Dear Friends,
 
When the seven confirmation youth took their vows of membership on Sunday, they committed to support the church “by their prayers, their presence, their gifts, their service and their witness.” Each of the youth and I talked about what these meant.  The one they easily understood was supporting the church with their presence. “It means you show up” they would say. Yes, that’s exactly what it means.
 
When each of you made a commitment to Eden Prairie UMC, whether by becoming a member or claiming this community of faith in another way, you made a vow to support the church by those same means. In particular, supporting of the ministries of the church with your presence has become a new experience. How do you “show up” when the building is closed to in-person gatherings?
 
Well, you have been doing it! You have shown up for online worship. Our average worship attendance is running very close to last year’s numbers, which tells me that you are showing up, maybe in part because there is the flexibility of time given that our worship in “on demand” right now. I have heard several of you say that you worshiped when you returned from one place or another, even if that meant you worshipped on a Tuesday evening!  Isn’t that an awesome benefit to this season?
 
You have shown up for leadership meetings, Let’s Connect Groups, book and Bible Study discussions, gardening for PROP, donations for various service organizations, for Sunday School and youth group.  You have shown up!
 
This week I want to encourage you to “show up” for two very specific opportunities.
 
“Show up” this Sunday at 10 a.m. for Semi-Live Worship on Zoom.  We will worship together, pray together and share communion together.  While it isn’t in-person, it will be a holy experience and I would love to have you “show up” for it.  Come at 9:30 a.m. for Fellowship Time to visit with one another in a small group format (breakout rooms).  Follow this (link) to connect on Sunday morning.
 
Please consider “showing up” for our Trunk-or-Treat event this year! The children’s experience of Halloween will be vastly different this year, and we want to make it special. Our Trunk-or-Treat event will be on Halloween, Saturday, October 31, from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. in the church parking lot. We need people to commit to decorating their “trunks” so the kids can have an amazing experience. If you are willing to do that, please contact Jody Veatch (jodyv@prairiechurch.org).
 
Thank you for all the ways you support the ministries of the church, especially in the ways you “show up!”
 
Blessings,
Pastor Becky Jo Messenbrink

​ Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.  Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.  Philippians 2:3-4(NRSV)
 
Dear Friends: 
I have been reflecting on this passage as it relates to our election season. Like many of you, I have requested a ballot that came to my home this week. I am not waiting until the first Tuesday in November to vote. But I do have some more homework to do before I am ready to fill in the entire ballot. That has led me to think about what criteria I will use in my discernment for voting in 2020.
 
As always, I want my vote to reflect my faith in Jesus. I want it to be obvious, at least to myself and to God, that I have voted with the values of my Christian faith. I think Paul’s letter to the Philippians does a good work of encouraging that perspective. We are encouraged to put the interests of others before our own. We are to look out for the powerless and voiceless among us.  We are to take action from a place of humility. I need to check myself. I need to stop and honestly ask myself what motivates me to vote for a particular candidate. And when I honestly discover that truth, ask myself if that motivation reflects humility and the value of putting the interests of others before myself.
 
Wherever you are at in the voting process, I would encourage you to carry around this scripture. Pray it daily. Put it to memory. Let it be a test to your actions, your attitudes, and your vote. That is the way in which our civic duty as citizens of the United States of America intersects with our citizenship in the kingdom of God.
 
Join me in reading and learning as we discuss A Good Time for the Truth. In this provocative book, sixteen of Minnesota’s best writers provide a range of perspectives on what it is like to live as a person of color in Minnesota. They give readers a splendid gift: the gift of touching another human being’s inner reality, behind masks and veils and politeness.They bring us generously into experiences that we must understand if we are to come together in real relationships.Discussions will be held Wednesdays at 7 PM OR Thursdays at 10 AM on Zoom starting October 7th / 8th.  SIGN UP by emailing beckyjom@prairiechurch.org. Find your own book at https://www.mnhs.org/mnhspress and other typical online book retailers in both print and e-book versions. You can prepare to discuss two chapters at each session.
 
This weekend you may have to bundle up to join us, but outdoor worship will be worth it!  Bring your own chairs, wear a mask, and dress for the weather (blankets are welcome!). Click here to register for outdoor worship on Sunday October 4th or Sunday October 11th.  As always, worship will continue to be available on our website.
 
