I hope you and your families have been able to reflect together on Pastor Jenny’s call for us to think about our stories of when we knew we were God’s beloved or when we knew that we were enough. One of Henry’s favorite books is Little Humans by Brandon Stanton. I’ve created a video read aloud of the book and also an Imaginative Prayer (from Jared Patrick Boyd) inviting us to imagine ourselves being fully and uniquely formed by God.
FamilyInterviews: Get to know your family members better and practice storytelling.
Set up – Make a whole production out of it and set up an interview space in your home with two chairs and a fun backdrop (*think The Tonight Show!)
Think of some good interview questions and make sure everyone has a turn to be an interviewer and interviewee. You could even record the interviews for posterity. Here are some interview question ideas:
– What were you afraid of when you were younger? How did you overcome fear?
– When were you most proud of yourself?
– If you could talk to anyone – living or dead – for one hour, who would you choose and why? What would you talk about?
– Where do you see yourself in ten years? Where would you like to live? What would you like to be doing?
– If you could do one thing over again, what would it be?
After the interviews are done, reflect on the process of interviewing. What makes a good question? What does it feel like to know that others are interested in your stories and ideas?
Closing Family Prayer: Our interests, skills, abilities and quirks – the things that make us unique – all come from God. God put them inside us for a reason. So the more we learn about one another, the more we learn about God.
If you are wanting to get your own copy of either of these books “Little Humans” or “Imaginative Prayer” we encourage you to order them through a local bookstore like Labyrinth Books or jaZams!
After being very active at PrincetonUMC, including in the bellchoir (see photo below) Jeff and Annette Ransom moved to Sun City, Texas in 2016. Here is their update! Their new address is 329 Old Blue Mountain Lane, Georgetown, TX. They have had two more grandchildren for a total of eight, living in Massachusetts, upstate New York, and Texas.
Past What persons/activities/tasks/committees at PUMC built up our faith? Everything we tried, did, almost did, and loved made us better disciples for Jesus Christ. Until that point in our lives over 25 years ago, Sunday church was a family tradition where good people went to show that they were, or at least it had become something close to that, speaking for me only (Jeff). Annette, the trained church organist and consummate church office admin had not drifted so far away, but we were challenged with raising teens and sending them to college, and the east coast work environment, ever-demanding more time away from family. Choir was always the first escape to avoid other things at all our church families, but Sunday School classes and Disciple Studies laid important foundations along the way, yet there were more gentle proddings into many “firsts” for us by the dedicated saints at PUMC who helped us to grow.
Highlights include Natural Church Development, SPR, Cornerstone Kitchen, Don Brash’s Class and the Lay Leader role, as well as the music and choirs. Many people encouraged us along the way: Jana, Catherine, Hyosang, Iona, Larry, Susan, LaVerna, Christopher, Chris, Tracey, Ed, Judy, Doug, Peggy, Yvonne, John, Pat, Michelle, George and Barbara, Mary Lib, Lori, and several more no longer there, but not wanting to overlook any others and the many friends we knew from this congregation. On a more personal level, I do very much miss the finest golfing gentlemen, George and John, I have ever played with, prowess on the course aside and unimportant. NJ was a tough leave all around.
The Ransoms
What is your current situation? We’re fully retired, professionally speaking, but not “retiring” from an active, spirit-filled life. We’re members at the FUMC-Round Rock (TX), a friendly, large multi-generational congregation (unlike PUMC, this is a largely white, though a moderately affluent group), very mission active in local and regional efforts. For example, there is still a monthly gulf-coast rebuilding team for Hurricane Harvey recovery, and a sponsored engagement with a local elementary school for weekend (now everyday) food support of families, and the church just completed making over 200 beds for the “No Child Sleeps on the Floor” project. Click here for more of Jeff’s letter.
C. S. Lewis already commented on our present situation over 70 years ago (sort of)? After pointing out that humanity had always lived under various threats to existence through out our history (wars, plagues, raiders, illnesses, air raids, accidents), “this” would be nothing new, referring to the threat of the atom bomb. By extension today we only need to replace that term with the coronavirus. ….It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because . . (we) have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.” click here for more…
Along with NT Wright, Donald Brash, and others studied while at PUMC, we have established an enduring legacy of faith previously unexplored. Or perhaps, led by the (Ecclesiastes) Spirit, it was a time to know, and a readiness to receive.
Here’s a look ‘behind the scenes’ of how PrincetonUMC’s team is improving our virtual worship experience. Bobby Walz filmed Pastor Skitch’s riff on moving from cell phone video to a Mevo camera and a dedicated laptop.
