Friday, July 27, 2018 

Dear Friends, 

This week has been full of reminders of how beautiful and strong a community you are; we are, together. You know I’m completely biased, and so grateful to call myself your minister, but it really does bring joy and peace to hear from others, in and beyond this place, how you move, serve, and support so many. Colleagues in and around Lincoln sing your praise. So, too do extended family members of long ago members of Trinity. In the cards you send, the messages you place on the front sign, the arms of love that reach and catch those struggling and aching… in all these ways and more, you are living reminders of our living God. And in your often quiet but always clear ways, you are speaking Love, hope, and peace to a world that longs to know all are possible still. 

In my travels this week, re-integrating slowly but surely into life together, I’ve had the gift of spending a morning and then a lunch with our new Student Minister. Scott Beckett won’t be with us officially until September, but even now he is getting acquainted with the staff and many volunteers who will support and work with him through his Internship. It’s hard to know what to say that might summarize Trinity, Beamsville, as the faith family he will call home for eight months, but I hope and trust he started to catch glimpses of your collective resilience, your wonderful diversity, your faithfulness and wisdom, your spunk and wit and humour, and your unwavering care for God’s people. In speaking about you, I probably strayed into bragging about you, but I can’t apologize for that. Many a minister would love to be in this place, and many a student would be blessed to learn here. There’s no other way to say it. 

When we gather this Sunday morning, I suspect I’ll be a touch on the nervous side. I’ve been away for what feels like a hundred years and, as is also true for too many of you, our family life and emotions have been tumultuous all through it. Even so, I feel more steady and closer to strong when I am here, serving and being with you. In part, it’s the processing out loud. In larger part, it’s the mutual love and respect that fills and restores, and helps to make sense of it all. We may not have all the answers, but together we have trust in the power and promise of faith. With Jesus as both beacon and guide, we follow this strong thread together. 

With hope-filled love to you all, 

Heather 

“There’s a thread you follow. It goes among things that change. But it doesn’t change. 

People wonder about what you are pursuing. You have to explain about the thread. 

But it is hard for others to see. 

While you hold it you can’t get lost. 

Tragedies happen; people get hurt or die; and you suffer and get old. 

Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding. 

You don’t ever let go of the thread.” 

(William Stafford, ‘The Way It Is’, 1998