Author: Susan George

I love to read the books of the prophets in the Old Testament because they are God’s messages for a hurting and broken world. They instruct us how to live and how to do better, but they also share words of hope, healing, comfort, and love. I need to hear one of those messages, especially this year, so I’ve turned to the prophet Isaiah. 

One of my favorite passages is Isaiah 40, “Comfort, Comfort Ye my people!” In this passage God instructs the prophet to get up to a high mountain, to lift up his voice and say to those who are suffering, rest assured, “Here is your God. God is right here and has been here all along. You are not alone.”

The prophet addresses suffering people. They feel like they’ve been wandering in the dark, abandoned by God, and forgotten by the world. These people who long to hear some good news are given a prophet who climbs a mountain and looks out over the mass of suffering people and says, “Here is your God.”

We are the prophets today. We are the ones called to “Go tell it on a mountain” and proclaim the presence of a loving, steadfast God.

Last Saturday, we premiered this year’s Christmas musical offering, “Tis the Season: Music and Memories.” One of the songs we featured was a favorite from last year’s concert, “The Dream Isaiah Saw.”

The dream refers to the prophet Isaiah’s vision of God’s creation restored to peace and harmony through the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:1-5). It is the panoramic view of the future Messianic Kingdom. The song comes from a poem by Thomas H. Troeger, “Lion and Oxen Will Sleep in the Hay.” The composer Glenn Rudolph began to set this poem to music toward the end of July  2001.  Nineteen days after September 11, he completed this choral work. It captures the contrast of the chaotic world we live in with Isaiah’s dream calling for us to “walk in the light of the Lord.”

Here is an excerpt of the poem:

Peace will pervade more than forest and field:
God will transfigure the violence concealed
deep in the heart and in systems of gain,
ripe for the judgement the Lord will ordain.

Little child whose bed is straw,
take new lodgings in my heart.
Bring the dream Isaiah saw:
justice purifying law.

Nature reordered to match God’s intent,
nations obeying the call to repent,
all of creation completely restored,
filled with the knowledge and love of the Lord.

This is why we proclaim the prophetic message of hope, healing, comfort, and love while these dark days surround us.

We live in what often seems like a dark, divided, and dangerous world – a world so counter to the words like hope, peace, joy and love.  And yet, out of faith, out of conviction, and out of courage, we defy this darkness and proclaim that love has come: a light in the darkness. We proclaim the dream Isaiah saw, the dream Christ promised, and the dream Christ will ultimately fulfill.

We proclaim this good news and we wait, just as our mothers and fathers waited. We wait in the dark, we watch for the light. Each year, as the days grow short and the nights dark, as the years turn and turn again and though it strains our collective memory to do so, we remember. We remember that God came to us and lived among us, a peasant born to a Palestinian virgin, an itinerant preacher hated by the religious and executed by the powerful. We remember, and we wait for his return. But we will not wait in silence because the world needs to hear the promise of the light, a son, and a savior. 

You who bring good news to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good news to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”  (Isaiah 40:9)

It was late November, cold and brisk with snow on the mountains in the Laurel Highlands. Brad and I faintly heard the deep harmony of the 40 huge wind chimes as they blew in the stiff breeze. They call it the ‘tower of voices’ at the entrance of the Flight 93 memorial in rural western Pennsylvania. It greets those who arrive with wordless voices of inspiration from the 40 passengers and crew who selflessly gave their lives to save others on Sept. 11, 2001. On that morning we were unaware that we were already at war, until teams of terrorists hijacked and killed innocent people of all ages and destroyed more than iconic buildings. They tried to destroy our hope. 

As the hijack began on Flight 93, passengers called loved ones to say goodbye and then learned of the earlier attacks. That’s when these 40 strangers became a unified army of warriors. With unprecedented courage they fought back, sacrificing their lives in order to protect the lives of those they did not know. Instead of crashing into the White House as planned, this plane’s target was averted and saved. Tragically the plane was crashed into this empty field in Pennsylvania, killing everyone. This powerful, simple memorial is the hallowed resting place for these heroes. 

