Broken and beautiful.

Hello neighbors, wherever you are!

I’m sitting in Epworth’s little church kitchen, after an excellent morning making bagged lunches for our hungry neighbors, so grateful for this wonderful community. As SNAP and other benefits are cut and need continues to grow, we reached out via social media and the JustServe website for help with supplies, and our community responded. We met wonderful people who donated a bunch of supplies that have been a TREMENDOUS help. It will be an ongoing need, but I love that we live in a community where people jump in to help each other. If any of you reading this might like to give some of your time to help make these lunches, or dinners at Fallon Daily Bread, we would love it! Give us a call at the Wolf Center, 775-294-6338. Ask for Lori or Steve or me, Pastor Dawn.

The best part of the whole endeavor is inviting folks in to relax in the air conditioning, have drinks and snacks, and talk together while we make lunches. Because we aren’t just packing sandwiches (or serving dinner, or running the Food Pantry) like a mindless assembly line. All of us need a safe place and a sense of friendship and belonging as much as we need food. So we laugh and talk and hear about each other’s lives, and even when we are bone tired by the end it still makes for a lovely Wednesday morning.

If you happen to read the Reno Gazette-Journal, you may have seen the Faith Forum column that I and a bunch of other folks from different religious traditions write for. The question we are asked to respond to this week is about suffering and loss, but in the course of writing my answer my mind went somewhere else entirely. Specifically, to a dirty trick a pastor once played on us at church camp.

I didn’t grow up in a church that did church camp, so this all happened when I was a brand new adult leader, helping lead camp for a bunch of middle-schoolers in the wilds of northern California. The pastor in question, Rev Don Lee – a brilliant musician and an amazing human – asked everyone to get into small groups and draw or paint or collage or write something beautiful. Work together and make sure everyone participates, he said; each art piece should clearly show the contribution of each person in the group. What resulted was fantastic…some drew, some painted, some used glue and found objects, some wrote words. Some pieces were abstract, some were trees and flowers and animals, one I remember was outer space with blackness and stars and crazy colorful planets. It was fun, and the kids were excited about what they had made. Pastor Don picked up each one and asked the groups to describe their creation, and tell how they felt about it. Everyone was smiling.

And then, he tore each one in half. Ruined it.

It was so unexpected, it was like a gut punch.

He asked us how it felt to have our artwork destroyed like that. It makes me angry, some said. Hurt. Heartbroken. Confused. Angry again. He said, yes. Of course it does. And this is just a taste of how God feels when someone hurts you.

Consider the lilies of the field, and the birds, and everything you see around you. God, the master artist, clothes it all in splendor. And each of you is more miraculous yet…each one, a masterpiece. If you loved your artwork, created in a few minutes, and were hurt and angry when someone broke it, can you imagine how God feels about the earth and its creatures, and even more about you?

Then he gave the artwork back to each group, with glue and tape and whatever else they needed, and he instructed them to repair it. To make it even more beautiful than before. The work was quieter this time, tinged with sadness and a sense of injustice, but also purpose. Hope, and determination. Gentle, detailed care.

This, he said, is what grace does. What Jesus does. What healing is.

It’s a lesson I have never forgotten.

I don’t claim to know why suffering and loss exists, or why God created the world this way. But I know the result is that it teaches us what love is, and who we are, and who God is, and what grace does.

It's a precious thing, this life. Miraculous, and holy. Even the painful parts. And best of all, God is with us.

See you in church!

Pastor Dawn

Worship This Week

Monsters Under the Bed, Part 5: Sickness, Aging, and Death

Artwork credit to Angelika Scudamore. Find more of her work on Etsy at angelikaillustrates, or on Instagram at angelikasillustrations.

This week, we come almost to the end of our worship series about where God meets us in our fears, and how he comforts and supports us through them. Our topic this week is sickness, aging, and death. One of the things we’ll do together is write down our favorite songs, our favorite Bible passages, our favorite memories, and how we’d like to be remembered. As you prepare your heart for worship, you might like to read and pray with Isaiah 46:4, and John 11:25-27.

Worship begins at 9:00am every Sunday. If you can’t be there, remember to find us on YouTube so that you can watch live from wherever you are, or join us on KVLV radio on AM980 every Sunday beginning at 9:30am. If you have ideas or questions, or if we can be in prayer for you in any way, please call the church at 775-423-4714. We’d love to hear from you.

