This article was written by Appalachian Service Project (ASP) staffer Jamie Tews and adapted from www.asphome.org/blog.

Staffs throughout Appalachia have spent the past week preparing their counties for volunteers. They have been cleaning their centers, hanging signs, setting up supply rooms, pulling deeds at the courthouse, finding the best local spots, and, most importantly, making initial visits to the families who sent in applications for home repair.

Initial home visits allow staffers to practice driving, measuring, and communicating in order to figure out which projects best fit the scope of an ASP summer. While calculating the amount of materials needed for a project was challenging for me when I was on staff, the most challenging part was, and still is, leaving a home visit knowing we cannot provide them with the repairs they need.

This week, I went on home visits with the Leslie County staff. On our first visit, we met a woman named Natasha. She lives with her husband, daughter, and three sons who are on the Autism spectrum. Not long after our arrival, the daughter pulled me into her bedroom to show me her dolls, her castle-bed, the quote her mother wrote on her wall, and the collection of her dad’s figurines that his mother gave to him. I sat on the ground by her feet, which were dangling from the bed, and listened as she explained how she liked to take off her doll’s hat when new people came so they could see her pretty hair. The oldest boy came in after a few minutes and led me into his room, which he shares with his two brothers. The boys swung around on their bed frames, showed me their Ninja Turtles, and let me try on their dad’s black leather cowboy hat.

When another staffer came into the bedroom, I went to talk to Natasha in her kitchen. She showed me a hand-drawn diagram of their plans for the home. She pointed out the space on the paper allocated for two new bedroom additions and a new bathroom, and said she wants her home to be a place where her kids can be happy and safe.

We spent almost two hours at Natasha’s home, and as we walked up the driveway to our cars, Madeline and Katie, two of the Leslie County staffers, were beaming. They chatted about how happy it felt to know that this family will have the additions they need at the end of the seven-week ASP summer, and I was reminded of the ways this job makes people feel good…

It is easy to imagine what a family feels like when we tell them we can provide them with home repair – we all love making second visits that often end in happy tears. We all love when we can use this job to make people feel good, but it is hard to come to terms with the fact that our job can also cause sorrow.

I wish ASP could work with every person who sends in an application. I wish we could build room additions for every family who needs more space, install new roofs for every soggy floor, and provide plumbing for every unusable toilet … I hope someday we can.
___________________

Jamie Tews is the Advancement Storytelling Intern this summer writing a weekly blog series titled “This Must Be The Place.” Prior to this summer, she was on staff in Breathitt County, Kentucky in 2016, Leslie County, Kentucky in 2017, and roamed around Appalachia as a staff liaison in 2018.

Lord of Life will be sending 26 people to ASP’s Hazard, KY projects July 14 - 20. Please pray for us as we prepare to love and serve, even as we are blessed by those whom we encounter.

I recently had the privilege to see Civil Rights icon and Grammy Award winning vocalist and songwriter Mavis Staples in concert. My family agreed to celebrate my birthday a few days early, so we could witness this legend in action. (Read more here).

After worship several weeks ago, we zipped over to Southeastern Ohio to take in the last day of the four-day music and art festival on the campus of Hocking College. It was a vision of heaven! Thousands of people gathered from all over for a weekend of togetherness, blending cultures and ages in one place to celebrate music, art, food, conversation, and hope. The vibe of the gathering felt much like church. Kindness and generosity were everywhere. Smiles came easily. Truth was spoken and apathy was challenged, but optimism and a shared purpose dominated the day.

Jesus spent much of his ministry trying to describe the Kingdom of God. Many wanted to know what heaven would be like, so he resorted to everyday language and things in an attempt to help both followers and foes make sense of that which was beyond understanding.

Using images and parables, Jesus said that the Kingdom of God was like a mustard seed, leaven in the dough, a hidden treasure, a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, a landowner, and a certain king. Over and over, he helped people imagine how God worked among them now, as God broke into the world, and what they could expect in the future.