With all our current national discord and divisiveness, I yearn for the commitment seen on that airplane decades ago, that sets aside personal desires for one’s self and individual rights and instead chooses something far greater as a goal. Amid the many items left as memorials on this site, one note stood out to me. The letter simply said,
“I was near the White House that morning and I believe you saved my life. I promise not to waste it.”

What are you and I doing with the one precious life we have been given?

I hope we are not wasting it, after so many have and are working courageously in battles to protect us. My hope is that we can be unified to attack an enemy and not one another.

It made me think of others who became warriors, never expecting or volunteering to go to war. They find themselves selflessly fighting back and risking their own lives for our safety. This winter those warriors are our health care workers (family, neighbors, friends) who for the last nine months have been fighting the attacks of an unrelenting virus and courageously risking their lives to keep us safe.

Like those unsuspecting passengers, those nurses, doctors and health care workers did not sign up to work tirelessly in a pandemic that only seems to worsen. Thanks for these troops!  They are heroes to all of us. We already know that it will be a difficult Christmas season and we are reminded of the gift of the Savior who comes as a light in our darkened world.

In addition to sending Christmas cards and greetings to family & friends this year, I encourage you to send mail to these troops: the many health care workers, nursing home caregivers, and medical professions who are caring for us, protecting us from the threat of a raging virus. As well as a note, let’s make a commitment to assist them in this battle. By the ways I choose to live each day, I do my part to support these fearless troops.

Editor’s Note: On the first Thursday of each month (or close to it), the eNews feature article highlights the mission focus for the month. In December we’re lifting up the Christmas Joy offering and the organization that will receive a portion of that offering: the Community Check-Up Center in Harrisburg. Donate here. You can always find the current month’s mission focus in the Joys & Concerns section of the weekly eNews. 

First I would like to say thank you so very much for your support and dedication to the Community Checkup Center (CCC).  In March the world in which we live in changed very drastically, and the way we functioned in it did as well. Also in March I began my tenure with CCC. I think they call this baptism by fire!

All joking aside, it has been a bundle of mixed experiences. Since I began here at CCC it has been challenging, educational, scary, and rewarding.

Here at Community Checkup Center we have remained open during the entire pandemic. Since the start of the COVID crisis and leading up to today, we’ve had at least one employee quarantined for the required two-week period. In other words we haven’t had a full compilation of staff working since the start of the pandemic. This means that even though we were open we were operating on limited coverage.

I am very proud of our staff, because even though we were stretched thin they continued to stay very dedicated to our clinic and the community we serve.  They were and are very hard working front line workers, who I’m proud to say are true heroes during this time in our country.

At the beginning of the “stay at home” order people were not coming to clinic. Some didn’t come because of fear of getting the virus, and some didn’t come because they didn’t know we were open and seeing patients.  Our patient visits drastically dropped by 50% in March, April and part of May.  In June patients very gradually started to increase. In July when businesses were beginning to open and there were plans for schools to open and sports to begin, we began to start to fill up our schedules again with vaccines and physicals.

The challenges that we have been facing are first and foremost keeping everyone safe from this horrific virus. The lack of PPE and cleaning/sanitizing supplies, have made keeping the clinic open a balancing act. Doing our part in preventing the spread and honoring social distancing, has caused us to have to reduce the number of patients we can have at the clinic at one time. Reducing patient visits also correlates to loss of revenue. With having to social distance and spread out the wait time in between appointments, we still are unable to get back to the patient visit numbers that we once had. Without the revenue it makes it extremely hard to continue to provide the services to the community that is being hit the hardest by this crisis.

Nevertheless, we’re still providing the services despite all those challenges, and it’s because of people like you who support us and continue to reach out to see how you can help. In order to keep providing services, monetary donations that are unrestricted help us to apply the funds where they are most needed in times of great need. Thank you for partnering with us to provide healthcare to those most in need.

Derry Church is blessed by the many people who make up our church family.  In addition to their roles and leadership at church, they have often played important roles in the growth and development of the larger Hershey community. Hershey Community Archives’ oral history collection holds interviews with many Derry Church members. These interviews provide information about their lives and contributions to Derry and the community. Thanks to Pam Whitenack for sharing this profile with us.

Alma Payne Bobb is Derry’s oldest member. On November 29 she will celebrate her 107th birthday.

