Page 4 - June 2018 Traveler

From the Pastor’s Study…

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James 2: If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says
to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their
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bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

The other day I received a phone call that many pastors wait for their entire ministry. The per-
son on the other end of the line said, “Hello pastor Pat, I’ve been hearing about what you are
all up to at your church.” When I heard those words from the caller I nearly jumped for joy!
Someone has “heard” about us! Which means people in the community are talking about
Trinity and in a good way. Can life and ministry get any better? Why yes, it can, because this
same person was so impressed with what we were doing with our garden ministry, that she

shared with me that she and her family will be coming to visit our congregation sometime in
the coming weeks, because they are looking for a church. I am fairly sure I heard the angels
sing at that moment. Ha!

So, I share this conversation with all of you so that you might be strengthened in your work as
you continue to share with people out in the Durand and Davis community about this amaz-
ing place called Trinity Lutheran Church. You have started engaging with the people you inter-

act with on a daily basis and sharing our story with those folks and it is starting to pay off.
People are hearing about the exciting ministries we do here and they are impressed. Every
day now I see people pull into our parking lot, look at our Blessing Boxes and drive into the
back to look at our garden—people are noticing that we don’t just talk about caring for the
poor and hungry, we are actually doing something about it.

I know that not only are some of you engaging others and sharing our stories but you are also
inviting others to join us in our ministry—I appreciate that, thank you, and I ask you to keep

up the good work!! What I know for a fact is that people in our modern context now want to
be part of something that will make a difference in the world. They are not especially inter-
ested in just coming and sitting in a pew for an hour once a week. They want to be a part of
something bigger than themselves and they want to be part of a group of people who actually
make Jesus present through their actions—it’s just not good enough to talk about Jesus, they
want Jesus to actually be there! Actually, I would hope that all of us want that too!

So again my friends, thank you for engaging and inviting—your work is so very important so
that others might hear this amazing news we have to share about God in Jesus Christ!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Pat

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