Spreading love, joy, peace, faith & unity

Posts tagged ‘fellowship’

Stay the Course

Happy Sunday, my friends!
Did you get to go to church this morning?
Our church here in Ennis, Montana began today
to resume in-person fellowship after the worship service.
So good to be back in communication with our friends
over a cup of coffee or tea and some wonderful refreshments.

This is Jo & Jim Forsberg who created these beautiful and tasty refreshments. I’m providing the fellowship refreshments next Sunday. This is a hard act to follow!

And now, back home in the comfort of our newly painted dining room, I am reviewing our sermon message today and wish to share it with you. As you know, I have a habit of taking notes in poetry as I listen to the message each Sunday. Here’s what Rev. Mary Grace Reynolds’ sermon at our Madison Valley Presbyterian Church said to me today:

Stay the Course

The road goes on –
Listening each morning –
A long, grueling journey –
The road goes ever on.

It doesn’t seem hopeful –
But, Jesus is on the road.
We stand in solidarity
With Him and His suffering.

Tolkien was encouraged –
Lewis was hopeful, too.
In a world of World War I,
There was great disillusion.

The death toll was great
In Europe and the US, too.
The statistics kept rolling
On the road – ever on…

Humanity tries to cheat
And to wield power –
Tries to play God –
A dark, dangerous journey.

There is some good here
In this world – and
It is worth fighting for.
Jesus knows no short cuts.

Only the long, grueling road –
A journey that ends not
In death, but in victory.
We are on the road to Oneness.

Oneness with God
Is the journey’s end.
We stand in solidarity
With Him. Stay the course!

(Quoting from Lord of the Rings?)
“See the road roll past your doorway
Calling for your feet to stray
Like a deep and rolling river
The road may sweep you far away.

BUT

Just beyond the horizon
Like a waiting world unknown
Like the dawn its beauty beckons
With a wonder of its own.”

Oneness with God

Is the journey’s end.

We stand in solidarity

With Him. Stay the course!

Let’s journey together in love!

Thanks for joining me on today’s journey.
Continue, my friends, to pray for the
people of Ukraine. Pray for their journey
to lead toward Oneness with God –
and a peaceful Oneness with us all.

God speak of your love and peace to Putin.
God help us all!

STAY THE COURSE!

Love,
JanBeek

Embrace Fellowship

Embrace Fellowship
Cherish being together
Time is so fleeting

Enjoy sharing time
So much, you forget photos!
Just be in the now.

.

Today our Presbyterian Women
met at a gorgeous home
right on the Madison River.

Those pictures above were taken
several years back at our
two annual fundraisers.

Today I intended to take some pictures
to post here for you to see
how much we enjoy our fellowship.
But, I was having so much fun,
I forgot to capture the event
with my iPhone!

Instead, it is stored up in my memory bank.
There were eleven of us.
We had Bible Study,
then dessert,
and then our business meeting.

We planned future events –
among them our volunteer schedule
at the local Blood Draw next week –
and our participation at the
Ennis Art Festival
(it was cancelled last year due to COVID).

Not being able to hold those functions
helped us realize just how much
fellowship means to our mental health.
We really missed the connections!

I’ll bet you had the same reaction.
Being isolated, socially distancing,
wearing masks, cancelling events…
all took their toll on us!
How good to be back together again!!

Dining at Sidewinders in Bozeman

Now we are able to go out to restaurants again.
We socially distance, but we don’t have to wear masks.
It is so good to feel safe in the company of others!

I ordered my favorite item on the Sidewinders menu:
Reuben sandwich with sweet potato fries.
MmmMmmmMmmmm!!

This afternoon, after our PW meeting,
our new pastor, Mary Grace Reynolds,
came for dinner and a fly casting lesson.
Bob took her to the back yard and she practiced.
Mary Grace is going to love going out on the Madison River.
The guys are all lined up ready to take turns…

I took this slo-motion video so she can critique her technique.
She’s a fast learner!

It was such a beautiful evening here.
We thoroughly enjoyed our fellowship with
Mary Grace. The Pastor Nominating Committee
process was a long, arduous task that lasted
about a year and a half… but MGR was worth waiting for!

