I hope you are enjoying the first half of your summer re-creation time.
There is a small and growing cohort of Saint John’s community that are engaging with the community at Saint Nicolas….both supporting their food ministry, and joining them for Worship and a potluck meal. The next gathering is this Saturday the 15th at 5:30. The service is in English and Spanish, and this week the Reverend Daniel Romero will be preaching… Daniel is a good friend, with a long history of ministry with the immigrant community. I hope to see you there…
Michael Walters created a series of video’s from a recent morning at Veap which I published into a video… it will give you a snapshot of what collecting food at Veap is all about, and the mission of food as the newly named Casa Maria, at Saint Nicolas.. I encourage you to check it out…
https://vimeo.com/844337670?share=copy
It struck me this past Saturday as we were gathering food from Veap for Saint Nicolas, that there is a randomness of available food, that differs from week to week, month to month. I was laughing to myself, I do that sometimes, that I doubt that when Jesus was confronted with the feeding of the 5,000 (or 4,000 in another Gospel) he was looking at a menu of options…He simply asked what might be available, and the rest of the story we all know. I was reminded of an old television show where chefs had to create meals from the leftovers in the refrigerator….and the grace and talent they displayed in that task. Often the abundance in our lives is not prescriptive, Joy happens spontaneously, and often unpredictably. There is a wildness in that… And so, as we were collecting food from Veap, we were all imagining the meals we might prepare with what we found available.
I am hopeful that your time of re-creation is wild, unpredictable, and filled with abundant options. And more importantly, you experience as many of them as you can.
When Lisa passed out the $20 bills a few weeks back, she also asked for spiritual asks, blessings, wishes and so on. I had the opportunity to read through them, and learned that Rena wished to learn more about fishing…. and so, in the spirit of the remarkable homily, and the opportunity to spend some quality time dreaming with Rena about the future at Saint John’s together, I invited her to go fishing with me a couple of days later and she almost jumped up and down in excitement.. and so we went out for a few hours on Lake Minnetonka for some fantastic fishing, over 30 in 4 hours, and a few significant fish, mostly hers.
I learned from my grandfather that there is fishing and catching… I confess with great JOY that Rena out caught me. see below. These photos tell the story… we had a great time. I shared the photos with Bishop Loya, and he questioned why he was not invited. ouch!.. I did contribute my $20 to our guide, who happens to be related to another Episcopal Community. I am sure he will share the stories of the two deacons he took fishing…. It is a small world. I hope to see your stories in the future.
Blessings, Rex