Born in 1913, Alma spent her summers in Harrisburg visiting her grandparents and extended family. Her earliest memories of Hershey were when she would come here for a picnic on top of Pat’s Hill. In her 1988 Hershey Community Archives oral history interview she said:  My grandfather would have been a contemporary of Milton Hershey. I remember my grandfather saying, “Oh, Mr. Hershey has some kind of a crazy idea of building a resort hotel up here. What won’t he think of next?” Pat’s Hill is where the hotel now has been erected, and, of course, Mr. Hershey’s dream for that hotel became a reality 

Alma had a career as a professional dancer, performing across the United States and in Europe. She appeared in vaudeville, which was a big thing in those days in presentation houses. In her interview, she related

Then I went to Europe in 1935. I was working over there almost a year. I went with a [dance] partner. We appeared at the Palladium Theater in London and doubled at the Savoy Hotel in their Supper Room. Then we played the Empire Theaters throughout England and Scotland. Then we went over onto the continent and worked in Paris and Budapest and Monte Carlo. 

As World War II threatened, she returned to the United States. In between bookings, she would often come to stay with her grandparents in Harrisburg. She met her husband, Jim Bobb, on a double date to go dancing. Jim was an excellent dancer and they soon started dating. They had a long courtship as Jim waited for Alma to be ready to leave her dancing career.

After they married, they first lived in an apartment building across from the Hershey Arena. Alma sought out many volunteer opportunities. During the war, she volunteered as an airplane spotter, watching from her station in the Milton Hershey School Senior Hall (now Catherine Hall) bell tower. She also trained as a convoy driver, serving in the American Red Cross Motor Corps, out of Harrisburg.

After the war, there really were not many volunteer opportunities for women in Hershey. Many women played bridge. Alma, seeking an outlet, sought out volunteer activities in Harrisburg. She remembered, 

So I have always been volunteer-minded because with Jim’s work, he did a lot of local volunteer work, in addition to his job. I got started in it, and I must admit it was not really for altruistic purposes; it was for an outlet for my energy. (Laughs) But later I became very interested and committed to volunteer work and to the idea that people owe their civic duty.

Alma’s duties as a spouse expanded when her husband was elected to the Hershey Trust Company Board of Directors and the Milton Hershey School Board of Managers. Many evenings were filled with business social affairs. Alma recalled,

As Hershey became a focal point for large meetings and association meetings, they would want a company official to send greetings or something. So we did a great deal of that, and there would be outside groups, the Milton Hershey School things, commencements, homecoming, things of that sort. We all participated in that, and that was part of the men’s jobs if they were on the boards, and their wives’. All commencement weekend, all homecoming weekend, and that took priority. That went with the jobs. But the nature of Jim’s job was that we would be entertained if he were invited, because of his position, to go to a big banquet of a large convention, and I would usually go with him if the wives were involved.

Hershey Junior College offered two years of free college education and Alma took advantage of that. She was the first full-time adult day student at Hershey Junior College She completed her education at Lebanon Valley College. At that time, there were not many middle-aged women attending college and Alma’s efforts were questioned at first.  Alma remembered:

It took me ten and a half years overall. What I learned was that I couldn’t do it halfway. I couldn’t go to a party one afternoon and then be in class the next, because if I weren’t in class, I had to study. So I had to set up some priorities. This gave me a complete break for a while from volunteer activities. I had paid my dues. Jim’s work took priority. Anything that he was involved in that required my presence, that came first. 

Alma devoted herself to her marriage and supporting her husband in his career. Following his death in 1982, Alma continued to live in Hershey. However, her son Woody and his family were living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1988 she moved there to be closer to her son. She returned to Hershey in 2011.

The last eight months have reminded me of the beauty of change.  Looking back to the beginning of March, I see our tried and true structure of Children’s Ministry here at Derry.  We gathered weekly for Sunday School, worship and KIWI, biweekly for Pilgrims, every Tuesday for choir rehearsals, and occasionally on other days for special events and fellowship opportunities. Life was good.  We had things under control.  We lived with a comfortable, routine schedule.

