May 5, 2026

Happy Mother’s Day! We celebrate you this Sunday as a nurturing woman, mother, grandmother, great-grand, aunt, etc. We also recognize National Nurses Week (May 6–12) where we and health organizations recognize your sacrifices, service, and dedication caring for others and improving their health. Nurses provide care through every stage of life, working with patients at their most intimate and vulnerable moments. We also say Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We express this week (May 4-8) our heartfelt gratitude to all teachers and educators, those currently teaching and those retired. Every day, they show up and make a lasting, positive impact on their students and communities. Say a prayer of gratitude for your favorite teacher, nurse, and your mom. We all say THANK YOU!

 

Mothers, Nurses, Teachers, and dare I say, Pastors, all need times of rest and renewal in their schedules, and most serving professions forget to do that. In April, I was both inspired and blessed by an intentional creative arts retreat in Lynchburg; a long and winding ride but a beautiful one in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains. Eagle Eyrie, a historic Baptist Convention Center, lived up to its excellent reputation (my first time there!). The land grant goes back to 1761 and passed through two families until in 1950 the Baptist General Association of Virginia purchased the property to hold children’s, youth, music, and adult conferences and retreats for 20,000 Christian visitors each year since. It wasn’t fancy and there were lots of steps and hills because it all was built into the mountain, but the food and the people were wonderful. Female leaders in diverse ministry positions from VA, NC, and even PA were present for worship, rest, fellowship, and creative expression (painting, photography, writing, poetry, collage), all the while listening for God’s voice and direction. Shalom Creatives, Madison Heights Baptist Church, and CBF partnered to provide generous hospitality, daily prayer cards, and reduced rates. God was fully present there, and see, Baptists can work together well! 

 

On the first Friday of May, the Virginia Baptist Women in Ministry (VBWIM) gather annually to celebrate, empower, learn, encourage one another, and associate. The lunch is called FEAST! It is always a feast of worship, communion, Scripture, teachings, prayer, creativity, lunch, and this year more connecting regionally and by ministry roles. It was started in 1988, 4 years after the SBC (So. Bapt. Conv.) challenged all women in church leadership. Being on the Board of Directors has strengthened my own ministry. We share resources, education, and experience, so that these connections broaden our church’s reputation and make me a better pastor for you. May is a busy month; we are ready!

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April 7, 2026

Happy Eastertide! He is Risen! Hallelujah! I hope you had a lovely Easter celebration after a reflective Lenten period (40 days), a joyous Palm Sunday, communal Maundy Thursday, and a Good Friday to ponder the crucifixion. As you can see in the photos, ours was full and meaningful. We thank David & Beth Evans, Charles Potter, Andrew Lam, and Debbie Caffrey for adding to various expressions of music in this season. Also, thanks to Elmer Shoemaker (flowers & greeting), Bob Harward (Sound), Bill Harward (Photos), Debbie (flowers & choir), Roudaina Iskander (admin & catering), and Pedro Figaro (setup & prep) for your contributions to the services. For those who couldn’t be here, we understand but missed you! God provided all we needed as usual.

 

In the weeks leading up to Easter, we learned from Gospel writer John, that Jesus healed and transformed lives (John 4:19-30), maintained a deep relationship with God his Father (John 5:16-44), forgave sin (including our own--John 8:1-20), led people in a servant’s humble demeanor (John 12:1-19), accepted his punishment, sacrificing his earthly life (John 17-19), and overcame death (John 20:1-18). These sermons from March and April can be found on our website under the “Services” tab, if you missed them and want to experience Easter’s back story!

 

Reading each year of this familiar story, I search for something I didn’t realize or connect before. This year, I was struck by 3 things: none of the disciples or Mary Magdelene understood how, why, or that God would interrupt the dying-burial process! That led to their confusion. Another was seeing that Jesus’ beloved disciple didn’t fully believe in what was said until he saw the folded grave clothes for himself (like our own skepticism of faith). The last connection is our theme, Roots & Branches: how Jesus and his relationship with Father God are indeed the roots of our faith; the trunk might be the eternal life yet short ministry of Christ expressed through Scriptures, forming rings of spiritual growth like tree rings. Sharing this good news becomes the branches of outreach and evangelism (like the apostles Peter’s and Paul’s ministries); and the leaves are the new lives born and changed through Jesus Christ our Savior, Lord, and Messiah. What were your “Aha’s!” from Easter this year? We’ll continue with Jesus’ appearances and ascension to complete the resurrection in the next few Sundays. Hope to see you!

