O.S.E-news: Tuesday

 

It’s Tuesday!   What happened to yesterday’s OSE-news!?   Well, yesterday I was at Luther Springs (a very wet Luther Springs by the way).  On Sunday afternoon, Michael Hyde and I took 5 of our confirmation class kids to Luther Springs (our Lutheran camp up in the north Florida woods, east of Gainesville) for a week of Confirmation Camp.  It was raining when we left Vero and didn’t stop raining til Monday morning.  9” of rain at the camp!   But the lake was down and needed it, and the rain didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits.  Camp is like that.  I came back yesterday leaving our kids in good hands with Michael, other pastors, counselors and about 20 other campers.   I’m sure they will have a good week. 

 

This is also the week that our senior high kids are on a mission trip in West Virginia.  We talked to Jimmy Smith and Chris Reed (the youth leader for the trip) this morning.  It was 50 degrees up there as they were all getting up, waiting for the sun to come over the mountain to warm them up, and getting ready to take on another day.  Everyone was happy, healthy and doing well. 

 

We have a big weekend coming up this weekend (June 30-July 1), as Sunday morning, after worship, we will be moving out of the main church!   This week the pews are being disconnected from the floor and partially disconnected from each other so that after worship on Sunday, they can be moved into the lobby, narthex and fellowship hall for the next few weeks as new tile (matching the tile in the new narthex and lobby) will be installed throughout the church.

 

If you can help, with that move (especially any of you able bodied men) please plan on joining us this Sunday.  You might want to come to worship wearing your work clothes Sunday, or come to worship Saturday night, then come back Sunday morning about 10:30 ready to work.    If you have any furniture movers (something with wheels) of any sort,  please bring them along.  Along with moving the pews, the worshipers willing to pitch in will be asked to carry their hymnal and the pencils and offering envelopes in the pews, to the “Quiet Room” after worship. That way everyone gets in on the fun.   Many hands make light work!  (Some of the work is already beginning this week.  Mark Davia, Brian Rodgers, Lynn Silkworth, Don Poust and Greg Miller, among others, have already been getting things moving.)  A big thank you to all.

 

Starting the next weekend, we’ll be worshiping in the Fellowship Hall, the original sanctuary, at our regular worship times:  Saturday 6pm and Sunday 9:30am.  As Pastor Shelly mentioned, it will be “Retro Worship” for us.  J    And since we’ll be in a different setting for worship, and it’s summer, our music minister, Ryan Hostler, is requesting that you email us hymn requests!  We’ll do our best to work into worship the most popular requests, both for while we’re in the Fellowship Hall, and then afterwards when we’re back in the main church.  And they don’t have to be in the hymnal…we’ll consider all requests. 

 

Finally, as I look out the window from the church office today, and see the gray, threatening, tropical storm clouds, it seems fitting that this past weekend in worship our theme was “storm stories”.   So, this week, whether it is tropical storm Debby, or some other personal storm you face, may you hear the words of Jesus, “Why are you afraid?  Have you still no faith?” 

 

See you in church!      Pastor Jack Diehl +           www.oursaviorelca.com  

"Where in the world...?"

 

“Where in the world” do you want to be tonight?    How about at Our Savior at 7pm for our annual Day Camp program where we can hear and see what our campers have been about all week, and get a taste of what a fun week this has been.   An ice cream social in the Fellowship Hall follows.  Everyone is welcome.

 

Then this Saturday, June 23, from 8-11am, we have another opportunity to be “in the world” doing some good.  “Every Dream has a Price” is going to be clearing a lot on which they are going to be building their next home.  The work will range from light to heavy, and your help would be welcome anytime during those few hours between 8 and 11am.   For more information and directions, please call Melissa Tripson at 770-9391 or email her at:  melissatripson@bellsouth.net.

 

Thanks, very much, and if you’d like to share or invite others to see and be a part of  “where in the world” you are making a difference in the world, please email us with your information or give us a call.  

 

May you both be blessed and be a blessing.       Pastor Jack +           www.oursaviorelca.com

Day Camp Week and more!

 

WooHoo!   We’re off to a great start as our annual week of Day Camp began this morning, with kids from all around our community gathering in the church to meet their fellow campers, their counselors and start to sing all of those great camp songs.  Along with the theme in worship yesterday about seeds of faith and seeds of the Kingdom of God being planted, lots of those good seeds are being planted and nurtured here this week.    To get a peak at what’s going on, plan on coming by Thursday evening at 7pm for the camp program where you will hear some of the songs sung and see some skits the kids have learned.  Following the program will be an ice cream social in the Fellowship Hall.  Hope to see you then.    

 

Because of Camp going on this week, many of the regularly scheduled meetings and gathering, such as the quilters, woodcarvers, “God Pause” and the Wednesday morning Bible study, will not be meeting this week, but will resume next week.