Rally Day is this Sunday, October 4th. We will “rally” in two ways:  1) a drive through rally for all ages (beginning at 1 PM) where you will receive information about fall programs and treats from the Grow Team, and 2) a car bingo rally for all ages (beginning around 1:20 PM) - sign up here for a spot in the parking lot to park your car and play bingo for prizes. Friends, join us at least for the drive through. But the bingo will be fun for all ages, too!

See you on Sunday, whether in person, in the drive through, or online.
 
Blessings,
Pastor Becky Jo Messenbrink

Dear Friends,  
I find myself attentive to my breathing lately. I feel attentive to taking in the cool morning or evening air and find it refreshing. I am aware that sometimes I need to take in a breath slowly and breathe it out even more slowly so as to center myself and calm my spirit. Maybe you have been doing the same thing. I’ve been thinking about our brothers and sisters on the West Coast and their inability to take in a deep breath right now without it being filled with smoky air. Maybe you had the same kind of wondering the other day when the haze of smoke from the fires covered our sun. 
 
Yesterday I took my sister for an appointment in Rochester. She needed to have a Covid test done in Rochester, among other things. The Covid test was the last thing. She found herself very anxious in those moments. But the person who was providing her the testing immediately calmed her spirit. She asked my sister to take a deep breath in and blow it out through her mouth. As they practiced this breathing and relaxation technique, the technician used the technique to help her through the actual swabbing. And it worked! That breath in and breath out, slowly, calmed my sister's spirit and enabled her to have the procedure she needed. What a gift her breath was.
 
How are you breathing these days?  Is your breath short and rapid from too many things to do and too many things to be worried about? Or is your breath strained because there are things in life that are difficult to take in right now? Or are you having some other breathing difficulty in these days of isolation and distance and strangeness?
 
The Holy Spirit, that presence of God that is always with us, always guiding us, always helping us through, is often referred to as breath or wind. So when you find yourself having difficulty “breathing,” take a moment to notice your breath. Notice how your lungs fill and empty with the pattern of your breath. And to be aware that every time you breathe in you are breathing in the power of God through the Holy Spirit. And every time you breathe out, be aware that you are breathing God‘s presence back into the world.

Wherever and however you worship this weekend, may you breathe in the power of God through the Holy Spirit that enables you to breathe out God’s presence into the world. 
 
Becky Jo Messenbrink, Pastor
Eden Prairie United Methodist Church

Dear Friends, 
I wonder about the bent-over woman described in the 13 Chapter of the Gospel according to Luke. She had been bent over, unable to walk upright, for 18 years. I cannot imagine what life would have been like, not being able to look people in the eye, constantly staring at the ground, encountering life one set of feet at a time. She could only engage life from the knees down. I don’t know about you, but I don’t often notice this part of the world around me. I am looking up at the trees and the sky and the birds.  I look up (because I’m short!) into people’s eyes. It’s rare that I notice what is low to the ground, except when I am walking and not wanting to trip.
 
But this bent-over woman noticed what was low to the ground. It’s all she had. That means that she saw the animals scurrying around her.  It means that she could look children in the eye easily. It means that she could see and engage the world in a way that we only do when we work at it intentionally; when we sit on the ground to play with children, or reach down to snuggle our pets, or notice the ground on which we are walking for our own safety.
 
The woman encounters Jesus, and she is healed by him. She was able to stand upright. She was able to look people in the eye again. She was able to notice the blue of the sky and the color of the leaves and the movement of the flying birds. But I wonder about this bent-over, now healed, woman. After she was healed and able to stand upright, did she ever again see what was lower to the ground?
 
During this pandemic season I hear us longing for life to get back to “normal.” We say that while having a deep awareness that what is “normal” will be forever changed. But I wonder about when things “get back to normal.” I wonder if we will be able to see the things that we have had to notice during the pandemic. Will we look in one another’s eyes as intently as we do when there’s a mask across the mouth? Will we find as much delight in taking a picnic lunch to the park to meet up with friends and family? Will we make fewer trips for errands than we used to because we found that all that running around only made life more complicated? Will we lean into that reality that sometimes an online encounter will suffice when we need the space for family and loved ones and ourselves?
 
