Covenant Connections:
"¡No hay!"
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All in-person activities at Covenant have been canceled until further notice.
PLEASE STAY AT HOME as much as possible.
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Panic buying in our country continues to evolve.
First it was hand sanitizer and soap, then toilet paper, then ham and puzzles, and lately hair dye and hair clippers.
As the virus situation continues, we will face other shortages in coming months. Bacon might be next. In addition to health concerns, we need to be ready for inconvenience and hardship in consumer goods.
In the end, there may be some good news, if we can decrease our collective appetite for things. Yes there will be economic challenges for many people, but if there is less demand for "stuff" our planet will be grateful.
And learning about simpler living will be good for us too.
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Jesus said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.”
--Luke 12:15
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Most of us had a parent or grandparent who told us about the challenge of living through the Depression in the 1930s. I remember in my teens, hearing several older relatives talk about the hardship of the Depression, I sort of tuned it out.
But look what happened: those who lived through the Depression became "the Greatest Generation" with a strong sense of simplicity, decency, frugality and the common good.
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As you may know, I spent about a year in Nicaragua in the 1980s, when the country was at war.
I spent most of my time working with Witness for Peace, a church-related human rights group.
(Yes that's me in the photo, at a peace protest, being photo-bombed by my friend Kathy.)
Nicaragua was a poor country before the
contra war, and obviously war made things worse. Fear of kidnapping and landmines paralyzed transportation and the economy.
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Like most everyone else in the country, I had rice and beans and tortillas pretty much all the time. Sometimes we joked: "Rice and beans for breakfast, beans and rice for lunch, and leftovers for dinner." Haha.
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In Nicaragua, a
comedor is an informal place to eat, often someone's home with a few tables to serve food. We quickly learned when stopping at a
comedor not to ask to see a menu, but instead to ask "Is there food?" (In Spanish, ¿Hay comida?) If the owner said yes, we'd sit down and eat whatever they served. But more often than not the answer was
"¡No hay!" (There is none.)
So we got used to simple meals, and we got very excited when chicken, or cheese, or vegetables were available. We learned to be content.
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There is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
--1 Timothy 6:6-8
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I spent a lot of time in El Jicaro, a small rural village in north central Nicaragua, and about once a week a delivery truck arrived, sometimes with blessings like Coke and crackers. To this day, when I have a Coke, I often remember how much I appreciated the rare treat from over thirty years ago.
I've been distressed and actually amused at our panic buying of toilet paper. In the possibly-too-much-information department: During my time in Nicaragua, toilet paper was virtually non-existent, but there was plenty of newspaper....
What was especially wonderful about that time was the kindness of people who had very little to share. In El Jicaro, I used to visit and stay at the home of Amalia and Jose. When I stayed there, they insisted I sleep on their mattress, and they slept on the floor. Often I would have an egg with my beans and rice, and they didn't. The time of hardship brought out the best in many people.
I don't want to romanticize the poverty of Nicaragua, but it was a time of surprising blessings. Despite not having a lot of material comforts, I felt as alive as I ever have in those days. We focused on relationships, we laughed a lot, we sang and danced a lot, and we had great parties. In a time of fear and hardship, we came together to try to make the world better place.
And we read a lot of the Bible, and we prayed a lot, trusting in God's presence, interceding for one another, praying for God's kingdom to come.
We are facing a very challenging time now, and it will likely continue for a long while. We miss going to restaurants, our hair may not look great, we might not get to go on vacations, and some of our favorite foods are hard to find.
But as Christians, we know life is bigger than those things. And we know there are people suffering much more than we are. So we need to find ways to take care of ourselves and look after our neighbors. And we need stay rooted in the Bible and pray.
In this Easter season, we are remembering that God tells us over and over: Do not be afraid!
And we celebrate the Good News of the Gospel, the promise of God's abiding presence: Jesus said, "I am with you always."
On the journey, apart-but-together,
Charlie
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PS--In the spirit of remembering that we're in this together, I asked for Easter photos from the congregation. Click on the September 2019 65th anniversary photo above to see the wonderful collection.
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Please help us to help each other
As a church, we are doing the best we can with this new reality. Since our contact with each other is very limited, we hope you will help us get a sense of how things are going for us collectively.
