Dearest Dirt Diggers, (and fellow gardeners)
The meeting tonight at the church to discuss the community garden is not worth the risk of driving on frozen streets. It can wait until the weather is more cooperative. So “NO” garden meeting tonight. If you know of someone who was planning on being there but may not get this note would you give them a call.
Thank you for your understanding. 
Doug

Hello, all past and potential community spring gardeners. 
I know it is hard to believe that it is time to start thinking about a spring garden. So this is an invitation to all of you who got your hands dirty last year and to anyone who wants to get some dirt under your fingernails this year to tell us what you would like to do in making the garden grow. 
I’ll start with an invitation to a garden planning time at the church building on Thursday, February 11, at 7:00 pm. The goal is to 1. choose the content of the garden this year, 2. spread out the division of labor in what we need to do to get started. Immediate jobs are to plant potatoes and to get some seeds started for later spring planting. I’ll have some soil and seeds to pass out at the meeting. 
What a great start already. Bob Green has already disked the garden area twice with his tractor and disk. It looks prepared right now. So with a string and a hoe we are ready to plant potatoes. 
We already have a lot of bedding plants in seed starter pots. So far that includes:  68 Cauliflower ,   12  sweet peppers,   12 all season cabbage,  72  Copenhagen cabbage,  18 red leaf cabbage,  104 broccoli ,  10  broccoli/cabbage (?).  We are heavy on cabbage because of the interest created by Debbi Gebert last year when she brought Stormy’s plant over and planted it. Then I got to eat a cabbage from Russell’s garden and I was hooked. That should give us enough to share. Lot’s more needs to be started muy pronto.  Like tomatoes, peppers, egg plant, etc. Some of the seeds were given to me by Liz Rowden. Including whatever “broccoli cabbage” is. It is always fun to be surprised at what you get. 
I’m going to suggest a few changes this year. One is to go to drip tape watering. The other is to use plastic bed mulch to cut way down on the weeding chore. I found a good sale on 12″ spaced tape in a 7500′ roll on sale. It is reusable for several seasons and also keeps us from watering the aisles between plants where it’s not needed. That only creates more weeds. 
Let’s also talk about the best way to share what God produces. The plants know when they are planted in a state of love for other people. So they try harder. 
For all who are able, see you Thursday, the 11th , at 7, at the headquarters building.

Doug

Feed your entire family for $5. Join us for supper, then stay for a great “menu” of group classes offered. Adult Bible study, Young Adult study, Youth Group, Preschool through Elem. age groups. served starting at 5:00 p.m. Delicious, hot, home style meals each Wed. All are welcome.

WED. MENU FOR JAN. 27:
Beef Stew, Cornbread, Dessert & Drink. Please call the church phone with your reservation.
979-278-3680 (leave message of how many plates you will need.)

Wednesday, Dec. 16 @ 5:30 p.m.

Stations of the Christmas Story is a walking meditation designed to prepare us for the celebration of Christmas.  On a ¾ mile lighted, outdoor path, we will journey through eleven events that represent the miracle of Christmas.

Bring friends, neighbors, & family and enjoy this special outdoor journey.

Christmas carols, hot chocolate and cookies complete the evening.

Sunday, November 1, is Creativity Sunday.  The worship on that day will be a celebration of God’s creativity and of ours. 

Among the first things we learn about God comes in the book of Genesis.  It is expressed like this: “In the beginning God created…”   Right out of the chute the Bible declares that God is creative.  Out of nothing a whole universe came into being.  Where there was nothing, something came to be. 

On a special day of creation God is said to have taken dust from the ground and created Adam and Eve in His own image.  Their story is our story.  God’s creative image is in us.  We were born to be creative. 

So, on Sunday, November 1, we are going to bring our creative impulses to church and share them with one another.  

I already hear resistance among some of you who say, “I am not creative.”  You are.  You can’t not be creative. You are a child of a creative God. 

For instance, do you have a cookie recipe that you have perfected over the years?  Case closed.  So, on that Sunday bring a dozen of those cookies and share them with others.  Do you weld?  Do you dance?  Do you write poetry?  Do you sing?  Do you restore things that otherwise would go to ruin?  Do you build things?  Do you knit, sew, or crochet?  See?  We do create.  And together we can create a community that sustains and builds life together. 

Do you need inspiration?  Then read the entire 15th chapter of Luke.  One of the three stories will jump off the pages and into your imagination.  Write a poem about one of the stories.  Write a piece of music.  Play something on the violin of which the story reminds you. 

So, bake a cake. Write a poem.  Dance a jig.  Paint a picture.  Then bring it to church on November 1.  Your creativity will be our worship for the day.  

The level of confusion and bewilderment is sky high.  At the same time, the rate of change barely lets us get used to a “new normal” before the directions and instructions change again.  As a society we went from concern into viscous anxiety in the blink of a dragon’s eye.  Collectively there is little consensus about what we might expect next.

