In the first chapter of Isaiah, God is fed up with the Israelites’ empty actions without the right motives of the heart. I can relate to that: Sometimes when a child tells me she/he is sorry for doing something wrong, I will reply, “Show me you are sorry by not doing it again.” This is usually said to a child who continues to do the very thing for which she/he claims to be sorry. I am irritated that he/she doesn’t seem to really mean it.

Similarly, in Psalm 40, David comes to this realization that God doesn’t want us just going through the motions for appearances’ sake. God doesn’t want us attending church, giving to the church, or doing charitable works because we think we are supposed to do it, the way my students think “I am supposed to say I’m sorry so I won’t get in trouble.”

No, God wants us to actually desire to do those things…to have a willing heart behind our actions. Now, that is a tall order! But what better time to be reminded of this, than on the first day of December? As you think about each upcoming holiday “to-do” item, ask yourself “Am I doing this because I want to or because I think I should?”

My Advent prayer is that you can joyfully delight in the season that celebrates God’s greatest gift, instead of just “going through the motions.”

Psalm 25

This is a prayer for strength to keep going. Many times we discuss how, as Christians, we need to find and get on the right path to God, but here is a person who feels he has found the way but is having trouble staying true to the right path. It’s not easy; his enemies have set traps and he is viciously hated. It struck me that the writer does not ask God to destroy his enemies. He asks for mercy and protection.

This psalm resonates with me because it is many times easier to have conviction than to act on it and even harder to continue to act over time alone. You can know that you are treading on the right path, but if you are walking alone on an unpopular road, you may have nothing to rely on but faith. Three years ago, we were at risk of losing our daughter to the nastiness of other children and depression. Going to school was a daily torture, and I could see her sweetness and self-confidence slipping away a little bit every day. We were terribly discouraged. I was told that she merely needed to toughen up, and she would be fine. Others wanted to send her to a private school where I feared she would be snubbed even more. Then, one night I was meditating, and God spoke to me. I realized that all she needed was time and love, both of which I had. She needed to be shown every day that someone loved her enough to ignore convention and think solely of her. Committing to pulling her out of a traditional school setting and putting my needs on the back burner was the easy part; actually doing it was terrifying. Many days I prayed, like the psalmist, for God to “point out the road for me to follow [and] lead me by your truth and teach me.” It was a leap of faith to believe that I could lead my child through a difficult few years with only my love and faith to guide me, and it was not always an easy path. We encountered many twists and turns and had to grit our teeth through some bumpy patches, but we did it. After two years, she successfully rejoined the traditional teenage track and is thriving. When we are on God’s path, we need only have faith and say “I put my hope in you.”

By Susan Steinberg

Lightning, thunder and rain cracked the skies open 30 minutes before this year’s Blessing of the Animals was set to begin. It looked like a hurricane out there — wind blowing the torrential rain sideways, water running in rivers across the parking lot and over the curbs. We’d told our congregants that in the event of rain we would move the service from the lawn into fellowship hall, but we hadn’t imagined this kind of rain.

While the youth director, musicians and I waited to see if anyone would venture out, the youth director’s cell phone rang. “Oscar’s coming,” he said after he hung up. “Who is Oscar?” I asked. The answer: “Megan’s corn snake.” Megan is one of those kids every youth leader dreams of — mature beyond her years, organized, a draw for other kids — and there would be no denying her pet a blessing, despite the role of this particular reptile within Christian tradition and my own ambivalent feelings about touching his scaly head.

In our three previous services I had asked God’s blessing on a rabbit, a duckling and a guinea pig, so I thought I was prepared for the rare animal amidst all the dogs and cats. But my imagination wasn’t great enough to conjure up a serpent.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made,” the Bible says in Genesis. The serpent led Eve to temptation, and a sullied reputation has followed its slithery path ever since. Women, myself included, have never gotten along too well with these long, slick, deviouslooking beings. Was there a redemptive story about serpents in the Bible? I did a quick mental scan — nothing. I had ten minutes to find one.

