, whose interest in this baby was a dangerous one, more self-serving than generous. The wisemen represent some of the first people to believe in the miracle of Jesus’ presence on earth, and they were not part of Jesus own community. They weren’t even neighboring Gentiles. They were strangers from afar, maybe a year, two year’s journey away, who were called to come and celebrate his birth, and they did. They didn’t become Jews; they didn’t later become Christians. They went back home after they traveled all that way to celebratesomething they likely didn’t completely understand, while Herod with his close connections to the Jews, feared something he also didn’t understand.

I was reading about the woman who was killed at the Capitol on Wednesday, Ashli Babbitt. Reports say she was deep into QAnon, a conspiracy theory that claims Donald Trump has been trying to save the world from a secret cabal of satanic pedophiles, including Democratic politicians and Hollywood celebrities, and that Trump will soon bring his enemies to justice. Ashli Babbitt depended on that theory when she went to the Capitol from her home in Florida on Wednesday. She was determined to help Trump bring to fruition QAnon’s theory, and she died trying. She died helping others in her group break the windows into the room leading into to where Senators and Representatives were certifying the electoral college vote. She died attempting to confront those elected officials, possibly intending to harm some of them. Ashli Babbitt represented Herod rather than the wisemen. That is, she feared more than she trusted, and it cost her her life. And I think of all who at times thrive on paranoid illusions that if we don’t do such and such something terrible is going to happen, and then we close ourselves off from anyone and anything that doesn’t go along with our beliefs.

In our multicultural, multireligious, multiethnic world, we can’t live in that kind of fear and at the same time thrive. The world is too small. Maybe at one time it was possible to shut ourselves away from that which didn’t agree with our own traditions or understandings or comfort level, but that’s no longer possible. Differing understandings surround us in our towns, in our neighborhoods, in our schools, and we see from last week and from other recent incidents that long running distrust is a breeding ground for hatred, which then invites harm, either to ourselves or to others and probably to both. What happened at the Capitol begins with protecting one’s circle of beliefs from anyone who doesn’t hold them. That’s a Herod mentality, not a wiseman mentality.

In our day with the wealth of beliefs and traditions surrounding us, should it matter so much for everyone to feel exactly as we do? Does it matter in our multicultural settings that not everyone is Christian, or that not everyone is our kind of Christian? This story in Matthew encourages us to welcome people from wherever they come with their own customs and beliefs. When we do that, hopefully some of the love and compassion Jesus showed will seep into our relationships with others as we welcome them, and they’ll be transformed, and we’ll be transformed too. That’s the new evangelical model, that we make disciples by welcoming everyone and by learning from everyone. We are not asked to give up the gift of our own religious tradition, but to welcome the gift of someone else’s. It’s taken us centuries to learn this, but we’ve had this Epiphany story to read and ruminate about each year and hopefully at some point we’ll get it right. I imagine that those wisemen being willing to come all that way, and honoring Jesus the way they did, was a transformative experience for the holy family. The magi taught Mary and Joseph, and the shepherds, something about the reaches of honor and respect, and we know that Jesus carried that lesson with him his whole life.

So consider how magi have sometimes appeared in our own lives, maybe leaving as suddenly as they arrived, almost before we noticed them, or maybe they stayed awhile. Whenever they come, however they come, our lives are changed for the better, even if only for a brief time, because somehow they saw something in us deserving to be recognized and honored and we’re changed because of it. We’ve been honored, we’ve been recognized! How could this not change us! Consider also how we might serve as magi for others, hearing the call to honor another and heeding that call? Not heeding our fears (and we have plenty of those), but heeding the call to be open to guidance, to learning, to personify the lessons of Jesus, that is, becoming what we profess to believe.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,
Debbie

Keeping Connected

Our Finances

Thank you for your continued donations for our general fund as we carry on being the church without in-person worship! For mailing your donations to Miriam, and for leaving them under the office door at the church, we are grateful, as it’s so important that we keep up our regular giving during this difficult time – serving the church and serving the people! In person worship is in our future, especially with the vaccines coming to all of us! In the meantime, please mail your financial gifts to Miriam Caddy, 16 Orchard Loop South, Tonasket, WA, 98855, or continue dropping them by the church and sliding them under the office door.