Please
take 3-5 minutes to fill out this anonymous and secure survey, put together by Barna Group, a well-respected church research and resource organization. Click on the link below:
This is the same survey we sent three weeks ago, which over 50 people completed. If you took it then,
please take it again.
If you didn't take it three weeks ago, please do it now. We want to see how things are trending.
Session approved this tool for congregational use, to help assess our collective mood. This will help us to know how we are doing and how we can more faithfully be the church now. Thank you!
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SUNDAY WORSHIP
Join us for apart-but-together video worship. Check your email Sunday morning for the link. Or check the
Covenant website.
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If you want to interact with other people as you worship, you can join with a Facebook Watch Party. Just go to
Covenant's Facebook page
10:30 on Sunday morning
to watch the pre-recorded worship as a community.
Worship this week features
- A sermon by Chelsea Cornelius called "The End is the Beginning"
- Vocalist Melissa Hinz and several congregation singers
- Organist Doug McNeel, Pianist Ben Welch
- Pastors Charlie, Jeff, and Sue offer prayers
- Marge Resan has a message for the children
Plus, several other Covenant members are involved in the service. Don't miss it!
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Love and Fellowship in a Time of Quarantine
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They put together a 5 minute inspiring and heartwarming video about life at home with their son Thiago. They are enjoying smog free views of local mountains. Click on their photo to watch.
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Last summer, 12 Covenant youth and adults went to Peru for an environmental justice mission trip, in partnership with Peruvian teenagers. To see photos from that experience, click here:
Peru-Covenant Mission Trip 2019
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Sustainability and Creation Care
ADULT EDUCATION
THIS SUNDAY AT 11:30!
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On Sunday at 11:30 via Zoom we will gather for an adult education focused on sustainability and care of creation. The presentation will be 30 minutes, with 20 minutes of presentation and 10 minutes of time given for question and answer. This week's presenter is Kelly Hilyard, the Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Middleton. Kelly has twenty years of experience working on sustainability projects as a landscape architect, organic farmer, and as a certified LEED AP+ project manager in the green building industry.
She will talk about sustainability initiatives in the City of Middleton. The city is known statewide for innovative leadership on climate change, resiliency efforts, its award winning public lands, and dense development initiatives. With the COVID-19 challenge pressing every community, the term “resilience” takes on an entirely new and very real meaning. What questions should we be asking ourselves in this moment? What is essential? What can we learn during this tragedy that will help us emerge as a more caring and resilient ecological system?
Here is the information for the Zoom meeting. We look forward to meeting on Sunday at 11:30 to learn together!
Meeting ID: 953 6510 9213
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Two Covenant Members
Elected to Serve!
Click on photos to read news reports
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Chris Schmidt was elected to serve on the Madison School Board for three years. Last year, Chris was chair of Covenant's Mission Committee, and she has been very active in our partnership with Stephens Elementary.
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Brett Blomme was elected to Milwaukee's circuit court. Several years ago, he served on Session, and he was chair of the Finance Committee.
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Are you interested in joining a small group? Throughout our time being “safer-at-home” we would like to provide opportunities for connection with your church family. We have asked some members of the church to be small group leaders and host weekly (or bi-weekly depending on the leader) meetings for the duration of our time apart.
These meetings would last one hour. The first portion of the meeting will be checking in on, and catching up with, one another. The second portion of the meeting will be a Bible study based on the next Sunday’s sermon text is. If you are interested in joining a small group contact Pastor Jeff,
jfoxkline@covenantmadison.org or sign up by
CLICKING ON THIS LINK.
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Do you want to be a church pen pal? Do you have children that are looking for recipients of art projects? Have you been practicing your calligraphy during the quarantine and want to show off? Do you want to connect with a fellow member of Covenant?
Through this season of time apart Covenant is looking for ways to connect individuals and families to each other. We believe that this community is strongest when the bonds between members are strong, and this new reality provides classic solutions to new problems. We are looking for individuals and families to join in as pen pals. Please email Pastor Jeff at
Jfoxkline@covenantmadison.org or
CLICK THIS LINK if you are interested in being a pen pal. Please include the best address for mail to arrive and we will shortly provide you with a new connection!
Once we receive your name we will match you up with another individual and family. You can contact your pen pal through email or snail mail. This is a great opportunity to connect with other families and members of Covenant! Once we connect you, we'll provide some 'getting to know you' questions to get you started getting to know each other.
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