Dear Families,
I hope amidst ALL of the things you are juggling during these days that you are able to get outside and enjoy God’s creation. I like to garden and have been able to work a bit at our family garden with the hope to really “get into it” in the next couple of weeks!
I am also a part of the Anchor Gardens network and am working with other team leaders to support those in our community who are interested in having a vegetable garden this summer. We are also developing new community gardens and this is a way for you to get involved if you don’t have the space for your own garden.
I found this prayer (posted below) and am going to try and memorize it as I wash my hands. Some of you may want to make up a simple version to share with your children and invite them to use as they are washing their hands. I have counted to 20 many times as well as sung the ABC song while sanitizing my hands so this will be a new way for me to focus as I am keeping myself and others safe during these COVID-19 days.
A special “Happy Mother’s Day” to each of you celebrating Mother’s Day whether because you are a mother or because you have been blessed with a person who has been a mother or mother figure for you. I like this video prayer from the Church of England .
We at FPC want to be a support for you during this time. Please feel free to contact either Matt, Jennifer, or myself if there are ways we can support you. I miss not seeing all of you personally and continue to pray for each of you as a family during the week.
Love and peace to each of you and your children,
Danna Larson
Director of Faith Formation
As I Wash My Hands: A Prayer for Faith & Sanity
As I wash my hands, 20 seconds,
I think of the raw, over-sanitized skin of hospital staff.
Circling soap over knuckles and palms,
I think of the gloved hands of grocery clerks and restaurant workers.
Cleansing under fingernails and past the wrists,
I think of the aged hands of my grandmothers in nursing homes that I hope are free of germs.
As I wash my hands, faucet flowing,
I think of the clear air above halted cities,
the clear waters of Venice canals,
how the world looks when we are quiet and grounded,
how sand and mud and toxins settle when we shelter in place.
As I wash my hands,
interlacing my fingers in a prayer,
I think of the work that is paused
or the work that is increased.
Lather, water, clarity,
now your work is more visible
in the world and in me.
You desire clean hearts, right spirits.
Wash us with water and your Word.
Present us to yourself a radiant Church,
A model of holy sanity, as we wash our hands.
Darcy Wiley
Pandemic Prayerbook: A Pray-at-Home Guide for the Coronavirus Crisis