Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Come, Holy Spirit!
Kindle in us the fire of your love!
GREETINGS IN THE CULMINATION OF THE 50 DAYS OF RESURRECTION REJOICING!
Our 50 days of Easter ends with the celebration of the Day of Pentecost. Red is the color of this festival Sunday. Red reminds us of fire as we remember the tongues of fire descended on the crowd in Jerusalem and the promised gift of the Holy Spirit is given. God is faithful and fulfills God’s promises.
If you have red, please wear it on Sunday to show your team spirit, to remind all of us that the Holy Spirit dwells within each of us as God fulfills our baptismal promises. God is with us. The Holy Spirit is within us, animating us as close as our breath. The Holy Spirit urges us to move out into the world with God’s good news revealed to us in Jesus.
I will wear a silk scarf that was a gift from our Bangladesh missionaries, Utpal and Stacey Saha from their visit in May of 2018. They are supported out of the World Mission Prayer League who has workers in 20 countries throughout the world along with a team dedicated to supporting the work that happens throughout the world. We have supported the Saha family with our loose offerings from our Christmas and Easter for many years. In March, the council directed just over $3,000 to close out the Missionary Fund and be given to support them as our giving for Easter and Christmas was down due to Covid.
Stacey & Utpal Saha, live in Bangladesh. Utpal has a Christian reading room outside of LAMB for the purpose of sharing the Word with people from other backgrounds and he also works closely with the church, especially in developing and making use of the 'shelter home' that the church built near LAMB. He runs a weekly Bible Study for seniors there in addition to participating in the other outreach activities. LAMB is an organization that works in health and development in Northwest Bangladesh since the mid-1970s. Their focus is to serve God by serving the poor.
Stacey’s background is as a nurse-midwife, and her 'day job' is in management information and research- with her main research interests in providing equitable maternity services; child nutrition and gender-based violence. She is also involved in their regional Nurses' Christian Fellowship, and more recently, in SALINE training for nurses and other health care workers. SALINE is a training to help health care workers share their faith sensitively and appropriately in the workplace- to be salt and light.
The Holy Spirit reaches near and far and works through each and everyone of us. Breathe in. That is how close the Holy Spirit is to you, empowering you to bear God’s image in this world, in your family and in our community. Make God smile!
Bold Inquisitive Belief Loving Expansively,
Pastor Connie Spitzack