Today our daughter, De, sent us links to this event coming up in Switzerland. (You remember our DeDe lives in Vissoie, Valais Switzerland, right?) We’ve been to this fun event in the past. “The Cow Fights” are an annual event.
They are well attended. People go not just to see the excitement of the cows selecting their “Queen Cow” by the survival of the fittest, but for the fun of fellowship with as many friends as they can muster. They bet on the cow of their choice, drink their fill of Swiss wine and beer, and enjoy a picnic lunch high up in the beautiful Alps.

We won’t be there this weekend for the event, but we look forward to fellowship with our daughter and her family this October (God willing). We learned yesterday that she has a polyp on an ovary. It was detected during a routine annual physical. We are waiting for the biopsy report. Please pray with us that it is benign – and she can have it removed with no long-term adverse affects.

Looking out today at our neighbor’s house here in Montana,
I can’t help but thank God for this beautiful place we live.
I thank God for our “Hood” … gracious, loving, helpful neighbors.
The Hockings, across the field from us, installed a gorgeous
flag pole while we were on our trip to CA. What a great addition!
We look forward to future fellowship with them – soon!

Family time in Placerville

Meantime, here we are in this video – back in CA,
sitting around the table at our son’s house,
enjoying family fellowship, singing to our grandson-in-law,
Drew, who celebrated his birthday back in Montana.

Ah, Family Fellowship… there’s nothing like it!
I thank God each day for it.
With Father’s Day coming up
Sunday after this one,
I look at these fathers in my life,
and I thank God for their loving hearts.

I hope you have the gift of loving fathers in your
circle of fellowship, too.
Never take them for granted!
Not every child is so blessed!!

EMBRACE FELLOWSHIP

IT’S GIFT FROM GOD!

Happy Bob with his big catch!
Catch and Release!!
Fellowship with Fish!!

I pray all you dads out there can slow down this week,
enjoy life (it’s fleeting – passing waaay too fast), and
Embrace the Fellowship of family, friends and fish.

(And I pray Bob can take some time to go out fishing…
He’s been working waaay too hard this last few months.)

See you tomorrow (God willing)
Love,
JanBeek

Is Fearlessness Foolishness?

I have heard (and often repeated) the phrase, “Fear is the opposite of Faith.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Fear or Faith?

Are wearing a mask, washing your hands often/thoroughly, and practicing social distancing acts of fear?

Is opening your home or your church, your store or your restaurant with no extra precautions due to COVID-19 an act of faith?

Is being too cautious an act of fear? (What does “too cautious” look like?)

Photo by Julia Kuzenkov on Pexels.com

Was shutting down our church at the height of the virus pandemic being too cautious? Was it contradictory to our faith?

To Open or Not to Open

Many questions of fear or faith were posed during our sermon today by Rev. Steve Hundley. I’ve listed ten of them below. We met as a congregation in the church building for the first time in twelve weeks. We’ve been ZOOM meeting since this pandemic was announced in the USA in mid-March.

Madison Valley Presbyterian Church

To keep people safe, every other row of pews was ribboned off and people sat at least six feet apart in the pews.

Fran McNeill, our music director

During the hymns, Fran played a verse on the piano while the congregation either listened, read the words silently in the hymnals, or hummed along. For now, no singing out loud. That was hard for those of us who love to sing.
But the emissions from singing travel farther than those of just talking … some even further than coughing or sneezing. So, we were cautious.

Jo & Jim Forsberg

Jim Forsberg provided special music during the service. Playing his guitar and singing… one of the numbers he sang was an old time favorite, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” The lyrics go on to say, “all the children of the world… red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.” So pertinent in light today’s issues of racial inequality.

In the photo above, Jim and his wife, Jo, are chatting with Fran about the music – and I am sure commenting on how good it is to see one another again.

Megan & Murray

Mask or Not?

This mom had her hands full with this adorable, very active little guy. Murray keeps us all smiling with his exuberant energy. I love seeing the little ones in our worship service. Pastor Steve quoted a doctor at our Madison Valley Medical Center who said masks on children can be more bothersome and dangerous than no mask at all because children have a tendency to touch their face more when wearing one.

