Dear friend,
Headlines can be grim, but we know that God is in the process of restoring all things to Himself. As a church, we seek to enter into this work joyfully, avoiding the frenetic belief that everything depends on us— but also resisting the despairing resignation that our small efforts don’t really matter. We would love for you to join us.
In Christ
Molly Stawarz
Pastor of Mission
Mission Journal Entries
This year, Restoration’s Good Friday offering will be split between two organizations working with refugees.
Restoration was visited by Fr. James, a Karen priest, who recently moved to Minnesota from a refugee camp in Thailand.
This new initiative of Restoration is focused on bringing deeper understanding to several societal issues and highlighting the work of Christians in these spheres.
Our family went to Brazil this summer to visit a cluster of flourishing Anglican churches in the northeastern region of the country. We spent 10 days traveling to three cities and during our time in the northeast, we visited five Anglican churches, met with three bishops and got to know dozens of people involved in the growing Anglican movement in Brazil. Along with the churches, we were able to spend an afternoon at the Compassion Community Center in João Pessoa (to which Restoration sent this year’s Good Friday offering).
The Johnson Family is off to Brazil, where they will visit the recipient of our Good Friday offering.
I have been to many conferences, retreats, etc. in my life; usually I leave each of these with a head full of new information, pages and pages of notes, and an overall sense that I will never have enough time to do anything with all that I’ve “learned.” This recent Mathew 25 Gathering was refreshingly different.
Each Lent, we take up a special offering for a ministry outside of our local congregation as a means of communally participating in the ancient practice of almsgiving. This year, in light of the devastating earthquakes in the Middle East, Restoration is focusing our Lenten generosity toward relief efforts in Turkey and Syria.
A Restoration attender reflects on her participation of prayer, work, study, service, and fellowship at Koinonia Farm.
New Life Family Services (www.nlfs.org) honors the sanctity of human life by assisting clients in life-affirming decisions with the love and compassion of Christ. I joined the board several years ago because I resonated with New Life’s vision to “one day reach all abortion-minded and abortion-vulnerable individuals throughout Minnesota with comprehensive pregnancy-related services and the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
