Greetings Everyone.

This week we not only participated in Halloween but we also celebrated All-Saints Day. The original title of All-Saints Day was “All Hallows Day” with ‘hallow’ meaning holy or saint. The real reason October 31 is “Hallow-e’en” is because it was the “e’en” before All-Hallows Day similar to Christmas-e’en (eve) being the night before Christmas. In ancient times, October 31 was believed to be the day during the calendar year when the veil between this world and the next world was most thin. Because of that it was believed the spirits of the dearly departed could escape for a brief period and walk around their old neighborhoods, visiting or terrifying family, friends, and enemies.

It is always of interest to me how humanity gravitates toward the cultural custom and away from the spiritual focus. It is easy as a culture to replace the birth of Jesus with Ol’ Saint Nick, Christmas trees and lots of presents. It is easy as a culture to replace the resurrection of Jesus for easter eggs and easter parades. It is easy as a culture to forget about God’s people who have preceded us, passed along the faith to us and prayed for us, for the ghosts and goblins of the nether world.

As Terri and I walked the Camino in September, we saw two types of directional signs.

Signs, like the one I’m in front of, were professionally done and set all along the way. The bronze plaque across the bottom listed the number of kilometers from that spot to our ultimate destination. We took a picture of this one because we had reached the under 10 km, 6 miles, to Santiago de Compostela, our destination. The one with the yellow arrow on a moss-covered rock would certainly not last very long, but it indicated that a fellow pilgrim had recently preceded us and let us know we were headed in the right direction. Both signs were very helpful. There were more moss-covered types than the ones etched in stone.

All-Saints Day celebrates the ‘Moss-Covered’ signpost people in our lives. They have walked the road in front of us. They have shared their faith stories and their faith journey. We have seen how God has worked in them and through them. They have also shared their mistakes, their need for forgiveness, their journey back to the path of following Jesus. Without these signs we would have spent many miles wondering if we were truly on the right path. Because of them we had greater comfort and confidence.

Pastor Fund Campaign

Thank you to all who have contributed to raising money for our Pastor Fund Campaign.  We needed $50,000 by October 31 and by October 29 we had $53,350!  Such a blessing. With the matching funds that puts us at $106,700.  Please keep this campaign in your prayers and heart, we are 1/3 of the way to our goal of $300,000 by September 2024.  If you want to give or know of anyone that would like to give you can donate easily via our online link here.

CALLING ALL PARENTS!

Lisa Nelson and I wanted to pull together a group of parents to discuss middle schoolers life in the church.  We need everyone’s thoughts to start creating a program for our kids as they get older.  Come armed with feedback, outside of the box thinking and high-level goals for what you’d like for your kids.  I know we all have so much going on, but we are a small church and it takes all of us to move this in the right direction.
 Date:  November 5th
 Time:  Immediately Following worship service, 11:15 A.M.
 Location:  Sunday School Classroom 

 Blessings,
Kristine Manuel

WE NEED YOU!

Sunday School assistants are needed for our 9:00 a.m. middle school class.  Jim Ramlow leads the class.  All you have to do is sit in and help out where needed. If you’re looking for a way to ease in to being involved in the life of our church this is it! Join Jim and the middle school class as they work their way through C.S Lewis’ book  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, along with the gospel of Mark.