This month I’m reflecting in thankfulness and praise for the faithfulness of those among us who give, or who gave, so very much of themselves to Christ and his church. 

 

First, I am so very thankful for our seniors! We have a very active group of church-family members in their 80s & 90s. Many of them struggle walking. But they make it a point to regularly come to worship services, Bible studies, and fellowship activities, including the Advent & Lent Wednesday meals and devotionals. They really work hard in getting here and suffer a great deal of discomfort coming to church! For our seniors, to come to church comes at a great cost to them. (And I realize too how much effort it takes among those of us with children to get the kiddos out of bed, fed, and dressed to come to church. It’s no easy thing.) They set for us a good example of faithful living and serving. It would be so much easier to stay home. But they don’t! They continue to be active among us in obedience to their love and faith in Christ Jesus. Their example provides me hope as I look to my own future elder years. I pray that we all might continue to have the deep-seated faith and desire to struggle through the pain and hardship of old age to come to worship and to fellowship among us, or to struggle through whatever might prevent us from fully participating in worship and the other various church activities we do to grow in faith as disciples of Christ. 

 

Second, I’m deeply moved by the efforts of our volunteers, by which I offer thanks and praise to God for their faithfulness and dedicated work in and around the church building. This summer, I watched one young mother and her family create and setup most, if not all, of the VBS decorations, and, along with a few other volunteers, build the church float for the Parma 4th of July parade. I watched another of our volunteers on a very hot summer day work all day long doing a very physically demanding job on our church property. Plus, it was such a blessing to watch as this same volunteer worked to repair our parking lot over the course of coming a few hours at a time over the course of many weeks! In the weeks and days leading up to the rummage sale, I watched as a number of volunteers came in day after day to organize and setup. And then on the days of the sale they came in to staff the event. In another example of great volunteer work, I watched one of our newest members come in day after day, hour after hour, for weeks on end, to scrub the floorboards throughout the building on her hands and knees! There is another volunteer who comes in for a couple of hours every day to do odd jobs in the building. And still another volunteer who comes in often to help setup worship services, and do odd jobs in the building, and to work to start a new ministry. Such selfless dedication in service to Jesus and his church is inspiring and motivating to me and to us all to follow their example!  

 

This spring and summer, and now into the fall, I’ve been watching our church administrator give up her days off to volunteer to take on the director duties of the Cleveland Hunger Network’s largest most active hunger center here at the Parma Hunger Center, which is Parma Lutheran Church’s biggest most active and longest running community ministry, rather than see it disbanded. And that goes for all the Parma Hunger Center volunteers who by their selfless work continue the work of Jesus in feeding the hungry! Many of our Parma Hunger Center volunteers have been volunteering for many years!  Just imagine those who got the hunger center going all those 60 years ago or so, and then those who volunteered throughout the proceeding years to make it grow into what it is today! 

 

Let us thank God for all those among us who by their faithful efforts do so very much for Christ and for us. Amen.   

 

Journeying together with you in faith,

Pastor “Jay” Plummer