June 2018
I don’t think I have EVER been so happy to see a year end and a new one begin – this past year has been difficult in so many areas for us as a church and a school. The good news is that we have survived and even thrived in so many ways. What has been truly painful is being kept from personal contact with our members and students. We pray that with the vaccine, we may begin to see the end of all of this within this next year. A note of gratitude: On behalf of all our staff, I wanted to thank all who donated for Christmas gifts for our staff and for me as pastor/interim principal. Your generosity was truly appreciated. It is so good to be remembered and to have that connection with you all. We sometimes feel so disconnected that we wonder if people even notice or care about what we are working so hard to accomplish. These gifts helped us realize that we are still connected in every way that we can be with the restrictions we are under.
Thanks from Pueblo de Dios Lutheran Church in Compton: Pastor Samuel Nieva wishes me to express to you their profound gratefulness - you provided over 140 Christmas gifts to children in that community! You will never know how appreciated those gifts were. I have attended a few of their Posada events in years past and can attest to how welcome and needed those gifts were to struggling families and children served by that church. You have been a profound blessing to so many! Church News: While the LA County Dept of Public Health is acknowledging that the recent Supreme Court ruling has determined that freedom of worship is cannot be optional in our society, they are pleading with us to be careful and prudent. Here is part of an update from them received on 12/23/20:
Now, most unfortunately, is not the time to attend indoor religious services. The County of Los Angeles is in the midst of its highest surge of COVID-19 cases. The local emergency rooms and hospitals are over-capacity. And there are no indications of an end in sight to the current surge. It's hard for me as a pastor to argue with that request from them. As difficult as it was, we did hold outdoor livestreamed worship on Christmas Eve. The weather did not really cooperate with our needed setup times or with conducting the service – but we survived, and while it was a bit miserable, it was really kind of ok – but I’d rather not do that much again. Because the rain didn’t stop in our area until after 2:30 or so, we really didn’t have time to adequately set things up. Video lights would have been really helpful, but we just couldn’t get to it. “Best laid plans..” as they say. And have you ever tried to keep candles lit in the wind? Even with that, we’ll continue our weekly Saturday outside worship services at 5 pm (very low tech) and our indoor live-streamed services at 10 am each Sunday. Going forward, as the hospitalization rates drop, we’ll gradually restart indoor worship on Sundays. The numeric and percentage attendance limits have been withdrawn in favor of a more 1.