Fast forward eight months and here we are.  We still have worship and Sunday School and fellowship opportunities, but they certainly are different. We are slowly starting to have more routine weekly events at Derry. Worship and Sunday School have a new feel, but are happening. Pilgrim Fellowship is now an outdoor ministry in the late afternoon on Sundays. KIWI no longer happens during worship time:  instead it has expanded and our time together is Sunday afternoon. Choir rehearsals are not a weekly event for families right now, but we are including music in our fellowship times.  And we are now offering a variety of worship services, including a special service for families to come and enjoy together.

While so much has changed for Derry Church, and specifically, Derry’s Children’s Ministry over the last eight months, that change has offered us the chance to really look at ministry programs and appreciate all the wonderful blessings they bring to Derry Church, our congregation and our families. Change is HARD!  The last few months have been a wild roller coaster ride, and Mrs. Steelman is NOT a roller coaster person. However, this ride has been special.

When we are in our comfort zone and keep with our regular routine, we often find ourselves feeling busy and not having the time to pause, reflect and evaluate how things are going. When life came to a halt in March, I found myself with a lot of new, and quite honestly scary and overwhelming, free time. That free time gave me the chance to dream and plan. That time gave me the chance to evaluate how each program was going. That time gave me the chance to answer the question of “Why?” for each of the many pieces of Children’s Ministry at Derry.

The “Why?” is easy… God. Each Children’s Ministry program that Derry is blessed to offer gives families and children the opportunity to grow their faith. The last eight months have offered me, the church staff and the Christian Education Committee the gift of time to think about our programs and learn what programs are needed for TODAY. Often we find ourselves keeping programs going simply “because we have always offered them.” But is that what Derry needs?

I look at these last eight months and am thankful for the chance to actually pause everything! We finally have time for meaningful conversations with planning teams and members of Derry to learn what Derry Church desires as we help one another grow our faith. We have time to think about each program we have at Derry and determine if it fits for Derry Church today. We have time to create new programs to help one another grow our faith. We have time to figure out what WE, as individuals, need to grow closer to God.  

I pray this time apart from one another has offered you the chance to reflect and learn what you need for yourself and for your children as you grow closer to God. A friend recently reminded me that at times life can be like a junk drawer.  Our lives become overwhelmed and cluttered with “junk” — things we hold on to or do just because we always have or feel we have to. These strange days are blessing us with time to declutter our lives and start fresh with activities and programs that bring us true joy and bring us closer to God. 

I look forward to gathering with you soon, either online or in person, to continue on our faith journey together. Until then, please know that you are surrounded by my thoughts and prayers.

Right now, our lives are filled with hope! Hope is something that we both know a lot about.

Many of you know that in 2009 Jim was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that we never heard of and we bet many of you probably never heard of, and in September of 2013 Jim received a single lung transplant.

During this period of time, we have done our share of hoping. Hoping that the doctors were wrong with his diagnosis, hoping there was a cure or some magic pill he could take to get this disease in remission, hoping that his time on the lung transplant list would not be long and hoping that the transplant would be successful. These were just a few of the things we were hoping for.

Our hoping did not stop when Jim had his transplant on September 22, 2013.  We hoped that our post-transplant journey would be without problems, and for the most part they were, until 2019. 

In August 2019 Jim’s body had finally figured out he has an organ in his body that did not come with the original package, and now is trying to reject that organ. He is going through chronic rejection and again we are hoping the doctors are wrong… they aren’t; hoping there is a cure or some magic pill available… there isn’t.  Our hopes now, have reverted back to another successful lung transplant. 

We hope that by sharing our story about our transplant journey we can help others deal with their own transplant journey and make others aware of what this disease really is. We continue to hope for a cure for this disease so others will not have a similar journey.  

We have been fortunate, not only to be able to share our stories locally, but also have been able to travel to other states with the hope that sharing our stories may have helped others.

There are many other things that we have hopes for, not just from the medical/health areas. We have hopes for our country, hopes for our families, hopes for teachers and students as they strive to keep their students safe. We have hopes that we may be able to travel again. We even had hopes that the Phillies would have a good season.

We have hopes that we are all able to remain safe and healthy. We even have hopes about church.

It has been almost eight months since we walked through the doors at Derry. None of us had envisioned that this pandemic would have or could have lasted this long and that our new normal had been drastically changed.

