Hello all!
I hope you are dry, safe, connected to friends, and have things in your life that give you hope.
I don’t usually do this but, this month, I am going to tell you a quick story from my life that I hope will give you a sense that it’s possible to have good things come out of difficult ones.
When I got outed two decades ago, I lost all the work I had been doing as a consultant for several conferences and camp meetings: family trainings, teaching individuals and systems how to deal with sexual abuse in the church, supporting pastors and their families, preaching, teaching Sabbath School, etc. Thanks to Floyd and the Glendale City Church, I had a congregation that is still sanctuary to me. From there, my life began to build again.
I won’t bore you with the entire journey, but I believe God used and is using Kinship to make what had been a time of loss, a blessing, and an adventure.
If I had safely stayed with my little New England congregation and camp meetings, I never would have:
- Gotten to write the Connection for all of you.
- Found myself and Floyd facilitating six years of Building Safe Places, mostly in Europe. I would never have met conference presidents, division directors, and local leaders who sent their pastors, youth leaders, and family directors there to learn more about us of the “Adventist Alphabet Rainbow.”
- I would never have been part of the Dutch Union, inviting Mitch Tyner, Rene Drumm, and others to train every pastor in their union.
- Building Safe Places would not have been part of a western European Bible conference that the Dutch hosted.
- And I would never have had time to be with you here now: Zoom meetings, training, the Adventist Peace Summit, and doing a workshop for another group of pastors in Europe.
- And…I just got to design and facilitate an eight-week series on Biblical hospitality that my virtual Scottish Sabbath School class asked me to do. For me, who had loved and missed being part of Sabbath schools, this has been a treat.
My world is bigger and closer because of an event when it felt like I had lost much of what was dear to me. I treasure knowing all of you with whom I come in contact. You are a rare gift.
There is a writing that has helped me these last years. It’s from a German poet, Ranier Maria Rilke
Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart
And try to love the questions themselves.
The point is, live everything.
Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually,
Without noticing it,
Live along
Some distant day
into the answer.
I hope our community cushions you and lets you know you are not alone. That is our everyday goal.
Meanwhile, I wish you unexpected blessings and ask you to take care of yourself, for you are valuable and valued.
— Catherine Taylor, Vice President