February 15, 2025
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Lagers with the Lord February 17th at 6 pm at Buckshot’s.
Voices of Praise every Wednesday night at 7 pm! Come join us for a time of song. A great time to sing with others and have some fun!
We are collecting Cereal for the WestCAP food pantry! Bring your boxes and place them by the altar in the Narthex. Please make sure the cereal is not expired.
The Crew, Wednesday, February 26th, 3:30 pm till 5 pm for all 3rd -6th graders. It will be a snow day, so bring your snow gear as we will be doing activities outside!
Lent begins on Wednesday, March 5th with Ash Wednesday! We will have two services on Ash Wednesday, at Noon and 6:30 pm. Baked Potato Meal served at 5:30 pm till 6:30 pm by Confirmation youth.
MUSINGS FROM PASTOR BRAD
On Wednesday at Crew, we did a bunch of activities around Valentine’s Day. Our lesson was on loving God and loving your neighbor. We had a scavenger hunt were many of the items were Valentine’s Day goodies, like bracelets, mini-puzzles, Rubix cubes, and more that were themed for Valentine’s Day, and at the end the kids made Valentine’s Day cards for the Glenhaven nursing home. And then something cool happened.
When we do the cards, we give the kids suggestions on what to write on the cards, besides supplies like crayons, paper, and some heart stickers. We tell them they can write anything they want, but they can also write things like “God loves you,” “Thinking of you,” “Jesus loves you,” “Happy Valentine’s Day,” and the like. The kids, for the most part, do a pretty good job and some are pretty creative. We remind them that the residents of the home might not get to spend Valentine’s Day with their families and that this is a special treat for them and a way that they are spreading God’s love and that they are “loving their neighbor” as we had learned about earlier in the day.
But one kid took it even farther. I saw him writing a lot in his card, not doing a ton of decoration. He didn’t even color the front of his card, so much so that we had to write “Happy Valentine’s Day” on the front. But inside, he had a heartfelt message. And even more so, he had enclosed one of the toys he had found in the scavenger hunt. He was gifting the toy to someone, taping it inside the card. An act of generosity, of love, to a stranger.
We are called to love by our Savior, and that love is always outward. It is always toward the other. It is selfless, not selfish. I was very proud of this student for their act of love and of generosity. It is a reminder that our young people can and do absorb things if we are willing to teach them and show them. At the same time, our young people can and do show us the way. They are more willing to open their heart to others than us adults are, to embrace others, to love freely, to not see the differences that we so often see. They can so often show us the way.
Speaking of that, as I was writing this, I got an email forwarded in from our Parish Manager Andrea of a thank you from Chaplain Steve Jensen, where he sent thanks from wounded members of our armed services who received handmade Valentine’s from our Sunday School kids. He included a picture, which I have below. May we continue to encourage our youth to spread love, and may we spread the love of God in Jesus Christ by reaching out to others in love like Jesus did, especially to those in need, to those alone, to the orphan, the widow, the stranger, and the other.
