Peace Matters

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – Matthew 27:45-49

Okay. So, we’ve been responding to life in the midst of COVID-19 for several weeks now. Hardly anyone responded with great urgency.

I can hardly remember when the whole thing began. Nevertheless, until more recently, I was still tip-toeing from place to place, like Adam or Eve looking for fig leaves to hide behind while imagining that I was committing a mortal sin and endangering creation itself. Standing alone on a city street corner leaves one feeling shamefully exposed, if you have that capacity. Society has become pretty well divided between First Responders and Last Responders to self-quarantine.

I can understand that there remain those who negotiate daily life with a sense of care, instituting boundaries, protocols and serious intention into their ways and means of serving the greater good. What I don’t get is the manner of life that is oblivious to the presence of the danger in our midst.

To put it in spiritual terms, there is also a sort of high-voltage,

hyper-active, happy church culture that has finally met its match, having worn itself thin in many ways, making it unsuitable to bear the weight of the crushing questions of the present time. The Good News of Jesus wasn’t originally about getting a shot of adrenaline. It was proclaimed to firmly

establish shaky spirits on firm pilings (promises) reaching down to bedrock. It didn’t invoke fleeting, happy thoughts but secure, hopeful visions. The gospel developed in the dark places: walking on water and stilling the raging storm just before dawn; teaching Nicodemus at night;

establishing a never-ending meal on a Thursday evening; rising from the dead “while it was still dark.”

What GOOD THING could possibly be happening within this dark, terrible frightening FOURTH WORD from Jesus’ cross?

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – Matthew 27:45-49

If this had been Jesus’ first word, I doubt anyone would have stayed to hear the other six. Yet, hearing them from Jesus’ own lips makes them strangely comforting to me. They are comforting because Jesus, himself, was repeating what he had, no doubt, memorized as a child from Psalm 22. “God, where are you when I need you?” When we’ve come to the

Holy Week 2020

Pastor’s Holy Week MessagesDEAR SUBSCRIBERS: We apologize that we have not been able to fulfill our hope of hosting an Easter Sunday worship service online. It has only been recently that more public warnings have circulated regarding hacker intrusions into online gatherings (known as Zoom-bombing). Therefore, we decided to cancel those efforts and to encourage you to use the “Holy Week” & “Easter” devotional and worship material included in this Special Edition of PEACE MATTERS NEWSLETTER.

Consider lighting a candle and using a sprig of rosemary or greenery and a small bowl of water to remember your Baptism on Easter. Dip and sprinkle water on the gathered baptized or around the room, recognizing it as your holy place. A short liturgy (specifically for Easter) is provided in the newsletter. Look up the message and Scriptures in your Bible for Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter. If you have access to the internet, a hymn or two may also be accessible in accompanying YOUTUBE links.

I hope this material will be helpful in re-centering you in God’s grace in the midst of this unsettling and disturbing health crisis and public atmosphere. The intercessory prayer can be used as a model for adding your own personal petitions. Perhaps it will be helpful in naming other members and specific events that are needful of God’s attention and steadfast love.

Christ is Risen!Pastor Steve

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“I Thirst.”-- John 19:28-29

When so many people might put religion in the category of ordering one’s thoughts and attitudes toward the world; that faith is about tenacity or bringing emotions like fear, anger, worry and grief under the control of single-minded belief and spiritual conviction, we are reminded of what perishable stuff we are made of when a microscopic invader brings us (literally) to our knees.

So far, Jesus has shown us how to forgive from the cross, how to be in solidarity with others from the cross, how to be a “family” formed by the cross and how to trust God even at the expense of one’s own life.

Now, as Jesus suffocates and bleeds to death, things get physical to the point of choking on his fifth word: “I thirst.” The spirit is willing but the body is weak. It gives out. It betrays us in spite of all of our good intentions.

Against all of our tendencies to elevate spiritual endeavors above physical ones, we are reminded that Jesus was in the flesh. His suffering was real. In the same way, Christians aren’t identified by shedding the physical in order to make room for putting on more and more spirituality.

