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American Ev. Lutheran Church
A welcoming, affirming and inclusive church in Tucson!

Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 11:27-30 (February 9, 2026)
February 9, 2026: Monday Bible Study on Acts 11:27-30 Good morning, and blessings for you and yours on this wonderful warm desert morning here in Tucson. It has been an exciting weekend with the UA men's basketball team continuing their undefeated record, and, of course, all the excitement of the Winter Olympics in Italy. Of course, we are in the midst of the world's largest gem show too, and coming soon will be the largest non-mechanized parade in the U.S.A. with rodeo at t

Rev. Kim Taylor
Feb 104 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 46 (February 5, 2026)
February 5, 2026: Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 46 Dear friends in Christ. Your study is a little late coming today. Please keep Sharyn and her family in your prayers for the death of her sister Sonya early this morning in Phoenix. Sonya has been in hospice care now for a number of months. Pray for the LORD'S comfort and Peace to be with Sonya's family as the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection surrounds them in their grief and loss. Pray too please for Lisa as she rec

Rev. Kim Taylor
Feb 53 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 11:22-26 (February 3, 2026)
February 3, 2026: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 11:22-26 Good morning my dear Bible Study group. Today please remember to pray for Joyce and Larry who have suffered a serious breach of personal information, and have had their finances, and even their home in danger. This morning Joyce is trying to come up with $1500.00 to stop an auction on their new home. This has been a very difficult time for them. If I seemed to be a little off this past week including Sunday, I have been

Rev. Kim Taylor
Feb 33 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 11:19-21 (February 2, 2026)
February 2, 2026: Monday Bible Study on Acts 11:19-21 We are all living in the warmth and light of our Savior Jesus Christ. May our hope and trust in Christ fill our lives and truly create in us a desire to offer invitations for others to join us surrounded by God's Grace and Love. That is called evangelism. We seem to often be afraid of it, but as we look at our passage from the Acts of the Apostles today, this is exactly the means by which the early church grew and expande

Rev. Kim Taylor
Feb 33 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 45 (January 29, 2026)
January 29, 2026: Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 45 Blessings and Peace be yours today and always. I am not certain if you have noticed the uptick in Tucson traffic, however, no matter where you drive you are going to encounter heavy traffic. I implore you to drive carefully when you are out because there are a few additional crazy people out there. In the last two days on the early morning drive, I have had 6 cars drive by me in excess of 80 miles an hour in a 45-speed zone.

Rev. Kim Taylor
Jan 294 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 11:11-18 (January 27, 2026)
January 27, 2026: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 11:11-18 Good morning, dear friends in Christ. I pray that this is a day filled with calm for you, our entire community at American, here in Tucson, and across our country. In the events of the last several days in Minnesota, there have been troubling videos of the killing of a VA ICU nurse. I am certain that you might like to know where I stand on all this immigration enforcement that has been taking place under the President. I

Rev. Kim Taylor
Jan 273 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 11:1-10 (January 26, 2026)
January 26, 2026: Monday Bible Study on Acts 11:1-10 May the peace of the Lord be with you this morning, and throughout the entire day! Good morning my dear study friends. It is good to be back with you this Monday. I ask you for prayers today for the Olivas family, former members of American who moved to Phoenix to be close to their daughter's family and the grandchildren. We received word on Sunday, right after church, that Joyce Olivas had become a heavenly triumphant sai

Rev. Kim Taylor
Jan 274 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 44 (January 22, 2026)
January 21, 2026: Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 44 Blessings and Peace be with you on this cloudy cool morning in Tucson, and if you are some place more sunny and warmer, give thanks to God for your good fortune. Please remember to keep the people in the south of our nation in your prayers as they prepare to have a massive bitter cold, ice and snowstorm race through their states and communities. I know that we have suffered with a drought for about 15 years here in the deser

Rev. Kim Taylor
Jan 223 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 10:44-48 (January 20, 2026)
January 20, 2026: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 10:44-48 Good morning, and may your day be filled with the LORD'S richest blessings of Grace and Comfort. This morning, I would ask you to pray with thanksgiving to God for Roy's and Christina's birthdays this week. We are also quickly approaching the 76th birthday of our congregation. Pray for Americans continuing ministry for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, remembering that it takes all of us in dedication to the work to which th

Rev. Kim Taylor
Jan 204 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 43 (January 15, 2026)
January 15, 2026: Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 43 Blessing and Peace in Jesus Christ be with you today. This morning, I was able to practice at church without the need for a jacket in our unheated sanctuary. It was lovely there, and it always gives me an opportunity to appreciate our chancel area (the space which holds our altar, the Moravian Star, the Lectern, the organ, and the bell choir tables and bells). It is really a wonderful place to work on music and more. I will

