Devotion in Lent

When we step into the natural landscape that surrounds us, we are free. Free from the distractions of technology, daily household chores and the demands of what’s next. For me, getting outside and into the natural beauty of our Lord’s creation is realigning. I feel an invitation, an invitation from the Lord to see him more fully. What a gift that is to my soul. 

The Passion Flower
Wanting to draw nearer to the Lord this Lenten season, I wondered if there was a specific “Lenten flower”. I was thrilled to discover, that yes – there is! It’s called the Passion Flower and it’s rich with religious symbolism. To name just a few…the petal count represents the number of apostles that betray Jesus and the lifespan of the flower’s bloom only lasts three days which is the same time lapse before Christ’s Resurrection. (For the full list of the flower’s religious meaning, click here.) 

You will see that the image of the Passion Flower was chosen to be our cover art for Savior’s Lenten sermon series: “The Lord is Gracious & Compassionate”. It is my prayer that this flower will be a gentle reminder to root yourself in the Lord and draw close to his creation (it’s all around you!).

Devotional Resources
As a church we are meditating on Psalm 103:8-14 and have created a Lenten devotional for you to use. May these resources provide opportunities of reflection as we walk through Lent, and preparedness in our souls as we look ahead to Eastertide. 

Additionally, here is a Lenten coloring calendar to engage with during Lent (color a square for each day of Lent that passes), and an Alleluia coloring sheet that we used to “bury the alleluia” in our last service of Epiphany. And lastly, for our Good Friday gift, Savior has chosen to partner with DuPage Pads, a Wheaton organization that provides temporary shelter for homeless people and works to get them established in permanent housing. We invite you to create this paper house craft as a reminder to pray for those in need of housing, and to ask the Lord how you are to give financially toward our Good Friday gift this year.

Cover art: Passion Flower (1825) by Jean Bernard (1775-1883). Original from The Rijksmuseum. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.

Good Friday Gift 2021

Helping DuPage Pads move unhoused families into their own homes!

For our Savior Good Friday offering this year, the Vestry has selected DuPage Pads. The mission of DuPagePads is to end homelessness in DuPage County. DuPagePads is the area's largest provider of interim and permanent housing, coupled with support services to help people work toward a place to call home. They provide case management and life coaching, employment support such as GED courses and job coaching, as well as engagement with employers—effectively stopping the cycle of homelessness. 

Because of the pandemic, the numbers they are serving through their emergency shelters are 1/3 more than they have seen in past years, and they’re serving far more children than ever before. It’s their goal that no child will sleep in a car this winter, but rather in their hotel-based shelter or one of their PSH apartments.

Last year, they served over 1,100 unhoused individuals in Wheaton and DuPage County. You can see their impact statement for a breakdown of who they helped and how.

With a gift of $3,000, Pads can get a family into their own home instead of staying in shelters. Right now, they have a great number of families staying in their hotel-based shelter. Of their approximately 205 clients in this program, 1/3 are children. This spring and summer, they will be working with them on case management and the ability to transition into an apartment of their own. This requires first and last month’s rent and a security deposit plus moving expenses and staffing to help them get to a better place. DuPage Pads also works with their clients to ensure they have connections to medical care and remote learning so their children are healthy and furthering their educations.

Friends of the Savior, how many families will we be able to help with our Good Friday gift this year?!

When it's safe after COVID-19 for them to welcome volunteers, DuPage Pads will need volunteers to help. In addition to giving in the special offering, consider volunteering with DuPage Pads in the future.

Kingdom Work in Pittsburgh

Recent Wheaton College graduate and Savior attendee, Katherine Beech, is working as an intern at Urban Impact Foundation and shares how the Lord called her to be his hands & feet in Pittsburgh.  

Katherine, what is Urban Impact Foundation?
Urban Impact Foundation is a Christian missionary organization that has been serving the youth of Pittsburgh’s North Side for 25 years. Through programs in Education, Athletics, Performing Arts, and Options (preparing students for life after high school), Urban Impact aims to form relationships with students, help them grow, and share the gospel. 

Explain your internship role? And how did you connect with this opportunity to serve others?
A friend did a summer internship at Urban Impact and told me all about how the mission and the people there were amazing. I was looking for an opportunity to combine education and ministry in an urban context, so I applied for an internship in the Education Department at Urban Impact. After only a month here, it feels really clear that this is where I am supposed to be for the next seven months until I start graduate school. 

In light of school being completely virtual for the 2020-2021 school year, Urban Impact has started a new program called Learning Labs to provide a safe place and conducive learning environment for students to come and do their schoolwork. With other staff and volunteers, I help students log onto their virtual classes, get any materials the student may need, and fix any technical problems that come up. We also learn the students' schedules, engage them in conversation about what they are learning, and help them study for assessments. This program is especially helpful to the families whom Urban Impact serves due to the high number of students whose guardians work during the school day and cannot afford childcare. Every student is provided breakfast and lunch, and many of the students are driven to Learning Labs by me and other staff.