Thanks to everybody who was working on video before, and those who are helping to solve the problems and contribute to the cost of new and better equipment! More improvements to come! Click here.
Says Pastor Skitch: “We are trying to help you participate fully in worship, and connect not only with your loved ones and God. We will continue to grow!:
Thank you to our Health Care Professionals, particularly those who are in direct patient care, working in hospitals, in the midst of very challenging and anguishing situations, putting yourself at risk to be part of God’s healing work in the world.
Two people from our congregation who I want to lift up, give thanks for and to, and pray for are are Pam B. and Deena P.
No doubt there are others of you in the PUMC Beloved Community who are also in direct patient care. Please help me to know who they are!! We want to thank and surround them as well!
Coffee with the Pastor
Sunday, April 26 (tomorrow) at 11:30am-12:30pm
Via Zoom.
Open to all! While this is always open to all, I tend to gear this even to those who are newer among us to give them a chance to get to know us better and us, them. Newcomers and long-timers are invited, and after some general fellowship time, I’ll invite us to talk about ways our faith has been challenged during this COVID crisis and time of physical distancing. What has been called into question for you about God, faith, church, what God is revealing to you, for example. (The link will be available at the worship service on Facebook).
Tuesday Chapel Prayer Service & Zoom Lunch
Starting this Tuesday, April 28, at noon.
Join us on our PUMC Facebook page for a live (or archived) prayer service. It won’t look exactly like the Lenten Series. It will likely be simpler, with no homily, and more of a time of prayer. I’ll offer leadership this week, but it won’t always be me. We’ll follow this with a fellowship lunch via Zoom.
Virtual Coffee Hour
1st Sunday of Each Month – after worship – via Zoom
Miss your PUMC friends? Want to see their faces? Share a smile? We’ll gather in a few different virtual Zoom spaces on the first Sunday of each month for just this. The next one will be Sunday, May 3.
Tell Me a Story!
Continuing to Talk the Walk in Worship and Beyond
We’re continuing our “Talk the Walk” worship series about telling our stories. Heather H. is sharing a story tomorrow in worship, which I know you’ll want to hear. And I would still love to hear your stories of your beginnings and how God was part of that beginning! Even if you don’t tell me, tell someone! Be part of worship tomorrow for another Tell Me a Story prompt.
Be sure to look for your worship materials on our website. Send Pastor Skitch a prayer request to be named in worship or put it up on the Facebook post asking for your requests. Gather a candle, your bible, and make some sacred space for worship tomorrow.
Thank you!
for your gifts, your tithes, your offerings, and going Above and Beyond!
Your joyful and generous responses to God’s love in the form of your financial gifts are continuing to make ministry happen. We thank you for the ways you’ve shifted your giving to mail and online giving. And we direct you to our PUMC giving page to set up automatic payments or to send in a gift. You’ll also find there information about our yearly Above and Beyond campaign, which allows you to sponsor a particular ministry of our church and help us close the gap between our budget and our annual pledges received last fall. This week’s focus is on Children and Youth Formation and Music Ministries.
(This post is ‘in progress,’ more details to be added and it will be posted on Facebook, where you can leave comments.)
In her April 19 sermon, which begins at minute 33 on the Facebook video, Pastor Jenny Smith Walz, spoke about the first chapter of John. She referred to Science Mike, Mike McHargue, who explains how our brains help us survive and thrive. They take all the bits of information that come to us and organize them into stories, creating order from chaos. This helps our brains be more efficient. If we aren’t given stories, our brains make up stories, and this is both beautiful and dangerous. The unhelpful stories might be based on your brain’s ‘tape” that was recorded when a parent or teacher told you something that defined you, not in a good way. We need really good stories to help us make meaning out of the world we live in. We need “God-written stories” not tapes that need to be transformed through the Resurrection story.
Another birth story of Jesus is in John 1. Jesus is making an appearance in the Flesh. And we are in that story. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Pastor Jenny quoted Walter Brueggeman: “The words with which we praise God will shape the world in which we live.”
“Not only do God’s words create, but our words create. God has ‘wired us’ to create stories. When we tell our stories we are co-creating with God. We are creating the world in which we live, and the words with which we praise God shape the world in which we live.”
Jesus’ parables are stories that not only describe the Kingdom of God, they create the Kingdom of God
The more we understand our story as one that is in line with God’s story, that we are co-creators of the kingdom of God, the more our lives can shine bright like the light that God created at the very beginning. Our stories create the world we live in. We are not at the mercy of God’s story, the story that is being written about the world. We are coauthors with God.
What is your defining story? How do you tell God’s story? How do you tell your life’s story?
