Central Presbyterian Blog

Evotional – December 11 – The importance of patience and waiting

During this season of the year, we take time at the beginning of worship to light the Advent candles and to say…

We light this candle as a sign of the coming light of Christ.  Advent means coming.  We are preparing ourselves for the days

When the nations shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. 

Let us walk in the light of the Lord. 

It’s a mantra within the Church that we are a waiting people: waiting for Christmas when Christ is born, waiting for God’s rule to come on earth to right the many ways this world is not as it should be.  Steeped in the language of waiting, I was struck by a similar sentiment in a totally different context as I was re-reading Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to A Young Poet.  In advising his poetic pen pal not to rush the creative process, he again affirms the importance of patience and waiting. 

In this there is no measuring with time.  A year doesn’t matter; ten years are nothing.  To be an artist means not to compute or count; it means to ripen as the tree, which does not force its sap, but stands unshaken in the storms of spring with no fear that summer might not follow.  It will come regardless.  But it comes only to those who live as though eternity stretches before them, carefree, silent, and endless.  I learn it daily, learn it with many pains, for which I am grateful: Patience is all!

May we all spend a little more time this season practicing this under-utilized virtue!

Shalom,

Jacqueline

Evotional – October 31 – Leaving the Garden of Eden

Evotional – October 16 – Be Still and Know the Lord is God

At the women’s retreat this weekend, we spent time engaging in spiritual practices that enable us to “be still and know the Lord is God.”  Among them, we were reminded of the monastic Christian practice of praying the hours, when the entire community would cease work at pre-set times and engage in communal prayer.  In modern-day life, this practice is more commonly witnessed in the Islamic faith in which Muslims pause five times per day and join together in prayer.  As a form of engaging this practice, we set an alarm, and every time the alarm sounded we set aside whatever we were doing and joined in prayer.  While it’s appealing in theory to engage in routine prayer, it’s challenging in reality.  The basic human impulse to do just one more thing takes over, and it’s easy to convince yourself that you’ll get around to prayer as soon as you finish your current task.  Or, you’ll skip this prayer time and make it up later.  But, as Wayne Muller reminds us in his book Sabbath, we are all created with a natural rhythm that keeps us in tune with the God who created us and with who God created us to be.  When we take time to pause for rest on Sundays or pause for prayer throughout the day, we reconnect with God and ourselves.  Muller reminds us that it’s not just humans who were created to live in a certain rhythm, but all of the natural world:

Oysters open their shells when the moon is high.  The chambered nautilus forms a new chamber in its spiraled shell every lunar month.  Bees respond to the polarization of sunlight and orient themselves by the pattern it forms in a blue sky, even when the sun is behind the clouds.  Deciduous trees drop their leaves under the influence of the shorter days of autumn, and grow leaves again during the lengthening days of spring.

May you find a way within your day and week to pause, pray, and reconnect with who God created you to be.

Peace,

Jacqueline

 

Evotional – October 10

How many parents remember seeing the first time a baby is invited to the dinner table? Often the baby recognizes the smells as food long before they are ready to taste them. Tiny hands reach out to grab everything within reach. Food is touched and tasted and painted into hair or thrown on the floor.  Even though the first attempts are often awkward, the child begins to enjoy being included at the table. By experience, they come to know the family table is a place of belonging, love and sustenance. 

A couple of Sundays ago, the children of Central were invited to stand all around the Communion table to ask questions about Communion. Their big eyes were full of wonder as they followed the movement of the bread being broken and the juice as it poured into the chalice. One child gently stroked the bottom of a chalice. The children were discovering what it means to be invited to this family table too. 

We don’t need to “totally understand” concepts of grace, sin or salvation to come to the Table. (Who does?) But we are all invited to the Table like any child would be invited. We are invited to come to be fed, to belong and to know we are loved. 

As a prayer, I have included the lyrics of a gospel song.

 “Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up Lord. Come and quench this thirsting of my Soul. Bread of heaven, feed me til I want no more. Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole. “ (“Fill My Cup Lord” by Richard Blanchard 1959) 

Submitted by Jackie Kendall-Gebel

 

 

Evotional – October 2

 

For a week, I’ve been preoccupied with two writing projects. But what began as promising, spirited ventures of conviction and creativity quickly degenerated into mirthless exercises of skill. After submitting one soulless product I realized that, once again, I’d let my inner “Mary” get hijacked by my inner “Martha.”

Martha’s got her good points. She’s hospitable, she believes the good news, and she’s a hard worker. Unfortunately, she’s also an expert at over commitment. That probably makes her the patron saint of modern life.  You know the story. Martha invites Jesus and the disciples into her home, then totally freaks out about how much she has to do. To add insult to injury, her sister Mary is just, just…sitting there. So what if Mary’s at the feet of the Master? There’s work to be done, for heaven’s sake!  So Martha complains about her sister’s selfishness and laziness and begs Jesus to make Mary get it in gear.