God broke into our Vacation Bible School (VBS), this week, as we lived into the theme, “Life is wild. God is good.” We talked about how even when life is unfair, scary, sad, and full of changes, God is faithful. Each day, I witnessed more holy moments than I can recall, but here are a few:

• Little ones held hands as they walked to the next station.
• Teens provided comfort to children with scraped knees.
• Adults took time off from work to love and teach about God’s goodness.
• Several families who have never stepped onto our property before took the initiative to jump into VBS week.
• Teens took a risk and stretched themselves to be part of the Leadership In Training (LIT) program.
• Food and other donations kept showing up day after day.
• Children and adults brought coins and bills to put in the big white bucket for tornado relief.

Over and over, God’s presence was here. But our work isn’t done when VBS is ends.

Mavis Staples will turn 80 in July. In a recent interview posted on her website, she said, “I’m the messenger…That’s my job – it has been for my whole life – and I can’t just give up while the struggle’s still alive. We’ve got more work to do, so I’m going to keep on getting stronger and keep on delivering my message every single day.”

At the recent Nelsonville concert, Staples’ final song of the evening was “No Time For Crying.” She and her band sang the refrain, “We’ve got work to do. We’ve got work to do,” over and over, while interjecting phrases listing many of their (and our) unfinished business in loving and serving one another. Poverty. Addiction. Rage. Crime. Homelessness. Incarceration. Anxiety. Selfishness. Greed. Nestled there in the Hocking Hills, it was a vision of heaven. A group of strangers recognized that we are bound to one another by something greater than ourselves and that we’ve still got work to do.

Working with you,

Pastor Lowell

Growing in faith can happen in a multitude of ways: worship, Bible study, serving, praying, interaction with others, and one of my favorites, being in God’s creation. I have grown up attending Camp Luther, a Lutheran family camp on Lake Erie, every summer of my life. In fact, our family has now camped there for four generations. Why do we keep going back? Is it because of the s’mores, the staff-led musical, seeing the sun set into Lake Erie, the wind blowing through the trees, seeing a nest of bald eagles take off and land in a nearby tree? Sure, some of it has to do with that, but most of our fondest camp memories and the reason we keep returning is because of the relationships that are built during a week at camp. When you break bread with someone, worship with someone, laugh with someone, cry with someone, and play games with someone, a bond forms that shows you the image of God in that person. Many people come away from their week at camp claiming that is the spiritual high point of their year.

This week, nine youth from Lord of Life are experiencing Lutheran Memorial Camp, in Fulton, Ohio for the very first time. We hope that you have been praying for them and their parents, as many of them left home for the first time for a week of separation, not only from their parents but from electronics as well. They will experience many of the same things I mentioned above in regards to family camp and will hopefully come back with a multitude of stories to share of how their lives are changed through faith, food, fun, and friends. We will share some of those stories with you over the next couple of weeks.

The first five youth registrations from Lord of Life were able to attend for free because of a scholarship from the camp. The other four youth were given a $100 scholarship from Lord of Life to help make camp affordable for them. Thank you to everyone at Lord of Life who has worked diligently to provide funds for youth programming. You may not see an immediate “return on investment” from supporting these kids, but studies show that a week at church camp has a profound, long-lasting impact on the faith of participants. Months after the camp experience, campers self-identified the following long-term changes: Increased self-confidence, More frequent devotional practices, Increased church attendance, Faith conversations/practices in the home, Increased faith relevance in their lives (https://vibrantfaith.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/ECRP-Phase-2-Executive-Summary.pdf).

During the week of June 30 - July 6, five families from Lord of Life will be attending Camp Luther in Conneaut, Ohio. Please pray for those families in the same way that you are praying for our youth campers. There is still one FREE all-inclusive registration left for a family that may want to join us, just contact Pastor Corey. Lord of Life will be partnering again with Lutheran Outdoor Ministries in Ohio to offer significant discounts to first-time campers next summer, so be sure to make plans now to attend! No matter how you choose to spend your summer, the staff at LOL hopes that you are finding ways to connect with God and grow deeper in faith and loving relationships.