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March 3, 2026

This time last month, we were recovering from snow-crete, icy walks, and huge snow banks. It certainly was dangerous but mostly inconvenient. Today, there were unnecessary but cautious school delays in case of more ice. Another inconvenience for parents who work. Even though it is a gray kind of day, we praise the Lord it is warming up soon. However, compared to recent events and the Middle East conflict where hundreds were killed and displaced, snow is a blessing. We are praying for many friends, colleagues, military personnel, and extended family members who are in harms way in that region. If you would like to join us to pray for these known individuals more specifically, call the office or my cell, and I’ll share with you serious and immediate international needs. There are many, and if you’re willing to come to the church during the day, we can arrange a time for quiet prayer in the Sanctuary. In your daily prayer practices, please lift up those on our Agape Prayer list on the last page of this Vision newsletter as you always do. We usually increase our prayer time during Lent anyway, but we especially need to be praying now.

 

Christ is present in all these circumstances. It is because of God’s immense love of his creation (us) that he “. . . gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him (John 3:16-17 NLT).” We studied Nicodemus’ incredulity and transformation this past Sunday (John 3:1-17 NLT) Sermon can be found here on our website. On the 15th we held an old fashioned Hymn Sing with David Evans leading with history and information on each of your requests. “Hymns have historically been used in crises as a tool for emotional comfort, communal solidarity, and spiritual strength, offering a way to express grief, fear, and hope when words fail. They provided a sense of familiarity during turmoil, such as epidemics or wars, and functioned as a, peaceful, unifying force during social upheavals (online search).” I encourage you this week to thumb through your old hymnals and sing one or two, reading the Scripture it refers to at the top under the title. If you need a hymnal for your personal use, please contact me or ask on Sunday; we have ones from the 50’s and the 1981 blue Baptist Hymnal available.

 

Let us remember the sermon topic on 2/22/26: “You Are Not Alone!” Although that was a lesson from Jethro to Moses in Exodus 18:13-27 about delegation, it applies to times like these as well. We must not wear ourselves or others out by worry or trying to do it all alone; we need one another for comfort, encouragement, accountability, agape love, hope, and to sustain our faith. Amen.

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February 3, 2026

Happy National Dark Chocolate Day (2/1)! Happy Groundhog Day (2/2)! Homemade Soup Day (2/4), Ice Cream for Breakfast Day (2/7), Super Bowl Sunday (2/8), National Pizza Day (2/9), Souper Bowl food donation month, Valentine’s Day, Presidents’ Day (2/16), Mardi Gras (2/17), Ash Wednesday/Lent begins (2/18), Ramadan (2/18), Random Acts of Kindness Day (2/21), Black History month, American Heart Month, National Engineers Week, and more . . . How fun and how ridiculous at the same time to have so many random holidays or recognitions! Hope you can find something to celebrate this very short month!

 

We deserve it after the Snow/ice storm Fern and all the snow-crete we are navigating in our neighborhood streets, driveways, sidewalks, and parking lots! Everyone I know is sore or broke from chipping ice, shoveling, or paying someone to help in this extreme cold. Congratulations and well done to those intrepid congregants who came this past Sunday, 2/1! The reward was being together, warm, joyful, reverent, and present with the triune God in our midst. It is always a hard decision whether to cancel services, but safety comes first. Also, I’m sure you found time to pray, study, or visit another church digitally from your home. Thank you to Caribbean Services for doing an amazing cleaning job in our parking lots; Pedro is here again today to chip more ice blocks away so that our sidewalks will be clear Sunday for your safety. 

 

As human beings and especially as Christians, we need each other to co-exist, thrive, and hold ourselves accountable to our ethics and beliefs. This is called “community”! When we share our lives with one another, we affirm God’s creative power and agape love. We saw it last week as kind neighbors checked on neighbors and people helped each other shovel out the snow-crete! Christ was present in most circumstances, including the community shelters, grocery workers who showed up, the abundance of donated and purchased food for our food mission on Saturday before the storm, phone calls we all made to check on one another, and providing supplies for our Sandwich Team tomorrow (we could really use more help at 9-9:15 am). Christ was and still is embodied in each of us and the greater community. This is the lesson in our world of political discord, violence, and isolation. We are all needy when crisis happens; we pray, we love, we share, and we hope. Thank you for your rootedness in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who show up in times like these. We’ll see you Sunday to reconnect through Ezekiel’s prophecy and Paul’s letter to the Colossians.