So Much to Celebrate this Past Sunday at Calvary

There was so much to celebrate this past Sunday at Calvary Lutheran. 

Calvary celebrated the Affirmation of Baptism of a daughter of the congregation. It was the first Confirmation in over thirteen years. It was a celebration. And the celebration will continue as there will be many more students to follow in the next few years.

We also celebrated the end of another program year, very much like they also did at Bethel and Our Saviour’s. There were bubbles and sidewalk chalk. We also made fans to survive summer in the un-airconditioned sanctuary and birthday cards for a member who will be soon turning 90! There was music and ice cream treats.

Celebration is such an important element of being in community with others. And well, celebration was such an important part of our time together on Sunday.

First Adventure of the Summer

I leave tomorrow afternoon for my first summer adventure. I’m excited for the scenery, the company and our itinerary. Here is a hint of where I will end up:

EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH

The other day we did Expressions of Faith at Confirmation. Here is a little how it went:

Each student was given a bag. Each bag contained unique supplies. Inside the bag where these directions:

Use the materials contained in this bag to express something that you think, believe, trust, or have faith in.

Be creative.  Use your imagination.  Express your own thoughts and opinions.  Include questions, doubts, wonderings, if you like.  If you find yourself really stuck, you can express something you do not think, believe, trust, or have faith in, but you must be very specific.  “I don’t believe anything” will not count.

You will have the chance to work with several different kinds of materials.  You can express something different with each set.  We will share our creations with the group and will display them for others in the congregation to see (we won’t put your name on them, unless you want to).

Fill their Plate

Calvary, Bethel and Our Saviour’s joined together to package meals at Fill Their Plate. Fill Their Plate allows volunteers to come package a formulated rice-soy casserole meal that is then sent to an organization in Haiti.

Together we packaged …

20 boxes.

720 bags.

4,320 meals.

That is enough to feed eleven children for one year.

Journey to Ministry: Sandy Troyan

I was interviewed for Luther Seminary’s student publication, Concord. A glimpse into my story can be found on page five. 

Concord, Volume, 41, Issue 7

Done?

I am done.

I am through.

I am accomplished.

I am finished.

Well, for now.

Tuesday evening I finished all of my requirements for my Master of Arts degree.* I now wait for the little box next to degree meet turn from a bold ‘x’ to an under-dramatic green check mark. I feel accomplished, but I am still curious. That curiosity leads back to the formation of this blog. I want to define embrace. I want to look to what role does community have in the lives of people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Desmond Tutu, Oscar Romero and others. I want to see how they define embrace. Luck for me, I have been given the space to be curious about embrace and community. 

*This does not mean I am done for the semester, though. I still have an independent study  for my Master of Theology that I have to make sense of.