Month: June 2021

REV MARIE BUFFALOE • PARISH ASSOCIATE FOR CONGREGATIONAL LIFE AND CARE

On the bad days of the pandemic, I wasn’t sure when or if we would be coming back in person to sing, to receive communion or even to have committee meetings. Those days I was just trying to survive the upheavals until a vaccine was available. Brad and I kept masking and stayed hunkered down in our home. Vaccinated now, I feel relieved but also cautious and anxious for those who, through no fault of their own, haven’t been able to get vaccinated — not just those around me, but those who live continents away.

Slowly, carefully, I’m venturing out. Like never before, I am now appreciating the chance to sing the doxology with others in worship and to hear the squirming of children behind me in church. I smiled when I watched someone nod off during the sermon (something I hadn’t noticed when preaching to the camera!) I am so glad to be present for a careful hug or pat on the shoulder. When you are ready, we are here for in-person worship.

A few weeks ago we sang “Holy, Holy, Holy,” a familiar hymn that celebrates the Trinity of God’s presence as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I’ve sung it all my life, but this time the hymn’s refrain connected with me in a new way. We sang during the communion prayer: “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.” We gave praise that God comes to us in person as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. 

God is not remote or online or virtually present in our homes, like the checkerboard faces on our countless zoom meetings. God is not stored away and preserved in a cloud or flattened into a file on our desktops. Right now, this very moment, God abides in person with us.  The Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament announced that the Almighty Creator would come and be with us, in person. God’s name would be Emmanuel which means “God is with us.” And that’s how we know Jesus, the presence of God in person, sitting right beside us in the people around us, in the beauty of creation surrounding us and in sounds of life and hope. 

Take a moment wherever you are and look around. How do you see and hear God right now?

This summer, I hope you feel that in-person presence of God who continues to support, heal, guide, and sustain you during this journey.

And when you are ready, I look forward to seeing you in person, too.

Laura Cox • Director, Derry Discovery Days Preschool

As Derry Discovery Days’ 2020-21 school year has come to an end, one word summarizes the experience for myself and all of our teachers: GRATITUDE!       

We are incredibly grateful to Derry Church, Session and the COVID Task Force for giving us the opportunity to open.  We are grateful to our DDD families for trusting us during very uncertain times to keep their children safe and give them as normal a preschool experience as possible. And we are especially grateful for the children of DDD for being so resilient, wearing their face masks each day and never complaining.  

I am forever grateful to the staff of Derry Discovery Days who worked tirelessly this year to maintain a safe environment for our students. Many thanks go out to Jill Felter, Rachel Bullard, Amy Yengo, Priscilla Berk, Amber Allen and Erika Manotti for coming to work every day during a pandemic, all the while juggling their own children’s very different school schedules. Their dedication and love of their jobs was truly evident this year!

This year we had 32 children enrolled at DDD with only two age groups meeting, our 3 Year Old Busy Bees and our 4 Year Old Butterflies in both the morning and afternoon. We did not open our two upstairs classrooms, our Ladybug 1s and Turtles 2s, given all of the unknowns with the pandemic at the beginning of the school year.  

We made several adjustments to the way we operated with an increased focus on hygiene and sanitizing, a more stringent sick policy, a staggered start time, parents dropping off and picking up outside of the building, implementing a new app that includes a daily health screener and a check in/out process for contact tracing purposes. These changes were very successful and we plan to continue doing most of these in the 2021-22 school year.

We are excited to welcome two new Derry Church members to our DDD School Board: Sarah Bartz and Becca Farbaniec. Sarah and Becca both will have two children in our program this fall and both bring a great deal of professional experience to our board with their work at LVC and Penn State MSH Medical Center.   

We plan to have all of our classrooms open for the 2021-22 school year, and we have openings in our Ladybugs 1s, Busy Bee 3s and Afternoon Butterfly 4s classes. Please contact me if you are interested in enrolling your child. Classes begin Tuesday, September 7 and we would love to have your children be a part of our DDD family! 

HALEIGH WHITNEY• Church World Service Communications and Volunteer Engagement Specialist

Editor’s Note: On the first Thursday of each month, the eNews feature article highlights the mission focus for the month. In June we’re lifting up refugees. You can find the current month’s mission focus in the Joys & Concerns section of the weekly eNews.

We are a nation of immigrants, and if not for our ancestors, where would we be as a nation today? How different the narrative would have been in each of our lives had our relatives not been permitted entry to the US. This is the situation today, as immigrants face greater and more challenging issues of entry on a daily basis. The contributions and impacts of newcomers are great. Their talents and skills contribute to our workforce in many ways, and they are significant members within our communities. Click the video above and take less than two minutes to meet some refugees and immigrants to Central Pennsylvania.

Church World Service (CWS) is a faith-based organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement, and disaster. CWS was formed in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II, as a response to the displacement crisis that had affected millions in Europe. Seventy-five years later, CWS continues its mission of supporting the vulnerable and the displaced, having offered resettlement services to over half a million refugees worldwide. CWS also sponsors the annual CROP WALK to raise funds for hunger relief.

Since 1987, CWS Lancaster has been committed to showing welcome to refugees, immigrants, asylum-seekers, and other uprooted people within the United States, who are seeking safety and the opportunity to rebuild their lives. CWS Lancaster expects to resettle more refugees in the coming 12-18 months than it has in the last three years combined.

To carry out this mission, we partner with caring churches, organizations, and individuals to provide hope and home to refugees and immigrants from all over the world. Our volunteers provide integral support to the families we serve—transporting them to medical appointments, offering English language learning support, and welcoming them into strong and steady community.