We’re into the physical. Can you say incarnation? The Christian faith has got its hands full teaching people like us that, if we are going to meet God, we will meet God in the flesh.

Something to keep in mind, however, is that this moment is not anything like meeting “God-in-the-flesh of a newborn lying in a manger. This word comes from a place of violent, explicit bloodletting – BUT without any gory details. We don’t need Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ to describe the suffering of each moment any more than we need physiological details of the death of a victim of COVID-19. There is plenty of room for our imagination. Jesus’ suffering needs no more description now but a simple, “I thirst.”

It may sound like Jesus’ strength is all but giving out. Yet, this is perhaps the high point of everything else that he has said so far. Perhaps, “I thirst,” is the declaration that Jesus really wants everyone to hear and he musters up every ounce of human and divine strength to say it. In the Scripture, to thirst is usually about more than water. To thirst is to yearn, to long for, to be desperate with desire. Through the Beatitudes, Jesus blessed a certain sort of holy desperation. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matt. 5:6). The psalmist prays, “My soul thirsts for

God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:2).

As we have moved into the season of Lent with instruction to practice social distancing, the Church has been deeply troubled by its inability to physically share the sacraments. Theologians and parishioners questioned and debated the merits of “virtual communion” as a result of our changed world. As a result, we are quickly learning the meaning of being thirsty. Can one share something that is, by nature, very physical by a very spiritual means?

The best counsel of our church is to use the disciplines of Lent and the events that have permeated our thoughts and spirits and physical energies these days, to consider that for which we thirst deeply.

Even so, maybe Jesus isn’t demanding our thirst and our hunger to be intensified. He says, “I” thirst, not you, not me.

Maybe, for righteousness’ sake, he was thirsty for us. Isn’t that a fair summary of Scripture – God has a thing for us?

Sorry, if you thought when we say “God” we mean some impersonal power administering natural law from

end of our rope, we need words that we know “by heart,” especially when it comes to a lament. Isn’t it curious that we teach our children the Twenty-Third Psalm and not the Twenty-Second?

In the last moments of Jesus’ life on a cross, he personifies every human being who has ever cried, “God, where are you?” Remembering that Jesus was so intimate with God that he did not hesitate to say, “I and the Father are one,” most of us might imagine God giving special consideration to rescue Jesus from this agony. (Surely, that’s what we would

do IF WE WERE GOD). Surely, for one’s own son, it’s the Father’s prerogative to swoop down and fix everything for his benefit, isn’t it?

But listening in on this intimate conversation, we learn that God is NOT like us. The Father is there with the Son, hanging on a cross. When life becomes dark God doesn’t immediately switch on the lights but becomes intimately involved with human suffering. It is in Jesus’ nature, it appears, to risk everything (including eternal separation from God) in order to have us. The Apostle Paul muses: “Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,….he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)

How odd is this God, who would save by not saving, who would embrace by forsaking, who would show true power in complete weakness, and repeat a prayer that everyone already knew.

God, lead us in the path of prayerful intimacy.

Peace, Pastor Steve

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“It is finished”-- John 19: 30

When Jesus says from the cross, “It is finished,” it could read as a word of desperate surrender. I give up.

There can be virtue in surrender, especially after fighting a battle for hours hanging in agony. One might agree with the market analyst, who recently said, “It takes a courageous investor to sell a losing stock. Most investors, will hold on to an habitually losing stock, rather than sell, because the pain of losing the money is much less than the pain of having to admit that you were dumb to buy that stock in the first place.” Only the truly virtuous investor knows when to fold, when to surrender, when to say, “I goofed.” Is that what Jesus is doing here?

It was a good campaign while it lasted; he gave it his best shot. Perhaps if he had been a bit more critical in his selection of disciples, he might have gotten better ones. If he had been a bit more conciliatory toward Pilate, perhaps this thing would have gone further. Now, it is finished; The End.

But I am hearing this final word in a different way. I am hearing it as a word of achievement and completion. Despite what the soldiers, the politicians, and the howling mob think; despite what even his own disciples think, Jesus has succeeded. He didn’t say, “I am finished.” He said, “It is finished.” His work is done. “….he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he

bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:12). Jesus didn’t die as a frustrated failed revolutionary. His death was the revolution.