“Tell me a story of your beginning…” asks Pastor Jenny. Her own favorite story about her beginnings is Psalm 139: God knit us together in our mother’s womb. . .
For the children’s message on April 19, 2020, Pastor Jenny Smith Walz introduced this book, When God Made Light. by Matthew Paul Turner, illustrated by David Catrow.
One of the scripture stories for the first Sunday after Easter was from Genesis 1.
The second scripture was from John 1, a retelling of the birth of Jesus.
Are you and/or your child experiencing anxiety right now? The Butterfly Hug may be a good prayer and calming technique for you to try. I’ve recorded a video to help your family learn this Butterfly Hug prayer, which was developed by a therapist in Mexico to help children who were dealing with trauma following a hurricane. While we may not be currently facing an actual hurricane, we are very much experiencing trauma. I pray this prayer practice brings feelings of peace to you and your family. Remember that it is a “practice.” which means it may not come easy to all of us right away. Practice makes better!
In talking with members of our church family in the past few days, I am realizing that COVID-19 and the loss that trails behind it is starting to hit very close to home for many of us. A member of our church family passed away last week from the virus. You may very well know others who have lost their lives recently, due to COVID or other causes. Unfortunately, there may be more in the coming days.
So how do we tell our kids about death and dying? How can we help them grieve? Last Fall, our Sunday School teachers participated in some training in how to help our children with grief. I have some of the highlights below and I’ve also added some more tips I found helpful in watching this recent webinar* on talking with children about death. I encourage you to watch the video, but here are some highlights.
Helping Kids Cope with Grief:
– Speak completely about death with children: “____ stopped breathing and they have died.” Avoid saying confusing things like, “_____ is sleeping for a long time.”
– Model openness and vulnerability for children: Name exactly how you’re feeling when you find yourself missing someone who died.
– Name that it is okay to laugh and be happy when you’re feeling sad and missing someone who has died.
– Encourage children to ask questions.
– Reflect on coping strategies that work well for you. Model these and name them for your child(ren). For example, “I need to go for a walk right now to help me think about my sadness.”
– Grief is not only about people dying. Our children may be currently grieving other things, like seeing friends, playing sports, going to church and school, etc.
– Follow kids’ leads for their preferred grief outlets: coloring, imaginative play, playing games, etc.
– Some children may be withdrawing into solitude in their rooms – keep inviting them to do activities as a family, like eating together, going for a walk, playing games, or whatever their interests might be.
– Talk about all of the helpers in your community and the extraordinary displays of love being shown by humanity right now!
– Don’t try to fix their feelings. Let them feel sad and affirm their sadness with statements like, “I feel sad, too.” Giving them space to feel their grief equips them for emotional regulation.
– Be patient with their grief process: your child might have big feelings about seemingly trivial things. (my son Henry was SO mad today that he couldn’t eat pizza for lunch!) This is part of their grief process.
Good Theology for Talking with Kids about Loss:
– Jesus came here to be human and show us all of the feelings. John said, “Jesus wept”. God’s faithful people do not always experience joy. It is okay to feel sadness and despair.
– When children ask tough questions, it is okay to tell them that we don’t know all of the answers. Have grace for yourselves. We don’t know the full nature of God.
– Children may need some sensory practices to help them remember God is with them. Light a candle, ring a bell or chime, or give them a rock to hold to remind them that God is near.
– Children can write a letter to God with their feelings. Tell them God is big enough to handle any feelings or thoughts they lift up.
– Go into the Psalms and read them with your child to show them that generations of people have suffered and asked questions of God.
– Reread the Holy Week scriptures together. Acknowledge the suffering Christ endured, while also reminding them that the story did not end with Christ’s death on the cross. Help them make spiritual meaning in this: what we are experiencing now is not the end!
– Be ready to theologically learn from your child. They can be the best theologians around!
Please know that our clergy and church staff are also here for you and your family right now. Feel free to email us or give us a call if you and/or your children need someone to talk with about big feelings. I also encourage you to join our PUMC Families WhatsApp group to share/receive ideas, prayer concerns, and to stay connected. While we cannot gather together physically, please know that your feelings are valid and that you are not alone!
