Garvin Moore: The Navigator

I was raised in the Methodist Church down South, which meant going to Sunday School every Sunday with the rest of the kids. It was interesting, full of good stories, but not much different from going to regular school during the week. I didn’t go to church much during two years in the Navy, of four years of college. I didn’t make a personal relationship with Jesus until I went to a religious camp for a week at the invitation of a friend from work. While there I met a young man from a group called the Navigators. He was able to make Jesus real for me. He also invited me to attend a Billy Graham rally in New York, where I went forward with others to commit myself to Jesus.

I graduated from MIT, but needed to lean on Jesus for support when I got into difficulty as a graduate student, and battled depression for years. HE helped me get my life back on track during a career as an engineer with the Raytheon Company, and later on when I battled lymphoma contracted on my eightieth birthday. Since my Billy Graham experience, church has been a vital part of my life. I try not to miss it.

Ray Lemieux: Finding Calvary

For several years my wife and I were looking for a new church that would help us to feel close to God again. We were checking on the Internet, and talking to others about their churches. After a while, we even thought that we might go back to our former church and try to make a go there. In 2009, through God’s hand (we believe), we found out there was a town-wide Thanksgiving Ecumenical service being held at Calvary.

We decided to attend the service to see what Calvary was about. The first thing that we noticed was how friendly the people were. We barely got in the door when someone approached us and asked if we were new or “eight o’clockers”. We mentioned that we were from another church and the welcome was quite appreciated. During the PEACE, we were asked by several other people if we were new. The moving around and greeting others during the PEACE was new to us. We asked a few questions of those that approached us, and everyone was very up-beat about Calvary. After the service we got to meet Rev. Thea and she asked if we were visiting.

We fell in love with Calvary that day and came back the next week. After a few weeks, Rev. Thea asked if she could talk to us in her office. Although, we both are usually quiet and reserved, after talking to Thea, we volunteered to be ushers, and the rest is history.

We trusted God to show us the way, and He did.
This photograph of the altar at Calvary Episcopal Church was taken by Greg West.

Sally Gamble: You are not Forgotten

Many years ago in the early 60’s I was in a bad place. I was married but had lost my first two children. With my third I had to spend 6 months in bed. What a miracle, I had a beautiful healthy son. But, the cycle continued. Two more losses and I had 1 more son. This continued until finally I had one more son and a daughter but had spent almost 2 years in bed in the process. I had prayed for children but thought had God was punishing me in some way by taking my children. Counseling was not offered at that time, you just got through it on your own. I felt lost and thought that he had forgotten me.

A few years later when I was on Vestry we had a vestry retreat day. We were asked to tell the person next us something that troubled us but nobody knew about. I was lucky enough to have John Joyce as my partner. He listened carefully and was very comforting and made me feel as if someone cared. About a month later Donna called and invited me to a healing service for people who had lost children. It was just what I had needed and I will forever be grateful to her for her kindness. I learned that God did care and was helping me in a way I hadn’t realized. I highly recommend it to anyone who has lost a child. It was a great help in my healing process.

Gina Burke: Comes the Dawn

Comes the Dawn by Veronica A. Shoffstall

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security,
And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises,
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes open
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,
And you learn to build all your roads on today,
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans,
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
That even sunshine burns if you get too much.
you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure...
That you really are strong,
And you really do have worth.
And you learn and learn...
With every goodbye you learn.

This poem has always reminded me about my relationship with God and it seems to resurface at the exact moment I need it the most. I trust that God will help me find strength through adversity and although I am not promised an easy road, or even an uncomplicated one, I always have the opportunity to start again. When I read this poem I remember that my trust in God is really about his belief in me.I trust God to be my source of strength so that I can “accept my defeats” and “decorate my own soul”. I trust him to remind me that we all need to cultivate resilience because if we don’t get up after being knocked down we can’t live lives that honor him. If we don’t learn from our mistakes and trust God to open those proverbial windows then we won’t be able to experience the happiness that is intended for each of us.

Most recently I heard this poem at a colleague’s memorial service. The woman we gathered to remember had experienced her share of defeats and setbacks. What struck me throughout the service was how many friends she had from all walks of life. There were countless stories shared about her warmth, her generosity, and her love of life. Her ability to persevere and give to others made her a truly wonderful person. I trust that God will be there with me throughout my life to remind me that I have the strength to be the kind of person she was, the kind of person that I want to be.

Bill Hooper: Saying Goodbye

The theme of the Lenten Blog is "Trust in God" which may be more easily said than done. Barbara, Joan and I recently had an opportunity to place our trust in God's plan for us.

Our Family had a Siberian Husky named Shamrock, a gentle giant who loved to take walks and never, never missed a meal or snack. He had been rescued more than four years ago but now, at age 14, found life a struggle. God intervened, made us more aware of Shamrock's needs and guided us through the decision to end Shamrock's life. Simply put, we had to trust our hearts.