We have hopes that we will soon be able to meet in person as a congregation to hear God’s word. Watching a service via live stream is not quite the same as sitting in the pew. We hope that we as a church are able to uphold our commitments to our mission partners during this Covid-19 pandemic.

Although we are not able to be together, we hope and pray Derry will continue to find innovative ways to continue to grow as a church until such time that we can all be safely together again.

Next Sunday is National Donor Sabbath and we hope that as a congregation we all might be organ donors! If not, we hope that you might consider becoming one.

We hope that we as a congregation will be able to continue our financial commitments to Derry so that these many programs and more will be able to continue.

Although we shared many of our hopes without using the word wish, we don’t want you to worry. Closer to the time, we will … WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

There was a time that Christ Lutheran Church in Harrisburg had multiple orchestras. A couple of years ago, I found boxes of music by John Phillip Sousa while cleaning out a closet. Along with the dusty arrangements were programs for fundraiser concerts and smorgasbords and pictures from the middle of the last century of the movers and shakers of Harrisburg in evening gowns and suits dining in the fellowship hall. Those church folk were deeply invested in their church and community. They had just completed an ambitious capital campaign and greatly expanded the size of the church, adding new offices for the pastors, vast halls, and classrooms. I’m certain few of them could imagine the next generation of the church would look so different, the Sousa marches packed away with the fine china and silverware.

Now those classrooms have been converted to a dental clinic, with beautiful new picture windows replacing the crumbling originals, thanks to the support of Derry Presbyterian Church. The pastor’s study is now a prenatal clinic for women without health insurance. The previous generation of the church invested in hope for the future of the church, but they could not imagine what that future would hold. So much changed in our culture, in our city, and in our neighborhood. 

On our 130th anniversary, Christ Lutheran Church has about 2,000 fewer members than we did a century ago, yet the church continues to invest in hope and to be a place where our neighbors in the region’s most economically challenged community come to invest in their own hopes: for healing, for pathways to wellbeing. While thousands of members no longer fill our church rolls, every year 22,000 patients fill our clinics, hundreds of patients receive dental care, dozens of women meet with a doctor throughout their pregnancies. 

Our dental clinic provides free emergent care, doing primarily extractions and fillings. A few years ago, a woman came to our church to see a dentist. She was in excruciating pain. She had severe cavities in most of her teeth, having never seen a dentist. She needed to have 20 teeth extracted. I told the dentist, “I’m glad we can help people with this kind of emergency care, but we should also help people keep their teeth.” This year Derry partnered with our church and the United Way to make improvements on the Dental Clinic so we could bring in Oral Hygiene Students from Harrisburg Area Community College to provide free teeth cleanings, so we are providing preventative care in addition to emergent care.  

Because of our Health Ministries, and the partners like Derry Church who invest in hope by joining our mission, Christ Lutheran Church continues to be a spiritual home for many. Our mission provides us the opportunity to worship as well as the reason to worship. We see God’s healing taking place and we get together to praise God for God’s faithfulness and give thanks we get to be a part of it. Derry Church has not only invested in the missional work of our church but the spiritual and community life as well. The Derry Brass filled our beautiful sanctuary with vibrant music. The puppet ministry came and not only performed a great show but fed the congregation as well, serving up a full community event. In the audience that day was a family that had just arrived as refugees from Nigeria. The three young boys sat in the front row with huge smiles on their faces, smiles which were a result of Derry’s investment in hope. 

Investing in God’s hope is a bold and brave investment to make, for God’s hopes are always far beyond our expectations and imaginations. God’s hopes are not for us alone but for the whole world. God’s hopes benefit the poor and the suffering most of all. As you invest in hope, the only certainty we have about the future in which we invest is that God will be a part of it and to God be the glory.

With this year’s stewardship theme INVEST IN HOPE, I find myself reflecting on that idea. How much that idea has been the grounding force for many of us these past difficult months. How else to stay hunkered down at home?  How else to continue to connect with family and friends?

I also find myself reflecting on these past two years and how integrally hope has been part of my daily life. In August 2018, I was diagnosed with Inflammatory Breast Cancer, a rare and aggressive cancer with a reputation for a poor prognosis. As a physician, I had heard of this cancer, and I also knew that it would never happen to me. Yet here I was, and with visible symptoms marching across my breast. For the first few weeks, I couldn’t talk about it without breaking into tears. 

