Then Mary said, \u201cHere am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.\u201d<\/h2>\nLuke 1:38a<\/em><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAs you know, there are four Sundays in Advent.\u00a0 You may have noticed a general pattern of the readings over the years.\u00a0 On the first Sunday of Advent, the gospel passage is a prophecy about the coming day of the Lord, reminding us that Advent is not only a season of expectation of the birth of baby Jesus, but also expectation of the second coming of Christ.\u00a0 The second Sunday focuses on the ministry of John the Baptist.\u00a0 The third Sunday compares John the Baptist and Jesus.\u00a0 And the fourth Sunday focuses on Mary.<\/p>\n
While Christians have widely differing views of Mary, there is no argument that she was a woman of bold obedience and faith.<\/p>\n
This last weekend I was able to celebrate the lives of two other women of bold obedience and faith.<\/p>\n
Geraldine Marks is celebrating her 103rd<\/sup> birthday this Wednesday, so friends were invited to come visit her home yesterday.\u00a0 Mrs. Marks has been a faithful leader of South Hills Presbyterian Church for generations; even during the last weeks at South Hills, her smiling presence was constant and inspiring.\u00a0 Thanks to Piccola Ford-Levine and email, the people of South Hills still have a connection, and they gather and share news of the family on occasion.<\/p>\nEven as she nears 103, Mrs. Marks was alert and gracious, enjoying chocolates, reminiscing about South Hills, and advising young adult women who grew up at the church.\u00a0 I was reminded again of a comforting assertion by Rev. Ivan Walks\u2019 son, that the ministry of South Hills is no longer contained in the building on Fremont Street, but it continues through the lives of all its members\u2014and all the generations they raise.<\/p>\n
But speaking of the building, since Mrs. Walks lives a few blocks from the church, I went by to see how it\u2019s doing.\u00a0 I saw a member of the new church working in the yard, the buildings nicely repaired and painted.\u00a0 As a couple of South Hills leaders have commented, they are comforted that the building has passed on to another spiritual community, even though they are not Christian.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered at Arcadia Community Church to give thanks for the life of Maha Hakim.\u00a0 This day was marked by tears as well as praise, for Maha was an incredible leader of Arabic Evangelical Church who died after being hit by a car.\u00a0 Maha\u2019s ministry was focused on children and youth, but she was known as a can-do person, one of those women who are critical for any church ministry, because she got things done, with faith and with love.<\/p>\n
Though I didn\u2019t know her personally, I knew of Maha because she was the lead organizer for a children\u2019s camp that Arabic Evangelical offers each summer.\u00a0 In these camps, hundreds of kids, mostly from families who had recently come to Southern California from the violence in the Middle East, gather and see that they aren\u2019t alone, and they can connect with each other and with God in a safe, fun and supportive environment.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/kids.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
But of course, this was just one small part of Maha\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 Story after story was shared on Saturday about her outreach not only with children and youth at Arabic Evangelical, but also in the world\u2014one of the speakers was a Latino pastor who shared in Spanish about his partnership with Maha and her family to share the Gospel with children of all backgrounds.<\/p>\n
Surely Maha\u2019s love for children and her God have been magnified in the lives of her family, her church, and especially all the children and youth who have come to know the love of Jesus Christ through her.\u00a0 My heart goes out to her husband and three children, her extended family including pastor Hisham Kamel, and Arabic Evangelical Church.\u00a0 There will continue to be the question of how this woman of God could be taken from us in the prime of her life.\u00a0 While this question was acknowledged in her memorial service, the overwhelming message was affirmation that Maha is now welcomed into heaven, at one with the Lord.\u00a0 I ask for your prayers for Arabic Evangelical Church, and especially for the young ones who will miss Maha so much.<\/p>\n
As we honor these women by name, there are countless others whose love goes unrecognized.\u00a0 Tomorrow evening, there will be a memorial service at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena to honor and acknowledge their lives and membership in the human family.\u00a0 Also, LAC+USC Chaplain Rev. Elizabeth Gibbs-Zehnder shared photos from a service on December 5th<\/sup>, when the remains of 1,467 people were laid to rest in the county cemetery.\u00a0 These people died in 2015 but their bodies were never claimed by a family member or acquaintance.\u00a0 You can find her reflection on the service, and also a list of ways you can help patients of the LAC+USC Chaplaincy, here<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs we continue in this holy season, let us give thanks for the women of faith who have answered God\u2019s call to service, including Mary, and Gerry Marks, and Maha Hakim, and all the women who serve so faithfully in your church and your life.\u00a0 As we celebrate the holidays, let us show care and comfort for those whose grief throws a shadow on the festivities all around us.\u00a0 And always, always, always, let us stay focused on the hope that the baby Jesus brings to this hurting world.\u00a0 Let us all, as servants of the Lord, let it be with us, according to God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n
In the love of Christ,<\/p>\n
Wendy<\/p>\n
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As you know, there are four Sundays in Advent. You may have noticed a general pattern of the readings over the years. On the first Sunday of Advent, the gospel passage is a prophecy about the coming day of the Lord, reminding us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":23061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27739,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23053\/revisions\/27739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
