How fast the time has gone these past 11 months! On July 1, 2021, I will have been serving here at Pendleton Center for one year - a blip in the big picture, and yet so significant for me, for us, and for our community, and in fact, the entire world.

If April showers bring May flowers, what does April snow bring? It’s often hard and risky to predict what is going to happen. We’ve learned that over and over this past year. If I wrote all the dates I imagined COVID would be gone… well, never mind that.

There have been transitions inside the transitions, tough for those who like predictability.

"You're not the boss of me!" That's what our younger children would say if they were left in the care of one of their older siblings or an older cousin. They were wrong... but they sure wanted to express their opinions!

Dear friends, as we continue our way through this holy season of Lent, it feels vitally important to me that we pause to grieve and honor the losses of this past year. In mid-March, church, and life as we knew it came to a screeching halt, and we will never be the same. Our theme for Lent is healing – and in the journey of healing, there is grieving. Pray this prayer with me this season... and know that we will always be different, but we will also carry on as Christ’s beloved.

I came across this prayer in a book I was reading while traveling to Puerto Rico on a mission trip... it touched me then, in so many ways, and still does.

Don’t we all find ourselves getting irritated or discouraged at times? There are so many things that disrupt our days, our weeks, our minds, our hearts. So... what? How do we find our way?