Soon to be swinging in a hammock,

Pastor Corey

How has God shown up in your life in the midst of serving others?
How have you seen God working in the lives of the people you were serving?

We all have a story to tell. In fact, we all have multiple stories to tell: stories of love and loss, happiness and grief, grace and judgement, vacations and work, acceptance and denial.

This month, the stewardship team wants to challenge you to think about your story of service, specifically, how you live out the mission of our church, as you “live, share, and celebrate with all people, the love of Jesus Christ,” and how Jesus’ command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) is put in motion for you.

What’s your story? We would love to hear about it! Here’s a few ways to do it:

• Grab a marker at the What’s Your Story? bulletin board in the gathering space and share a highlight from your story. You can attach a name or make it anonymous.
• You can write your story on the sheet provided in this Sunday’s bulletin and put it in the offering plate. We will post it for you.
• You can post your story on social media with our hashtag #LOLGodStory.

This is an opportunity for people of all ages to celebrate the ways that God is active in the world and how we get a good glimpse of that work when we are living and sharing the love of Christ with others.

The stewardship ministry team wants to start the story-sharing off by recognizing and celebrating the hundreds of volunteers who help to share the love of Christ with others by participating in the various ministries at Lord of Life, both inside our building and beyond. Through your gifts of time and love, volunteers have made innumerable impacts in the lives of the people with whom they interacted.

As a way of saying “Thanks!” to everyone who volunteered in a Lord of Life ministry this past year, we are hosting a “Celebration of Service” reception on Sunday, June 16, 9 am. Join us for some treats, as we give thanks to all who served this past year. You might be asking, “Did I serve?”

Did you serve in worship?
Did you mow? Did you teach?
Did you help set-up or tear down?
Did you do something behind the scenes?
Did you welcome and love a child or an adult?
Did you extend hospitality to a stranger?
Did you … (fill in whatever you did in Christ’s name)?

Mark your calendars now and come join us as we give thanks for our ALL who make ministry happen!

My dog was kicked in the head by a deer, yesterday. We aren’t sure whether he provoked the full-size doe with a brief chase or if they surprised one another in a happenstance moment in the backyard. Most noontimes, when our 6 year-old Terrier mix goes out for a few minutes, there isn’t a deer in our yard.

We haven’t ever heard yelps and howls like the ones we heard after this midday rumble. At least one tooth is gone and his eye is cut open, as well as what the vet calls “road rash” around his mouth. Whew! While he looks like he visited Fight Club, we’re grateful that Otto’s injuries aren’t worse.

There are all kinds of life events that feel like they are an unpredicted kick to our head or heart. These situations leave us stunned, seeing stars, and wondering which end is up. Out of nowhere – Wham! – illness or disease, unemployment or an accident, abuse or addiction, death or other loss, can leave us wondering which end is up.

I’ve been knocked off balance by the recent apprehension and deportation of a Lutheran student pastor Betty Rendón and her husband, Carlos Hincapie. The Chicago Sun-Times reports, “[They] fled Colombia’s civil war in 2004 after guerrilla rebels threatened to kill Rendón for not allowing them to recruit students of a school where she was a principal. They came into the United States with tourist visas and later applied for asylum, but their applications were denied in 2009.”

Bishop Michael Rinehart of the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod said, “Like many people in the world fleeing violence, they chose to stay rather than risk returning.” The Sun-Times states, “Since then, the couple bought their family house in Englewood and maintained spotless criminal records.”

The Sun-Times continues, “Rendón was set to begin her doctorate at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in June. For the past few years, [she] drove 2½ hours from Englewood to Emaus Evangelical Lutheran Church in Racine, Wisconsin, every Sunday to preside over the church’s Spanish Mass.”

“Rendón is also a breast cancer survivor who before being detained was being treated for possible cancerous tumors in her colon and urinary tract.”

This week, Rendón and her husband were “put on a plane and deported back to Colombia. Their daughter (a DACA recipient) and granddaughter (born in the US) were not allowed to visit them to say goodbye. Because of her DACA status, their daughter, Paula Hincapie-Rendón is not subject to deportation. It also means, however, that she is not allowed to leave this country; she will now be permanently separated from her parents.”

