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Be Bold, but No Naussicans

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By Dan Amos

It’s been three years since we put together a “regular” budget. Since then, we’ve had retirements, transitions, and the weirdest one of all, COVID. But we have presented to us for a vote a budget that says, “Be bold.” It’s well within our means, within our current giving, but it makes some choices about where to invest our effort.  There are no fictional Naussicans or allegorical starships from the Ecclesiastes 11 passage I spoke on several weeks ago. Instead, I’ll highlight a few of the significant lines in the new budget.

Kids’ Ministry is at the top of the spreadsheet. I don’t know why—it has always held that position in my memory. But it is appropriate, as one of the first efforts of rebuilding has been creating a space to care for and disciple children. There’s a little extra for curriculum and more for leadership development and volunteer appreciation. There’s a new line for family discipleship resources, reflecting the need to equip parents to lead and grow their families. There will also be a much needed upgrade to the playground.

Common Ground Student Ministry is continued at the same amount, including funds to supplement for the 2022 Challenge Conference trip to Kansas City (funds for the 2021 summer trip were unused).

The budget provides a robust investment in Adult Ministries, increasing funding for Men’s Ministry, and showing the emphasis on improving efforts to provide targeted support to adults. Similarly, there are new lines for College and Senior Ministries. Lastly, there is a new line for leadership development to empower our volunteer leaders.

The Worship Ministry budget has an increase mostly for providing the tools to enable growth and the continuation of serving with excellence.

One big, surprising decrease is in our utilities, where our telephone system is getting a technological upgrade that saves thousands of dollars.

Lastly, there are some adjustments in the personnel budget. The bold move is to fund a part-time Youth Ministries Director. We are looking to hire a dedicated leader for our Student Ministries to support the volunteer team who have kept things going for the last couple of years through extraordinary times.

As I was scrolling down the budget, I overlooked one item of great significance. The Holistic Outreach budget includes $10,000 for Local Missions. As we reach out beyond the borders of the oasis, Elim, these funds will help us tangibly partner with other Christians in the area in missions such as Care Net.

With this budget we can try many things, casting our bread on the waters and giving a portion to seven or even to eight. We don’t know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether all will do equally well.

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Certain Uncertainty

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By Dan Amos

We’re closing in on three decades since we moved to Puyallup for my assignment at McChord Air Force Base. My job as an Air Force officer was to lead a team that provided support and the information necessary for the aircrews flying the big transport jets to do their jobs and safely return home. Safety has always been the mantra; active airfields are strictly controlled, and no one moves about freely. So, I was shocked by the images of a C-17 driving through the crowd at the Kabul airport with men clinging to the body of the aircraft. It was chaos and there was no control. Some of those men refused to let go and held on until they fell to their deaths. I never imagined that scenario. Never. But that is only one of several things I’ve seen in the last year that continually cause me to ponder the uncertainty of tomorrow and what I can trust.

A couple of weeks ago I went into a store intending to buy a bag of shredded lettuce. I walked into the large refrigerator section that is lined with shelves and usually has pallets of produce in the center. It was nearly empty. Many of the shelves throughout the store were empty. Last year, we all probably experienced the lack of availability of toilet paper, cleaning products, and sanitizer. I saw my retirement fund plummet. I was fortunate to continue working but have done so from home. These are new experiences in my American life, not new to many or even most in this world, but new to me here on South Hill.

At the end of May, we took a drive up to Paradise on Mt Rainier. We hadn’t been to the park in years. The snow was still deeper than our car and it was falling so much that we didn’t get out because we weren’t prepared for it. Again, I was shocked when I saw our beautiful mountain recently and it was brown and rocky, more exposed than I’ve ever seen it.

Every generation must have their “shocking” moments. I grew up with the threat of nuclear annihilation and imagined how that would bring about the end of the world. I can’t say I’m prepared to physically respond to the unknown. Everything in this world is temporary and I don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

Many of you have heard me talk of this before, but going into my second round of unemployment, I did not know if I would find a job. I didn’t know if I would keep the house or feed my family, but I was absolutely certain that God would see us through to the completion of His perfect will.

He has told us of His provision for us in the lives of Moses, the three men in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the lions’ den, Ruth and Naomi, and hundreds more. We like those stories because they survived and thrived, but even Stephen as he was being crushed by stones from the mob was not abandoned by God, but was together with Him then and forever.