All that unpleasantness, between us and God, begun in the Garden, that tendency to be gods unto ourselves, our rebellion, our clench-fisted, violent pride is all addressed, not with words, but with a deed. Here, on the cross, God decides, acts, suffers, finishes, and accomplishes the destruction of death’s power to separate us from our Creator’s love.

How did Jesus say “It is finished”?

He said it in victory: “I’ve fought the fight, faced Satan down, and now my work is stunningly accomplished.

What now is to be done by us? Nothing. What might we learn to do from the lessons of Good Friday? Nothing. What are we supposed to do for God before nightfall? Nothing.

Did you miss his words? “It is finished.”

As we continue to self-quarantine and to shelter-in-place, I am realizing that a big part of our spiritual nature as “Church” is tied to ministry that never seems to get done. There is always more to do. Even gathering for worship carries expectations that it is a time when Jesus will give us a new assignment for the week. Perhaps, at times, you have even departed from worship feeling

more burdened than when you arrived. It’s regrettable that worship slips into becoming a time to settle up the accounts between us and God or they won’t get paid. It makes “Church” all about us.

I once heard a preacher say, you only get as much out of worship as you put into it.” As he continued, however, hardly anything was mentioned concerning what God might do. It’s all about us.

The Letter to the Hebrews tells of that great High Priest in the heavens who, when he made the full, perfect, final sacrifice, SAT DOWN (Heb. 10:12). He sat down because it was finished. If the world only knew that the cross, is God’s great victory, the world would be reconciled to God. And we busy-bee sinners could embrace this day as a day to sit down, to be still and simply adore the wonder of Jesus’ completed work on our behalf.

Just know this. Today is a decisive day. All the sad dealings between us and God can only be finished by God. The Good news: the battle is done. The war is won. The debt is paid. It is finished.

Peace, Pastor Steve

a distance. Our God is intensely personal. This God thirsts for us, unabashedly gives God’s self over to us. God can’t get closer to the real us than by way of a cross.

On the cross, God stoops to discover the real us. Here, he asks all of his disciples, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” Here God

learns the obvious answer, “No!” Any God who thirsts to pursue us, had better not be too put off by pain. Any God who tries to love us had better be ready to die for it.

G.K. Chesterton wrote, “Any [one] who preaches real love is bound to beget hate….. Real love has always ended in bloodshed.”

You can see where so reckless a move

ends: on a cross.

I can’t imagine any other way for us to get to God. We need a fanatic like Jesus to meet our own cruel fanaticism when our security is threatened. We have this history of murdering our saviors. God is in this fix, on Good Friday, because God is so thirsty for us.

Peace, Pastor Steve

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“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” -- Luke 23:46-49

If there is anything that the COVID-19 Virus has imparted to me over the past few months, it’s the indelible truth that our lives are definitely not and never have been our own: Death is the ultimate rip-off, the ultimate reminder that our vaunted boasts about self-possession are delusions. In one of his parables, Jesus compared God to a thief who comes in the night, while we are asleep and think we are secure, and steals everything we’ve got. It’s not the nicest image of God, to be sure, but a truthful one. In the end, God (if God so chooses) is capable of ripping off everything that we think we have. In the end, the One who so graciously gave life is also the one who so unexpectedly has power and authority to take it. Nobody has a right to take anything from anyone else without permission unless he owns what he takes in the first place.

The Church, at its best, has always known this to be true. Church is where we go to be reminded that the life we live is not our own. We sing songs like, “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.” In other words, we admit that God doesn’t accept the lives we choose to give as much as God takes it, since it is God’s to begin with.

It’s like the prophets say, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. Now, with this final word from the cross, Christ commends his life – and his death – to God.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve pondered with a lot of people concerning the question, “What will I do with my life?” Now, with these crucial moments on the cross, Jesus has me wondering, “What will I do with my death?” Most people I know hope to die in such a way that they will not know that they are actually dying. These days, people hope to die in such a way that we will go quickly, painlessly and thoughtlessly (not knowing) this is it. Finis.

