Abiding Savior Lutheran Church issued the following announcement on Nov. 9.
Yesterday we began our Stewardship Program with the theme "Remember." Bonnie R. shares her thoughts about remembering:
How long have you been a member of Abiding Savior? What are your early memories of belonging to this church? Who are the individuals who stand out in your mind?
We have been members here for over forty years. The first person who comes to my mind is Harold Saffell. Harold always put his church first. He wanted the best for us and he wanted us to be generous with our resources. To that end, he left a significant amount of money to this church. He didn’t tell us how to spend it, but we knew he would want us to reach out to the community. And so for years we designated the interest on the money to help the community as well as to maintain our property. We were comfortable knowing that the money would be there for us for a long time if we continued to be generous as well. The Israelites in the wilderness had that same assurance with the manna that God provided for them daily. We live with confidence in God’s continuing care.
This year 2020 has given us time to think about the role of our church in our lives. We miss being together. We miss the joy of greeting each other on Sunday mornings, the joy of singing hymns together. But perhaps this has made us more aware of what is going on around us. We are aware of those who lack the resources to feed their families because of being laid off. We are aware of those whose work puts them at risk for illness.
Many in the congregation remember the ways our congregation has been generous to the community. We continue to bake cookies for milk, to collect items for the Pantry, to reach out to each other through phone calls and cards.
We no longer have Harold to lead our generosity, but we remember him as a role model. We have been blessed as a congregation. Through our generosity we will continue to thrive. We will continue to be God’s Hands in the world. May each of us be a generous role model for future generations in our congregation.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up