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Youthful Pioneers On Mission to Change Themselves And Their Destinations

Youthful Pioneers On Mission to Change Themselves and Their Destinations

By Beth Fultz, Director of Christian Education

Over Memorial Day Weekend, I had the opportunity to return to the Kansas City area gathering more information on the Youth Mission Trip for our return July 19 – 26.   My original goal for the trip was to venture to Omaha, Nebraska, for the wedding of Angela Rose, a youth member from my last church assignment in Plano, over nine years ago.  Thankfully, Dolores Morgan, Business Manager at St. Stephen, was free to be my travel companion as we took five days to journey the routes of Olathe, Kansas,  Kansas City, Kansas; Omaha, Nebraska, and Oklahoma City – home of my younger brother.  On our journey we took in scenic beauty of the American Plains, observed historical routes, played the license plate game (only 13 shy of 50 states), stopped at hometown bookstores, and met with personnel at all four church sites for the Youth Mission Trip.

Arriving in Olathe at First Presbyterian Church, I realized again that this church lay on the historic Santa Fe, Oregon and California Trails.  The Oregon and California Trails began when pioneers sought new opportunities and new homes.  They headed out of  St. Louis on river boats to Independence, Missouri, where they boarded wagon trains and headed west. Most of the seekers were shopkeepers and farmers hit hard by the economic times of 1837.  Their journey lasted over 2,000 miles and 90% of those who ventured, gained.

The Santa Fe Trail was a two-way commercial route for settlers in the Mexican territory to retrieve supplies.  A frontiersman, William Bucknell, took off to trade with the Indians and wound up in Santa Fe.  The purpose of this 750 mile trade route was profit not homesteading.Read More »Youthful Pioneers On Mission to Change Themselves And Their Destinations

Stuck (Like a Dope) on a Thing Called Hope!

STUCK (LIKE A DOPE) ON A THING CALLED HOPE!

Luke 24.13-35  1 Peter 3.13-22

Warner M. Bailey

 

                The road to Easter travels from ugliness to beauty; from sadness to joy.  The road to Easter travels from loneliness to community; from separateness to family; from being scattered to being gathered together again.   The road to Easter travels from subsisting off of dead traditions to living by Scriptures that flame up in your hearts.  The road to Easter travels from hopes, dashed to the depths, to the heights of hopes unheard of; from the abyss of cynicism toward life in a reborn commitment to live fully because, after all is said and done, it is worth the living.

This is road down which the Easter message traveled when disciples made the trip from Jerusalem to Emmaeus and back again.  Their body language gave away how much they were crushed inside.  When Jesus asked them what was going on, to give an account of themselves, all they could do was to tell him of how their hopes had been ripped out of their hearts.  When Jesus began opening the Scriptures to them in a way they had never heard them explained before, their hearts began to flame up in a strange new way.  When they asked Jesus into their home and gave him hospitality, he helped them in the breaking of the bread to make the final connection that the message of resurrection was indeed true.  Immediately they got up from the dinner table and walked half the night back to Jerusalem to gather again with the disciples in the intensity of that first Easter’s joy.  “We have seen the Lord in the breaking of the bread!”

Our Epistle Lesson today challenges us: “Always be ready to give an account of the hope that is within you.”  Disciples on the road to Emmaeus were no-count in the category of hope, could give no account of hope.  Only by Jesus making a home with them through Word and Sacrament did their hearts flame with hope and they desire to return to be with God’s people. Read More »Stuck (Like a Dope) on a Thing Called Hope!