Rev. Kim Taylor
Jan 153 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 10:34-43 (January 13, 2026)
January 13, 2026: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 10:34-43 Rejoice in the Light of Christ and always remember that this is the day that the LORD has made, rejoice, and be glad in it! I am doing all my Bible studies at home during this year. It is an attempt to keep heat off in the office area during these winter months, and to keep air off in the warmer and hotter months, except for the two days each week when the office is open. Here at home, the house is already heated, BUT ou

Rev. Kim Taylor
Jan 133 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 10:17-33 (January 12, 2026)
January 12, 2026: Monday Bible Study on Acts 10:17-33 Blessings and Peace be with you on this beautiful sunny morning. What a gift the weather has been this winter in the desert! Along with you, I love the warmer trend of our desert winters, but I also know how important it is for us to remember that environmental change means that there is something wrong in the world that has caused that change. We have seen it in raging floods in the Carolinas, severe weather in the deep

Rev. Kim Taylor
Jan 134 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 42 (January 8, 2026)
January 8, 2026: Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 42 Good evening/morning, depending on when you choose to look at your emails and the Psalm study which normally comes to you late on Thursday morning. I pray for the LORD'S richest blessings to sustain you and to keep you fully faithful even in what may be difficult times. I know that the cold rain today is important to the health of our desert and its environment in which we live. But I must tell you as I sit in our 68-degree h

Rev. Kim Taylor
Jan 84 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 41:13 (December 18, 2025)
December 18, 2025: Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 41:13 For my dear friends in Christ as we approach the end of the season of Advent at the beginning of the Church Year and move quickly on to Christmas and its 12 days of celebration that you know all about God's love for you. I know that all too often, commercial TV and Radio act as if Christmas ends at midnight on December 25. You will find it hard, even in some churches, to sing carols any longer than Christmas Eve, or Ch

Rev. Kim Taylor
Dec 18, 20253 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 9:32-43 (December 16, 2025)
December 16, 2025: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 9:32-43 The sounds of Advent songs in church, and the neighborhood yard and house decorations all lend to this very important season of preparation and waiting. Once again, the gathering light of God's Truth and Love for all people is shining more brightly on our home Advent Wreaths, and on the one on the altar at church on Sunday mornings. We are now just a few days away from the fullness and light of the birthday of Jesus Chri

Rev. Kim Taylor
Dec 16, 20253 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 9:26-31 (December 15, 2025)
December 15, 2025: Monday Bible Study on Acts 9:26-31 Blessings and peace, be with you on this third week of Advent. Though this study may reach you before tomorrow morning, I am working in the evening on Sunday. Not only is the red of our new tablecloth on the dining room table with poinsettia and an ornament and surrounded by goats. Yes, that is right, goats. In my family heritage from Sweden goats have always been a decoration for Christmas. They are generally constructed

Rev. Kim Taylor
Dec 16, 20254 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 40:1-12 (December 11, 2025)
December 11, 2025: Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 41:1-12 Good evening (it’s about 10pm on the 10th), and good morning if you are not seeing this until the 11th of December. Thursday morning, I have a great deal of practice to get my feel for the organ together tomorrow in the sanctuary. I am hopeful that I will be able to play more than just the three opening carols on the organ. I am really looking forward to the Christmas Eve worship. I get to be together with our church m

Rev. Kim Taylor
Dec 11, 20255 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 9:23-25 (December 9, 2025)
December 9, 2025: Tuesday Bible Study on Acts 9:23-25 Good morning, dear friends in Christ. I pray and hope that this season of Advent finds you filled with wonder at the Bethlehem birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This is such a good time to take a few deep breaths, to ponder what God has done, and continues to do, in our lives, and in the lives of all people with the birth of His Only Begotten Son. Yesterday I reminded you about the busy schedule for this Sunday morning a

Rev. Kim Taylor
Dec 9, 20254 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 9:19-22 (December 8, 2025)
December 8, 2025: Monday Bible Study on Acts 9:19-22 In this Advent season of the church year may your days be filled with anticipation for the joy which we all know in our lives because of Christ's birthday. It is a remarkably busy time in the life of the church. This coming Sunday we will have worship at 10AM followed by time to decorate the Sanctuary for Christmas. This includes getting the tree ready, filling our electric candles for the tree with new batteries, and plac

Rev. Kim Taylor
Dec 9, 20254 min read
Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 39 (December 4, 2025)
December 4, 2025: Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 39 May the blessing of this sunny December day fill you with joy in the coming Light of God for all people, His only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. A truly short reminder - Gospel Music Sunday this Sunday, Dec. 7. Chili luncheon to follow. Please join us for wonderful worship, the proclamation of the Word of the Lord, good music, and the living presence of Christ in the celebration of Holy Communion, all follo

Rev. Kim Taylor
Dec 4, 20253 min read
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