I want to believe the bent-over woman still noticed the ants on the ground, even when she was able to watch the birds soar. I want to believe she delighted in looking adults in the eye while never passing up a chance to kneel down and engage a child face to face. And I want to believe that there are parts of this pandemic season that have fundamentally changed for the better how we will engage one another and the world around us. 
 
As you continue to live through this pandemic season, may you lean into a new normal that brings health and wholeness. And may you find a delight in it.
 
Blessings,
Pastor Becky Jo Messenbrink

Dear Friends,
 
What a lovely night for an outdoor worship service!  It was a deep delight to actually be with some of the family of EPUMC last night. We sang (though briefly and through our masks). We worshiped together. We soaked in the community we had been missing. Thank you to everyone who helped make it happen (it took a lot of people doing their individual tasks!) and to everyone who came to worship. It was a delightful evening. 
​
 
B.E. L.O.V.E
We are launching a new series in September and we need your help. We are looking for your unique and creative pictures of YOU making a heart with your hands (or with your hand and someone else’s hand). Use your creativity.  There can be something you love in the opening of your heart, or something that makes it artistic and beautiful from your perspective. We could search the internet for such pictures, but we would love to have YOUR hands in the pictures.  It will be the hands of the family of faith at EPUMC demonstrating B.E. L.O.V.E.  You can send your pictures to Becky in the office (office@prairiechurch.org). Maybe take this holiday weekend to create a few pictures and email them to the church!
 
You may have noticed the “Save the Date” notice in the newsletter for Rally Day. This year the staff and leadership of the church chose to delay our typical Rally Day excitement. We wanted to give families a chance to settle into their school routine before we launched any additional programming for families. Wednesday Night Live will look different.  There are plans for exciting additions to our on-demand Sunday School. We are thrilled about the opportunities coming for children and youth. The Grow Team invites you to save the date of October 4th at 1 PM for a socially distanced and fun Rally Day experience in our church parking lot. Following Rally Day, we will launch some Wednesday Night Live-ish programs for children and youth. 
 
We are here to serve you, to connect you to one another and to grow your love of Jesus. That has not changed. But, as with most things in our lives these days, how we deliver those opportunities has changed. Our commitment to you and your family remains steadfast. Thank you for all the ways you are engaging in community, worship and growth through EPUMC.
 
As always, this weekend provides you an opportunity for Bible Study (Sunday at 8:15 AM on Zoom), for Fellowship and Prayers (Sunday at 9:30 AM on Zoom), for on-demand Sunday School (on the private EPUMC Sunday School page – email Rachel for access), and for a special children’s message (available on our website). Worship is ALWAYS available on our website.  I hope you will find your time this weekend to join us for worship online.  Consider inviting a friend personally or inviting friends through sharing a link on social media. You are the best witnesses to Jesus possible. I encourage you to witness through invitation in this season when folks are looking for more meaning and purpose in their lives and just waiting for someone to show them the way.
 
Blessings,
Pastor Becky Jo Messenbrink

Dear Friends,
 
The Eden Prairie UMC Worship Team has been working with other leadership and staff to provide a way for us to gather for worship, and we are ready to give it a try!
 
Wednesday, Sept. 2, we will have an outdoor worship service at 7 p.m. on the church property, weather permitting. If you are comfortable gathering in a physically distanced, mask-wearing group of people for songs, prayers and a message, we invite you to worship with us.
 
Here’s what we ask of each of you who are planning to join us for worship:

• Reservations are required so we can manage the size and know who is coming (the link to make your reservation is below).
• We are making room for up to 25 family units (or 75 people) in designated family “circles” that are 6 feet apart.  Families can be one person or many people, according to who is living in your house and in your “bubble” right now.
• Everyone who attends must wear a mask – we will have extras if you forget yours.
• Please bring your own chair / blanket as chairs will not be available.
• The building will be closed (except for emergency use of the bathrooms – please go before you come).
• Please arrive no early than 10 minutes prior to worship, keeping your distance from others as you arrive and departing following worship.  Please refrain from “mingling” before, during and after worship.
• Worship will be no more than 30 minutes in length.
• Children are welcome in worship as always, following the same guidelines as their parents.  Every member of a family unit should stay in their designated area.
• The playground will be closed to use before, during and after worship.
• Please stay home if you or anyone in your household is feeling ill or if you feel your personal circumstances put you in the “high risk” categories established by the CDC.
• If you become ill after attending worship, please let us know.  We are keeping attendance so that if someone becomes ill, we have a list of people to inform.
• Should the weather necessitate cancellation, you will receive that notice around 4 p.m. on the website, on our Facebook page and via email if you are registered to attend.  The tentative reschedule date is Sunday, Sept. 13 at 10 a.m.

 
If you would like to come worship with EPUMC that night, please make your reservations by clicking the link on the home page and following the instructions.  
 
Our desire to keep everyone in the community of faith safe has caused us to move slowly toward in-person gatherings. We hope that participation in this worship experience will allow us to consider more outdoor worship gatherings before the weather prevents it. That will be determined, in part, by how well we do at keeping the protocols listed above. 
 
Our online worship will continue to be available every Sunday. This outdoor worship, and any that come after it, will be in addition to that and another way to build community, connect with one another and praise God together.
 
Looking forward to every worship experience with you!
Pastor Becky Jo Messenbrink

Dear Friends,
 
We were created for community.  From the first moment of the creation of humanity (as recorded in Genesis 2), God immediately created a “companion” for the human, because “It’s not good for the [human] to be alone.” (Genesis 2:18)  God designed us from the beginning to do life together!
 
Following the resurrection of Jesus, the early church decided to lean into the way that they were created by God and started doing life together. In Acts 2:44 we learn that “all who believed were together and had all things in common.”  Reading the description, we find that they did life together by praying together, worshiping together, eating together, being in mission together. They did life together as they encouraged, supported and equipped one another in their walk with Jesus.
 
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, understood this truth deeply and built it into the fabric of our tradition. Beginning with what he called “class meetings,” Wesley had the people who were serious about being followers of Jesus gather together regularly for spiritual community, connection, support and accountability. And as people met together and learned to do life together, they grew in their love of God and neighbor and lived their walk with Jesus more intentionally.
 
We are called to the same. No pandemic and need to keep our physical distance from one another need prevent us from “doing life together” and growing in the faith together!
 
I worry about folks getting disconnected from the church and from one another. I miss being with the people of Eden Prairie United Methodist Church. I’m sure you do, too. I read today that “if a church member is in a small group, his or her likelihood of returning [to church after the pandemic] is high.” We don’t have to wait to see what happens. We can do something now to keep people connected to one another and increase the chances that we will not lose anyone to the pandemic of distance. Your Connect Team has been working on a plan for us to make deep connections with one another while we cannot gather physically as an entire community of faith.
 
Let’s Connect is a collection of small groups (7-10 members) that meet for a defined period of time (6 – 8 weeks) to make deep and personal connections with others through Eden Prairie United Methodist Church. Everyone is invited and encouraged to be a part of a Let’s Connect small group this fall as part of their faith journey at Eden Prairie Church. Whether your Let’s Connect group meets on the church lawn, on someone’s back deck, or online, it can be a place of deep connection.
 
Please fill out the short 3 question survey HERE to help us assess your interest level. Each adult in your household should follow the link and fill out the survey. Staff are developing small groups for children and youth and an invitation will come to their parents for their participation.
 
Deb Soderholm and Bruce Webster (co-chairs of the Connect Team) hope that some groups can take advantage of the nice weather and meet outdoors.  If you are interested, please fill out the survey within a week so that we can start some Let’s Connect groups NOW.
 
What an exciting season to lean into our faith traditions and our deep desire for connection.
 
Blessings,
Pastor Becky Jo Messenbrink
 
 

Dear Friends,
 
In the middle of our pandemic, being outside is one of the most delightful and “normal” experiences possible, it seems to me.  Lately I have been spending as much time outside as I can. Golf has been a place of refuge from mask-wearing and indoor confinement.  Nearly my entire vacation was spent doing something outside every day. Our new cornhole game arrives today so we can spend some evenings outside doing something fun together. I have begun doing pastoral visits in people’s yards or in the yard at the church. My daily walk fills my soul deeply.
 