Here in Ledbetter my sense is that it is not what we expect for ourselves that weighs on us but what we think might be happening to us as part of history’s great experiment in governance.  Has liberty, fairness under the law, and freedom failed us?  Will such concepts be “cloroxed” from our consciousness to be replaced by what global intelligence agencies call “total spectrum dominance?”  What gloomy shades color our expectations of what life will be like in the future?  Will it ever be OK again?

If we had only our surface experiences with which to evaluate and extrapolate the future we might live in a state of unsettledness forever.  Like the ocean, weather at the surface is much more difficult to predict.  Scowls erupt out of nowhere, and ships on the surface become victims of the waves.  But at great depths the storms are faintly recognized.

There is a depth at which our souls can find secure anchor.  A place where the fierce tides can’t rip us from the calm harbor.  When faith can find a moment to listen, we see through the mist that someone comes, walking on the water and bellowing, “Don’t be afraid!  It’s just Me.”

This Sunday I want to talk about where we can find a place to anchor in the storm.  My intention is to point in the direction of hope.  Not hope as in wishing something would be true. But hope as in confidence that in the most confusing times, God shows up with some good news.

We are going to read passages from one of the most misunderstood and mysterious books in the Bible.  Behind the picturesque symbols and dramatic images of Revelation is where we find out how deep the assurances of God can go.  John uses larger than life language to point in a direction in which we can begin to know what to expect next and to rest assured that all things are in God’s hands.

Come this Sunday and let’s discover what Jesus says we can expect next.

There will be no services at Soul Cafe Church this Sunday, July 12.  We will not gather for either the 9:30 am outdoor service or the 11:00 am inside service.

I hope that  you are able to read between the lines of this note to hear how disappointed I am that this is the decision that needs to be made.

For one, there are several new cases of the virus reported in our area and specifically in Ledbetter.  Although it is a bit confusing to know what “best practices” are during this time, we still have to make the best decisions we can.  The number one concern is to not provide a venue that would contribute to the spread of the virus and endanger anyone.

In the meantime there will be a video message up tomorrow morning as a “poor” substitute for being together, seeing each other’s smiles, feel each other’s hugs, and lifted by each other’s blessings of good will and peace.

I’ll just say it out loud.  I hate COVID!  I hate what it has done and what it has allowed others to do.  Now the contrast.  I love what God is doing despite what is going on with this contemptible germ.  We are learning and growing together in ways that may have eluded us during more sane times.  We are learning how much we need each other and how much we need the presence of God in our lives.  With every ounce of my disheveled and banged up faith I believe that God is at work, turning this calamity into something that is in the long term good of those who love Him and are called to understand His purpose in the world.  God will not fail in His tireless and eternal work for the salvation for which we long.

Here is Soul Cafe’s intention for next week, July 19.  We will gather for worship at 9:30 outdoors and 11:00 am indoors. And we are going to rub the devil’s nose in a petri dish full of the c word.

Heavenly Father, we rest our weary souls in our fragile confidence that you are the Lord of the emergencies of life.  We don’t know what to do more than half the time.  We are confused even more than that.  But you, Father, are a shelter for us in the times of our greatest bewilderment.  So we are going to put our trust in you the very best way we know how.  We are going to trust you for protection.  We are going to trust you for our health.  And we are going to trust you for the strength to get through anything life throws at us.  You are a fortress for our psyche.  You are a shield from fiery darts.  We know nowhere else to run but into your loving arms.  In the Spirit in which Jesus prayed, we pray.  Amen.

There continues to be encouraging medical news concerning both the fatality rate and the recovery rate for COVID-19.  Clinical trials and tests from many of the world’s most capable virology labs and medical centers are getting their heads around what we are up against in our battle against this illness.  Most of what is being reported is very good news.  At the leading edge of the reports is that we should definitely take care of the most vulnerable parts of our population.  Up to ages of about 55 the fatality rate for this virus is about the same as the seasonal flu.  Beyond that age identifies the largest number of deaths in the world.

As a precaution and a protection of that population I am going to make the decision that we will not gather for worship this Sunday.  Neither outdoors nor indoors.  We will make this decision one week at a time.  At this time, our best decisions should be on the conservative side of this issue.  Wednesday classes and activities are also cancelled this week.

It is no substitute for being together but beginning this week we are going to resume recording a daily video from the Thicket House and will have a worship video ready for Sunday.

Lorri and I love that God has had His hand on our being planted in Ledbetter. We have been shaped and have grown having you in our lives. We will be back together soon.

We use enormous emotional and spiritual energy in reconciling the past. Obsessively thinking about the past is a defense mechanism. We are trying to figure out how not to make the same mistakes again. Reconciliation, in part, is reached by honest reflection on what was our responsibility in the misstep or mistake. Blame and regret keep our souls trapped in the past. We cannot really figure out what went wrong. We become afraid to step toward the future because we are afraid we will make the same mistake again and be hurt again by it. As soon as we face our culpability, we can, with a great amount of reflective effort, decide how we are going to do things differently. It is very empowering. Once resolved we find the courage we need to step forward. We get a new vision of the future not so filled with fear. When we look up we see Jesus toward whom we are walking. He becomes an image of our future. Jesus saves us from the misery of living in the fear of the past and saving our lives to live toward his calling.