Worship in January

January 17, Daniel will lead worship and share the message

January 24, Debbie will lead worship and share the message

January 31, Daniel will lead worship and share the message

Zoom Link

https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

Six-Week Lenten Book Study

Since the pandemic began some of us have participated in a series of book studies, starting with Anne Frank’s experience of being forcibly “quarantined” with her family and others as Jews in hiding, to studying racism and our part in it through two books, White Fragility and Caste. For our Lenten study we have chosen Braiding Sweet Grass, by Robin Wall Kemmerer. The book combines Kemmerer’s vocation as a scientist with her Anishinaabekwe’s indigenous knowledge as she retells the myths she grew up with and lays them beside current understandings (or misunderstandings) of the earth and its resources. The result is a kind of sacred wisdom pitted against western culture’s assumed wisdom. Her stories are moving as well as instructive, sacred as well as critical of religious pretense, hopeful as well as heart breaking. At the end of one of the chapters she talks about the idea of learning, that western knowledge has led us on a different path of knowing than have indigenous traditions, often to our detriment, but that we can relearn something of that earlier way and in fact many are thirsting for this older knowledge. Braiding Sweetgrass is a continuation of our journey to discover what we have gotten wrong and to discuss how we might learn and act for the sake of the people of this earth and the earth itself. In the spirit of Lent, a period of preparation and penance as we await Jesus’ death and resurrection, this book seems to us a helpful aid on our journey. If you are interested in joining us, please contact me (droberts8487@gmail.com, or 509-486-2192). We will likely begin by Zoom on Wednesday, February 17 (date and time to be confirmed once we know who is interested and their schedules).

In our Prayers

-Cara Johnson and her mother, Eleanor, as Eleanor battles with end of life issues at Extended Care in Tonasket; thankfully, it looks like Eleanor is recovering from COVID!
-Sid Bosch, and Martha, as Sid’s condition continues to weaken after two strokes and various other ailments connected to his strokes.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, 11 months and medical opinions into knee replacement surgery.
-Cecile Klayton has not received a follow up report on her condition, which the family assumes is a good sign!
-The Tonasket Food Bank, as we juggle volunteers during this pandemic, and as clients are in more need. We have had tremendous response in financial and food donations from our community during this time!
-North Valley Hospital and Extended Care as folks are experiencing both loss and recovery from COVID, and as hospital administration continue to work on vaccine distribution.
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, wherenumerous churches and homes have been attacked by Boko Haram, and church leaders and citizens killed or abducted. May we pray for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast.
–All of us, as we grapple with the need for distancing and masking, and the discouragement and even tension among our community that health protocol has brought. The vaccine is here and will continue arriving! But before it reaches all of us, may we continue to exercise wisdom as we discern how best to stay safe. (We are seeing the toll in our valley and around our country from the lack of distancing during Thanksgiving, Christmas and likely, New Years celebrations. ) May we think and pray creatively for each other, and be present even as we stay apart.
-Others? Please let Debbie know.

January 4, 2021 Reflection

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.”
Matthew 2

This week as we usher in the new year, let’s imagine we are the wise men traveling to Bethlehem in search of the baby we have heard about in our dreams and saw portents of in the stars. By now, the baby Jesus has been born but we, as these wise travelers, have not yet arrived to bow down before him. Next week, our tradition has us already having seen the baby and offering him our gifts, and we’re making our way back to our homeland by a different route than we came. But today we haven’t arrived yet at the stable where the star is leading us.

Research says these wise men came from Persia – what is today the country of Iran – and they were likely Zoroastrians, a religious tradition founded by Zoroaster about 3500 years ago, well before Christianity. Zoroastrianism lifts up the one God of Wisdom, a monotheistic religious tradition like Judaism, Christianity and Islam, believing in the one God. It also believes in a future messiah, in a heaven and a hell, in free will – so it has some similarity to Judaism and Christianity. We know that many of our own religious stories have their roots in other traditions. We’ve borrowed from the traditions that were once our home before Judaism and Christianity were born. So here we have these Zoroastrian Magi. The word ‘magi’ comes from the Persian magus, which is the religious caste into which Zoroaster was born. It was a priestly caste, and in this Zoroastrianism caste, priests paid particular attention to the stars. They became well known as astrologers, which was regarded as a great science. Sometimes we assign the word magic to these Magi, as if they were a kind of magicians. But the roots of Magi are not in the word magic. Zoroastrianism was actually opposed to magic, or to sorcery. And oftentimes our tradition also refers to these magi as kings, but that’s also incorrect. There is nothing in the gospel accounts that implies they were kingly rulers of any kind, though Isaiah has a passage that says the Messiah was worshipped by kings, so perhaps that’s where the idea of Magi-as-kings comes from. We tend to elevate important people, and in ancient history a king was about as high an office as one could attain. So the earliest commentators went along with the rhetoric of these Magi being kings, and now we have three kings visiting the baby Jesus, and we have lots of hymns describing the wise men as kings. But they weren’t kings. They were religious priests who sought wisdom from the stars and who believed the light of the stars offered both mystery and foresight. Their vocation as astrologers guided them to pay attention to the message of the stars. And that’s why they followed the one that led them to another country, another religious tradition, all the way to the baby Jesus and his family. The Magi understood that the purpose of paying attention to the stars was in part to follow the Power that beckons us. Their tradition taught them to pay attention to the light; to resist the force of the stars was to lose one’s way.

