Dear Congregation,
Sometimes I struggle with choosing a topic for my
monthly letter to you. Only after much prayer does it come. This month I
have a new problem: There are many things I want to tell you! Here are just
a few:
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God Strikes Again
I wouldn’t have picked Nebraska as a place to serve the
Lord. Arriving as winter began (and which, as I write, STILL doesn’t want to
move on), with a stressful move from MN in which some of my possessions were
lost and others damaged, to find myself in a home that needed a lot more
work than I’d imagined—was hard. Then I began to learn a hard lesson of
pastoral ministry: the pastor can’t please everyone. Being who I am, in the
last few months that reality has often grieved me.
Despite these challenges to God-given peace and joy,
God has doing an amazing work in my heart. I’ve fallen in love with
Schuyler--And, with my congregation. Yes, every one of you! I’m truly joyed
that God picked me to be your pastor!
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Whole Person Ministry
Recently I was invited to participate in a panel of the
local clergy at Alegent hospital. We pastors and priests were asked to
identify ways we could help Alegent better integrate spiritual care into all
of its patient health care.
Research has proven that a person’s spiritual health
(or, lack of it) has a great effect upon one’s recovery—including its speed.
We also know that the old tendency to treat a person’s body as separate from
a person’s spirit and mind is misguided. The term that describes what
Alegent is after is “holistic,” or “whole person” care. This is exciting!
As an outgrowth of our discussions, we pastors began to
think about our own ministries more holistically. We recognized in our own
approaches to caring for our members a tendency to address only our members’
spiritual issues, separating these from concern for our members’ bodies and
minds—as if the parts don’t affect the whole.
I left the meeting with a commitment to providing
holistic spiritual care for you. Thus, you’ll see some topics in my
newsletters you wouldn’t have expected in the past. Seeking greater health
in our ways of thinking, relating to others, AND in how we care for our
physical health is as important as is having a right relationship with the
Lord. Read on!
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Cell Phone Danger
No, this isn’t that “urban legend” the keeps
circulating on the internet about how cell phones cause fires when used near
gas pumps (they DON’T). This article IS about a set of well-documented and
now, increasingly well-researched concerns about the effects of cell phone
use on physical health. The issue was first raised more than 10 years ago—
by various consumer affairs groups, and also by the USA Food and Drug
Administration (see:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/cell_phone_cancer_link.htm.)
Now international and some US scientists are reporting
links between cell phone use and brain cancer, cell phone use and a formerly
rare cancer of the salivary gland; and cell phone use and blurred vision
and/or headaches.
Cell phones work by transmitting sound through
radiation waves. It stands to reason that holding a radiation-emitting
device against one’s head means more exposure to radiation than we humans
were created to withstand.
I take this research seriously and I hope you will too.
Though I’ll probably always use my cell (and you’re still welcome to phone
me on it, too), I’ll switch whenever I can from the cell phone to a land
line. Let’s all work to reduce our cell phone use whenever possible. Here’s
to our health!
Yours in Christ, Pastor Laura
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