Author Archives: smcalhoon
Lent Devotions
February 21
Lydia Keesmaat Walsh is a camper and S.W.i.M. (Student Working in Mission) volunteer, learning more about the ministry at Camp Fowler.
Mark 1:12-15
In the wilderness, Jesus encounters three things—things that tell us not only about Jesus, but about the wilderness. First we learn that he was tempted by the devil. Here we see that the wilderness is a dangerous place, a place where you can forget who you are, where you can completely lose your way. Next we hear that Jesus is with the wild beasts. But they don’t seem to be a threat to him—he is living in communion with them, showing that the wilderness can become a place of communion as well—a place where you can find your true self, in communion with creation. And third, he is ministered to by the angels. This should be a reminder to us that, even for Jesus, the wilderness can be a place of total dependence where you can be ministered to, just as Israel was ministered to during the exodus. So the wilderness here is a place of deep spiritual meaning and closeness with God.
I think that at some point in our life we all find ourselves in the wilderness. We struggle with temptation; we feel totally, completely lost; sometimes we feel as if we don’t even know who we are. And in those times of wilderness it’s important not to focus on that first aspect of the wilderness, but to look for the community that Jesus found in creation. Go for a walk, watch the sunset, sit outside with a handful of birdseed and see who comes for a snack. And trust God that he will care for you as he cared for the Israelites after leading them out of Egypt. Find that communion with creation, find who you really are, and you will find your true calling, your true self, and your way home.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, here in this wilderness of life, help us to turn our backs on the evil and embrace the good. Help us to enter into communion with creation and a trusting relationship with you.
For this year’s Lent devotions, the days follow the Common Lectionary texts. Each author was invited to:
Read the passage.
Read a couple passages before and after the assigned day.
Do something else for the day, keeping the passage in mind.
Find a word/phrase/concept that connects with your own experience. Reflect on that.
You are encouraged to do the same.
Lent Devotions
February 20
Becca Flinker is on summer staff at Camp Fowler and is currently a senior at Hope College, studying music.
Mark 1:9-11
“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.”
How often I forget that Jesus humbled himself before his Father and was baptized! It seems like such a human thing to do. And indeed, admitting all human-ness, he chose to be washed and renewed in the Jordan River. He set an example for all of us, demonstrating that we are never too important to humble ourselves before the Lord.
I often need to ask the Lord to help me remember that just as God claimed Jesus in that moment—“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased”—so he has also acknowledged me. Even in all my brokenness and doubt, I have been marked as a beloved child of the Creator. What a gift!
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for setting such a brilliant example for how we should live. Draw my attention to the ways in which I can submit to your will and teach me to walk in your ways.
For this year’s Lent devotions, the days follow the Common Lectionary texts. Each author was invited to: 1.Read the passage.
2.Read a couple passages before and after the assigned day.
3.Do something else for the day, keeping the passage in mind.
4.Find a word/phrase/concept that connects with your own experience. Reflect on that.
You are encouraged to do the same.
Lent Devotions
February 19
Jeremy Bork is a volunteer cabin counselor at Camp Fowler and a student at Western Theological Seminary under care of Schenectady Classis.
1 Peter 3:18-22
We have begun a new season in the Christian year. After moving from Advent through Christmas and Epiphany, we find ourselves in Lent. It’s the time of the year when we remember and await the death and resurrection of Jesus. Like the life of a Christian, it is a season of living in the tension: of the already and the not yet, of life and death, of celebration and suffering. Some are living in this tension right now.
“Christ also suffered for sins once for all…in order to bring you to God.” We worship a God who suffers with us while drawing us toward God’s self—who invites us to be in relationship with God and with each other. To be in Christ is to be in union with all those who are in Christ. We are not alone. Lent is an invitation to be drawn closer to God and to one another, and this invitation invokes a response.
We’re all invited to participate in God’s redemption of creation. God has made and is making and will make all things new. Just as Christ was made alive in the spirit, we too are made alive in Christ. Looking to this hope, we live more fully into the present. Lent is a time to look at what the Lord has done and is doing and will do for the whole world.
Prayer: God of tension, when the brokenness and pain of this world seems to overpower joy and life, may we open our hearts, minds, and souls to see that you suffer with us. As you give us life through the Spirit, may we live more fully here and now, looking toward a future where you will wipe every tear from our eyes. Amen.
For this year’s Lent devotions, the days follow the Common Lectionary texts. Each author was invited to: 1.Read the passage.
2.Read a couple passages before and after the assigned day.
3.Do something else for the day, keeping the passage in mind.
4.Find a word/phrase/concept that connects with your own experience. Reflect on that.
You are encouraged to do the same.
Lent Devotions
February 18
Ash Wednesday
Gretchen Schoon Tanis was on summer staff at Camp Fowler and has her doctorate in ministry. She has worked as an adjunct instructor in youth ministry at Western Theological Seminary.
Psalm 51:1-17
With the beginning of Lent and the reading of Psalm 51, I can’t help but think of my favorite scene from the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins), who has been wrongly imprisoned for years, finally digs his way to freedom one night during a thunderstorm and emerges in a river outside of the prison walls. He stands up in that river and sheds his prison uniform under the waters of the falling rain.
The scripture passage for today interplays with this scene in my mind. The psalmist says, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” Put another way, our sin is like that of a prison uniform that announces our sin. But the psalmist also cries out to God, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.” The waters of baptism, as we die to ourselves and rise with Christ, have the power of that river to shed us of the uniform of guilt, and we are washed clean with the power of that thunderstorm rain.
Prayer: During this season of Lent may our prayer rise up together: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.”
For this year’s Lent devotions, the days follow the Common Lectionary texts. Each author was invited to: 1.Read the passage.
2.Read a couple passages before and after the assigned day.
3.Do something else for the day, keeping the passage in mind.
4.Find a word/phrase/concept that connects with your own experience. Reflect on that.
You are encouraged to do the same.
Our Youth Group is having a bake sale this Sunday
The bake sale will help the youth group raise money to make a purchase from Heifer International
Click the link below for more information on Heifer International
Youth Group donates $500 to the St Croix Animal Welfare Center
The Youth Group volunteers at the shelter cleaning cages, bathing puppies, and giving the animals much needed tender loving care.
Join us for a concert Sunday, February 8th at 5:30pm
Click the link below for some samples of Susan Leviton’s work
Susan Leviton, one of only a handful of people today exploring and sharing the tradition of women’s a cappella singing in Yiddish, was not always a big supporter of all things Yiddish. In fact, she says, singing Yiddish was pretty much off her radar screen until she moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1984. What changed in Harrisburg was that she heard the Old World Folk Band, an instrumental group playing Klezmer (eastern European Jewish music), and soon became their vocalist.
Performing over the years with the Old World Folk Band and other instrumentalists and as a solo vocalist, Leviton says she has found that no matter how removed audience members may be from Jewish culture and Yiddish song, the material’s message and beauty bridge gaps when she does her job of thoroughly understanding and then communicating each word of a lyric and the emotional connections they create.
Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols Candle Light Service at 5:30pm
Please join us for lessons and candle light service tonight at 5:30pm
St Croix Reformed Church 
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