Please Read the Following Messages:

We Now have our Zoom videos online for your viewing enjoyment. 
Just go to Worship and select Sermons and More.
​Scroll down and click on the one you want to watch.

​We are never alone

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton Presiding Bishop
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
 
 The room was spare and dimly lit. We sat on folding chairs in a circle—young Honduran women and some of us from the ELCA. We had come to Honduras to observe the work of AMMPARO (Accompanying Migrant Minors with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities). This is the ELCA’s strategy to help youth who have been forced to flee their home countries because of violence, abuse, extortion by gangs and extreme poverty. Amparo is the Spanish word for shelter or refuge.
 
In this case, AMMPARO partnered with the Lutheran World Federation and the Mennonites to resettle returned migrants— those who had tried to seek asylum in the United States but had failed or had been denied and deported back to Honduras.
 
One by one they told us their stories of fear and desperation. Not a one undertook the long and dangerous trek north on a whim. They told us about the abuse they had suffered, about family members who had been killed by gangs, about the inability to make a living because of the extortion by organized crime. They talked about the bitter sadness of leaving home and family, and the uncertainty of the future.
 
I remember one young woman in particular. She was pregnant when she tried to migrate to the United States. She had the baby somewhere along the way. She was far from home, mostly alone and desperately wanted her mother to be with her. None of this is what she had hoped for when she was growing up. Circumstances beyond her control had forced her into this new and strange existence. She and her baby were now back in Honduras—but not at home. Home was too dangerous.
 
Remember last Christmas? Remember all of the preparations, the travel to be with family? Remember the holy beauty of the Christmas Eve liturgy and receiving Christ’s grace and forgiveness at his table? The shopping and Christmas caroling? The in-person gatherings? All that has changed.
The pandemic hasn’t forced us from our homes but into our homes, sheltering in place, isolated. Not together, but physically distanced. Not gathered with family and friends, but forced apart because of the threat of infection. Forced by circumstances beyond our control into this strange existence. Oh, there will be Christmas carols piped into grocery stores and other essential services, but they will be painful reminders of how life used to be
.
We are reminded of the experience of the exiles in Babylon: “By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captives asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land” (Psalm 137)?
 
I told the young Honduran woman about another young woman who was forced to leave home because of a government decree. She, too, was pregnant and made a long and difficult journey. She, too, was far from home and without her mother when the baby came. She had to find shelter wherever she could. This wasn’t what she had hoped for when she was growing up. Circumstances beyond her control had forced her into this new existence.
That young woman was Mary and the child was Jesus. Precisely in our distress, in our dislocation, the Lord shows up. Emmanuel—God with us—makes his home in the very places we find foreign or isolating. The young Honduran woman, and all of us, can find hope because of the birth of Mary’s child. There is no God-forsaken place and we are never alone— not in hospital rooms, or sheltering in place, or Zoom calls or on dangerous roads.
Many of us will not be physically home for Christmas, but we are truly home in Christ.

Trinity​
 Our Zoom services will continue through the month of February.
Topic: In the Word
The time of the service is 4:00 pm.

​        Bill Nabers is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meetings.  (Use the same sign in for all.)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/983184471?pwd=VEprbno2ZUhhbE1kZG9POW42cUJEZz09

We are recording these Zoom sessions and they will be placed on the two congregation's websites.  Would anyone object to including the time of sharing?  If so, please let me know.  If not they will be included in future recordings.

Anyone wishing to volunteer for any of the Sundays to play and sing a song, read lessons or prepare the prayers, please let me know.

Blessings,
Pastor

Greetings!
In following the directive of the Governor and the suggestion of the Virginia Synod both Trinity and St. Jacob are cancelling all in-person events, including worship, through the end of February 2021.  We will reevaluate the situation in late February.  Following is the one link that will allow a Zoom time each Sunday through the end of February.
​
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/983184471?pwd=VEprbno2ZUhhbE1kZG9POW42cUJEZz09
​Reenter each week when you are ready to join by computer or phone.

I ask for your prayers and best efforts to witness by doing all we can to keep our neighbors safe and healthy during this time.  If you are able to make a donation each congregation will have ongoing expenses during this time.

If you have any needs or requests please contact me by email or phone.  I lift each of you up in my prayers and look forward eagerly to the time when we can truly assemble.

​Blessings,
Bill Nabers
Pastor