These are not just stories. They are foundational to who we are. Ryan asked at our last elder meeting what each of us envisioned for Elim. I answered that I long to see Elim be a place of a people set apart from the world. A place of ordinary people empowered by an extraordinary God, those who have the answer for the uncertainty and trials this fallen world brings. Our God has never not been in control. Sin has marred His creation, but through Jesus we have the answer to the ultimate victory over all tribulations. People are scared and angry and frustrated by COVID and life. We must be different. We must live into the promise of Jesus. That is how we are an oasis, a light on a hill. We are a gathering of diverse believers with the common faith in the One who is in control. That is the answer for those who are scared and unsure.

Sunday, we sang “Morning by Morning” by Pat Barrett:

All fear be reminded

My future is secure

My Father has spoken

And He keeps His every word

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That’s Amore

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By Dan Amos

One of the rabbit trails in my head the other day had to do with a Dean Martin song. After work most days, I’ve been working on a home project for a few weeks, and I usually wear a set of Bluetooth hearing protection. They are great at blocking out tool noise and letting me listen to streaming media. I had been listening to comedy, but I didn’t like how it was affecting my thought patterns. I switched to listening to music from the ‘40s and ‘50s, and one song kept coming to me at other times. It wasn’t the song that was important, but it reminded me that what I put into my head is what ends up rattling around in there.

Paul made that point in his letter to the Philippians: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

I added sermons from another preacher to that playlist and found my thought patterns changing. I felt less stressed about work and life though there was lots of room for “less.” “More” was already used up. There’s nothing terribly profound here. I can just confirm from my own experience the wisdom of what has been revealed to us.

When the moon hits your eye
like a big pizza pie,
that’s amore.

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Family Chores

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By Dan Amos

Pastor Ryan’s sermon on Sunday on “Learning to Live as Life in the Family of God” didn’t talk about the more mundane aspects of being part of a family. There’s day-to-day stuff to take care of that I’ll call “chores.” Our “home” as a church family is the plot of land at the corner of 94th Ave and 128th Street E. It’s not fancy, but it does catch our neighbors’ eyes, and it takes some care to keep looking sharp. It needs the care of the unskilled, like me, and some with a particular set of skills.

Many Hands—and a Riding Lawn Mower—Make Light Work

The biggest needs are mowing, weeding, and trimming. We have a riding lawn mower and a gas-powered trimmer, but weeding just needs a pair of gloves. Lori Cantu has set up a lawn-mowing sign-up sheet online. You can also email me at Dan@elimefc.org. I’ll get with you to get a key to the shed and walk through the operation of the mower and show you the sprinklers to avoid.

Weeding can be done any time. Our islands and flower beds need adoption. Please keep safety in mind when working with other people at the same time.

Skilled Needs

The rain has been plentiful this week, but as always, we hope for sunny weather to come. When this happens, we need our sprinklers to keep the grass green and the flowers blooming. We have sprinklers for much of the landscaping, but they need some maintenance before we can turn them on. I’d love to help someone that knows what they’re doing and learn from them how to do it in the future. Please let me know if you can help with the sprinklers.

We’ll get the lawn mower to the John Deere dealer for some preventative maintenance, but some of the other equipment could use it too. If you have experience with small engines, this would be another place to serve. There’s a donated pressure washer that I can’t start too.

Lastly, if you have ideas or want to discuss ideas, I’d love to talk to you.

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Legacy Insurance

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By Dan Amos

Once again, Fran and I have been hard at work deconstructing the accumulated stuff of our parents. We have made a couple of trips across the mountains and need to make a couple more to finish preparing for sale the home of 40+ years and to move a loved one to a new state and a new living situation. We have dispersed thousands of pounds of things and collected boxes of records and memorabilia. I have taken on the task of scanning the documents to share with siblings as arrangements are made. They document the legacy of their lives and some of how they have impacted others.

Among the documents are a history of multiple life insurance policies. As I’ve thought about it, most insurance is intended to restore things to how they were before a loss occurred. A life cannot be restored by a policy; it can only soften the physical hardship for those left behind. It is a part of our legacy, what we leave behind as the evidence of our lives. Larry wrote a few weeks ago about Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the Jerusalem walls.  He related the effort to Elim’s need to rebuild. The walls were the legacy of Nehemiah and the other families. Our legacies are similar in what we leave behind.

