Calvary Lutheran Church has been active this summer, offering Vacation Bible School to children, feeding hungry children in Shute Park, welcoming homeless families to Calvary for dinner and a place to sleep, another series of special music for worship, Calvary youth taking a trip to the beach, the book club reading take this bread and Enricho’s Journey, the Wednesday Bible Study group learning about freedom in Christ from Paul’s letter to the Galations.  The summer has gone by fast.  If you haven’t taken time to breathe, please do.

Here’s a Spanish proverb.  “How blessed it is to do nothing, and rest afterwards.”  Here’s something I read in the comics last Sunday.  “They lived happily ever after, and then had pie.”  Here is the world’s best one sentence story I read in a book last week.  “When he woke up, the dragon was still there.”  Here’s something from the gospel of Mark.  “In the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”

The gospels don’t tell us what Jesus did on his vacations.  We know that he often went off alone and prayed and found new direction and strength for ministry.  I want to thank Ermine T and Virginia E for covering sermons and worship leadership while I was away on a short vacation.  I wish I could have been a fly on the wall and heard their sermons.  I also appreciate Virginia E providing on-call pastoral care while I was away.

The month of August, we’ll all be gearing up for fall programs at church.  Rally Sunday will be September 12.  That’s when Sunday School starts.    I am very excited about the upcoming opportunities for Youth at Calvary, including Confirmation, a High School class on Sunday mornings, fun youth events like bowling and lock-ins, and here’s a cool new thing; Calvary Lutheran Church, Hillsboro United Methodist Church and All Saint’s Episcopal Church will join together for food, games and Bible study, once a month on Sunday evenings.  The first one will be September 19 at 6:30 at Hillsboro United Methodist church.  I’ll have the rest listed somewhere in this newsletter.  Put them on your calendar.

Here’s another cool thing.  On Wednesday September 22, Calvary musicians will play at the Forest Grove Farmers’ Market from about 4:00 to 8:00 PM.  We’ll be practicing for that this month, too.

Calvary Lutheran Church is an alive and vital church.  You people of Calvary have been hearing the Word of God and listening to the Spirit and paying attention to the people around you and following Jesus’ way of love.  Keep up the good work!  Don’t forget to breathe.  And then let’s move forward together toward God’s sure and certain future.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Matthew