Newsletter April 2020
Pastor Sharon Fox Bogen
Hello, beloved church! I miss you and look forward with eagerness to the time when we will gather together again in the flesh. I doubt that will be soon or even by Easter, based on Governor Evers ruling to stay at home. We will let you know via Facebook, phone tree, or e-mail. Please, if you have not already done so, send Lois Anderson or Susan Drews an e-mail so that they will be able to add you to their lists. Remember that you can always call us or Pastor Sharon at 715-507-0618. Although we are isolated, we can still stay in contact….
Worship: I hope you have been able to worship with us on Facebook live. Pastor Phil, my husband and I, have worked together to lead worship for our 4 congregations. We are learning the ropes of preaching to our computer camera while trying to envision you dear souls in your homes. The “loving you” part is easy for both of us, the technical part, not so much! Have fun with the bloopers and pray that compassion wins and God’s word is heard! You can help share the Word by “sharing” online. I am also posting devotions led by some of my pastor friends; give them a listen…. You can get the readings and prayers each week from the ELCA website.
Connecting: The days have been challenging in the Bogen household as we try to practice a new normal. We are unable to visit our homebound, trying to reach out by phone and grateful that some of you are calling and sending cards or drawings to our loved ones. Many of you have friended me on FB, so you know I am on it regularly to see what you are doing and listening for how I might be encouraging during this time. Glad to hear your responses and to see what your life is like. Proud to be church together: sewers who are busy making masks for our medical staff; crafters of all ages making hearts on your windows and doors, drawers who write chalk sayings to uplift their neighbors, FB users who bring hope and good cheer to each other. How touching for me to see you lift up small businesses in Tigerton and Wittenberg area. It makes me want to drive there to get some delicious take out. Thanks, parents and teachers, for all the creative ways you are loving on our children. Keep sending me pictures; they make me smile and cause me to pray out of gratefulness and trust that you and God will keep them safe and growing in mind, body and soul! Take note of the terrific resources on each of our websites (like each other’s sites and enjoy the bountiful ideas).
Feelings: Discombobulated, overwhelmed, out of control….what shall I do first? Days are difficult to organize and keep on task. Maybe you feel this, too. Reminds me of the time our family went through the disastrous flood in ND, 1997. Every house and church and business had basements full of water. Our whole city of over 100,000 had to evacuate. We stayed with members of our church for one whole month until we could finally go home. How would you like to house your pastor’s family with a 3-year-old and me, 43 years old, due with my baby any day? The hospitals were not open. What an experience! By the way, Adam was born a day after the hospital opened and the Holien family is still our dear friends 22 years later! That flood and this pandemic will affect us for years to come. “Normal” will keep evolving and it will change us. We pray that it will change us and our world for the better! Your feelings are important; listen carefully and acknowledge your questions, worries, fears, confusion. Talk these feelings out with each other. Use me as a sounding board. Open conversations with your spouse and with your children are crucial as you live in tight quarters. Phil and I have shed a few tears together and had some good laughs, too. We are beginning to trust that retirement will be a workable phase in our life….even if we have no clue where we will live or what our finances will be…that’s another story and set of feelings. Pray for us as we will for you!
Wilderness Journey: That’s what Lent is. And what a hike we are on - winding down trails we never expected or ever dreamed of - uncharted territory. What are you learning? God is teaching me that I do not know as much as I think. I am not in control. I need to ask for help. I need to trust others to share my load. It’s ok to slow down. It’s necessary to take breaks. And most importantly, relationships are what makes us rich and what gives us purpose. They make us human with those who are close and with those who are far. My heart is pulled first by family, then by my church families and colleagues; but it also has capacity to feel for strangers in our hospitals and in the current most devastated places like New York, Italy, and China.
When you form your opinions about what matters in life, open your hearts wider than any “self-help” thinking. We truly are in this together…we always have been, but now we are faced with reality head on. We as God’s church have a message to claim. God loves the whole world. God will not let us go, neither should we let one person be forgotten. Prayers that you and I will continue to make this difference in each other’s lives!!! We live and walk on a Good Friday trail for now, but, my friends, Easter is coming!!!! It will be glorious whether we worship in our homes or our church. As the body of Christ, we live an Easter life every day!
Psalm 131: My prayer for you and for me: (Message Bible) God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain. I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans. (my insert – “well maybe a little in our dreams for retirement…”) I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content. Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always!
Offerings
It is our duty and delight that we should, at all times and all places, give thanks to you, O God! Giving offerings in worship is what we do, an integral part of who we are in relationship with God. All that we have and are comes from God. Thus, we give of our first fruits to say thank you and to contribute to the work of the church, the ministry that happens through our local efforts, but also through the work of our Synod and our Churchwide organization. Your gifts help in far-reaching ways. I am writing my check to each congregation today. I pray that you will do the same for your church. Please send them to your treasurer:
Zion - Jan Thompson P.O. Box 238 Wittenberg, WI 54499
Redeemer – Peggy Emmel P.O. Box 220 Wittenberg, WI 54499
A poem adapted from St. Teresa of Avila
God has no body on earth but yours,
No hands but yours, No feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which God looks,
God’s compassion on the world.
Yours are the feet with which God goes about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which God blesses all.
Yours are the eyes, yours are the feet, yours are the hands,
God’s compassion on the world.
God has no body on earth but yours.
Prayers during this Pandemic
For whom shall we pray?
For doctors and nurses, all hospital staff, pharmacists, those who are working towards cures
For firefighters, police, grocery store workers, truck drivers, garbage collectors
For those who care for our elderly and for our children
For parents and teachers
For our government - locally, nationally and worldwide
For custodians everywhere
For pastors and bishops and church members
For postal workers and technicians and social media creators
For musicians and artists
For the lonely, lost, homeless, forgotten, hopeless
For all those suffering from any sickness, especially in these uncertain days with Covid 19
For all who whose loved ones have died
For our world as we hear the cries of the earth itself and its people world-wide
For whom do you offer prayer?........
LORD, HEAR OUR PRAYER!