Yet, there was a time when people prayed that they would die with enough time to make peace with God and with the people whom they had wronged. There was a day when people prayed that they would be given precious time at the end of their lives to call in their progeny and give them their last words of wisdom. But, if we were to tell our loved ones what we have learned from our life experience now, what on earth would we say? “Buy low, sell high?”

Jesus used his last moments to speak to God, to a thief, to his family, his followers, and now, at the very end, again to his Father. “Into your hands I commend my spirit.”

This “leaning into one’s own death” reminds me of what many pastors and chaplains have often termed a “Happy Death,” describing Christians, being so perfected in love, so close to God that they slip into death with a joy that comes from a very short journey from life through death, to God. I sometimes fear that such “Happy Deaths” are far fewer these days when the self-absorption of our present lives makes for a long and arduous trip to an anguished, reluctant loss of self in the life to come.

Jesus, on the other hand, did not have a long way to go toward the Father, since He and the Father are One. In commending his life to the Father, Jesus’ last word is a take-charge, confident word. At the end of hours of brutality and humiliation he assumes command in unity with God. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Jesus will not let his crucifiers have the last word or determine the significance of the cross. What he teaches us in this last word is,

There is a way to accomplish a peaceful end to life.

In one last, instructive word, Jesus teaches us: No one took my life. I gave my life. I committed my life to my Father.

The next move is up to God. The last move, as it always is, is God’s.

The story begs for a conclusion that only the Father can give. So, in a way, we also are placing our fates into the hands of the Father, counting on the Father to end the story that our sin and treachery can never bring to a satisfying end.

How long will we have to wait for the Father to end the story in the Father’s own way?

At least three days.

But for now, on this day, we’ve heard Jesus’ last word. Pray to God that you might have the grace, and the faith also, to make it your last word, your final prayer, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

Peace, Pastor Steve

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“Easter: The Proof is in the Aftermath” – Matthew 28:1-10

On this grand day we gather to celebrate an event that nobody actually saw—the resurrection of crucified Jesus—but which God wants everyone to know about.

Having not seen it, all we know about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the aftermath. Many of us wish we could have seen the first Easter with our own eyes. Even those who were present with Jesus didn’t actually see him rise from the dead. The only thing we know for sure is the aftermath.

In this way the resurrection is akin to what I once heard someone say of Jesus, “I’ve never actually seen Jesus face-to-face nor in a dream or a vision, but I know Jesus because I’ve seen him in his workers and in their works in his name.”

It’s the aftermath of resurrection that actually enables us to believe in its truth. So, Matthew himself doesn’t waste time trying to convince us of an eye-witness report, but proclaims the resurrection’s effects on those who were there after Jesus had been raised.

New Testament scholar N. T. Wright calls the resurrection of Jesus the “the launch pad for something which many Christians have just not got on board with at all.” (Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, HarperOne, 2010).

Easter is a launch pad.

Most of us don’t spend much time thinking about the resurrection because we assume it’s mostly a matter of life after death. We’re still

living, so why think about such matters now? When resurrection is mentioned say, in Easter sermons—pastors will often say things like, “Jesus rose from the dead; therefore, we know that we will go to heaven when we die.”

Of course, there is some truth in such a statement. But Matthew wants us to hear that the resurrection of Jesus Christ means so much more. Make note, almost nothing is said about the movements of the once dead body of Jesus. Most of the focus is on the effect that the resurrection has upon his first followers. What we see is the significance of Jesus’ resurrection reflected back in the lives of people like us.

As Paul says, the resurrection of Jesus is the “first fruits” (1 Cor. 15:23 NRSV) of what God plans to do in all creation, transforming the world, moving from death to life, until the glory of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea (Hab. 2:14). The resurrection of Jesus is the launching pad, the first act in a grand celebration of re-creation.

That’s the resurrection promise in a nutshell. But we who live now in the meantime, are not just passive spectators. We are not just people who know a secret reassurance of an eternal destiny. We are not silent possessors of a secret wisdom, or smug beneficiaries of a privilege that’s denied to others: we are the agents of Easter.

