“…for there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it,
Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”
if only we’re brave enough to be it.”
Dear friends,
February is always an odd mix or snow and sunshine, frosty mornings and slowly lengthening days. So, we mix it up with looking to a groundhog to tell us how long the winter will last, and then showering each other with hearts and flowers.
At Edwards Church, we know the cold and snow of February can’t keep us from “doin’ church”! February is Black History Month, and we’ll be listening to learn and learning to become better at advocating for equality and acting for justice. This month we’ll be focusing on a mix of different topics and activities from our Annual Meeting, to hearing the words of Martin Luther King Jr., and Amanda Gorman, in worship, to putting our hands and hearts together in making quilts and blankets for the children at Sunrise School in Mumius, Kenya.
Sunrise School was created to provide special services and education to children with autism and other developmental challenges. Kenya offers so little support to these children, so their families come from all over the country and stay overnight in “The Cottage,” a hostel that was completed this fall. We’ll be sewing quilts and tying fleece blankets this winter for the hostel’s beds. What better way to wrap God’s love around these children and their families! You can read more about it here.
Whether we’re doing the business of the Church, looking with new eyes at our history, or coming together to create something that will touch the lives of others far away, it’s all the work of growing our hearts for Love’s sake. As Gorman so powerfully writes, “So we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another, we seek harm to none and harmony for all.”
Stay warm and well,
In faith,
Karen Nell