In Nehemiah 3, families are named along with the part of the walls and gates they rebuilt. That is a fairly serious passage since if a part of the wall failed, everyone would know who was responsible. Our families haven’t built any walls or gates; we’re neither captains of industry nor political leaders. But as I looked at pictures of people gathered to celebrate retirement, I saw the legacy of relationships that were built. I’ve repeated several times to my mother that her legacy is wrapped up in three children who are married and are all believers. I have three children, and they are married and are all believers. That is a legacy worth celebrating.

To make it a legacy, though, it has to be something that is passed on. It doesn’t count if it is only momentary—it has to last. In Nehemiah 9, the Israelites gathered together, confessed their sins, and heard the Book of the Law read to them. This was an act of renewing the legacy of their ancestors, hearing the history of their people and their relationship with God. They then claimed that relationship as their own, renewing the legacy we benefit from today.

As we move forward and (hopefully) welcome a new pastor and throw off the bondage of COVID, we will rebuild. Our prospective pastor, Ryan, mentioned several times the legacy of being a community of believers for 137 years. Many lives have been influenced by the ministry of Elim’s people, and if we are to leave a legacy it needs to be a strong foundation of building lives and sharing the good news of our Rock, Jesus Christ.

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Maybe Christmas, Perhaps…Means a Little Bit More!

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By Dan Amos

I don’t remember much about Christmases as a kid. I know we had a tree and lots of things wrapped under it. We didn’t have a lot in those days, but my mom and my dad, who was expressionless in words, loved us in giving what they could. I think we would open presents in the morning but got to open one on Christmas Eve. But the first Christmas I really remember something specific was probably in the month of April. I may be combining years, but only my mom and sisters could say differently. My dad had been away on an exceptionally long cruise aboard the USS Oriskany operating near Vietnam. He returned in the spring, and we waited to celebrate until he returned home. That “Christmas” morning I found a train set with a five-dollar bill wound up tightly and sticking out of a window of the caboose. The five is gone, but I still have the train set.

When I think of Christmas, I want it to be more than presents and things. Santa has never been anything more than a cartoon for me, but even the nativity is only part of the story. The first two chapters of Matthew and Luke are pretty much all we have telling us the account of Jesus’s birth, but they are packed with world-changing events.

Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John were relatives of Jesus, and John’s birth about six months ahead of Jesus’s birth puts a whole different light on Luke chapter 3 and the ministry of Jesus’s cousin John. This is the John who preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It is the John who would baptize Jesus and kick off his ministry, and John who would be martyred for his faithfulness.

Luke chapter 1 also tells of Mary, the young woman who was visited by an angel and told of her favor with God. She conceived Jesus because “the Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” A virgin, pledged to be married, but never having been intimate with a man, was pregnant. She lived in a small town in a time when it was unacceptable to be pregnant out of wedlock.

In Matthew chapter 1, we are told of Joseph learning of Mary’s pregnancy and his intent to break ties with her. The angel of the Lord visited Joseph, and he heard of the child Mary would bear. Matthew doesn’t name the angel, but Gabriel was the messenger to Zechariah and to Mary.

Luke chapter 2 tells of the journey to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, and the celebration in heaven where the worship spilled over to the Earth. Matthew 2 picks up the story a time later, when the Magi came looking for the king. They had seen a star rise and interpreted it as the sign of a king’s birth. Once in Jerusalem, the star led them to Bethlehem, where it no longer moved.

Herod knew the prophecy of the birth of a king, and when he heard the Magi were looking for him, Herod was scared for his own future. He schemed to get the Magi to lead him to the infant king and sent them to find Him. They did find Jesus and presented Him with the expensive gifts that we all know—gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod.

Joseph was then warned to take his family to safety in Egypt. When Herod realized the Magi wouldn’t be telling him where to find the infant king, he ordered his men to kill all the boys in Bethlehem who were two years old and under. But Jesus and His family were kept safe in Egypt until Joseph was again told to return home because Herod was dead.

So, Christmas is more than elves and reindeer, presents, family and parties. Christmas is a miraculous working of the Holy Spirit, foretold in Scripture, revealed in events, and it reveals the worst of mankind, politics, trickery, and murder. But in the end, the intricate weaving of events is the stage from which Jesus would be revealed decades later when the other baby of the Christmas story declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

It’s a huge story of intimate local events to global politics and stellar movements. It would be impossible to put together unless you were writing about it from a perspective of knowing the end from the beginning. Matthew and Luke were inspired to write by the Holy Spirit. That’s our God. At the time of our first sin, he already knew the plan of redemption, of how he would fix the mess we made. Jesus, the Lord saves. Merry Christmas!

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