Happy Anniversary, Eastridge Presbyterian Church (Some Eastridge History)

 

In 1953, a seed was planted. That seed fell on good soil and was heard and understood (Matthew 13:1- 23). Eastridge Presbyterian Church has produced significant crops in worship, education, mission, fellowship, and music.

Eastridge began with six families gathered for worship at Holmes Elementary School in May 1953. Worship has taken on a special meaning during Lent and Advent, with traditions including a children's palm processional on Palm Sunday, communion on Maundy Thursday, a Good Friday service, an Easter sunrise service, and Christmas Eve candlelight services.

Eastridge has long made a commitment to nourish outside the church through its mission efforts. During the 1960's, family nights combined food, fellowship and education. Summer work camps for youth also began in the 1960's. The food pantry, which began in a basement closet, expanded to require a separate building. Today, our outreach includes service and funding to numerous organizations.

The house that is Eastridge was built on rock in 1953 (Matthew 7:24-27). The building that houses the sanctuary and fellowship hall was dedicated in November 1956, and the education unit was added in 1960. The lounge was built in 1976, and the sanctuary was expanded and a balcony added in 1987. In 2008 the welcome center and the alteration of the chancel were completed in the sanctuary. Over the past 20 years other improvements have been made to the property.

Happy anniversary, Eastridge Presbyterian Church! (information above taken from historical documents in the office).

Rain

Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone.  Zechariah 10:1

May he be like rain falling on a mown field; like showers watering the earth. Psalms 72:6

There is such delight in being able to listen to a gentle spring rain, with only faint grumbles of thunder. The sound of drops pattering on horizontal surfaces and trickling down vertical ones is like a soothing lullaby. Seeing the mistiness making lights waver and bright spring greens shimmer is like enjoying a moving work of art, shifting in the changing cloud light. Birds send out their most joyful songs and seem to chuckle softly to themselves. Puddles reflect the white sky and seem to boil with bubbles as drops bounce into them. The freshness of the air and the smells of the wet earth make everything feel clean and rinsed of dusty weariness.  Spring's growth is nourished just as the soul's thirst for comfort and healing is tended. Memories of other times and places in this hypnotic kind of soft rainfall arise and pull this moment into a thread of continuity.  

Rain has many associations for Christians; in the Bible - and in agricultural states like the one where I live - rain is an important part of the planting and growing seasons. Crops and livestock depend on adequate rain, and ultimately everyone's food supply is tied to it. God provides all this, and it is a testament of his care when the rain falls; it is a gift that feeds all people. 

The rain can be threatening, and floods are a fearful event in Biblical lore. Rain is sometimes symbolic of God's righteousness showering down on the earth.  

But the beneficial rain is inclusive; it falls on everyone and everything. If we choose to shower blessings like this, we share them without exception to all within reach. God is in the water that baptizes us, the water that cleans us and everything we use and touch and see, the water that is a habitat for countless amazing beings, the water that nourishes our food and the trees and plants that give us shade and joy.

The rain I am enjoying at this moment is one of the ways I can experience God's peace that surpasses understanding. This same rain is making someone else feel soggy and chilled, so I have to hope that somehow God's comfort is felt by that person in some way as well. I often work in the evenings, and I am fortunate enough to be home by an open door for this rainfall. Someone else who planned an outdoor event for this evening has had to make a change in plans and isn't feeling as fortunate.  

There is a Jewish prayer recited at the start of the rainy season in Israel. This is an excerpt.  

May He send rain from the heavenly towers,

To soften the earth with its crystal showers.

You have named water the symbol of Your might,

All that breathes life in its drops to delight. 

O revive those who praise Your powers of rain....

For you are God, who causes the wind to blow 

and the rain to fall; 

for a blessing and not for a curse - Amen!

For life, and not for death - Amen!

For plenty, and not for scarcity - Amen!

Mollie Manner (reprinted from 2018)

Sing and Give Thanks

Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. Psalm 30:4 

O sing unto the LORD a new song, for he hath done marvelous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. Psalm 98:1

Henry M Morris, PhD states in “Days of Praise”: When we remember God’s holiness, we then remember how the mighty seraphim in the heavenly temple are continually crying out “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 6:3) 

Mr. Morris continues on to state, “He (God) has not only forgiven our sins, saved our souls, and promised us eternal life, but He also daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Psalm 68:19. “What can we do except to perpetually “sing unto the LORD…and give thanks,” as David exhorts us in our text for today.  

And we can be thankful and sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord, and give thanks to God, our Lord and Savior.  

Prayer: Thank you, Lord Jesus, for dying in our place on the cross for our sins. You give us the beautiful sunrise, the beautiful grain which I experienced as a child on the farm in Phelps County, Nebraska. We can also thank you for the grass, our families, our friends and neighbors. In Jesus name, Amen. 

Sandra Hilsabeck

Trust in the Lord

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 

The Sojourner

And you shall make a response before the Lord your God, A wandering Aramean was my father; and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. Deuteronomy 26:5  

And you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you. Deuteronomy 26: 11 

I recently read several devotions related to the Jewish festival of the First Fruits. I decided to look up the word sojourner which means a person who resides temporarily in a land that is not their own - a foreigner, exile, alien. I have met the definition of a sojourner several times in my life. The first was a summer long mission trip with 23 other college students from around the country to Troy, NY. There I experienced a historic community with characters like Uncle Sam and Emma Willard, very limited green space for children to play and lots of concrete with row houses, being fed by the community churches (lots of pasta), and main line denominational churches closing or uniting with other churches related to changing communities and populations.

My second sojourn was to my first social work job in Milwaukee. For the first time I experienced distinctly divided neighborhoods related to race, chronic multigenerational poverty, ghettos, and the frustration of trying to meet the needs of many with very limited resources.

My third was moving from my hometown in Iowa to Nebraska. You would think that living in a neighboring state would be about the same, but I was so wrong. Of course, there was Husker mania - a real eye opener when the football team won or lost. Then there was the difference in the unicameral and politics, and visiting the sandhills - a desert in the middle of the state - became a priceless experience.

Being a sojourner in these places made me appreciate going home to a place that was welcoming and familiar. Where I knew old friends and family and knew which streets to drive on to get from here and there. The one constant I experienced in all the above was being with other Christians and church families and knowing that although I am a sojourner in this world, Jesus promises a forever home in heaven where I am no longer a sojourner.

Prayer: Thank you, Heavenly Father, for being with us as we wander through our lives here on earth. Thank you for all the blessings you have given to us, especially the gift of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen

Nancy Hall

Words from Corinthians

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57 

Words from Isaiah

You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11