Category: News

Dear Friends,

On Sunday, November 27, we celebrate the first Sunday of Advent and Communion. During the service, we will also hear the heartbreaking stories of Dorgelesse, Nasser, Chow, and Vahid as a part of our yearly Write for Rights campaign (Amnesty International). We ask for your prayers and support for those who are suffering and marginalized in our world.

Sunday, December 4 is the second Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of peace. That is traditionally the Sunday we conduct our Amnesty Write For Rights campaign, when we join with like-minded people around the world to protest human rights abuses by select countries by flooding their government with letters demanding justice.

The four cases we have this year are difficult to consider for various reasons, but your letters can make all the difference to the four individuals involved. After worship on the 4th, please plan to stay and sign letters on their behalf. If you cannot stay, or if you wish to consider the cases at home, or write letters to the victims from home, we can provide you with a take-home package as we have done the last couple of years. As usual, we are also asking for monetary donations to cover the mailing costs.

No matter how you choose to lend your support to Dorgelesse, Nasser, Chow, or Vahid, I urge you to participate, because human rights is everybody’s business.

—Bonnie Horton

—Rev. Chuck Moon

A version of this message appeared in the Friday, November 25, 2022 version of Tidbits.

Dear Friends,

We give special thanks to Sandra, Susan, Al, Bonnie, and all who organized and helped at the Village Fair.  Not only is it an important fundraising event for our church, but it has also become a fun community event where we meet people from our community. I had the privilege of greeting people at the door. I met so many kind and generous people. I started the day by praying that through this event, people who go through our church door would experience the presence of God. But I ended the day with the awareness that people brought the presence of God to us on that day (as much as we offered them).

We give thanks to God for blessing us through one another.

— Rev. Chuck Moon

A version of this message appeared in the Thursday, November 10, 2022 version of Tidbits.

LORD, make me an instrument of your peace,
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.  Amen.

Prayer of Saint Francis

Unfortunately, we heard about another tragic shooting incident at a local high school. We feel helpless and discouraged by the news. We remember many students, parents, and teachers affected by the incident in our prayers. It reminds us that we live in a lost and broken society and how much we need God’s love in this broken world. Please, join us in praying for peace.

— Rev. Chuck Moon

A version of this message appeared in the Saturday, November 5, 2022 version of Tidbits.

Dear Friends,

Our special thanks to Brooks & Cherry and everyone who helped perform and organize the Golden Scores of Cinema concert. Many spent hours preparing for this concert. One piece of music that spoke to me was the Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso (1988). It brought back good memories and different emotions I felt when I watched for the first time: Sadness, joy, laughter, and a sense of wonder. We humans do remember a lot. We don’t always know what we carry in our human hearts, but we carry a lot in our hearts. Sometimes we get carried away with our everyday responsibilities, and we forget to remember what is in our human hearts.

I wonder if our ministry’s work is similar to that — we are to help people remember God in our human hearts. God has written the covenant in our human history and spirit. May we remember to pause and listen to what our hearts desire to remember.

Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually. Remember the wonderful works he has done, his miracles and the judgments he uttered, O offspring of his servant Israel, children of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. Remember his covenant forever, the word that he commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac, which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant.

1 Chronicles 16:11–17

— Rev. Chuck Moon

A version of this message appeared in the Saturday, October 29, 2022 version of Tidbits.

Dear Friends,

Last Wednesday around 2 PM, two adults died following a collision at the intersection of Markham Road and Elson Street. That is less than three minutes from my residence, and I had driven past there less than 10 minutes before the accident.

Whenever I drove through that spot, my heart felt sadness. I could not help thinking and asking, “Why? God? It could have been anyone. It could have been me.” It spoke to the question of ‘why me’ that I have been carrying in my heart.

Each day since, flowers were placed at that intersection. On the following Sunday morning, those flowers struck my soul. I was busy asking why, yet some people put those flowers to remember their family and friends in prayer. Those flowers were the visible prayers of the people… Those flowers reminded me of what I should not forget to do. That is to pray more. Our question should deepen our prayer with God. When a tragedy hits us, we seek an answer, or perhaps we seek the presence of God.

I am not sure we will ever find a satisfying answer to our question of why, but perhaps we may find something better than the answers we sought. We may be found by God. May we not allow our questions to stop us from doing what we can do, and stop living our life fully. May we continue to care about those who are suffering? May we remember those we love and those who need others, and pray for one another? May we allow our questions to deepen our love for each other and our faith in Christ Jesus?

— Rev. Chuck Moon

A version of this message first appeared in the Friday, October 21, 2022, edition of Tidbits.