What might have been an emotionally devastating day turned into a spiritually uplifting event. The Knitting Ministry and other congregants became involved in Shamrock's last days by providing a Prayer Shawl and heartfelt wishes of support. Rev. Thea agreed to offer a special blessing on Shamrock's last day. The beauty of God's plan quickly became evident when we wrapped Shamrock in the Prayer Shawl while Rev. Thea spoke the blessing for our faithful animal companion and for ourselves as good stewards of God's creatures.

We continued on to the Animal Hospital where the staff greeted us with kindness and compassion understanding the difficult decision we were undertaking. They did not know how much easier the decision was once we placed our trust in God. Again, we wrapped Shamrock in the Prayer Shawl and held him to help calm his fears while the medicine was administered. God took him quickly and quietly. The staff withdrew to give us the time we needed to grieve the loss of a loyal dog. When we were done, we symbolically covered Shamrock with the Shawl to return him to God's Domain.

The day ended with each of us remembering our animal friend's life and last day. The day also ended with joy in our hearts knowing we had placed our trust in God and He had rewarded our trust by making us comfortable with the one decision beneficial for Shamrock.

Later that day a phrase from a song I heard years ago crossed my mind. It seemed to reaffirm our need to trust in God: "Don't let the light go out. Let it shine through our love and our tears."

Thanks be to God for all of His creation.

Diane Kessler: Stitch by Stich

The women sit in the parlor in a loose circle. It is Tuesday morning and time for the prayer shawl knitters to gather. Their hands are busy and they visit about this and that until someone – and it can be anyone in the group – announces, “Let us pray.” All quiets as a candle is lit. There are many prayers for prayer shawl communities. The prayer chosen always seems to be appropriate for the day, even if only through a line or two within it. I sit quietly and listen with my heart open and my mind at peace. This is the group (along with the choir) that did so much for me when I was lonely and afraid, that welcomed me in with open arms and taught me not only how to knit, but also how to re-enter a faith community. This is a group that lives by faith and knits it into every shawl produced. They are ready to wrap anyone in need in warmth and love. I am a grateful recipient of their bountiful gifts, and I give thanks for what they have done to rebuild my trust in God stitch by stitch every Tuesday morning.

Nancy Gilman: That Little Voice

After saying I would write on the subject of “Trusting God” I quickly found I was not sure where to begin. To me one of the greatest gifts of my faith has been the freedom to “let go and let God” as the saying goes and experience a certain amount of freedom from worry, glimpses of what it must be like to live as a lily of the field. When I see a friend without a spiritual path struggling with the weight of the world on their shoulders, my heart goes out to them while I thank God I am on a different journey. Yet I find myself just as often being humbled by my failure to trust God, and thanking God for being more persistent than I am obstinate.

As a child it seemed obvious and easy to turn to God for the big stuff, a favorite relative dying, moving 500 miles away, getting my own room etc…As a teenager it seemed that God was there but as distant and disconnected from the daily details of my life as the societies of biblical times were from modern America. If one were careful one might catch glimpses of God during Holy Week but certainly not when trying to decide what’s for dinner. However in college as I did crazy things like do a junior year abroad and still finish a Mechanical Engineering degree from MIT in the 3 years remaining, a series of blessings came to me, and I became convinced that the Holy Spirit had to be looking out for me. There is something about being perpetually short on sleep that makes it easier to believe that the little voice might be divinely inspired. It is a belief that has continued to serve me well, however imperfectly I listen. It was then that I fell in love with Lent, as a time to make changes and clean my spiritual house, so that I could hear that little voice from my heart over the din of the many voices in my head.

Fast forward to Epiphany 2010. Our family was without a church home. I had the naïve idea that we didn’t require all that much. A church that would accept all of us as we were; my loving passionate 6-year-old who wanted her communion her way, my precocious 9-year-old who had out grown the concept of God as a Santa Claus figure and wanted more than pretty pictures from Sunday School, my husband the musician, and me the cradle Episcopalian with a preference of congregations that are prepared to embrace change and grow. I went online and made a list. Something about Calvary’s Website that caught my attention, but it was SO far away. We spent Lent going to the closest fit of those that were close but that little voice was hesitant to declare the search over and after a most unsatisfying Easter service, we started anew. We gradually started increasing the distance but didn’t find anything we liked better. I was rather mad at that little voice and thoroughly discouraged by this point. I can remember telling God “IS IT REALLY TOO MUCH TO ASK!!"

Then one day when I was already late to work but needed that one thing from the grocery store, I parked next to a white car with a Calvary bumper sticker. The first time I saw it, it merely reminded me of how mad I was at God so I went in and got what I needed. The second time I saw it I was “too busy” and Danvers too far away so I threw my bag in the car and started on my way. As I was leaving, my eyes were drawn to the bumper sticker a third time and finally I decided to trust one more time and I turned around and went back and left a note for the owner of the car and it felt good. And so we found ourselves at Calvary for the first time at Pentecost, celebrating the gift of Holy Spirit, as present in our lives today as in the lives of the disciples 2,000 years ago.