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May 2008
Dear Trinity Friends,
Thank you! Thank you! Sonya and I wish to thank Trinity congregation and everyone who sent cards, made visits, and shared words of condolence and encouragement at the recent death of her dear mother, Annice Hagen. Annice lived in a nursing home in Hendricks, Minnesota – a three and a half hour drive away – a town in which she lived her entire life of 94 years. Sonya made this trip every few weeks in order to see her mother, tend to her business affairs, and assure that she was receiving the necessary care that she required. It was evident that Annice’s physical health was slowly regressing over the past couple of years and she died peacefully in her sleep surrounded by loving and attentive friends and caregivers. Sonya and I are truly grateful for the opportunity she had to visit often to be with her dear mother. Annice was a woman of a deep and abiding faith in her Lord and Savior Jesus … a woman of true piety in the very best sense of that word. Something that I found truly remarkable about her was an ability to see the very best in others. In the 40-plus years that I knew her, I never heard her – not even once – utter an unkind or thoughtless word about another person. She is genuinely one who “put the best construction on everything” when it came to speaking of others (see Luther’s explanation of the 8th commandment). This positive spirit is something that sustained her and gave her strength in the last several years of her life as her eyesight gradually failed her (she was legally blind). It was remarkable that she lived alone in and maintained her own home for several years with such limited vision. Through many years, struggles, difficulties and challenges, she continued to be a woman of joy, determination, gratitude and great love. Now she is home, sees with perfect vision, free of all human frailty, and sings the praises of God. Peace be to her memory.
I shared the following information with you last month, but I deem it worthy of repeating.
Book of Faith Initiative: “The Book of Faith is an initiative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Book of Faith initiative invites the whole church to become more fluent in the first language of faith, the language of Scripture, in order that we might live into our calling as a people renewed, enlivened, empowered, and sent by the Word.”
This is the official ELCA explanation of this initiative. Using other words, the Book of Faith Initiative is a call for all members of our ELCA to engage in intentional Bible reading and study in order to become more Biblically knowledgeable. How can we talk Biblically if we know the Bible only minimally?
Over the next five years, all the congregations and all the members of our ELCA will have numerous and various ways of becoming more Biblically involved. As soon as I can work with our Christian Education Committee to pull together some resources and develop an orderly way of involving Trinity Church in the Book of Faith Initiative we will begin our participation. For certain, we will have additional Bible study, sharing and discussion opportunities in place by this coming fall.
If you would like to help your Education Committee leaders in this Church-wide effort, please speak with Coreen Johnson, any member of the committee or me. Your Christian Education team can certainly use your help and leadership in Trinity’s Christian Education ministry.
In the mean time, please check out the Book of Faith Initiative on the ELCA web site at www.elca.org for more information.
And, finally … You will be hearing from our Mission & Vision Team as they regularly track their progress with you. Please be sure to read the information shared by Laurie Hovendick that is given elsewhere in this newsletter. You may want to keep a file of these updates. Mark this one “Mission & Vision #2” (#1 was shared in last month’s newsletter).
I wish for you all … Joy & Peace, Pastor Curtis Zieske