I never understood the gravity of the words “Thank you for your service” until I began serving as a chaplain at a VA Medical Center about nine years ago. I could never have imagined that God would call me to ministry at the VA. Although several of my family members were/are veterans, their military service was not a big part of our family narrative or my frame of reference. I had generally aligned with a pacifist stance. In fact, I can remember crying as a 9-year-old when Operation Desert Storm formally began. I had not experienced our country being at war before and remember feelings of insecurity, grief and yearning for peace — feelings that I have felt many more times since then as conflicts and wars continue across the globe and our world has not yet fully experienced the peace of God’s reign. Read more »
October 26, 2020
We should honor our veterans on Veterans Day and every day
I never understood the gravity of the words “Thank you for your service” until I began serving as a chaplain at a VA Medical Center about nine years ago. I could never have imagined that God would call me to ministry at the VA. Although several of my family members were/are veterans, their military service was not a big part of our family narrative or my frame of reference. I had generally aligned with a pacifist stance. In fact, I can remember crying as a 9-year-old when Operation Desert Storm formally began. I had not experienced our country being at war before and remember feelings of insecurity, grief and yearning for peace — feelings that I have felt many more times since then as conflicts and wars continue across the globe and our world has not yet fully experienced the peace of God’s reign. Read more »
This past spring, Joel Winchip, executive director of Presbyterian Church Camp & Conference Association (PCCCA), wasn’t sure what camps would be able to do about offering summer programming. 
Congregations are invited to make use of a prerecorded worship service based on the Matthew 25 vision, which will be available by November 22. 
As we prepare during for Christ’s coming, we should walk unafraid in the darkness with hope that Jesus will shine brightly on us. 
On behalf of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, the Mission Development Resources Committee (MDRC) has approved Mission Program Grants to 21 new worshiping communities. The “1001” communities receiving grants are listed below, followed by the presbytery and synod they belong to and a brief description of their mission and ministry: 
Churches small and large and everything in between can celebrate Advent, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day even during a pandemic, so long as they’re willing to innovate — and perhaps simplify. 
The Rev. Dr. Charles Lattimore Howard was two-thirds of the way through the Presbyterian Historical Society’s webinar on Black theology and mass movements when he got a question that took him back to graduate school. 
In February, the Rev. Elmarie Parker left her home in Beirut, Lebanon, to attend meetings in the U.S. She was not able to return until August 20. The Lebanon she returned to was very different than the one she left. 
Six years ago, Hilda Ramírez arrived in the United States with her seven-year-old son, Ivan, after fleeing Guatemala. She spent a year in a Texas detention center, where she led women on a hunger strike. Four years ago, she and her son were offered Sanctuary at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, where they remain even as they face deportation and fines in the tens of thousands of dollars. 
During this stewardship season in the midst of a pandemic and racial unrest, we should pray for God’s guidance in making our pledges for 2021.