I’ve prayed the same thing a million times. In desperation to get as much done as quickly as possible, I perennially try to harness the unruly, creative parts of my personality so that the welldisciplined, productive parts of me can get to the very important business of DOING something. But Jesus’ answer to this is the same one he gave Martha. You fret about so many things, but only one thing is needed. He doesn’t specify what that thing is, but the story gives us clues.

Mary is described as sitting at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he says. She has chosen to stop and pay attention. Her state of awareness is so blessed that God himself refuses to interrupt her for the mere business of daily life.

Since we can bank on the wisdom of the world being foolishness to God, I think it’s a safe bet to say that the thing that is needed is NOT all the food coming out hot at the same time, the grout on the kitchen counter being well‐scrubbed, or the writing project that’s technically perfect and spiritually dead.

Martha certainly has her place. Let’s not forget that Mary does, too. An entirely justifiable – and justified – place at the feet of God.

Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. (Isaiah 28:23 and 45:3) 

Submitted by Erica MacCreaigh

Evotional – July 18 – High Tea

“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?”  (Psalm 42:2)

Tradition has it that “afternoon tea” originated in the nineteenth century with Anna, Duchess of Bedford, who complained of “a sinking feeling” between lunch and dinner.  So, she ordered tea and biscuits and was so pleased with their restorative effects, she invited her friends to join her.  Viola!  Afternoon tea was born.

Today, Americans think of “afternoon tea” as “high tea,” but most working folks in the UK treat it matter-of-factly, with very little fuss and fanfare, usually involving just a tea bag and cookies from a box, but absolutely essential to making it through the day. 

There’s Sabbath wisdom in afternoon tea.  Those of us accustomed to knocking back mid-afternoon espresso shots and calling it a coffee “break” miss the point that teatime embodies.  The point of a teatime break is not to refuel our inexorable productivity for the last ¼ of the day.  The point of teatime is to stop.

Even God stopped.  Genesis tells us that on the seventh day, God ceased His labor; Exodus says He rested.  Clearly, the latter cannot happen without the former.  In our Sabbath-starved culture, where slave masters’ whips are something we carry inside us, a practice as simple as afternoon tea reminds us, in a pretty socially acceptable way, that we are not called to be creatures of relentless purpose.  We are called to be creatures of love. 

Teatime invites us to set aside our work and rest for a moment in the moment.  And only in the stillness of the moment can we truly reflect upon our lives and relate to one another as God intended – fully engaged, fully present, fully now.

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside still waters.”  Green, black, or white, tea time is a chance to savor still waters…with a little milk and sugar.
Submitted by Erica MacCreaigh

Guatemala 2011: Who knew that washing could be so fun!

We focused on health and hygeine — with lots of learning about hand washing and how to prevent the transmission of disease. Here are some pictures:

Guatemala 2011: Partners for the future

Here is a picture of our mission team and the leadership team for the Health and Water Cooperative in Aceituno, Guatemala at the inauguration of the water system.  A Salud y Agua Purificada!

Guatemala 2011: The End of the Beginning

On July 1, 2011, we joined with the Iglesia de Príncipe de Paz in inaugurating the Water Tech 2 water system in Aceituno, Guatemala. The inauguration was the culmination of our mission trip to Guatemala and months of preparation, and was an event MUY GRANDE.

We rose early on Friday morning to drive to Aceituno from our home base in Antigua. As we drove, we talked about all the many things we would need to do when we arrived to get ready for the inauguration – filling up 16 oz. bottles of purified water to hand out, printing slips for the raffling off oflarge bottles of purified water, blowing up the blue and white “Healing Waters” balloons, setting up soap crafts, installing the new printer, placing out chairs. We were buzzing with anticipation as we brainstormed and planned.

We turned the corner off the highway into Aceituno. We were almost there. As we drove through the cinder and dirt road to get to the church, we turned another corner, and there we saw it…. Hundreds of blue and white balloons already blown up and strung in rows across the street in front of the church and others decorating the sanctuary. We also saw hundreds of 16 oz. bottles of water, already filled, organized in rows, and ready for distribution. Our Guatemalan friends had been busy preparing for the inauguration – just as they had taken the first steps to put together the water system before we even arrived the first day.