Read more here: www.tinyurl.com/SunTimesRendon.

I don’t have the answers to this complicated issue, but I am convinced that we must continue to wrestle with matters of justice. We are called by God to step into the places of chaos and bring resurrection hope in the name of Jesus.

I am reminded of the many injured and hurting people that Jesus met. Over and over, he approached and embraced those who were stunned by grief, shame, and isolation. As he departed, he sent the Spirit and instructions to his followers to welcome, feed, clothe, and visit those in need. Let’s follow God’s lead.

Living, sharing, and celebrating with all,

Pastor Lowell Michelson

Don’t worry – if you’ve never watched Game of Thrones, I won’t spoil anything for you.

I’m usually late to engage in pop culture phenomena. A few years ago, even though I had never watched a single episode of Game of Thrones, it seemed like I couldn’t avoid hearing or reading about it online or anywhere I went. As the series entered its fifth season, I sat down and binge-watched the four previous seasons so as the fifth season aired, my friends could talk about it without spoiling anything for me.

I was hooked on this fantastic tale of families fighting for rule over their kingdoms, manipulating events to get their way, and reacting to the outside pressures of the coming winter and various magical creatures. To my horror, just as I would get attached to a character, he or she would be killed off. It didn’t matter – I was still glued to my couch. What was it that I (and millions of other viewers) loved so much?

Most of the storytelling we see from Hollywood is told from a personal perspective – we get a lot of character development based on individual personalities and how those established characters interact with other people. Game of Thrones turned the perspective upside down by narrating from a sociological perspective. Sure, we still engaged with the characters, but we got to know them within the context of the external forces being put on them and influencing their lives. People would make decisions that we all knew weren’t “good,” but we empathized with them because of their situation, so we didn’t think of them as “bad” people.

In the last season, the writers started using a more psychological approach, drawing our attention to specific characters and their roles, and we lost the sociological perspective that we loved. By the third episode, one of the main story arcs had been eliminated without fully explaining several of the ancient clues that had been put in front of us for seven seasons. By the fifth episode, the other main arc wrapped up, leaving nothing but personalities to have conflict without any context at all in the final episode. Fans have been left bewildered at the rushed pace, incomplete development and narrow view of the characters, going as far as to ask for a remake of the entire season. Sociological writing is increasingly rare and difficult. It takes many more hours of screen time than simple psychological, black or white, narrative. It is difficult for us to use that kind of perspective in our daily lives, as well.

In the Gospels, disciples and religious leaders are shocked when Jesus befriends people on the fringes of society. Labels like “tax collector,” “leper,” “poor,” or even “woman” might as well have been “bad person” or “lesser person.” Jesus doesn’t see it that way, though. Jesus sees them as people within the context of a social system, reacting and living as human beings with governments pressing down on them, families casting them aside, and norms they could never overcome. Even the tax collector, who is willingly performing this job that most people see as villainous, is operating within a greater social narrative and Jesus accepts and loves him. 

When Jesus talked about bringing God's heaven to earth, part of this was to create a kingdom outside of the current social system - to "break the wheel," so to speak. A kingdom in which we not only stop judging other people, but we also make it easier for people to make better decisions. Some churches get it all mixed up by focusing on the individual sins of certain people or the characterization of someone without looking at the context of their environment. Deep down we know this isn't right, even if we can't name why. Many people, like Game of Thrones viewers, get upset and turn away from the church as the Bible is reduced to short verses taken out of context. We know it is impossible to justify this kind of narrow view of God's law when Jesus was so clearly looking at a much larger picture.

Jesus' challenge to us is to love one another. No qualification. No matter the context. It is a difficult rule to uphold, but if we get beyond our narrow views of the people we connect with, we can look at them as a human being, just like us, who is part of a system that doesn't always bring out the best in people. We can be part of God's kingdom right now by doing our part to make a better place for people to live.