"The Epistle of St. Timothy's"

Aloha! I hope you are enjoying our newsletter, which we’ve now dubbed “The Epistle of St. Timothy’s.” And we’re grateful for our keiki who illustrated the headings we’ll be using!

First of all, can I tell you how much I missed worshiping with you on Sunday? I have never had Covid-19, but somehow it snuck up on me last week. On Thursday morning I felt something like a cold coming on, and out of an abundance of caution took a Covid test—it was negative. And I had a full day at the church. The next morning I felt worse, and that second Covid test showed a bright red positive band. I reached out to Nancy Chun and Paul Mahuka to let them know, and they scrambled to get a morning prayer service put together for Sunday. I am so grateful to them and to those who served on Sunday. And I’m especially thankful for your prayers! I’m already feeling better. I will be taking it easy and being careful to mask and distance for a while. But God willing I’ll be back on Sunday.

This summer we’re doing a series of “Ministry Minutes” during the announcement time. We started with our Outreach program led by Lauralee Kawamata. Last Sunday Nancy Chun presented the “Welcoming Hearts Team,” and you can read more about that below. Because this Sunday is Father’s Day, we’ll be skipping the Ministry Minute, but in coming weeks, we’ll be hearing from others who will tell us about other ways people can serve here. St. Timothy’s needs your active involvement so that we might continue to grow and flourish as God’s ohana in ‘Aiea. So I hope you will listen to these Ministry Minutes with open mind and heart and respond to whatever opportunities appeal to you, listening for God’s guidance. Thank you!

In case you are interested in reading it, I posted the sermon I was working on for last Sunday on our Facebook page. It’s about “Family Matters”—acknowledging the love and support our families give us, as well as the challenges. Even Jesus’ own family posed challenges for him. But Jesus in turn welcomes all of us, whoever we might be, into his forever family, his eternal ohana, so that we are all siblings together with him. 
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This Sunday, Father’s Day, we’ll consider God our Father, and observe how he deals with Samuel in comfort, promise, and blessing. You might wish to read the Old Testament scripture, 1 Samuel 15:34—16:13, and think prayerfully about how God relates to Samuel in times of grief, as well as to us. We’ll also offer a special prayer for our fathers and celebrate them with a special treat at the fellowship time, so please plan on joining us!

I look forward to having you worship with us on Sunday at 9 a.m. in the Chapel, or on Facebook Live.  

I am praying for you, dear sisters and brothers, and I ask for your prayers for St. Timothy’s Church, for our dedicated staff and our devoted lay leaders, and for me! May God bless you all.  

Aloha Ke Akua, 
Fr. Pete+ 

Bishop’s Warden Nancy Chun and Father Peter have been working on building a new team at St. Timothy’s that pulls together some activities that many of you are already involved in and doing well. 

The Welcoming Hearts Team would offer various ways of ministering to others:

• Welcoming newcomers on Sundays (Rebecca Kang and others do this well)
  
• Sharing prayer requests (Our Daughters of the King do this, and we also have the prayer request book on the back table)
  
• Also helping Father Peter with pastoral care—making hospital, hospice, or home visits (with Safe Church training and a partner)
  
• Eucharistic Visitors take communion to folks who can’t attend, they need a partner. Claire Percon recently trained as an EV… how about you? Or can you accompany Claire on visits?
  
• Providing meals when people are ill or have suffered a loss, or babysitting, running errands for those who need the help. 
  

Many of you are already doing many of these things. But sometimes things fall through the cracks, so it would help to have someone serve as the point person and help oversee and organize these activities to make sure that any needs of care, of welcome, and of simply helping are covered among our St. Tim’s family. 

Could that point person be you? Or maybe you’d be interested in providing help in one or more of these areas?
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We’re all so grateful for everything each of you does to welcome and care for one another. Please pray and ask God, speak Lord, your servant is listening… is this a way that you might serve God here at St. Timothy’s? Let Fr. Peter or Nancy know. Thank you!