We had never invited animals into fellowship hall before, and we were a bit apprehensive. So we set up our makeshift seating arrangement, green plastic lawn chairs interspersed with small red buckets of drinking water, along the walls of a wide entryway with double doors to the outside — just in case. Ten chairs would be plenty, we thought; with the weather, we’d be lucky if that many people turned out.

But to our surprise, families started rambling in at thye appointed time. Drenched, yet intent on having their pets blessed, they made their way to our worship area: a father, pulled along by his two young sons and two Labradoodles; a grandfather, his energetic four-year-old granddaughter and little white dog; another father, his two red-headed children and their snowy white cat, who lay regally on a soft padded cat bed, just a foot from the dogs on either side, the picture of indifference in the face of imminent danger. Then Megan and Oscar arrived as promised. And more people. In the end we had to pull out fifteen extra chairs.

The gathering music began and a remarkable quiet descended on the half-human, half-beast crowd. A fi fth-grade girl came forward to read from Genesis, Chapter 1: “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind, creeping things and wild animals of every kind … And God saw that it was good.” This was the theological lens I’d been so anxiously searching for, the lens I needed to see Oscar through. If, at the beginning of time, God thought his ancestors were all right, he must be too. I could relax.

After the scripture reading I began working my way around the oblong worship space, asking each family to introduce their pet to the group and to tell us one special thing about him or her. “This is Sam and he loves popcorn,” said a nine-year-old girl about her golden retriever. “This is Mazy and she’s trained to help children learn how to read,” the Labrador’s owner proudly announced. “This is Hildegard. We just got her from the Animal Protection Society,” the young couple reported about their new mixed breed.

I put my hand on the cage that housed Megan’s younger brother’s pet, Carson the cockatiel, blessed the bird, and the time arrived — it was Oscar’s turn.

What did Megan want to tell us about him? “He’s probably hungry, since he only eats every other week and it’s been a week and a half.” The interior calm that had mercifully replaced my initial anxiety vanished. Lapsing into a mode of visceral fear, I blurted out, “Do I need to be worried about Oscar’s hunger?”

“He’s not going to take a bite out of you,” Megan assured me. He was stretched out along her arm very peacefully; he seemed content. I slowly put my fi ngertips on his spoon-shaped black head, which was remarkably delicate to the touch. “God bless all living creatures,” I said, my hand just below his eyes. Thirty congregants responded, “And God bless Oscar.” I was unscathed and there was nothing more I needed to say, so I moved on to the next pet, humbled by my trepidation about coming in contact with a harmless snake.

What Oscar experienced during his blessing will remain forever a mystery, but as the service concluded I realized he had given me a gift — a reminder that one of the church’s most urgent callings in this violence-ridden world is to affi rm the goodness of creation, creeping things and all, whenever we get the chance. And that encouragement, to offer a word of grace when I might choose otherwise, was Oscar’s blessing to me.

by Henning V.

My one year of community service, organized by United Church of Chapel Hill, is almost over for me now. I have gained a lot of experiences, received a lot of impressions and a lot has happened during my year here in Chapel Hill.

But before I am really able to evaluate my community service, I have to remember why I actually decided to come here, thousands of miles away from my family, my friends and my girlfriend.

Certainly one reason was to improve my language skills. Although my English is far from being perfect, I feel more confident and more secure when I speak it. Since here in North Carolina the number of the Spanish speaking population is high, I hoped to also improve my Spanish. Due to other focuses in my projects, I wasn’t able to use my Spanish very often, but I guess I’ll have more opportunities in the future.

It also appealed to me to live in another country for a year and to get to know another culture. Unconsciously I compared both countries, Germany and the United States, to each other all the time and could find many similarities but some differences as well. Many people asked me about those differences and it was hard for me to answer, because I felt like I was seen as the German ambassador. Sometimes I had to justify things, or I was praised for something, that I wasn’t connected to at all.

