Pastor's Notes
There are so many exciting things coming up in July I can hardly contain my joy! We will spend another month walking in the county parks, as well as worshiping in one! On July 14th we will have our annual outdoor park worship at Vegsund County Park at 10:00am. This will be a packed morning as we will not only have a potluck lunch after worship, but during worship we will have our yearly blessing of the animals before County Fair AND we willcommission the krewe going to New Orleans for ELCA Youth Gathering. (And then that krewe will leave shortly after lunch to start their roadtrip!)
The following Sunday will be special as well because I won’t quite be back yet from NOLA, so I’m planning for a lay-led “Christmas in July” service. If you’ve been missing singing those good Christmas hymns, you’ll want to make it to worship on July 21st. That day is also the Dalbo Fire Dept pancake breakfast - so try and make time to go before or after worship to support our local fire fighters!
We will also dive into a new sermon series focusing on four of the prophets from the Old Testament. It is easy to view the prophets of the Hebrew Bible as marginal characters in strangecircumstances distant from our contemporary times. But there are tremendous lessons to be garnered from watching the way prophets responded to their everyday situations. The prophetswere known for the ways they critiqued the systems and figures of power and privilege in their time and space.
The ongoing life of the church demands prophetic address that both attends to personal need and empowers communal action in the service of justice and righteousness in the world. The work of the prophet is not based on status or talent, but on presence and availability to the call of God. This four-week series will investigate how that call is carried out in everyday ways that make a profound difference.
I truly hope you’ll be able to join us for worship and other special ministry events this coming month - especially if you are out and about on summer vacations or going up to the cabin on the weekends. Remember I always stream live on our Facebook pages (there won’t be a livestream July 21st) so you can keep up with the sermon series and announcements from wherever you’re at.
I ask for your prayers of safety as we travel to and from NOLA, and for wonderful, life-changing experiences for our youth attending the gathering July 16-20. Thank you again to all of you who have financially supported our fundraising efforts to make this trip possible. My prayer is that this will just be the start of many youth wanting to attend Youth Gathering in thegenerations to come. As I’ve mentioned before, it was a pillar experience for me on my faith journey, and I hope our youth have the same wonderful experience and bring back a fire for God to Maple Ridge Township!
P.S. - Mark your calendars next month for some extra fun events and let the families you know of be aware too! Tues. Aug. 6th starting at 5pm Siloa will be hosting a National Night Out event where everything is FREE! Come for music, food, bounce house, yard games, and meeting members of our county sheriff’s department. Then the next two days will be filled with VBS atSalem - that first week of August is packed full of stuff for the kids to enjoy so make sure to spread the word!
Take care,
Pastor Mary Fielprmaryfiel@gmail.com (507) 525-3909 cell