The inauguration was quite an event –the sanctuary was packed with more than 150 people. There were celebratory speeches from Pastor Edwin of the Iglesia de Príncipe de Paz of Aceituno, Rev. Louise Westfall of Central Presbyterian Church o f Denver, Dennis Jonsrud of CPC, and Ruth Villagran of Aguas de Unidad, (Healing Waters International in the U.S.), Pastor Walter from a nearby church, who helped connect Pastor Edwin with Aguas de Unidad, the doctor from the local health clinic, and other members of our team. Then came the raffle. Juan, the Director of Pastor Relations for Aguas de Unidad, was quite the comedian and got many smiles from the women in the crowd as he raffled off the 50 5-gallon bottles of water. After the speeches, the crowd was given the chance to sign up to join the Health and Water Cooperative, and the children were entertained making decoupage soaps to be used for safe hand washing, and important part of our health education curriculum. (To our friends at Faegre & Benson and Littler Mendelson in Denver, hanks for all those soap donations!)

 

During the week, we helped on the microbusiness team, where we worked together with the church leaders to plan the steps necessary for the water project to become self-sustaining economically. We estimated the costs for maintenance and operations, supplies, and parts, and then figured out a target price for coop membership, a break even point, and strategies for outreach to new members. To break even and be sustainable, the coop needed at least 20-30 members. Based on Pastor Edwin’s projections, goals were set for 50 members by the end of July, 75 members by the end of 2011, and 150 members by June 2012. These goals seemed ambitious—would Aceituno really be able to recruit more than the 20 families needed to the project started? The answer was a resounding “YES!” We were surprised and thrilled when 100 families decided to join the coop on Inauguration Day! The Aceituno water project was and is off to a great start.

Following the inauguration ceremony, Pastor Edwin and his wife hosted a lunch for us. We dined on fresh hot tortillas, chicken soup with vegetables, and fresh roasted chicken (from 6 hens killed just for the occasion), limes, fresh picante sauce, rice and Coca-cola Lite. What a wonderful meal made and shared with love. We finished our time hanging out with our Guatemalan friends – Matt Westfall and Maddie played soccer with the young people, two young men sang and played the guitar for us (and we sang along), and we spent time just getting to know each other better. And as we departed, we presented Pastor Edwin with a photo printer/copier to allow the church to make photocopies of the health curriculum and print family photos of the families who join the coop or complete health and hygiene classes. We talked about how this was not the end but the beginning of a partnership between churches in Denver and a church in Aceituno, Guatemala. We boarded our bus back to Antigua and the next day back to Denver.  We left behind a water system, health and hygiene curriculum materials, a printer, extra soap and craft supplies, and a lot of hopes and prayers.

reduction.Will they change these behaviors to improve the health of the community? Now that they have an large coop membership, are they prepared to produce and distribute 1,500 bottles of pure water per month? Are they ready to teach and continue teaching health and hygiene classes to several hundred coop members on an ongoing basis? Will they be good stewards of the proceeds and provide clean water to the local school as outlined in the business plan? Will they fulfill their promise to provide water to others in the community, whether or not they belong to Príncipe de Paz? Will the number of members of the coop continue to grow as more and more people learn of the project? Our work here is not over – this is just the end of the beginning. There are many other ways we can help our Guatemalan friends, and many ways they can help us in the days to come. And so we trust, and we pray, and we look forward to returning to Aceituno to continue our partnership with our brothers and sisters in Guatemala.

Guatemala 2011: Leading and Learning

by Liz Reberry

This week I had the great honor of helping to lead this dedicated group of people in Aceituno. Thank you for welcoming me into your lives for one short, but very impactful week! For those of you who are reading this blog, I’d like to paint a picture for you about what our week was like in Aceituno. I was part of the team who was teaching the kids health and hygiene classes.

Here’s what we experienced:

Day 1 – Monday.

• The topic: Water, Water Everywhere! We talked to the kids about where water exists in their world and in their community.

• Number of Participants: 25

Day 2 – Tuesday

• The topic: Diseases and Dehydration & Safe/Unsafe Water. The kids learned about sources of safe water and unsafe water in Aceituno. Needless to say, there is an abundance of unsafe water and not a lot of safe water. They also learned about viruses, bacteria and parasites that make them sick.

• Number of Participants: 42

Day 3 – Wednesday

• The topic: How and when to WASH your hands! We taught the kids 6 steps of handwashing and had each of them use glow-germ and a UV light to see how effective their handwashing was.

• Number of participants: 67

What is most remarkable about our training this week was not what we were teaching, but the number of kids who came to participate. Each day the number of kids multiplied. The first day there were 25, the second day there were 42 and the third day there were 67 kids!

Tomorrow is the inauguration of the water system in Aceituno. The church will be signing families up to be members of the water co-op. My prayer is that the water co-op membership numbers will multiply in the same way as we saw with the children’s health and hygiene lessons this week. I hope you will join me in praying for this and for the families of Aceituno who will soon have access to safe, affordable water!

– Liz