Dear Friends and Subscribers: It seems April is "my
great faith month!" Listen to this: I was baptized at my former-pastor maternal grandmother's church (Virginia Lee Schulthess) on April 3, 1955 (Palm Sunday!) in Clarno, Wis.; 67 years later (at age 67) I was licensed as a minister (which would have made G'ma proud) on April 10, 2022 (Palm Sunday!) in the town wherein my paternal great-grandfather's immediate family is buried - Franklin Grove, Ill.; (Here I am posing in front of our altar and beautiful blue-glass cross with
ACGC's Superintendent of the Central Region for the Prairie States conference, Dr. Bill Norwood) --
and called to the pulpit of my now-hometown Prophetstown, in the same state, to be pastor at the beautiful and loving
Advent Christian Church on April 27, 2023 (25 days after Palm Sunday 2023!). Perhaps I should purchase a palm tree to celebrate! Palm Sunday can be thought of as "the beginning of the journey of how God saved the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus."
(Credit to Saleen Martin of USA Today, citing Bishop Vashti McKenzie, interim president and general secretary of the National Council of Churches, on April 1, 2023). I am
very delighted!
