– Isaiah 55:10-11

Beloved of God,

In January of each New Year we invest some time looking back at the trail of “mission footprints” our congregation left behind during the previous 12 months; and then we turn our eyes and energies toward the future.  What will 2015 have in store for us and the mission we share?  Already there are promising signs.  During the final days of 2014 we entered into an agreement with a Korean Mission Congregation led by Pastor Chulhyuk Ko, in which we will offer our building for their use.  They held their first Sunday service at Peace on January 4th and will be using our facility twice weekly, on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday mornings.  If you’re around Peace during those times, I encourage you to introduce yourself and welcome these new sisters and brothers in Christ!  We have invited them to join us for Sunday worship and potluck on January 25th, Annual Meeting Sunday, and hopefully they will be able to come.  As we continue with our annual meeting in the fellowship hall, we may very well hear the sounds of their singing above us!

In addition to the Korean congregation, 2015 will see the expanded use of our facility by other community groups.  This is a wonderful development and confirms the goals which inspired our Capital Campaign: updated facilities that can be more fully utilized as a base for mission and interfacing with the larger community.   Additional groups we expect to welcome at Peace during 2015 include Mary’s Place, a full-service resource for homeless women and children, with whom we are in conversation about hosting homeless families; Twelfth Night Productions, a West Seattle based theatre group with whom many of us are familiar (they’re working on a new production of GODSPEL as I write); and an additional Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step group.  God’s promise through the prophet Isaiah is that God’s word and God’s purposes, like rain and snow, will indeed accomplish those tasks for which they are sent.  Our job, together, is to align ourselves with what God intends and is, in reality, already bringing about!

For me personally, this New Year is cause for additional reflection, for it was ten years ago this month that Chris and I and 6 month old baby Kai loaded up a U-Haul and headed north from our first family home in LaCenter to our new home base in West Seattle. 

It was no small move for us.  It was no small move for you.  But God had a purpose in mind, and God has been faithful in building what I feel is a splendid partnership between pastor and people over the past decade.  The words I wrote ten years ago in my first Pastor’s Pen article seem fitting to include here:

As I write, our home in La Center is a scene of chaos: half-packed boxes are strewn about and pieces of packing tape and wrapping paper litter the floor; meanwhile the opening of each closet, drawer, and cabinet evokes a sigh while simultaneously demanding more sorting and decision making…you get the picture.  Transitions are never easy.  At times like this we need the assurance that something other than our self is at work compelling the move!  And that, surely, is our conviction. 

In many ways, the story of God’s people that unfolds in the Scriptures is a story of transition.  Beginning with Abraham and Sarah, generation after generation of God’s people journeyed into unknown futures with the conviction that God was guiding them and would fulfill God’s promises to them.  As our journey together begins this month, we place our trust once more in the God who fashions order out of chaos and who faithfully accompanies those who place their trust in God’s word.  May our journey be one marked with joy, grace, and companionship!

 New Year Blessings!

Pastor Erik