(originally posted June 7, 2016)

Beloved:
          VBS 2016 will go down as the year Pastor Annette didn’t burn the building down.  I was the last to leave Vacation Bible School set-up Sunday afternoon.  “Let me get tomorrow’s dessert out of the oven and I’ll lock up,” I told my excellent 12-year-old kitchen assistant.  The chocolate raspberry crumb bars looked and smelled perfect.  I turned off the oven and set the pan on the stovetop to cool overnight, not noticing the burner still on beneath it.  The retired men’s group arrived a few minutes before me Monday morning.  They had already opened the windows and cleared the smoke.  Some people think it smells terrible.  Compared to, say, six thousand square feet of smoldering ash, I think it smells wonderful.   
          Our other take-away from this week and next is the Habitat for Humanity Builders Blitz house we are sponsoring, which is literally going up as I type.  By day’s end today it will be completely dried in, with electricals and plumbing roughed in, lots of interior drywall and exterior siding hung.  As you can see, I’ve picked up all kinds of builder lingo lately.  I did a quick walk-through this morning and talked with our homeowners, Irma and Oscar.  They are very pleased with the process and with how their house is coming together.  Irma’s new front porch is to die for.  And thanks, to the UBC Gatorade crews coming and going from church to work site every afternoon too. 

Beloved:
 
          My 26th Vacation Bible School at UBC.  It would be 28 but we missed two during the pandemic.  Kids of those early kids now sing and dance and make crafts.  Last night they made paper chain snakes, like the ones who live in the rainforest.  Tonight a guest will bring a real python, and a 36-year-old tortoise, and a bearded dragon ~ as we talk about the wonder of God’s creation and the wonder of their little selves.  I’m never prouder of my congregation than when they spend so much of their precious time to welcome little kids to church.  For my part, I’m as tired as the 2-year-olds by the time I leave the building.  All I can do is feed the dog and take a shower before I fall into bed.  I pick up my book and wake up hours later to take my glasses off and turn out the light.

          Silly songs and paper snakes, popsicles, water games and a full-grown man dressed up like Tarzan ~ having this much fun after all these years must surely mean I’m still in the right business.  There will be time to rest and recover later.  For now this is where I belong.

          In other news, the weather has officially turned to summer, heat in the 90’s and a little rain.  On the good side, my tomatoes will take off now and the neighborhood pool will warm up.  My plan is to wear out my welcome at the pool this year.  But for people living outside, the heat is not good news.  Places where they can get cool are fewer all the time.  A new Indiana law goes into effect next month making it a crime to sleep on public property overnight.  Cities who don’t comply will lose necessary funding from the state.  Thankfully local agencies, including law enforcement, are hard at work creating alternatives for our affected neighbors.  Ministers are preparing for the possibility folks will request staying on church properties.  This is most definitely something we can pray about, and if a meeting (or two or three) would benefit from your input.  But in the meantime, I hope you are making time to enjoy the delights of summer, whatever your favorites are.  I remain ever so grateful for your partnership in the work.  
 
~peace & prayers, 
pastor annette

Beloved:
A very old friend was through town last week. We had about 20 delightful hours together, reminiscing and catching up on each other’s lives.  We are both recently single after long marriages. We are both healing and grateful for good memories and good friends. She is still one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. Revisiting nineteen-year-old me and all she didn’t know about her life yet ~ marriage, kids and ministry most of all ~ has been a tender blessing for me since.

I continue to believe it won’t rain all summer.  Some plants are flourishing while others struggle to stay upright.  The milkweed is taller than me now and I pull up runners every day.  They have bigger flower heads this year than they’ve ever had before, which hopefully means more butterflies laying eggs.
Two items on my garden to-do list:

1. Separate the irises I planted too close in the beginning. Their tubers are already on top of one another, which I hear will cause them to cross breed and turn all the flowers blue.
2. Buy two slinkies to slide over the long wire from which my bird feeders are suspended so squirrels and raccoons can’t eat from them.  I’ve watched a dozen videos and it seems to work some of the time.  For $6 I’m willing to try it.  (FYI ~ I have “squirrel-proof” feeders already.)

I remain equally heartbroken over the state of the world. My extra son, brought home from college by my original son 12 years ago, is from a part of the world that has been wracked by civil war for three years and has just now made the news here. His parents are displaced inside India. We stay in touch and they are safe but they have more family there about whom they worry constantly. Such hardship I cannot imagine and it is multiplied a hundred times over throughout the world, rarely or never crossing our news feeds.

Making sense of our privilege in so troubled a world is the never ending work of faith; acknowledging that the same systems which benefit us oppress others is hard but necessary. Adjusting our behaviors, attitudes and opinions accordingly is too. And finally - working to correct injustice as we are able and sacrificing privilege for the sake of solidarity with the suffering. We are never finished, nor required to do the hardest work 24/7/365. We are also allowed, not just allowed but encouraged, to rest and refresh, to recover and restore ourselves for the work.

Thankfully, therefore, goes the free entertainment of my tiny garden where life bursts from the ground and squirrels swing and bounce on slinkies. 

~  peace & prayers, pastor annette

       https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1DWUvZBXGjNCU4?si=cc35c1c26fb34eea

Beloved:
          Sweater Weather Instrumentals is a six-hour playlist I found years ago that I start playing the first morning I take the dog out and can’t feel even a spit of summer on the air.  I don’t remember ever playing it in September and certainly not this early!  But I’ll take it, knowing good and well the humid heat is not gone for good.  Besides, I still have tomatoes on the vine that need that heat to ripen.
          I nearly got through the season without getting stung, though not in my garden.  In the bookstore café, by what bee or bug I didn’t see.  First the pierce and then the fire.  Rebecca, the café barista, gave me ice and asked if my mouth felt like it was swelling.  I’m not allergic as far as I know, so all is well this morning.
          When soft weather changes and bee stings are the stuff of one's journal entries, hopefully she marks what peace her life is made of.  This is not how I thought life would be now, yet who could possibly complain about such a blessed existence, a life so full of love and kindness?  Every time I run the formula, what I miss compared to what I’ve kept keeps me grateful for the goodness of God, other people and golden retrievers.  That is not to say the losses don’t still sometimes sting - only that they no longer overwhelm.  They barely cast a shadow on this unexpectedly oh-so-peaceful life.
          Life will change and then change again, of course.  From sugar to salt to sugar again, ‘round and ‘round it goes.  The trick of faith is hanging on to what doesn’t change, God and love, wherever it shows up.  And also showing up in love for others, as often as they need for as long as they need and we are able.  I pray you know yourselves most profoundly held and loved this day. 

~peace & prayers,
​pastor Annette

Recipe: Apples & Hummus

• 2 small sliced apples*
• 5 oz hummus (Sabra classic is my favorite)

I eat this for lunch a few times a week.  1 apple and less hummus is a great snack. 
*I’m not sure why apples are so expensive right now, maybe it’s the end of last year’s crop and they’ll be cheap again as soon as harvest starts.