An aggressive cancer calls for aggressive treatment. The next months were tough. I went from enjoying hiking, bicycling, and kayaking to having difficulty walking for five minutes. I developed lymphedema as a side effect of the treatment. Although I had not been singing with the Sanctuary Choir, my choir friends kept in touch with me. When I finally emerged from chemo, surgery, and radiation, my friends were eager for me to return, especially to meet the interim choir director, Dan, who was bringing joy and life to the choir.

I did slowly return. Gradually I was able to increase physical exercise, and I tried to sing.  I decided that singing was going to be a part of my rehab and I restarted voice lessons.  For me, singing is an important expression of my spirituality, especially singing with a group where you physically and musically can feel yourself a part of something larger.  I receive so much support! Thank you, everyone, so much! I continue to do well with my cancer recovery.

Hope is part of every forward step I take. I find hope in my family, friends, and spirituality.  I am experiencing an amazing feeling of hope within our church. I am energized by our church community’s action and movement forward into issues of inclusiveness, of “sitting at the table together.” Our church leadership gives us the opportunity to reflect on and to be challenged by present day concerns, and how to learn and draw strength from the scriptures.  

I am excited and hopeful about our church’s direction. We have new energy with Pastor Stephen, Grant, and Pastor Pam. Our wealth of musical talent provides new and novel music experiences. I look forward to our continued collaboration with the Wesley Union AME Zion Church in Harrisburg. I look forward to the day that we will be able to physically and spiritually sing together.

For me, our mission committee represents hope.  And for me hope has always been paired with faith and charity, which are all elements of our mission committee.  Underlying that is our focus on the basic needs of housing, education and health care. 

Before I joined the mission committee I was part of Derry Church’s Peacemaking committee. In the late 1980s we became involved in a project in Yonkers, NY called SWAP (Stop Wasting Abandoned Properties.) We worked side by side with future homeowners to reclaim three-story brownstones, restoring them into safe apartments for the new homeowners. Nothing gives one hope like safe, secure housing.   

Seven years into that effort, many people on the block encouraged Rev. Bill Daniels, the minister living in their midst, to travel to Nicaragua after Hurricane Andrew and establish a similar effort in their home country. SWAP morphed into Bridges to Community and we have been blessed to be able to participate in Nicaragua and lately the Dominican Republic for these 20 years, replacing more than 500 fragile shacks with sturdy concrete block reinforced homes, with tiled floors instead of mud, allowing people to the focus on improving their education and health.  

In November Logos Academy, near the Broad Street Market, came into focus for me when Derry’s session committed $10,000 to support the creation of a second grade classroom. Education is something that can never be taken from a person. This fledgling effort has been growing over the last four years. Their focus was to build a unique and compassionate bond for the families and children with an education that was Christ-centered and diverse in all ways.  

Current students are about 50% black with the remainder split between white and Hispanic or ‘other.’ Approximately 70% receive tuition assistance. Small classes allow for individualized attention to both the education and needs of the students. Community is intentionally fostered between the students, families and staff. Before the pandemic, I volunteered in the office and was very impressed with the dedication of their staff. I am happy that Derry’s Mission Committee has been able to support the school.

Many of the groups that we support with mission funding provide hope to our community:

• Joshua House, a middle school tutoring program in Harrisburg
• Hope Within’s medical and dental services
• Christ Lutheran Church’s medical and dental clinics
• The Community Check-up center in Harrisburg’s Hall Manor neighborhood
• Stop the Violence in Steelton

Each is an important example of providing hope.  Now a new school year is under way and children who are attending Logos Academy have a safe learning environment with a Christian focus. My fervent hope is that however the year evolves, students will have a solid basis on which to build their lives. 

Hope is a lifeline, especially for Love in the Name of Christ of Greater Hershey clients. Derry Church has always been a strong supporter of Love INC through monetary donations, use of the Mission House and those serving as volunteers. Love INC is extremely grateful to have Derry’s investment in hope.

WHAT IS LOVE INC?  

