God expects us to feed people and pay workers

Dear Belmonters, I spoke to a soldier last week who, like other federal workers, is working while not being paid because of the ongoing government shutdown. On Saturday, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will run out of funding leaving many people hungry. SNAP “provides food benefits to low-income families to supplement their grocery budget […]

Our Money story: believing in enough

Sometime in high school, feeling my adolescent bravado, I started calling my dad, “the cheapest man on the face of the earth”.  I could tell a lot of stories to illustrate this, but when we ate out, and we rarely ate out, no matter where we ate out, dad slowly opened the check, shuttered, and […]

God created us with variety for our common good

Scientists have categorized somewhere around 160,000 different kinds of months.  The four inch tulip-tree silk moth is part of the nearly 1 million varieties of insects in the world. A newborn baby Blue whale baby is 23 feet long and weighs 2 tons. It is one of the 1.5 million categorized species of animals in […]

God’s plans rearrange our plans

In 597, King Nebuchadnezzar’s forces laid siege to Jerusalem coming over the walls and through the gates and placing Zion under martial law. The Babylonian troops looted Solomon’s Temple and David’s Palace carrying off sacred vessels, the queen’s jewels, the army’s weapons, and national banners as trophies of war. They deported princes, business leaders and […]

Do we understand Jesus as global citizen?

On this world Communion Sunday, as I preach in English and Hai Htoo and Wisinee translate into Karen, there will be moments where you may have to wait until someone says something you understand. Could we take these slower moments and practice loving our neighbors as ourselves? Maybe we could do some holy day dreaming […]