CRUNCH TIME

 begins as we head into Palm Sunday and Holy Week. Perhaps, one blessing of the whole COVID lockdown last Lent was that I had Good Friday service and Maundy Thursday mostly planned out and done and then didn't have services. So, I am able to use them this year and that saved me a whole lot of time and anxiety of what to do this year! I am grateful. Just have to work up a children's sermon for kids that haven't been showing up in church services yet. I am working on Easter Sunday sermon and children's sermon. I will put together little snack bags with some Easter give-aways for the children who attend Easter morning worship. I've also been working on our Joy Sunday, again which we didn't do last year with everything so topsy-turvy. Usually, we have an open mike for folks to share a good, clean joke, but given the COVID circumstances of physical distancing and wearing masks and my having to hold the microphone to them, it didn't seem like a good idea to that. So, I worked up a newscast with Miriam Mirth the news anchor on the different repeated sightings of the risen Christ. The cast(all me with props) will feature the Traffic Report with Luke Skywatcher, a commercial for Peace of Heart Financial Institution, a preview of a new cooking show, What a Dish with Julia Wild and a last breaking news report. I had fun with it and for the traffic report, commercial and cooking show - used resources by Martha Bolton that I tweaked a bit. I'm hoping that not only the bits are funny, but just my going from space to space in the chancel and putting on my props will garner a laugh or two! I think we all need Holy Humor or Joy Sunday especially given the past year of pandemic and our slow emergence for the darkness into the light of new life. It will do our bodies and spirits good to chuckle and be reminded of the joy that Easter brings and the risen Christ brings us. Joy should be a part of our faith, always, even in the midst of the pandemic, there were those with a great sense of humor and I pinned many of the funny observations. I did use those funny observations in my newsletter article last year - in place of Joy Sunday, knowing folks still needed to be reminded of the joy of Easter and the joy of our faith even in times of struggle and hardship.

    Having time to be creative and to have fun has been good for my soul. May you, even in this crunch time, know the joy that is ours in faith in the risen Christ. That is something to truly celebrate!

I SCORED...

 a vaccine appointment! After hours and several days of trying various sites, I have an appointment for next Saturday for my first of two shots! I feel like I won the lottery!!! Finally! It has not been easy here in NEOH to get an appointment. The downside is that my second shot is on Easter Sunday following an early morning with 2 services. I will be exhausted before getting my second shot and that includes a drive of 35 minutes to get to the site. But I will soldier through. That has to be the worst day for a minister to get a shot - Easter Sunday! But, I will take it and survive.

   We are resuming in-person worship next Sunday and then Sat/Sun the following week after a hiatus since mid November when we went virtual. It is with some mixed feelings. It's always better to worship in-person, better energy and good to be physically present and see one another. It's also been nice to have a shorter service, get in later on Sunday mornings and not be tired afterwards after Confirmation class. There has been a slower, more gentle pace during this time of virtual worship which has been really nice. But the empty pews have been sad. I will need to write a communion invitation again every week for Sat. service. I've enjoyed the less hectic pace. I guess I'm getting older, well., I did have another birthday and just qualified this week for the vaccine based on age! At least we will have half of Lent together, Holy Week services and in-person Easter services this year. Now if I can think of what to do for Easter, it would be great!

    In the meanwhile, I'm just basking in the glow of my soon-to-be vaccine! Who knew one would be so eager to get shot and look forward to it, even with side-effects! I pray it gets easier and easier for folks to get vaccinated so we can put this pandemic behind us and move forward and onward. It has been such a long and difficult year. There have been blessings, like I mentioned above: time, slower pace, but I've missed travelling, going out for a dinner, hugging my family when we do get to see each other, not wearing a mask - but that will be awhile yet. I've missed folks in the sanctuary for worship and even the Tues. bible study - which has really eased my time, missed visiting folks at home and in the nursing home. I've even missed, dare I say it, shopping - to just go and look around. Now I dash in and hope to pick up what I need and get out of the store. The twin's birthday and my other great niece and nephew's birthdays will be coming up and I still need a couple of things for them. Administrative Assistant's day is also looming and I need to find something for two of them. The pandemic has impeded my ability to just bump into something! 

    May your Lent be graced with hope knowing that resurrection is coming! New life awaits us!