July 13, 2020

Dear All Saints Family,

I’m sitting among a growing number of packing boxes, as Jess and I prepare for our upcoming close date of 7/24 on a new home here in Warner Robins. We’re looking forward to beginning (and especially completing!) this next phase of our moving adventure. Warner Robins becomes more and more our home, every day.

And yet I can’t help but recognize how strange this particular move is for us. Yes, I’m really looking forward to settling into our home, and yet so much of our life right now is so very unsettled. None of us know what the future will look like. We have dreams and hopes, but we’re also stuck in this state of not-really-knowing, as these pandemic(s) swirl around us.

I personally find it helpful, especially in troubling times, to remember how beloved we are of God. We have each been made in God’s own image and God’s delights in all God’s creation. And God knows us fully and completely, to include the number of hairs on our heads — and we have been promised by Jesus himself that he will always be with us, to the end of the age.

With God’s help, we can live into hope by leaning into Jesus’ way of love. That may sound strange in this time of social distancing and pandemics of both our health and our spirits, but I can think of no more important time to open our hearts to the nudging of the Spirit and carrying Christ’s love into the world.

What can we do, in these strange times?

-     Do find quiet time with God each day. And remember you can always join us for weekday worship, Morning prayer or Compline, in addition to our Sunday services. And do try to limit your time with cable news and social media, as resting in God will do so much more to heal our weariness of body and spirit.

-     We can open our hearts to learning something new by listening to voices that aren’t our own. Join our Just Mercy Book Study on Monday afternoons at 4:00 p.m. with this Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/9247108920.  Or if watching movies is more to your liking, we’ve been invited by our neighbors at Faith Lutheran to join their Synod’s (aka Lutheran “Diocese”) virtual viewing and discussion of the movie, Just Mercy, next Sunday, July 19th at 3:00 pm. Register here for this online event: https://se-reg.brtapp.com/JustMercyMovieandDiscussion. Pre-registration is required and a Zoom link will be emailed to you.

-     Or help a local organization that’s making a difference in our community! Although All Saints has delayed our direct involvement in Family Promise until we feel safer, we can contribute to their ongoing efforts by participating in their upcoming fundraiser. (And individual donations are always welcome, too!) You’ll find a few details on the upcoming August 29th event at the end of this letter.

God is with us, and as we read in Ephesians, working in us, to do infinitely more than we can ask for or imagine. Even though we may feel stuck in this unsettling time, God has a plan for each one of us and is working with us, and in us, and through us in innovative and energizing ways. Keep the faith. Lean on God and one another. Stay connected. And thanks be to God for the gift of our ever-loving Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who, with the Holy Spirit, is with us all, now and always.

Blessings,

Mother Bonnie+