Halloween Sunday

Last Sunday, on October 31st, I witnessed the power of community. It began with Prudence Smith, a member of our church who must be close to 90 years old. On Sunday as we were munching on "witches fingers" and "eyeballs" (gross, just gross!) I asked her to join me in going through the haunted house put on by the Middle School Youth. We walked through it together, hand in hand, watching out for creepy characters popping out of nowhere and hands reaching out for our feet. When we finally made it through the darkness and landed in the light, she looked at me wild-eyed and said, "How in the world did they do that?"
She was clearly impressed by the the youth's haunted house, and I was impresseed by her willingness to walk through it. There is something powerful about having people of different generations enjoying each other's presence. There are few places in our lives where that happens any more - but Halloween Sunday at this church was definitely an expereince of that. It was marvelous and wonderful. It was all the best of what a church community can be about. Now I just wish I had some pictures to go with it!

Snap Shots from Church School: Spiritual Accounts

The song came floating in from the back seat of the car on the drive home from soccer prqactice. "Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me," sang the little boy. This is the story one grandmother told me a few weeks ago.
Sometimes when I think of teaching children songs and stories, I think we are making deposits into their spiritual accounts. I know there are times in my life when a song, a saying or a scripture verse just comes floating into my mind - something I needed to remember at just the right moment; something I pulled out of my spiritual account that someone helped me deposit earlier in life.

We are trying to give children an account of spiritual tools to draw from through out their lives - in moments of celebration and in moments of struggle.

Snap Shots from Church School (October 10, 2010)

Selfless Giving:

This Sunday was the first time I didn't go into worship with the adults, but spent the entire time with the children moving from one classroom to another. ( I hope to be able to do that at least once a month). Each class had its own tone, some more reflective and quiet, others more exuberant. While I am immensely grateful for all our teachers, I was struck this week by the number of teachers we have who teach, even though they have no children or grandchildren in our church school program. They are models of selfless giving to me - of giving beyond themselves for the good of the larger community. They teach with joy, they teach out of a place of deep faith, they live out their baptismal coveanant - to love and accept every member of our community. To these teachers, I give thanks.

Amy

Snap Shots from Church School (October 3, 2010)

Feeding the Spirit...
This 4th grader admited that she didn't want to come to church that morning. Her family had gotten out of the habit of going to church over the summer, and getting back in the habit just seemed too hard. But mom and dad were going - so she would be going too.

She came into children's church and let the music of the morning wash over her. She later learned the Lord's Prayer in sign language and thought it was so beautiful. On the car ride home from Church School she told her parents, "I'm so glad we went to church today!"

It's true for me too - that even on the Sundays when I find it difficult to come to church, (yes, there are those days for me too), I find hidden treasures of love and joy when I come here, and my spirit is fed.

Each week the spiritual lives of about 30 children are treasured and fed through our Church School Program. I invite you to be a part of this amazing journey by volunteering your time and your presence to these children and I am sure that you will find your spirit fed at the same time.

Snapshots from Church School

This Sunday we baptized a little boy, only two months old. Whenever we baptize a child, the poeple of the church are always asked by the minsiter if we will love the child who is being baptized. In baptism we celebrate the love of God in the life of a child and we also make a pledge to that child to make God's love known to that child.

Clearly the children were learning that message these past few weeks in church school. Last Sunday I noticed a lot of the children were enthusiastically teaching thier parents how to say, "God loves you," and God loves me," in sign language. There is no other place in our lives where children will receive this important and significant statement of faith - that the love of God can be found and celebrated in everyone's life. In Church School we steep our children in that message of that love. And that is the very foundation from which faith begins to grow.

Thanks to all the volunteers of the church who make this happen every week!

Amy

Snap Shots from Sunday School

Snap Shots from Sunday School.

This fall I began a shifted my call as a minsiter to include more work with children and families. As part of that call, I am hoping to capture some stories that arise out of our expereince with Sunday School. I am going to call this - "Snap Shots from Sunday School." As part of the church, the congregation worshipping in the Sanctuary is unaware of what's going on in Sunday School, so here are a few stories from the smaller, younger sector of our congregation.

Last Sunday two girls, 4 and 6 showed up for Sunday School for the first time. Wide eyed and a bit nervous about the new situation, they came up the fireside room and joined in our songs and our prayers for Children’s Church. Still a little unsure of what to expect, they joined their workshop teacher to learn how to say, “God loves you,” in sign language. When they got home, they sang a song from Children’s Church to their grandmother, only to be wildly surprised to find out that she also knew this song. The grandmother and granddaughters have been singing that song all week, before meals and at bedtime. They have been using sign language to tell each other how God loves them. A wonderful and deep connection was made between grandmother, granddaughters and our stories of faith.

Wouldn’t you like to be a part of this story?

It has only been two weeks now since Church School started. As part of my new call at the church, I have been working more with children in the church school. And I have witnessed remarkable things and learned something new from the children of our church. Children are learning the stories of faith, they are being surrounded people who love and nurture them, they are growing in their understanding of and connection to God.

I am deeply humbled by this experience and realize that I cannot do this alone. That it takes the nurture and care of an entire congregation to make this Church School program be a place where children are taught about the importance of prayer, the wonder of the world around them, the depth of care that a community of faith can offer. If you are interested in being part of this adventure, please call Amy Carter at 543-6952 or e-mail me at amycarter@uccmsla.org

Guide My Feet

We took off our shoes and socks and walked around the church to find a place to take a picture of our feet. The grass was cold and wet. It had been a long time since our feet had seen the sun (except for one person who took a vacation in Hawaii in January)

Guide our feet - this has been our Lenten journey. On Thursday a small group of people walked along Waterworks hill to the peace park. Silently they walked to meditate and contemplate being guided by their feet.

Next week we will gather on Thursday at 5pm to walk around Maclay Flats. I wonder what our wanderings will bring forth for us there?

On the front cover of our worship bulletin, Peter Shober has chosen this quote from Anselm Grun, "Jesus is always on the way. He wanders from place to place. He is the divine wanderer who comes down from heaven to wander among us men and women and to remind us of the divine kernal within us."

A few questions come to mind as we continue with this theme:
When have you felt a guiding presence in your life?
When has walking been an important spiritual practice for you?
Has there been a time when you have wandered and through that wandering been blessed by the presence of the spirit?
Through walking have you been led to find that divine kernal within you?

Just some questions to ponder - we would love to hear your stories.

Amy and the UCC staff

Guide My Feet, an invitation into Lent

We began our Lenten journey last night with a beautiful Ash Wednesday service. The service was led by Emmaus Campus ministry, included a beautiful song by University Congregational Church's Ensemble Voices. We ended with the imposition of Ashes reminding each other that from Dust we have come and to dust we shall return.

This Lent we are being guided by a Lenten theme taken from a traditional African American Spiritual "Guide My Feet."

Inside the sanctuary of our church are many beautiful drawings of feet done by Missoula artist Katherine Kress.
This image brings forth all kinds of questions and thoughts. We invite you to share in these thoughts and quesitons in the weeks to come as we journey through lent together.