How Will It All Turn Out?

Dear Friends through Christ:

Did you know during July and August we only send out one newsletter? So, I haven’t talked to you in a while and a lot has taken place in the past two months.

We had a delightful VBS program attended by 37 neighborhood youth. Thanks to all the volunteers and kids. Went off without a hitch. Met some great people. Had fun. Let’s do it again.

We had our first Trivia Night attended by a good group of saints and sinners just wanting to have fun. Mission Accomplished! Great Spaghetti! Great Time! And by the way, my son Noah and I, only a team of two, took home the very first ever Peace Lutheran Church Trivia Night Championship. It was mostly my strange son but he couldn’t have done without me. I think Sandy is planning another, with “foods from the nations,” or something like that.

We made it through the dog days of summer with attendance holding steady and actually quite a few new faces showing up on Sunday, and Saturday. Yeah, I know we are still bleeding from the pandemic and still running a pretty sizable deficit for most of the year, but I’m more of a big picture type of pastor. As long as we keep proclaiming the message of the gospel the best way we know how, as long as we keep trying to serve the world in which we live, as long as we keep the love of Christ Jesus in the center of our church, in the center of our being, Peace Lutheran Church will be just fine.

We had thought, or I had thought by now Peace Lutheran would have gained a new tenant—Lifeline Academy. What happened? Well, the story left off where the city of Palm Bay had granted Peace a waver for installing a “sprinkling system” for four 1000’ square foot spaces, with three lit exit doors. That move by Ed Neuman (who is still up in Michigan gallivanting) saved us $60,000. Good job! Now all we have to do is hook back up our fire alarm system to the fire station or a security firm. Sounds fairly simple, uh? Ha. Our old system had partly been removed at some time and what was left was out of date, so I’m told. OK, so how much does it cost to have a signal connect to the fire station? Well, I am being told that it cost $30,000. Ouch, uh? Well, right now that’s pretty much where we stand. Not really sure what to do next. We need the system; the city won’t let us slide, but where does the money come from? Right now, we are looking at options; like installing it ourselves, more quotes, possibly holding a fall fund raiser, bazaar, cook-off, and at the same time, hold on to Lifeline Academy. We will let you know as we know. Sure, would be nice seeing teenagers running around our campus. Plus, we could really use the $40,000 additional income.

Also, we had thought, or I had thought by now everybody would had the opportunity to meet our new Vicar Timothy Shay, his lovely wife Hannah and their delightful, energetic kids. What happened? Well, for starters, life happened. They were happy in Florida. They looked forward to working here at Peace, until the seminary and the military got together and made their lives a little more complicated.

Tim needed to move back to Minnesota, finish seminary by next year, serve in a parish full time for two years, and then be enrolled in Officer’s Training before he turns 36 years of age—three years from now. That is the magic number humans assigned to serve in God’s army as a military Chaplin. They’ve got their work cut out. Too bad, uh? I really like them. They were the ages of my kids. Fun to hang out with. But when you know what you gotta do, being hard, doesn’t really factor into answering a call from God. Good Luck—Tim and Hannah! We’ll miss never really getting to know you.

OK, so what else has happened in the dog days? Let’s see, I buried myself for about a month in finishing up a book/class/lecture entitled It Is Enough. Need to tweak my Table of Content and come up with an ending and then I am done! Twenty-five years. The premise of the book is that a careful dialogue with the bookends of Scripture, Genesis and Revelation, it is enough to know God and understand humanity. It is enough to see our past, our present and our future. It Is Enough! Did you know I read these two books and wrote a five-page report on them when I was 12? They’ve sort of been on my mind ever since. Through these two ancient writings I pray/hope to draw people into Love of God. My next steps are to find enough money to publish, and then saturate the internet with these life-giving, life-saving words. At the start of the New Year, Peace will host as many classes/sessions as people will attend.

How will it all turn out? Who knows! Sort of like life, uh? Sort of like our fire alarm or Tim and Hannah leaving us. We don’t know what our future holds. We just keep focusing upon the Cross of Jesus Christ, realizing that our God will always give us plenty of opportunities to serve. And when the end finally does come...well that’s just the beginning.

God is Good.

In Christian Love,

Pastor David Trexler