Tuesday May 9, 2023

Hope – it just a little word but it has a huge impact.  Hope is essential to life.  When my children were having a rough day, I would say to them, ‘Today is a rough day, yes.  It hurts and its hard.  Very hard.  But not everyday is going to be like today.  You are not always going to feel the way you do right now’.  Sometimes saying those words was as helpful to me as I hope it was to them.  Sometimes we just have to hang on with everything we have, hoping and knowing that the next day may be better – or the day after that.  Hope is a constant theme in the Bible and in the Christian life.  In this season of Easter we are called to open our eyes to see hope springing up all around.  The warmer weather helps.  Increased sunshine helps.  The song birds help.  Seeing children playing outside helps.  All of these are signs of life and signs of love – deep love that the Creator has for us all.

 Hope abounds here at St. Andrew’s.  Our Agnes Stock weekend just over a week ago was a beautiful experience.  People from the community joined people from within the congregation to talk about death and dying.  One of the effects of the pandemic is grief interrupted – not being able to have conversations face to face with our loved ones in the dying process.  The time to have those conversations is now and the weekend gave us some tools to do just that.  But even more, it showed the church to still be alive and current – a place for people to gather – to lean into each other and to talk about issues of substance.  There is a lot of talk about churches closing, about people not interested in church anymore – and much of that is true.  But St. Andrew’s continues and other churches and places of worship play an important role in our lives.  In church people can experience values of care and compassion, consider what it means to live lives of service for each other, and interrupt the narrative that life is all about us.  Church and places of worship will continue to play an important role in society.  They will give people hope.

 I ask for your prayers as St. Andrew’s through the Operational Council continues conversations this week with Gizaagi’in Healing, an indigenous group full of hope as they and hopefully we work towards healing and caring relationships among children and youth – primarily but not limited to indigenous youth within Kitchener Waterloo.  This essential work gives us as a church an opportunity to be relevant to our community and to make a difference.  It is a journey of listening to others, embracing them where they are and responding to their voiced needs as we are able.  It is important work.

 As well, I ask for your support in the fundraising dinner for Camp K held on May 31, here at the church beginning at 5:00 p.m.  This is to raise funds for the running of the camp.  This year the need is greater because government funding for staff has been cut back drastically.  The camp will continue but fundraising is needed for the extras to make the summer fun and enjoyable for all involved.  It also helps to sponsor children who would otherwise not be able to attend.   So come on out – we hope to have over 100 people attend and enjoy a delicious menu of hot dogs, sausages, burgers, vegetarian options, Jackee’s famous Caesar salad and a make your own sundae dessert.  Bring your friends, invite your grandkids, mark the date and come and have some fun!

Take care everyone

 Marty

 P.S.  A word of hope from Leonard Cohen – “a crack in everything is how the light gets in”