In the magi’s story, there is also a place for Herod, who as political ruler who exerted power over to the detriment of many, represents evil. Herod might be that place in each of us that doesn’t appreciate bowing down to anyone except ourselves. Herod is present as the power of domination. We see him in politics, we see him in social interactions and pressures, we see him also in our religious systems. Herod may have a kind of light that shines also, and that beckons to us. But the Magi understand true light. Remember the angel that warned them not to cooperate with Herod? Those angels represent this true light and the wise men acknowledged this by leaving their gifts with the Christ child and going home by another way. They decided to ignore Herod with his power and prestige. This is the path of Epiphany. The path that follows the true light and returns home to the heart of God. A story that we read about once a year, but also a story that is always happening within us and among us.

This week we are invited to become the Magi, to practice noticing the light, welcoming the light, following the light, so that when the Light has something important to share with us, we’re ready to hear it and be guided by it. That’s the message of the Magi, that we join them on their journey, and we let that journey lead us our whole lives. Once they arrived at the stable and found the Christ child, do you think their vocation was over, that they stopped paying attention to the light, stopped listening, stopped their life’s journey? I don’t think so. And we don’t stop either. We journey our whole lives, welcoming the Christ child again and again, and each time we are hopefully a bit more practiced, a bit wiser, understanding a bit more deeply the gift of the Light of the world.

So with Epiphany in sight, let us reflect on the story of these Zoroastrian priests whom we call wise men, because they were. And let us be like them, wise people searching for the true light and following where it leads us, always.

In community with you, peacefully, simply, together,
Debbie

Keeping Connected

Our Finances

Thank you for your continued donations for our general fund as we carry on being the church without in-person worship! For mailing your donations to Miriam, and for leaving them under the office door at the church, we are grateful, as it’s so important that we keep up our regular giving during this difficult time – serving the church and serving the people! In person worship is in our future, especially with the vaccines coming to all of us! In the meantime, please mail your financial gifts to Miriam Caddy, 16 Orchard Loop South, Tonasket, WA, 98855, or continue dropping them by the church and sliding them under the office door.

Worship in January

January 10, Daniel will lead worship; Debbie and Daniel with share the message

January 17, Daniel will lead worship and share the message

January 24, Debbie will lead worship and share the message

January 31, Daniel will lead worship and share the message

Zoom Link

https://zoom.us/j/236009838

To dial in to the Worship Service with a phone, Call 1-301-715-8592,

When asked for meeting i.d. Enter 236 009 838# Then # again

In our Prayers

-Cara Johnson and her mother, Eleanor, as Eleanor battles with end of life issues at Extended Care in Tonasket, and as she now struggles with COVID as well.
-Sid Bosch, and Martha, as Sid’s condition continues to weaken after two strokes and various other ailments connected to his strokes.
-Dale Swedberg, as he deals with swelling and pain, 10 months and medical opinions after knee replacement surgery.
-Cecile Klayton, Daniel’s mom and their family, as she waits for the results of a second biopsy on her thyroid.
-The Tonasket Food Bank, as we juggle volunteers during this pandemic, and as clients are in more need. We have had tremendous response in financial and food donations from our community during this time!
-North Valley Extended Care Staff and Residents who continue to juggle responsibilities as COVID has made its way among them. Hurray for the vaccine!
-The Church of the Brethren (EYN) in Nigeria, where, on Christmas Eve and continuing through last week, numerous churches and homes were attacked by Boko Haram. May we pray for a way through the tensions in Nigeria, for peace among religious traditions, and for both courage and comfort as EYN discerns their response to the ongoing threats and violence in the northeast.
–All of us, as we grapple with the need for distancing and masking, and the discouragement and even tension among our community that health protocol has brought. The vaccine is here and will continue arriving! But before it reaches all of us, may we continue to exercise wisdom as we discern how best to stay safe. (We are seeing the toll in our valley and around our country from the lack of distancing during Thanksgiving, Christmas and likely, New Years celebrations. ) May we think and pray creatively for each other, and be present even as we stay apart.
-Others? Please let Debbie know.

2020 Reflections