During your time in Pittsburgh thus far, what have you enjoyed most about the city and its culture? 
Pittsburgh is the most Midwest/East Coast city I have ever been to! Despite being located in the eastern part of the United States, people here tend to have a more Midwest friendliness and operate at a slower pace than D.C. or New York. Pittsburgh has the crazy road system of the East Coast (not the grid system of the Midwest) but people here say the midwestern word “pop” instead of soda. Pittsburgh also has a slang of its own, with words like “yinz” instead of y’all.

What has surprised you so far as you have started to work in an urban context?
One part of why I wanted to work at Urban Impact was to gain more diverse teaching experiences. Although I have a lot of experience teaching and working with kids, 90% of that experience is with white, suburban, middle-class-and-up kids. Working in a majority black urban context for the first time has been a two-way street of getting to know my students and them getting to know me. Many of my students have names that I am not familiar with, and I have to hear their names multiple times and ask how names are spelled. I was not surprised about this, I assumed that learning new and different names would be part of entering a new context. What surprised me was that the challenge was mutual, as I found out in a conversation with one of my students, Jayla. I had never met anyone with the name Jayla before, and Jayla had never met anyone named Katherine before. She asked me to repeat it several times and to spell it.

Part of Jayla’s unfamiliarity with my name is because she is in second grade, and I am not saying that all of my students had the trouble she did. But later I reflected on how I was not surprised that my students' names would be hard for me, but I was surprised that my name was hard for them. Is my surprise a normal reaction to the fact that up to this point I have only been in contexts where everyone was familiar with the name Katherine? Or is that me assuming that “black” names are not “normal” and “white” names like Katherine are “normal”? Please pray for me that my time working with these amazing kids would be a time of rooting out unconscious bias. 

When did you graduate from Wheaton College, and what did you study?  
I graduated in December with a B.A. in Elementary Education, a minor in Biblical and Theological Studies, an Elementary teaching license, and an endorsement in teaching Middle Grade Mathematics. 

While studying at Wheaton College you attended Savior, what did you love most about your time with us?
I was drawn to Savior because it is an Anglican church with women priests, and I stayed because Savior felt like family! Whether I was at a church service, a college dinner, or a socially distanced out-door gathering, I always felt that I was loved and cared for. I tell everyone who will listen about how great Church of the Savior is!

How can we keep in touch with you, supporting you with prayer, or to contribute financially to your kingdom work? 
Email me at kbeech518@gmail.com! I will put you on my email list so that you can receive my newsletters, which have more information about what I am doing, prayer requests, and the link to partner with me financially.

Photo: Katherine with one of her students in the Learning Labs, Lanae, who is proudly displaying her math work. (She and her parent have given permission to share this photo).

The Epiphany Art Project: Revelation Under Our Feet

by Laura Tabbut

Artist Laura Tabbut, a Savior member, moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio, two years ago. Recently, Fr. Kevin asked her to create art for Savior’s orders of worship during Epiphany. That set her on an interesting journey.

During the craziness of 2020, my husband, Justin, and I served with a nonprofit organization that provides residents of declining neighborhoods with grants and 0% interest loans to assist community members in the restoration of their historic homes. Our current project focuses on restoring the sidewalks in our neighborhood. Many of our sidewalks have been destroyed due to leaky water mains. Twice this fall our city’s aging water main burst, flooded the downtown area, and left the 7,300 businesses and households in our community without potable water for three days. Needless to say, our relationship to water changed this past year.

On a rainy Saturday in Advent, we were tasked with the responsibility of measuring and photographing all of the sidewalks on the North end of our town. As we walked around town, I photographed a range of cast-iron water main and manhole covers that date from the late-nineteenth century to the present.

When I uploaded my catalog of sidewalks and cast-iron covers to my computer, I noticed that about half of the water main and manhole covers had distinctly Christian imagery. Specifically, they reminded me of motifs from Romanesque and Byzantine church architecture. As I worked on the artwork for Epiphany, I returned to these photographs and culled them for their symbolism. Each week of Epiphany is paired with a water main or manhole cover as a reminder that God’s transcendence is revealed to us as we move through our everyday lives.