As a Christian organization through and through, Love INC does its best to demonstrate God’s love by being the hands and feet of Christ. It exists to mobilize and provide resources to our member churches that will transform lives and communities in the name of Christ. Love INC Greater Hershey is an affiliate of Love INC National and serves churches and anyone who lives or worships in the Hershey/ Hummelstown area.

WHAT DOES LOVE INC DO?

The Connection Center is the heartbeat of Love INC, taking calls from those in need and referrals from local churches. Volunteers take time to build trust with clients and get to know them in a caring, non-judgemental way. Many clients find hope from knowing that someone is listening to them and praying with them. 

While all Love INC staff and volunteers are Christians, Love INC embraces diversity and helps anyone in the service area regardless of their religious beliefs. The Connection Center reminds me of the old TV show M*A*S*H, triaging those in need to provide the right help at the right time. Just recently Love INC provided a laptop for a college freshman from a low-income family who did not have the means to buy one, just days before school started.

THE PERSONAL CARE CLOSET MINISTRY cares for our community by providing Hershey and Hummelstown food bank clients the opportunity to receive items not available through food stamps — like toothpaste, laundry detergent, and diapers. Love INC volunteers are at the food banks to meet with clients, building relationships and providing support and encouragement: their goal is to surround clients with love.

THE PARSONAGE MINISTRY provides families with a place to stay when loved ones are inpatients at the Hershey Medical Center. Two former church parsonages are now serving people who must travel more than 50 miles to be with their loved ones but cannot afford a local hotel. People are referred to Love INC by the patient’s social worker at the Medical Center. The parsonage director not only runs day to day operations but also visits and comforts the parsonage guests and their loved ones. For people who might otherwise have no alternative than to sleep in their cars, the impact of having a safe, clean, caring place to stay is a true blessing.

THE HOMES OF HOPE MINISTRY provides temporary housing while clients work toward financial stability and obtain permanent housing. Participants are encouraged by supportive staff, a dedicated advocate, and a social worker. Participants must attend needed Love INC classes or programs to become self-sufficient, such as financial education, parenting classes, improving their skills in writing and speaking English, and counseling. Love INC volunteers (Allies) ensure participants’ success by helping with transportation to work, babysitting, homework help for kids,  job coaching, improving diet and nutrition and more.

Homes of Hope provides a safety net and a plan to get out of poverty. A former participant expressed her sincere thanks for having a safe place to sleep at night for her and her daughter.  She can now sleep without fear and has renewed energy and focus.  She also received job promotions and has become self-sufficient. Her daughter went from getting passing grades to A’s and B’s. 

On behalf of Love INC, thank you to Derry for your investment in hope. For more information call the office at 717.835.0101 or contact me directly.

Let me leave you with James 2:14-26:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

In the summer of 2015 I had my first surgery. I didn’t need it, but I needed to do it. I had surgery to remove some of my bone marrow in order for it to be given to someone else. Who? I don’t know. All I knew is that he was 29 and dying. My bone marrow, out of millions of people, was his best hope of surviving. 

I signed up to be a donor because I knew two people whose lives were saved because someone else decided they would take 15 minutes to get swabbed and register with Be the Match. My prayers for those two faithful friends were answered through someone else’s willingness to donate. I thought maybe I’d be the answer to someone else’s prayer for his or her mother, father, spouse or child. I didn’t really think I’d ever get matched with anyone, but I thought it was the right thing to do. It was an investment in hope; hope that maybe someone’s life could be saved.

I received the call that I was the best match for this young man and that they wanted to do the surgery soon because the situation was desperate. He wasn’t going to be able to survive much longer without a bone marrow transplant. They asked if I was still willing to donate. I thought about my daughter Verity. What if at some point in her life she needed some kind of transplant: bone marrow, stem cell or organ? I would want every single person in the world to register as a donor in the hopes that someone may be the match that could save her life. If I felt that way about my daughter, then I’m sure someone felt the same way about this 29-year-old young man. And I remembered the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I quickly agreed to donate. 

I went to Iowa City to make sure I was healthy enough to donate, and learned more about the operation and the recovery. The risks were low and the rewards were great. The average time to a full recovery is 20 days. Twenty days. Was I willing to trade 20 days of perhaps not 100% health so that someone could have hope; potentially have many more years of health?

I was sore for a few days and more tired than usual, but it was a great excuse to have that afternoon nap I’d been missing.  

