May 2, 2022
ANNOUNCEMENTS .
Men’s Band Concert, Sunday, May 22nd, 9 am.
Adopt-A-Highway Saturday, May 7th, 8 am. All ages welcome! Wear long pants and bring gloves. Help us care for our stretch of highway and keep God’s creation clean!
Simply Giving Mania! From May 1st till June 5th, if you join our automated giving program Simply Giving or increase your current Simply Giving by $5 a month, you will get entered into a drawing to win four tickets. What tickets? YOUR CHOICE! Choices are: Brewers-Twins game at Target Field, an event at the Pablo Center in Eau Claire, or an event at the Mabel Tainter in Menomonie. Pick up a form on the round table in the Narthex or included in this Good News.
Vacation Bible School! Sign-up today for VBS on June 13-17th, 9 am till 2:00 pm every day for ages 4-6th grade. Cost is $10 per student.
VBS Snacks Needed: Sign-up in the Narthex to provide snacks for Vacation Bible School in June.
Graduate Recognition Sunday May 22nd at 9 am.
Don’t forget that you can support Trinity through the Vanco app OR using the donate form on our website. Download the free app, search for Trinity Lutheran Boyceville, and go from there!
MUSINGS FROM PASTOR BRAD
This past Saturday, I had the privilege to be the MC for Boyceville’s Prom. I always enjoy going and helping out, seeing the kids all dressed up, and talking with them. It is always fun and special to be invited into these big moments and it also makes you reflect a bit.
As I was driving home, I thought about the three proms I attended, my Junior prom in 1993, Senior prom in 1994, and then I attended prom at the end of my freshmen year of college in 1995. In my school, only Juniors and Seniors could go to prom unless invited and I went to all three with the same girl, Deena, who was a year younger than me. But as I reflected on those proms this past Saturday, I had a realization. It may even sound cliché, but each of the proms I attended was at a major turning point in my life, where things would not be the same not too long after. Let me explain.
Junior Prom, 1993
My Junior Prom was held on May 8th, 1993, and it was in our high school gym (as all of our proms were). My class actually tried to have it offsite as we had lots of money to spend on prom but the school said no. Our theme was “A Whole New World,” an Aladdin inspired theme, and one of the things I remember was that we got to skip classes to decorate the gym on Thursday and Friday of that week. Also, being who I am, I arrived with my date early and the DJ for our prom never showed, so we hired one quickly on the spot and I was asked to help carry in all his equipment, including trays and trays of CD’s (for our young people, this was how music was listened to back in the 90’s). I remember having a great time with my date and my friends and was disappointed I couldn’t go to post prom, which was held in an “Action City” type of place the next town over because my date’s parents said she had to be home by midnight.
But that is not what made this prom important in my life. I have the date burned into my brain because this was the day I knew that my Dad was going to die. He had cancer, and though he had been diagnosed terminal, we were all hopeful that he was going to last a few more months, maybe even throughout the summer. I went to visit my Dad in the hospital that morning, and when I walked in I found him all yellow with jaundice and barely able to talk. And when he did talk, much of it made no sense. I left after ten minutes as I couldn’t take it and didn’t want to break down in front of him. As I rode down in the elevator, I knew my Dad was going to die sooner rather than later. I knew that my life would never, ever, be the same. On the way to eat with my date, I told her that my Dad was bad and that I was concerned. But I downplayed it and I don’t know how, but for a few hours I tried to forget what was about to happen to enjoy the prom. I put on a brave face and pretended everything was ok, when everything really wasn’t.
He would die two days later, on May 10th, 1993.
Senior Prom, May 1994
There is the cliché that your Senior prom is, outside of graduation, kind of a last hurrah. To appreciate the people and things around you because everything is going to change. At my Senior prom, I knew that to be true. One of the reasons for that is that, in the year since my Dad had died, I had changed. I had grown up. I had to become independent. I had to face some things and I had gotten through to the other side.
But I also knew this: I was scared. I was scared to go to college. I was one of those kids who loved high school. I knew who I was, I enjoyed what I did, I had a great group of friends, and I was successful. College? No clue. None of my friends were going to the school I was going. I didn’t know anybody that went there either. Who would my friends be? Would I meet people? And also, what happens if I fail? What if I don’t do well in school or meet the goals I had set for myself? Being at that Senior Prom was like being in a comfortable position and situation. But afterwards? Fear and unknowns. But mostly fear.
My last Prom, May, 1995.
I walked into prom in May of 1995, home from college from the summer for about a week, and I knew one big truth: I no longer belonged here. Sure, I was with my same date from the previous two proms. My best friend had walked in with his date right before me. I knew almost everyone in the room, in a place I had called my home for most of my life. But I knew I didn’t belong. I didn’t fit. It wasn’t me anymore.
Of course, I loved my friends and my hometown. But I had changed in my year at college. The fear that I had felt during my Senior Prom about going to college had been replaced with confidence. Living outside of my hometown for the first time ever, no longer the principal’s son, I had found myself. I had a great group of friends, was doing well in my classes, and had found a community at the Campus Ministry at Immanuel Lutheran Church that became like a family.
I could just tell that I didn’t quite fit the same way anymore in my hometown, like a puzzle piece that kind of fits but really doesn’t. At first it made me sad, like something was lost. But then it was more of gratitude. My hometown and the people therein had shaped and molded me but had also given me the tools to find myself. And I had. Little did I know that God had already shoved me onto the path that would lead me to becoming a pastor. A little bit after this prom, I agreed to be an interim youth director at my church, handling all the programming for the summer (my twin sister came on board to handle the money part). That would lead me to an idea that would really catapult me: to work at Bible Camp the next summer. And then the rest is history.
Three proms that came each time at a moment when my life was about to change. Junior prom, the loss of my Father, who would shape the rest of my life. Senior prom, confronting the fear of being able to make it on my own, outside of my comfortable bubble. And my last prom, where I left the past behind and where God was about to really show me a new path. Today, I look back and see God’s hand in all of it, and when I go to prom now, I pray that the Lord will be there for our youth, in their joys and fears, sorrows and triumphs, and that one day they will see how God has been at work in their lives, whether through prom’s or not!
May the Lord bless you today and always!
PICTURE OF THE DAY
Me, with my date Deena, my Junior Prom, May 8, 1993
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