Covers, from left to right, top row to bottom:

Week 1: Stars – “’We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’” Matt. 2:2

Week 2: Water – “’I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’” Mark 1:8

Week 3: Net – “’Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will send you out to fish for people.’ At once they left their nets and followed him.” Mark 1:17-18

Week 4: Cross and Globe – “’For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.’” Luke 2:30-32

Week 5: Cross – “The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.” Mark 1:33-34

Week 6: Radiating Halo – “There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” Mark 9:2-3

Epiphany is a distinctly missional season as God’s transcendence is fully revealed to all nations of the world. The focus of many of these passages show us how Jesus enters into the Gentile or secular space to bring the light of gospel to everyone. As the wisemen search for Jesus and the whole town gathers at the door to witness his healing power, Epiphany reminds us to look for the extraordinary. Epiphany also reminds us to use our lives, gifts, and talents to further the spread of the gospel. The wisemen bring Jesus extravagant gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Jesus calls humble fishermen to follow him and he brings his glory into the homes of the socially outcast. Throughout these Epiphany narratives, we see humanity transformed as Jesus calls us to follow him.

About Laura…

Laura Tabbut is an artist based in central Ohio. Her artwork considers current ecological issues and questions the rituals and routines of the American landscape. She currently teaches at Mount Vernon Nazarene University and serves as the Gallery Administrator for the Schnormeier Gallery. Laura is married to Justin Sorensen, Assistant Professor of Art at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. They are expecting their first baby girl, Frances Margaret, during Epiphany 2021. During COVID, they have been grateful for Church of the Savior’s online worship platform.

Meet the Schaller Family!

This week we have the joy of sharing another “new-ish Attendee” within Savior’s community. If you haven’t already met The Schaller family, join me in getting to know them!

Who is your local family? OR What does your household look like? 

Our local family is fairly small. Nathan and Danae recently got married this summer and moved to the area with our two cats, Pewter and Hamlet. Currently, Danae’s younger sister, Daria, lives with us also. 

Where do you live? Where are you originally from?

We recently moved to downtown Elgin, IL. However, Nathan is originally from sunny Los Angeles, California. Danae and Daria grew up in equally sunny (but far more humid) Sarasota, Florida. Danae and Nathan met in biology lab while attending Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL, where Daria is currently a student.

Are you related to anyone at Savior?

While we are not related to anyone at Savior, Danae and Nathan are both graduates of Wheaton’s biology program and have taken courses with many of the distinguished faculty that attend Savior. Therefore, they are at the very least part of our academic family at Savior!

How long have you been coming to Church of the Savior?

We have been attending Savior since August of 2019.

In your time at Savior so far, what have you enjoyed most? 

We have been so thankful for everyone’s warm welcomes, strong desires to get to know us, and efforts to make us feel like part of the family. Nathan has particularly enjoyed his first liturgical church year ever as he grew up in a non-denominational church family; it has made him more aware of the rhythm of life with Christ and given him a big picture to refer back to in day to day life. Danae and Daria have appreciated the familiarity of Church of the Savior, especially in regards to the liturgy and small size of the congregation after growing up church planting in Florida with their family.

What do you enjoy about our services?

We really enjoy seeing all a variety of Savior members participating in the service. It helps us feel a lot more connected to those we do not get to see very often during these COVID times. Whether we’re watching Adrielle sing along to all the worship songs, or singing/signing Be Still together, or praying for each other by name, it has been wonderful to feel part of the family. 

What do you do when you're not at church? (Job, hobbies, etc.)

Danae works as a Veterinary Technician at a local veterinary hospital while Nathan recently started a new job as the inventory manager for a tree specialist company. While not working, Nathan enjoys reading novels, playing Dungeons and Dragons with friends, and bringing to life the next home improvement project that Danae dreams up. Danae enjoys cooking and testing out new recipes on Nathan and Daria, as well as volunteering with a local dog rescue. Daria also works at Hanover Park Animal Care Center in the Boarding/Kenneling department, and enjoys embroidering in her free time.

Hamlet and Pewter enjoy sleeping, watching trucks from the window, sleeping, hunting the toy mice that roam the house, sleeping some more, cuddling with whoever is home, sleeping, and loudly asking for food to whomever will listen.

What has been a surprising gift during this time of COVID? And what don’t you want to return to “normal”?

Now several months into COVID, we are appreciating the ways in which life has slowed down and brought us together. One way we’ve found to connect is by collaborating on DIY home improvement projects that we may not have been able to complete prior to COVID. Among them are a set of closet shelves, repainting and repurposing an entertainment center, and most recently, building a fireplace for our living room! We’ve found these times great opportunities to grow closer and wish to keep them moving forward. Daria is particularly pleased with her new sewing and embroidery hobby, and will be sad when sewing during church will be less socially acceptable than it currently is.

COVID has also brought us many opportunities to depend on God’s timing and plans instead of our own. For example, while we had initially planned to see our entire family at our wedding this year, our ability to connect with our immediate families has been almost non-existent except for WhatsApp and Skype, as they are spread across the United States and even extending to Zambia, where Danae’s parents are missionaries. Because of this, in many ways, this means we’re almost more connected with them than ever before, by regular texts, calls, and video chats, despite the physical distances between us. And even once we’re back together (in person!) again, hopefully this will become a part of our new normal.