Are you having the same experience? Are you finding ways to be outside and enjoy God’s creation and the relative normalcy of outside? Are you spending more time in the back yard with the kids? Are you enjoying your trip to the mailbox more than you used to? Are you looking for ways to connect with God through the gift of being outside?
 
Eden Prairie is blessed to have a labyrinth. A labyrinth is a walking meditation to quiet the mind, open the heart to God and ground the body in the holy presence of God. The labyrinth is a designated path that leads from the outer edge in a circular way until you reach the center, pausing to meditate and pray at the center, before following the path that leads you back out.  It is unlike a maze in that you cannot lose your way, there are no tricks, and the path will guide you in and back out again. On the path you are invited to pray about and release whatever God is calling you to release. At the center you pause to receive whatever God is pouring into you as gift. As you journey out, you are taking back into the world the gift which you have received. More information and guidance are available: click attached document.
 
A friend of EPUMC, Steve Sopoci, maintains the labyrinth so it is available for your use for a time of worship and meditation.  The labyrinth is on the north side of the church (to the right of the front door) in the grass. We have a few months left of weather that makes walking the labyrinth a blessing. I invite you to come to the church and walk the labyrinth as one of your spiritual habits. If someone else is on the labyrinth when you arrive, thank you for practicing safe distancing by waiting until they are finished.
 
Some of you may not be able or be ready to actually “walk” the labyrinth. When you click attached document, there is also a labyrinth you could use to “walk” the labyrinth by following the path with your finger and using the same spiritual guidance listed in the brochure. Just print the page out or use your screen to follow the path.
 
I invite you to this spiritual practice to connect with God.  May it bless you deeply.
 
Pastor Becky Jo Messenbrink
 

​Dear Friends
 
Yesterday I was jealous.  And I told Rick that I was when he recounted the story of the mama turkey who greeted him yesterday morning by the front door of the church with her brood of newly born babies.  Jealous because I would have loved to have witnessed that!
 
It reminded me of a few years back now when a duck laid her eggs outside of the church I was serving.  Mama had carefully nested the eggs in the landscape of the church, hidden from most folks who would walk by.  The staff and I were paying attention, though.  We watched as mama sat on that nest almost all of the time.  Once we were able to catch the view of one egg.  Then a few days later, we could see that there were actually 10 eggs!  As time passed and no babies hatched, we began to wonder if the babies were ever coming.  Some told us to wait it out, that they would eventually hatch.  Others suggested she had a miscarriage of eggs, and that eventually she would figure it out and leave.  But after four weeks, most of us had decided that those eggs were probably never going to hatch, no matter how long that hen sat on them.

Then overnight, hope we had lost proved to be stronger than our doubt.  To our surprise, ducklings were popping their heads out from underneath Mom.  Empty egg shells proved the truth.  We had ducklings!!
 
Hope is always stronger than doubt.  Hope is the power to wait out a season that looks impossible, knowing that God is at work and something good will come of it.  Hope is the strength to love even while there is a risk of getting hurt.  Hope is the ability to stare a pandemic in the face and trust that a new season will come, if we are willing to do our part.  Hope is the righteous anger that moves us to acknowledge and work to change systems of injustice.  Hope is the force the enables us to grieve the passing of a loved one with a deep and abiding trust in the promise of heaven. 
 
This hope is powerful!  It has the ability to keep you looking to the future, even when voices tell you it is over.  May the power of hope overwhelm you today and always! May the power of hope cause you to set aside the things that keep new life from forming.  May the power of hope cause you to patiently work toward a new future that is already being born among us.
 
Blessings,
Pastor Becky Jo
 
PS
Way to be church, friends!  Last Sunday, while several folks worked in the garden to harvest produce for PROP, others of you drove through to say “hi” to the staff and donate food and financial resources for the same.  On Sunday you donated 382 pounds of non-perishable food and over $800 to PROP, on top of whatever fresh produce was donated from our garden.  That’s amazing!  I’m so proud of what we can accomplish together, even when we cannot be physically together for worship and small groups. Way to be church!