“Listen to me…
you whom I have upheld since your birth,
and have carried since you were born.
Even to your old age and gray hairs I Am He,
I Am He who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Isaiah 46:4

Wednesday Evening Prayer

Wednesday Evening Prayer is held on the first Wednesday of every month at 7:00pm on YouTube Live. We pray together in the tradition of lectio divina, a special way of using the Bible to guide us in prayer and help us listen for the voice of God. If you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you’ll be notified by email when we go online…otherwise, just go to our channel at 7pm and we’ll be there. We’ll meet next on June 4.

News and Fun Stuff

Wolf Center Community Services

It’s been a great week at the Wolf Center! We’ve made a whole bunch of lunches and dinners, served a bunch more folks at our Food Pantry and laundry and showers, hosted 12 amazing young men from Western Kentucky University who are biking across the country to raise money for Alzheimer’s research and treatment, and Scouts, Centro de la Familia Head Start, and our Folklorico dancers filled the place with music and laughter and learning. Just this morning, our fabulous Church Mice organized some yard cleanup for us with the help of a (very tall!) teenaged helper and one of our unhoused neighbors. THANK YOU to everyone who has been cleaning and organizing in the big room, too, so that we can host several upcoming events for PEO, United Women in Faith, and a big community fundraiser for local mom April Shingleton. Like and follow our new Facebook page for the latest news, FDB menus, and whatever other silly or inspiring stuff comes into our heads.

THANK YOU for hosting Bike4Alz!

12 young men from Western Kentucky University joined us again this year, as they cycle over 3600 miles across the country to raise money for Alzheimer’s research and treatment. They were so grateful to have good food, air conditioning, and gracious hosts. They spent some time with Scout Troop 1776 too! To meet the team, see pictures, learn more, or donate, go to bike4alz.org

Tintabulations is Coming to Fallon on Sunday June 15!

We’re renting the Fallon Theatre this time, and sponsoring a matinee showing at 1pm. Invite EVERYONE YOU KNOW! Their Christmas concert is always standing room only, and their other music is just as fun, lively, and beautiful. There will be flyers available at church, please help us post them everywhere to let people know. Let’s fill up the Theatre and have a great summer afternoon of music!

Celebration of Life for Gaye Johnston on Saturday, Aug 16

Mark your calendar to be with our beloved Gaye’s family and friends on Saturday, August 15 (exact time TBA). Gaye has been living in Texas with her daughter Ella for the past few years, but we remember her as beautiful, funny, faithful, loving, active in her church and several community groups, and a wonderful friend. Please send prayers and love to her family, and join us to celebrate her in August.

Groups on Summer Hiaitus

Beginning in a couple of weeks, our adult Bible study groups, Church Mice, United Women in Faith, and our choir and praise team will all go on summer hiaitus while members travel, rest, and enjoy summer fun. We’ll have special music during worship, and some fun summer activities to look forward to.

UWF Mission U 2025

United Women in Faith hold “Mission U” every year, in several locations around northern Nevada and northern California. This year, one of the locations is here at Epworth UMC! This year’s theme is “Practicing Hope Together” and it will be held here at Epworth on August 8-9. From their website:

United Women in Faith are “a sisterhood acting in faith to tackle the hard work of the world without hesitation.”

Mission u (formerly Schools of Christian Mission) is United Women in Faith’s transformative education program that offers biblically grounded studies relevant to the times. These studies inform, motivate and enrich our commitment to being in mission and ministry for a more just and equitable world. Mission u inspires personal and collective change and equips us to put faith, hope, and love into action. Offering intergenerational learning opportunities every year, Mission u is a mission formation program for the entire church.

Practicing Hope Together - Mission u 2025

How do we understand hope in the midst of so many hard realities?

Is hope merely optimism?

Mission u this year will study the resurrection appearances of Jesus and the example of early Christian communities to explore what it means to practice hope in God even when things seem to be falling apart.

Interested in deepening your faith in community? Gaining experience interpreting Scripture? Working toward healing for yourself, your community, and all of creation? Mission u is for you!

To find out more, or to register, go to: https://canvuwf.org/mission-u