We’re at the core of our faith so listen carefully. Easter not only launched Jesus Christ into heaven and earth in a whole new, victorious way. Easter is also our launching pad as witnesses of resurrection. We are Christ’s, commissioned ambassadors, having learned the truth about where

the world is headed, who are sent forth publically to proclaim to it, a truth that the world cannot tell itself.

I’m sure that’s what Matthew wants you to know as you listen to his story of the first Easter. We are not only as mystified and astounded as those first visitors to the empty tomb; we are also equally commissioned to, “Go! Tell! ‘He has risen! God wins!’”

When Jesus calls you to him, it is in order to send you out from him. Before resurrection and after, whatever Jesus wants to do in the world, Jesus chooses to do it not without us. Sorry if you think Jesus came to help us because he came to commission us to help him. Jesus is not among us to reduce stress in our lives; he puts us in stress we wouldn’t have had if Jesus had not barged in on us. You’ll never hear Jesus say sappy stuff like: Would you like to have a more positive attitude about yourself?” His first word: “Go! Tell.”

You can’t “give your life to Christ.” He takes it. Jesus’ invitation, “Come to me” is always linked with his resurrection commission: “Go! Get out of here. And don’t just hang around Judea. It all belongs to me and you’re going to help me get it back. ’How?’ Baptize them in my name, teach them all I’ve commanded (even the stuff about forgiving enemies). And Lo, I’m with you to the end of the world, just to make sure you have all the power and confidence to accomplish it.”

Christ is Risen!

Pastor Steve

Pastor’s Easter Message

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Gathering Hymn“The Strife Is O’er, the Battle Done”https://youtu.be/RDHJT4sZRjk

Thanksgiving for BaptismAll may make the sign of the cross, the sign marked at baptism, as the presiding minister begins.

Alleluia! Christ is risen.Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!Joined to Christ in the waters of baptism,we are raised with him to new life.Let us give thanks for the gift of baptism.Water may be poured into the font as the presiding minister gives thanks.We give you thanks, O God,for in the beginning you created us in your imageand planted us in a well-watered garden.In the desert you promised pools of water for the parched,and you gave us water from the rock.When we did not know the way,you sent the Good Shepherd to lead us to still waters.At the cross, you watered us from Jesus’ wounded side,and on this day, you shower us again with the water of life.We praise you for your salvation through water,for the water in this font,and for all water everywhere.Bathe us in your forgiveness, grace, and love.Satisfy the thirsty, and give us the life only you can give.To you be given honor and praisethrough Jesus Christ our Lordin the unity of the Holy Spirit, now and forever.Amen.

Prayer of the DayO God, you gave your only Son to suffer death on the cross for our redemption, and by his glorious resurrection you delivered us from the power of death. Make us die every day to sin, that we may live with him forever in the joy of the resurrection,

EASTER April 12, 2020

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Psalm: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

R This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Ps. 118:24)

1Give thanks to the LORD, for the | LORD is good; God’s mercy en- | dures forever. 2Let Israel | now declare, “God’s mercy en- | dures forever.” 14The LORD is my strength | and my song, and has become | my salvation. 15Shouts of rejoicing and salvation echo in the tents | of the righteous: “The right hand of the | LORD acts valiantly! 16The right hand of the LORD| is exalted! The right hand of the | LORD acts valiantly!” 17I shall not | die, but live, and declare the works | of the LORD. R 18The LORD indeed pun- | ished me sorely, but did not hand me o- | ver to death. 19Open for me the | gates of righteousness; I will enter them and give thanks | to the LORD. 20“This is the gate | of the LORD; here the righ- | teous may enter.” 21I give thanks to you, for you have | answered me and you have become | my salvation. R 22The stone that the build- | ers rejected has become the chief | cornerstone. 23By the LORD has | this been done; it is marvelous | in our eyes. 24This is the day that the | LORD has made; let us rejoice and be | glad in it. R

Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-4

Gospel: Matthew 28:1-10Sorrow gives way to “fear and great joy” when two women are sent by an angel to proclaim the good news: Jesus is risen!1After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men. 5But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.’ This is my message for you.” 8So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. 10Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

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Prayers of Intercession

Uplifted by the promised hope of healing and resurrection, I join the people of God in all times and places in praying for the church, the world, and all who are in need.

