Linda Boyken was discharged from the hospital on Friday, Feb 2. Her hospital stay was a real roller coaster ride! She is now in the rehab wing at Avera Prince of Peace for physical and occupational therapy until she is ready to return home.

 

If you would like to send her a card, I know it would lift her spirits. You can use her regular address, and I will make sure her mail gets to her.

 

Washington Crossing

4709 E 6th Street #310

Sioux Falls, SD 57110

(You must include the apartment number.)

 

Many thanks!

 

Jolene Mittelstedt

Wed. Message

April 24, 2024

 

Before It’s Too Late

 

Last week, I was visiting with a church member about the relationship they had with their parents.  One of the questions I asked them was if there was anything that they might want to say to their parents but, for one reason or another, had left unsaid.  They told me that their relationship with their parents was strong, and they felt like they could tell their parents anything, so they did.  They were open and honest with their parents.  There was nothing left unsaid.

 

Let’s just say, “Amen!”  Praise God for good and honest relationships between parents and children.  Such relationships truly are a blessing.

 

But that conversation got me thinking about a funeral I officiated many years ago.

 

I was a new minister.  This would have been perhaps the second or third funeral I’d ever officiated.  And, like all new ministers, I was grateful for the guidance of the local funeral director.  After all, he had been doing funerals for as many years as I’d been alive.

 

We rode together to the cemetery for the internment.  I said a few words about resurrection and eternal life.  We prayed the Lord’s Prayer.  And then, we lowered the body of the deceased down into the earth.  Ashes to ashes.  Dust to dust.  The internment was over.

 

As the people who had gathered for the internment service began to wander back to their vehicles, the funeral director grabbed my arm.  “You see that pickup truck parked over there,” he asked me.  “That’s the brother of the deceased.  Must have been 12 or 15 years ago they had a fight about something or other, and they never spoke to each other again.  I was wondering if he would come to the funeral, but he didn’t.  I guess he’s just going to watch from over there.”

 

Something about that story hit me with far more sadness than I’d felt during the funeral.  It seemed clear to me that this man had not stopped caring about his brother completely, or he wouldn’t have been there on the edge of the cemetery that day.  What was this man feeling, knowing that this was the only goodbye he and his brother would share?

 

The funeral director seemed to sense what I was thinking as he said, “The saddest words in the English language are ‘too late.’”

 

Beloved, if there is something in your hearts that you need to get out, I hope you’ll do it.  Even if it’s something you wish you’d said to a parent who has passed away, or something you want to say to a person who hurt you so much you can’t face them yet, just write it down on paper.  Even if the letter never gets sent, at least you don’t have to carry it.  And maybe, just maybe, there is something that you have wanted to tell someone. 

Now is the time.  Before it’s too late.

Blessings,

        Pastor Dustin

 

"Someone has been texting people, pretending to be Pastor Dustin.  This is a scam.  Please be careful."    Thanks, ~ Dustin

​

 

Please submit all news items and/or reports for the monthly newsletter.

 

Bible Study today April 24, at  3:00 pm with Pastor Dustin.

The second and fourth Sunday and Wednesday of the month.  Everyone is always welcome to come and join us  There will be no bible study during the month of May.  Pastor Dustin will be out of the office.

 

Spring Clean Up, Saturday, April 27, 2024 10:00 am weather permitting. We will have a list of the jobs that need to be taken care of.  There will be cleaning supplies, garden equipment will be set out including

grass containers. Don’t forget your gloves.

 

Coffee Server: April 28, Pat and Frank Kitterman

                 

Money Counter: 

        

        April 28  Cyndy Voight

        May 5   ??  

        May 12    Shari Wirkus   (Mother’s Day)

        May 19    Rosanne Anderson