Hi Friends, 

I am so grateful for you and this faith community that makes it possible for us to continue to expand and hone what being a welcoming community means.  

I am grateful for how smoothly our first mask-required Sunday service went on June 22nd. People who didn’t know it was a mask-required Sunday or forgot their masks at home, were able to pick up a mask from the Welcome Center, which is the kiosk with the “Welcome, we’re so glad you are here!” sign located in the lobby. During Kinship Time, folks headed outside to sit at the tables and chairs to eat unmasked. Congregants who haven’t been able to join us due to exposure concerns, attended or emailed me that they will be at our upcoming mask-required services on July 27 and August 17. I look forward to seeing you then! 

I am grateful for the new benches and mulch under the great tree in the South Lawn that is part of our new playscape. Adam took the photo of me on Wednesday morning writing this. After the heat of last week, I am grateful for a warm, sunny but not too hot, day in which to work outside. 

I am grateful for Adam Gough, Steven Eason, Tori Foreman, and Vickie Doebele, our amazing staff who worked daily with Red Cross volunteers while we were a Temporary Disaster Relief Shelter Site from June 10th – July 3rd.  

Through connections Adam made with the City of Evanston Fire Department while attending the City of Evanston’s Emergency Preparedness Fair last year, we were connected with the Red Cross and asked to be a Temporary Disaster Relief Shelter Site. In mid-June, we were called upon to host a group of people displaced from their apartments after an apartment fire led to the entire apartment building being condemned. Around 60 people were displaced and we hosted twenty-four people from seven households. Sleeping on cots in rooms 8, 9, 10, 12, and 13; eating donated meals in the café area during the week and room 5 on Sundays; and playing in our newly play-scaped South Lawn, our guests shared how comfortable and welcome they felt in our space. They had to shower at the YWCA and try to maintain their normal work schedule while looking for new housing.  

Two Red Cross volunteers were required to be on-site at all times. The volunteers I spent time with were interesting, solution-oriented, and a delight to get to know. This was our first-time hosting Red Cross guests and it went smoothly enough that, if we are able, we will act as a Temporary Disaster Relief Shelter Site again in the future. I appreciate not only the words of support and encouragement the staff received after the email blast to members about welcoming our Red Cross guests and volunteers, but also how you made the Red Cross guests and volunteers feel when you engaged with them during their stay. You are full of compassion and generosity, and I am grateful to have experienced those in action. 

One of my spiritual practices is to honor or name one person or thing that I am grateful for each evening before going to sleep. Sometimes I do this in prayer, making time to visualize what I am grateful for in my mind’s eye and really honoring why I have gratitude for this person or thing; and sometimes all I can manage is a brief acknowledgment in which I simply name what I am grateful for and go to bed.  

I encourage you to try it once or even once a day for a while. Maybe the evening isn’t a good time for you, maybe at your lunch break or when you awake. And, if it doesn’t make you feel better, that’s okay. Try something else. The important thing in this moment in our country’s history is to keep trying to find something that gives you a pause in the day and movement toward calm, and maybe toward happiness. If you are feeling overwhelmed by what is happening in your life or in the news, please make time to take care of yourself. If you need some support, please fill out a Request for Care form or email me or Rev. Eileen.  

Thank you for continuing to show up in all the complicated relational and logistical ways needed to care for each other, our faith community, our neighbors, and the stranger on the way. 

Gratefully Yours, 

Rev. Susan