(A brief silence.)

God of resurrection, from the very beginning you give the church the gift of women as your witnesses: as preachers, teachers, and leaders (especially...). Open my ears to their proclamation this day and always.

All your creation praises you—the earth hums, the seas pulse, the stars shine, and the galaxies whirl in glorious harmonies to honor you. Let me hear and blend my voice in the song.

The countries of the world experience disunity and conflict; I set my mind on fear and greed rather than on your rule of justice and steadfast love. Build up all countries on your cornerstone of peace.

I still weep with those who weep, and mourn with those who mourn. Cradle the fearful, the suffering, and the dying, assuring them of your loving presence (especially...).

Bless the creative and helpful service of worship leaders this day: musicians, ushers, greeters, worship assistants, preachers, readers, and all others who provide welcome and hospitality in our midst.

(Here other intercessions may be offered.)

Risen Lord, you went ahead of me into the grave and defeated the powers of evil. I remember those who have died (especially...). Inspire me to live my life in this resurrection hope and draw me to you in my final days.

With bold confidence in your love, almighty God, I place all for whom I pray into your eternal care; through Christ my LorI

Amen.

The Lord’s Prayer

Closing Hymn

“Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”

https://youtu.be/nzy7jFNUc3w

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Remembering that we are still in ministry together and that we are a corporate body seeking always to live a life that reflects a risen Lord, let’s continue in our faithful stewardship of God’s gifts to the church.

For ONLINE GIVING go to :1. peacelutheranastoria.com2. click on “Giving” (upper right)3. click on “Click Here to Give Online” graphic4. this takes you to the Tithe.ly online giving form where you can sign up or log in

PLC Families and Friends,We are in some very confusing, stressful, unprecendented of times right now. As confusing as things are on us adults, only imagine how confused and scared the children must be. They are used to their schedules and routines and then all of a sudden, everything changes. In an effort to try and ease some of their stress, please take this time to play with, read with, cook with and just plain have fun with and spend as much time with your little ones as possible. A few extra hugs and kisses never hurt anyone either.

There are some great resources available for anyone that may need a little extra help to get through these tough times. If you have been laid off work because your employer had to close its doors temporarily, unemployment is a great first step. They will also refer you to other agencies that may be able to help as well. For example, I know they have raised the standards to qualify for food stamps, WIC, as well as OHP. They are very busy right now so if

you get a busy signal, just keep trying over and over until you finally get through to someone. Most mortgage and utility companies are also very willing and able to work with you on your payments. Just give them a call as well. One last thing that might help most everyone right now is the stimulus checks package that was just passed. From what I was able to research, checks will start going out within about 3 weeks and the amount will vary for everyone. Please visit nbcnews.com for more information.

Things are changing almost daily it seems, but I am continuously monitoring the governor’s orders and will post an update on our Facebook page if there are any changes, but as of right now, we are still scheduled to open on Monday, April 27th. In the meantime, there are a few locations that will be opening to provide emergency care for some essential employees. Warrenton-Hammond School District will open their PreK classrooms and can accept up to 20 students. Asstoria School District will be opening a couple of

their classrooms at Lil Sprouts and can take up to 16 students. Seaside School District is also looking into possibly opening a couple classes at Broadway Middle School. If you are an essential employee and in need of child care, please look into one of those options. I can’t guarantee a spot for you, just offering a couple of resources for you to look into.

A little bit of exciting news for the center and something for the students to look forward to for when they return...... We received a very generous donation to purchase some new toys so we have been working very hard getting some “Spring Cleaning “ done while the center is closed so we can have everything set in place for when the children return. Out with the old and in with the new so to speak!

Keep your heads held high and please do not hesitate to reach out if you need anything at all.

Viginia Atwood, PLC Director

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Peace Lutheran Church565 12th Street

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