 

Looking ahead, in just a couple of weeks we’ll be moving out of the church!  But hopefully only for a few weeks.  On Sunday July 1, right after worship, we’ll be dismantling the pews and moving everything out of the sanctuary (into the narthex, lobby and fellowship hall) so that new tile (matching the tile in the new addition) can be carried through into the entire sanctuary.   If you can lend a hand (there will be light work…moving hymnals and light chairs… and heavy work…moving the pews, organ and piano) please come and lend a hand, if only for a little while.   As the saying goes, “Many hands make light work!”, and the other saying, “God’s work; our hands.”   Hope you can join us.    Then when all of our seasonal folks who get this return,  they’ll see some more big changes, as they did this year with our addition! 

 

Speaking of seeing changes, it’s only been three weeks since our new minister of music, Ryan Hostler, has joined us, but what a wonderful time we’ve had already!   Ryan brings such a wealth of knowledge and experience (for such a young guy!) regarding worship and liturgy and congregational singing, etc.   For those of you have already met Ryan and who have worshiped with us these past few weeks, you know what I’m talking about.  For those who haven’t yet been here or met Ryan, you’re in for a real treat.  If you have any musical gifts or interest at all, be sure to meet and talk to Ryan.  There’s a place for you in our music ministry.  We have lots to be grateful for. 

 

Finally, Jimmy Smith and our senior high Mission Team will be leaving Saturday morning for a week long Mission Trip in West Virginia.  This is not only going to benefit some of the people there (eg. the group will be building a handicap accessible ramp on one home among other things)  but this is a real cross cultural experience for our kids as well, living for a week where there is no cell phone service and in a part of our own country, which is almost like a 3^rd world country, where the nearest small town is about 45 minutes away.   This trip in the past was very meaningful to our kids and they are very much looking forward to this experience.

 

For other information about life at Our Savior, please visit our website at:  www.oursaviorelca.com.      

 

Have a blessed week and we’ll see you in church!  Pastor Jack +

Happy June!

The steamy days of summer are upon us.  The roads in Vero are pretty empty.  The pace of life has changed.   But as Pastor Shelly and I were talking the other day, while things change, it doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot going on…just different things. 

 

Tomorrow evening, Tuesday June 5, our newly elected council members meet with our ongoing members to talk about our life and ministry together.  Good stuff! 

 

On Saturday, June 9, we are invited to take part in a major meal packing program at the Gifford Youth Center (corner of 43^rd Ave. and 49^th Street).  There will be 2 shifts, one from about 9-11am and one from about 1-3pm, packaging 100,000 meals for Haiti!   This is a major community event and I invite you to join us in doing something really important and helpful for so many.  My biggest reason for being a part of this is a quote from a 2^nd grade student in Haiti who has been on the receiving end of these meals:

 

  “I love ‘Stop Hunger Now’ rice a lot…  I can’t have enough of this rice.  When my parents send me to school without anything to eat, they don’t worry because they know I will eat at school.  I pray every day for the people who send the rice.”       I want to be in this little one’s prayers!  Hope to see you Saturday.  I’ll be for the early shift, but you can come any time. 

 

Finally, a reflection on this past weekend.  In Bonnie’s sermon she mentioned something that a student at Luther Seminary said to some incoming seminarians:  “Welcome to Luther Seminary; where all of your answers are questioned.”   J   Bonnie then went on to talk about Nicodemus, a religious leader who thought he had all the answers, who knew the Bible better than most, but who wasn’t open to the Truth of what Jesus had to say and to the work of the Holy Spirit.

 

That really brought me back to some of my formative years.  As a young person I honestly didn’t think “I want to be a pastor some day.”   Rather, my thoughts were more along the lines of:  What is Life about, and who is God, and what is God like, and what makes people tick, and what about good and evil?  etc.   It seemed like seminary would offer the answers to these questions.   But I found much more.  For the most part there are no simple, easy answers to those big questions.   But God meets us on the journey, challenges us, questions us, and “grows us”.  Oh yes, there are some things that are certain and solid…the grace of God, God’s faithfulness and promises, his living Word which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our eyes.  But no simplistic, easy answers.  There are a number of “churches” out there  that try to offer those kind of easy, simplistic answers to hard questions and invite people to not think.  That doesn’t seem to give the Holy Spirit much room to work however, and seems often based more on fear than faith. 

 

What God gives us, instead of easy answers, is himself, the Living Word, in the person of Jesus; the sacraments we were are claimed by God and renewed on a daily basis; his written and spoken Word, which speaks to us especially in community and in conversation with others; his promise to be with us and the Holy Spirit to guide us.   Equipped with those things, God then says, (thinking back to my sermon of a few weeks ago) “Now, you just have to figure it out!”   Now, THAT’S a journey worth going on.    And I’m eternally grateful to be able to travel it with the likes of our staff at Our Savior, our council members, new and old,  and all of you.    

 

Have a blessed week.    See you in church.     Pastor Jack Diehl +     www.oursaviorelca.com