Encouragement (Page 5)
Stand Up & Go Gold!
May 10, 2023A Note from Robin Ozbolt Dear Friends, In our preschool world, colors are a topic of conversation on a daily basis. What is your favorite color? Can you share the red crayon? My dress is pink! My shoes are green! But when does a color represent much more than a shade on the spectrum of colors? The Color Gold The color gold has been on all of our minds this year. Gold is a precious metal, but it…
Prodigal by Proxy
May 3, 2023A Note from Diana Huey Dear Friends, My mother and I have a long, complex relationship, fraught with anger, disappointment, rebellion, grief, and denial, but also laughter, love, longing, healing, and hope. We didn’t speak for a quarter of a century, yet God has been working on us and we are slowly & steadily rebuilding & healing. Mom is a texter, not a talker, so imagine my surprise when she texted to ask if I was available for…
A Rock & a Hard Place
April 26, 2023A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, I’ve always been a goal-oriented person. I enjoy the work of problem-solving and finding the best possible outcome for everyone involved. Even when it’s hard, the process of overcoming obstacles and getting to the finish line is something I find incredibly satisfying. (Here’s me finishing my longest race ever of 10 miles!) The reality of life is that some things aren’t things you can “overcome.” Some things can’t simply be problem-solved.…
The Lost Years
April 19, 2023A Note from Pastor Jenny Smith Dear Friends, Anyone else feel like they lost the last three years of their life? I intellectually know March 2020-March 2023 happened. My body knows it too. There’s plenty of leftover trauma vibes running around my nervous system to prove it. My Google calendar is full of evidence I lived these last three years. Somehow my children grew taller. My Amazon Photos account even says I have 23,188 photos and videos during…
Discomfort
April 12, 2023A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, It was mid-January when my doctor called me with the news. “Your blood tests came back, and I’m sorry to tell you that you are pre-diabetic. We’ll need you to be on a strict diabetic diet for the next three months to see if we can get those numbers back down.” It wasn’t entirely a surprise. I had gone to the doctor that day after a few unusual blood sugar incidences.…
Holy Ordinary
April 5, 2023A Note from Jon Esala Dear Friends, On January 18 of this year, one of my dreams came true. My wife Meredith gave birth to our son Emmett at just after 9 in the morning. I became a dad. He’s a little over two months old now, and every morning around 7am I get him out of his bassinet and change his diaper. As I do, he brightly smiles good morning to me. I smile back. We’re both…
Holding in Tension
March 29, 2023A Note from Molly Collier Dear Friends, I recently went skiing with some friends, and we were reminded of some very valuable lessons before we even hit the slopes. Mind you, this is Ohio skiing. I’m not sure if I can call them slopes, but they were high enough for me, a novice skier who hadn’t skied in over 10 years. It’s okay to ask for help The first lesson we were reminded of was that it’s okay…
Curiosity
March 15, 2023A Note from Pastor Jon Dear Friends, Curiosity killed the cat? (But did it really?) Growing up I remember when I found myself asking too many questions (never understood what that means) that the grownups started saying, “You know, Jon, curiosity killed the cat.” It only took a few times of hearing that statement before becoming conditioned to stop asking questions out of my own curiosity. My curiosity was often stifled and discouraged. As an Enneagram 9 (see…
Seasons of Change
March 8, 2023A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, This week, my younger child turned 13. I remember people telling me that the time would fly by. Most days it didn’t feel like that. So much of parenting is the little moments, the daily routines, the consistent showing up to the needs that are happening in the present moment. It’s slow and steady and repetitive kind of work. So many days I felt like a broken record repeating the same…
Rest & Renewal
March 1, 2023A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, On Sunday I shared with the congregation that I’ll be taking a few months away this late summer and fall for a season of renewal leave (July 16-November 13). In the United Methodist Church, pastors are encouraged by our Book of Discipline to take some time away every six years for rest and renewal. Both Pastor Jon and I took a time of renewal leave before we began our appointments here…
Learning in Community
February 22, 2023A Note from Beth Palmer Dear Friends, I have always loved school. I can remember all my elementary school teachers’ names. I loved learning and being with my friends. I still remember the satisfaction I felt at coming up with an enormous list of homonyms in about third grade (words that sound the same but are spelled differently, remember?). I still have some of my artwork. High school wasn’t my favorite, but I remember a great physics class…
The Bible
January 15, 2023A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, I’ve had an evolving relationship with the Bible over my life. As a child, I found the stories presented to me on flannel boards mildly interesting. Aside from the story of Jonah and the whale (a favorite of mine), I wasn’t particularly drawn in by the church services or Sunday School lessons. Jesus seemed like a nice guy, but very distant from my actual life. I did, however, read my Bible…