Why did I give? For all those reasons above, but mainly this: I gave because I could. 

I had enough of what someone else desperately needs. It was not any great sacrifice to give some of what I had, but it meant the very life of someone else. It meant hope. I could give a little of what I had more than enough of to give hope to someone else and change their life. Honestly, it was a gift and a privilege to give and invest in hope. 

This fall our sermon series and stewardship theme is INVEST IN HOPE. When you invest your lives and resources in Derry Presbyterian Church, you are making an investment in hope. When you financially give to Derry,  you help Derry Church profess, practice, and share hope with the world. Our hope is eternal and it is too good to keep to ourselves. It is a gift and a privilege to give and invest in hope that can change and transform people’s lives.

When you INVEST IN HOPE you help us share our message of hope with the world through worship, education, mission, and fellowship. Your financial gifts to Derry transform lives and bring hope when people need it most, whether it’s the hope of love, friendship, a home, health care, a meal, or a friend. We bring hope in the name of Jesus Christ. 

Derry has been professing and sharing hope for nearly 300 years and we can continue because of your continued financial support of all we do here. In a few days you’ll receive a letter with more information about our stewardship campaign, a provisional budget based on requests from committees, and an estimate of giving card. We worked hard to lower our annual budget because we realize the financial challenges facing our community and nation. We anticipate a reduction in income to the church in 2021, so we ask that you prayerfully consider your giving to Derry in the coming year so we can continue to be a beacon and foundation of hope for so many. 

Thank you for all the ways you have and continue to INVEST IN HOPE through Derry. It is because of you that we can proclaim God’s word, share God’s love, and practice God’s justice. It is because of you that we bring hope. Thank you for investing in Derry and investing in the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

What a summer it has been in the communications corner of Derry Church! When I last checked in with you in early April, I never dreamed that six months later I’d be working with brand-new cameras and equipment in the Sanctuary and overseeing a whole new system for bringing you live streaming worship. I am grateful to everyone who made it possible for us to obtain the new equipment, to all the talented singers and musicians who make time in their day to film segments that we include each week, to those who film and submit creative clips from their homes, and especially to the AV crew who has really stepped up to put in extra time to learn new procedures and equipment.

Our AV volunteers arrive each Sunday by 9 am, and it takes us a full hour to test, practice and rehearse all that we’ve prepared to include in the live streaming service. One person runs the audio board, one person controls the cameras, and one person is in charge of all the video content and title slides using new ProPresenter software. The crew works together to check sound levels and coordinate with the pastors and Grant to make sure everyone knows where to look and what to expect. On Sept 13 it was a good thing Pastor Stephen reminded me to drop in a picture of a painting he wanted to show during the sermon. You almost didn’t get to see that!

Our new Boxcast streaming platform makes it easy for the Sunday service to be available for a full week on Derry Church’s website. Just go to our live streaming page and scroll down until you find the video player. In the “Related Videos” section you’ll find the most recent Sunday service. 

Did you know there are multiple ways you can watch Derry’s live streaming service on Sunday morning?

• Watch on the Derry Church website
• Watch on our YouTube channel (I show you how in this video)
• Watch on Facebook
• Watch on your smart TV using the free Boxcast app. I’ve made videos to show  you how to add the app to Roku or an Apple TV, and a similar procedure works for Amazon’s Fire stick. And here’s how to watch by casting your smart phone to your smart TV. 

Finally, I’m delighted to share with you the good news that Derry Church’s refreshed website is expected to launch in October. We were part-way through the redesign when the pandemic hit and we realized a lot of the content we planned to feature on the site suddenly didn’t make sense to include at this time. The Communications & Technology Committee went back to the drawing board and re-thought what the site should be when so much of church life is virtual. We’ve emphasized the live streaming worship and Derry’s COVID response, and carefully selected photos that make sense right now.

If you have questions or concerns about the website, live streaming, or anything else tech related, I invite you to email me or better yet, drop in for my weekly tech time sessions on Zoom from 1-2 pm on Monday afternoons. (let me know if you need the meeting ID). I realize that for many, the new emphasis on technology has been challenging. I’m here to help, so please do reach out so you can stay connected to all that’s happening in our vibrant congregation.