Love,
Evangeline Burgers
Evangeline@PrincetonUMC.org
Director of Children’s Ministry at Princeton United Methodist Church
*The webinar involved two experts from Green Leaf Psychology (Dr. Jennifer McCollum, Licensed Clinical Psychologist) and Sandra Concannon, Marriage & Family Therapist, along with four from Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church — Rev. Jaime Polson, Pastor for Family Ministry & Executive Leadership, Lori Robinson, Associate Director of Children’s Ministry, Keris Dahlkamp, Director of Youth Ministry, and the moderator, Ryan Timpte, Director of Children’s Ministry,
photo by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications
This year, as on every Good Friday in the last decades, Hyosang Park, Princeton UMC’s music director, planned to observe the day by presenting a requiem, a musical composition in honor of the agony and death of Jesus Christ. Choir members enthusiastically responded to a question about what this concert means to them. Just to participate in the celebration of Holy Week was important for Edwin Francisco. “It is always moving and exciting,” according to Bill Suits.
“It’s meaningful that some of our concerts were dedicated to members who had passed on,” said Karen Hoagland.
The lyrics of a requiem, said Christine Wong, “encompass major themes of the Bible: the covenant of salvation from Abraham to his descendants; God’s wrath and judgment; and man’s fear and suffocation for deliverance from sins and death. It abundantly praises God’s holiness and highness.”
Plans for the Good Friday have changed (Princeton UMC will have a virtual service at 6 p.m.) and choir rehearsals are now virtual, but – singers — here’s an innovative way to get the Holy Week music experience.’ Choose your favorite score, find the youtube video, and – sing along!
Joan Nuse would likely pick the requiem by living British composer Bob Chilcott. “It was an amazing experience. The songs were uplifting!”
Lori Pantaleo’s favorites include the one requiem by John Rutter. The most difficult, she said, came from France, by Maurice Durufle (1947) and Luigi Cherubini, who wrote his Requiem in c minor in 1816 to honor Louis XVI. Other works in the Good Friday series were the “Seven Last Words” by Theodore Dubois in 1867, Faure’s Requiem (1890), Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantata 21, Anton Bruckner’s Requiem in d minor, Handel’s Messiah, and the 1837 Requiem in C minor by Michael Haydn.
This beautiful version of the John Rutter Requiem was dedicated to the tragedy at Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina.
No matter what is on the program, or whether worshippers are present or online, Jenni Collins says she will look forward to “the intimate nature and the powerful emotion of a Good Friday service.”
Catherine Williams led the first Love Lives On group. This photo shows her farewell party.
by Kate Lasko
It is not a group people clamor to join, yet once in you can’t imagine leaving. Love Lives On is a group where church members who have lost loved ones meet two or three times a month for support and fellowship. The original group is five-plus years strong. Last year, Pastor Ginny Cetuk and LaVerna reached out to those of us whose losses are newer and rawer to form a smaller group within the established Love Lives On. Here we share stories of loved ones and in sharing, help each other process loss, cope with loneliness, and, most importantly, understand that grief does not disappear.
When Covid-19 made it clear that our meetings had to occur virtually, I wondered how distance would affect the closeness that our meetings have nurtured. When life was “normal,” we met in the youth room, sat on comfortable couches and chairs, the only adornments a table supporting a simple wooden cross, a candle, a Bible, and always, a comforting touch at the ready. At 3 p.m. I logged on and one by one familiar faces appeared. Yes the voices were a little tinny and the vocal delays a bit challenging, but Zoom had its advantages. It brought Ginny and Chris from Florida and allowed all of us to meet LaVerna’s cat, who made a guest appearance.
Of course, the most valuable advantage of technology during this quarantine is the ability to connect with others and share joys, concerns, and coping strategies. Duncan finds joy in cooking, LaVerna rereads a favorite collection of essays on the seven last words of Christ, Ida walks her beloved golden retriever, someone else blasts Beethoven, another journals, and everyone makes phone calls, no texts. As often happens in our meetings, the talking meandered down a variety of paths, and too soon, Pastor Ginny moved us to a closing prayer. As she spoke, I realized my concerns about closeness in distance were silly; only the setting had changed; the people were the same. Ginny was so right: “Through Christ, miles don’t matter.”
I hope you and your families have been able to reflect together on Pastor Jenny’s call for us to think about our stories of when we knew we were God’s beloved or when we knew that we were enough. One of Henry’s favorite books is Little Humans by Brandon Stanton. 
I’ve created a video read aloud of the book and also an Imaginative Prayer (from Jared Patrick Boyd) inviting us to imagine ourselves being fully and uniquely formed by God.
FamilyInterviews: Get to know your family members better and practice storytelling.
After being very active at PrincetonUMC, including in the bellchoir (see photo below) Jeff and Annette Ransom moved to Sun City, Texas in 2016. Here is their update! Their new address is 
Here’s a 
Last year, Pastor Ginny Cetuk and LaVerna reached out to those of us whose losses are newer and rawer to form a smaller group within the established Love Lives On. Here we share s