Other reasons for my community service were to gain some distance from my parents, to become more independent and to see more of the world than Cologne, Germany and Europe. I think this worked out pretty well.
In total I lived with four different families with whom I had a great time. At this point I want to thank Tye and Wanda H., Jeff and Cindy K., Ernest and Eunice K. and Tim and Leslie D. and their daughter Hannah. I became friends with all of them very quickly, and it was hard to move on to the next family after three months, just when we really got to know each other. Every family had their own characteristics, habits and was special in their own way and I really enjoyed living with all four families.

Before I arrived here in Chapel Hill I hadn’t really thought about what it means to get to know so many new people and to find new friends. But now I can say, that this is probably one of the most important parts of my community service. I will go back to Germany, knowing that I have a lot of good friends on the other side of the ocean and that I will be welcomed whenever I decide to come back.

Sam H., the son of my first host parents Tye and Wanda, and I became really good friends. Without him I wouldn’t have had such a great time here in Chapel Hill and I am really grateful for our friendship.

Another really important experience was to help other people through my work at my projects. This aspect probably came too short when I still lived in Cologne, because school, friends and sport-clubs are a good excuse to stay socially inactive. My community services showed me that it isn’t necessary to spend money or work for a good thing. Sometimes it’s just about having a conversation with a homeless person, when you show him that you respect and care about this person.

Seeing how many people appreciated my work at my different projects motivated me a lot and it was great to know that I could help people with my commitment. Another good part was that I enjoyed working at all my projects and was on good terms with my co-workers.

In conclusion I can say that I had a great time here in Chapel Hill and I want to thank the whole congregation for being so opened, welcoming and friendly to me. You made it easy for me to feel comfortable and respected at United Church and I am looking forward to seeing you again!

Pway Doh:
First of all I thank God for sending us to America. When we arrive in America, we got a lot of freedom and we are in a place that is safe. We are very happy.

I am especially thankful to Flicka and the church for taking care of us and helping us with everything. The church help us move into the apartment, give us furniture, food, give us transportation, teach us English, and are there for us when we get sick.

Since my husband had his accident, some of you may wonder if we wish we had never come to the US. No, we are still happy to be here. Our future will still be better here. There is more opportunity for us and for our children.

I wish that God will always go with you, fulfill your needs, and bless you all.

Paw Yey:
My mother gave birth to me under a tree. Soon after that the Burmese army came to our village, killed our animals, burned our homes, and killed our people. We left for a refugee camp where I lived for 23 years and 6 months. I went through horrible stuff there. But because of God, we got to America.

We were very thankful to God when we came to US on June 11, 2007. But we had no sponsor. Two people from the resettlement agency met us at the airport, took us to the apartment, and then left. For two days we lived there but did not know what to do-how to use electricity; how to cook; how to use the apartment-nothing. Then we met another Karen family in our apt complex who told us about our apartment.

Since we had no sponsor we worried how we were going to live. My parents and brother were on the approved list to leave the refugee camp and come to Chapel Hill. They changed their minds and decided to stay there when they heard how bad it was for us here without a sponsor. Star Thi and I prayed to God to open a door to help us through these problems. God answered by sending us Flicka —who then brought us Louise. They came so loving to us and help with everything.

Then Star Thi got bad news about the brain tumor. If he didn’t have surgery, he could not see and would be blind. We were very sad and also very afraid of the surgery. Then Flicka gave us hope and made us strong about the surgery. She brought us someone who had already had the surgery and who told us about how it was for him. She told us that everybody in the church pray for us. Not only do they pray for us but they give us money to cover our rent when Star Thi cannot work. We are so thankful for everyone in the church who is helping us and who gave to us. Without you, we could not live.

Jesus said, “Inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it to unto me.”

Thank you so much. God go with you and bless you and your church.