Here is Murray’s dad and little sister:

Seeing Nellie and Nick with us brightened my day.

Questions to Ponder

Rev. Steve Hundley posed some very thought-provoking questions in his sermon today. He didn’t really give us answers… just left the questions for us to ponder:

  1. Is God angry with us?
  2. Is God larger than this dreaded virus? (He said the affirmative of that was a quote from a pastor who opened his church early on in the pandemic … and later died of the virus)
  3. Was shutting down the church for 12 weeks contradictory to our faith? (Some of our members were not happy about the closure)
  4. Why have we allowed partisanship, economics, and race to divide us?
  5. In spite of their devout faith, why has the Navajo nation been hit so hard by this pandemic? (Their deaths per capita are higher than any state in the union.)
  6. Is the unity of the church under attack in our polarized world?
  7. Can we be angry without sin?
  8. Can we set aside our political stances as conservatives or progressives and just unite to strengthen the body of the church?
  9. Is it possible for us to focus on what brings us together rather than what separates us?
  10. When someone leaves the church saying they won’t return because “Nobody cares about me,” and I tell them, “Yes, they do,” and they respond with “OK, name ONE!” Can I name YOU? (This question brought tears to my eyes… I know people who have left, and I wanted to stand up and shout, “I care! Name me!!”)
George Kate, and Ross visiting after church
Kathy, Miriam, Dick, and Mike

Fellowship in the foyer after church found people reconnecting, but remaining cautious. Are we maintaining our distance?

It may be easier for us in Montana to try and stay six feet apart, but you will notice in the pictures that even here, we don’t always adhere to that social distancing. It’s difficult! It’s neither foolishness nor fearlessness, it’s just hard!

How are you doing with this business of staying apart? What did you do this Sunday? Did your church meet physically again? If not, how did you worship our God today? Did you approach Him with your most difficult questions?

I hope you are healthy, happy, and safe.
I’ve gotcha in prayer, my friend.
See ya tomorrow.
Love, JanBeek

F = Friends

Day #6 of the A-Z series on “What Makes Me Happy”

FRIENDS

IMG_5138

Friends who go fishing with my hubby (Thanks, Ray & Charley, CG & BW, Gerry & Steve)

Friends who are fabulous cooks, invite us over, and serve fabulous food, wine, and conversation

Friends at TOPS who reach their goal weight and inspire me

Friends who share their birthday happiness with us

Friends who worship with us at church, share their husband to fish with mine, make me smile, give great hugs and are just plain FABULOUS

Friends who are family – what a blessing when that happens!

Friends who are grown up former students and have kept in touch through the years

Friends who bake beautiful pies and who love the Lord as I do

Friends who serve the community, support FUND-raisers, and give generously to make our world a better place

Friends who donate zucchini to the Sr. Center – and the dear friend who plans, cooks, and serves our seniors with such grace and skill

Friends who live into their 80s and 90s and set a beautiful example of vitality and grace for the rest of us

Forever friends who are FAITHFUL forever and continue to love us in spite of our FLAWS (ah, don’t you love that F word?) … and who are as lovely inside as these FLOWERS are outside!

Friends who go FOUR-WHEELING with us

Friends who never forget us and who are FAITHFUL friends to our children

Here’s another one of those… our Friend who is our #2 daughter… Yes, FAMILY is more than blood relatives.

FAMILY is FRIENDS we choose, not just those we inherit. And if we’re truly blessed,

We have family who are friends in all parts of the world

We have grandchildren who are friends and are FUN to be with, and

We have children who keep in touch with love and gratitude daily, even if they move across the sea thousands of miles from us.

My prayer is that the ones who live close enough to see us daily will come by at least once a month, and let our great-grandson grow to know us as his FRIEND, too.

Ah, my blogging friends, I hope you are truly blessed with the FUN of FAMILY and FRIENDS who make you happy, too! I love making new blogging friends!

And never FORGET (that’s a troublesome F word) the Friend who is your constant companion. If you have this kind of a FRIEND you are blessed indeed

And don’t forget the faithful furry four-legged friends, too!

What’s the F word that makes you happiest?

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