As you know, there are four Sundays in Advent.\u00a0 You may have noticed a general pattern of the readings over the years.\u00a0 On the first Sunday of Advent, the gospel passage is a prophecy about the coming day of the Lord, reminding us that Advent is not only a season of expectation of the birth of baby Jesus, but also expectation of the second coming of Christ.\u00a0 The second Sunday focuses on the ministry of John the Baptist.\u00a0 The third Sunday compares John the Baptist and Jesus.\u00a0 And the fourth Sunday focuses on Mary.<\/p>\n
While Christians have widely differing views of Mary, there is no argument that she was a woman of bold obedience and faith.<\/p>\n
This last weekend I was able to celebrate the lives of two other women of bold obedience and faith.<\/p>\n
Geraldine Marks is celebrating her 103rd<\/sup> birthday this Wednesday, so friends were invited to come visit her home yesterday.\u00a0 Mrs. Marks has been a faithful leader of South Hills Presbyterian Church for generations; even during the last weeks at South Hills, her smiling presence was constant and inspiring.\u00a0 Thanks to Piccola Ford-Levine and email, the people of South Hills still have a connection, and they gather and share news of the family on occasion.<\/p>\n Even as she nears 103, Mrs. Marks was alert and gracious, enjoying chocolates, reminiscing about South Hills, and advising young adult women who grew up at the church.\u00a0 I was reminded again of a comforting assertion by Rev. Ivan Walks\u2019 son, that the ministry of South Hills is no longer contained in the building on Fremont Street, but it continues through the lives of all its members\u2014and all the generations they raise.<\/p>\n But speaking of the building, since Mrs. Walks lives a few blocks from the church, I went by to see how it\u2019s doing.\u00a0 I saw a member of the new church working in the yard, the buildings nicely repaired and painted.\u00a0 As a couple of South Hills leaders have commented, they are comforted that the building has passed on to another spiritual community, even though they are not Christian.<\/p>\n On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered at Arcadia Community Church to give thanks for the life of Maha Hakim.\u00a0 This day was marked by tears as well as praise, for Maha was an incredible leader of Arabic Evangelical Church who died after being hit by a car.\u00a0 Maha\u2019s ministry was focused on children and youth, but she was known as a can-do person, one of those women who are critical for any church ministry, because she got things done, with faith and with love.<\/p>\n Though I didn\u2019t know her personally, I knew of Maha because she was the lead organizer for a children\u2019s camp that Arabic Evangelical offers each summer.\u00a0 In these camps, hundreds of kids, mostly from families who had recently come to Southern California from the violence in the Middle East, gather and see that they aren\u2019t alone, and they can connect with each other and with God in a safe, fun and supportive environment.<\/p>\n But of course, this was just one small part of Maha\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 Story after story was shared on Saturday about her outreach not only with children and youth at Arabic Evangelical, but also in the world\u2014one of the speakers was a Latino pastor who shared in Spanish about his partnership with Maha and her family to share the Gospel with children of all backgrounds.<\/p>\n Surely Maha\u2019s love for children and her God have been magnified in the lives of her family, her church, and especially all the children and youth who have come to know the love of Jesus Christ through her.\u00a0 My heart goes out to her husband and three children, her extended family including pastor Hisham Kamel, and Arabic Evangelical Church.\u00a0 There will continue to be the question of how this woman of God could be taken from us in the prime of her life.\u00a0 While this question was acknowledged in her memorial service, the overwhelming message was affirmation that Maha is now welcomed into heaven, at one with the Lord.\u00a0 I ask for your prayers for Arabic Evangelical Church, and especially for the young ones who will miss Maha so much.<\/p>\n As we honor these women by name, there are countless others whose love goes unrecognized.\u00a0 Tomorrow evening, there will be a memorial service at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena to honor and acknowledge their lives and membership in the human family.\u00a0 Also, LAC+USC Chaplain Rev. Elizabeth Gibbs-Zehnder shared photos from a service on December 5th<\/sup>, when the remains of 1,467 people were laid to rest in the county cemetery.\u00a0 These people died in 2015 but their bodies were never claimed by a family member or acquaintance.\u00a0 You can find her reflection on the service, and also a list of ways you can help patients of the LAC+USC Chaplaincy, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n As we continue in this holy season, let us give thanks for the women of faith who have answered God\u2019s call to service, including Mary, and Gerry Marks, and Maha Hakim, and all the women who serve so faithfully in your church and your life.\u00a0 As we celebrate the holidays, let us show care and comfort for those whose grief throws a shadow on the festivities all around us.\u00a0 And always, always, always, let us stay focused on the hope that the baby Jesus brings to this hurting world.\u00a0 Let us all, as servants of the Lord, let it be with us, according to God\u2019s word.<\/p>\n In the love of Christ,<\/p>\n Wendy<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav in_same_term=”off” _builder_version=”3.0.87″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” hide_prev=”off” hide_next=”off”][\/et_pb_post_nav][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As you know, there are four Sundays in Advent. You may have noticed a general pattern of the readings over the years. On the first Sunday of Advent, the gospel passage is a prophecy about the coming day of the Lord, reminding us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":23061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27739,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23053\/revisions\/27739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sangabpres.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n