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 the end of the month. It feels like community activities are coming at us just one after another, and the Church Year is no different. Next week we will begin the Church Season of Lent with Ash Wednesday services at American on the 18th with imposition of Ashes and Holy Communion at Noon and 7PM. I hope that I will see you there as we begin our journey in Lent which brings us through the darkness of sin and brokenness in the world, and in our own lives, to the joy and celebration of the Resurrection of our Savior on Easter morning. In our prayers this week, please pray for Sharyn Burt and her family on the death of her sister Sonia in the Phoenix area, and pray for Letitia as she works to get her car repaired, and as she recovers from an injury to her ankle. Prayers too for the Prasek’s as they finish more medical testing and prepare to head to Tucson for the rest of the winter season.

Today's reading is not long, but it contains a truth of the nature of the Church as it became necessary for supportive actions to begin between communities of the faithful, to provide for their lives in the time of a prophesized famine. This would appear to be the earliest of these kinds of actions in the early Church, with the main one being Paul's offering collection in Asia Minor and Greece, to support the mission of the disciples in Jerusalem which was unable to sustain their own ministry without outside help. These kinds of answers to prayers offered to God for help often appear in our lives as miracles, which indeed they are! I can speak personally about this in my own life at the very beginning of my ministry. Our family had just come back from 14 months in Des Moines, IA at St. John’s Lutheran Church, a congregation of 3000 members. There our rent had been paid with a small monthly stipend, but we had to move our home back to Chicago for one final semester of classes at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Neither Melody nor I were working, and we had to pay rent, pay for tuition and books, and family expenses. At that point, our student loans and credit cards after four years of graduate school were pretty much tapped out. We could not pay our rent and owed more than $1,000 dollars. I would not be allowed to receive a call until that Seminary Bill was paid in full. Out of nowhere, well that's not exactly true, out of prayer, and the LORD'S answer to those prayers, a congregation where we had never been in southern Michigan, had been looking for a way to help someone preparing for ordained ministry. In a wonderful gift, our bills at the seminary for the last semester were covered in full, and I was able to accept the call to Trinity Lutheran Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In our lives and work for the Gospel, there have certainly been other such wonderful miracles as well. Lest you think that these things just don't happen anymore. At the end of this last year at American we were faced with deficits that we knew would make it difficult to enter the next year's work and ministry for the Gospel of our Lord. I guess some things never change, do they? 20,000 years ago in Jerusalem, or a famine in Judah, or too tight finances in our congregation. And that lack was not due to our lack of heart for stewardship, it was only because of the demands for insurance on our building, and that $25,000.00 dollar roof deductible, and the ever growing costs of caring for our building, and the scam which cost us a lot of money over the fraudulent solar work that we had done, and then had to remove, but continue to pay for.  People are often victims through no fault of their own, and that includes the church even when the best efforts are being made to protect the gifts that the congregation receives. Into the midst of all this concern came some large, unexpected gifts of giving, enabling us to cover our costs, meet the budget, and move into the new year with a sigh of relief, even though we understood that similar money struggles were still out there ahead of us. All of us should always be praying for God's reconciling Love to meet both our spiritual needs and our worldly needs as a congregation. Of course, that means that we have to be involved and continuing to do the work of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our congregation and in our personal lives. But answers do come! God hears our petitions for his inbreaking help. My family has received it, our congregation has also received it, and the Lord is always ready to uphold and provide for His faithful children. Such miracles are not usually going to just fall around us in our time of need, but that does happen too. You and I, along with those whose hearts have been called to be those miracles in the Church have God's richest love surrounding us every day through the Spirit, and through our Savior. All I can say, Trust God with all that you are every day, and let Him move you to receive His miracles, and to be His miracles, just like the disciples who moved to make certain that the faithful in Judea would be cared for in a time of famine, a time when the disciple's commitment and love for their sisters and brothers in Christ would be God's miracles of Love!

By the way… Happy Valentines Day on Saturday this week. We are all God's valentine in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord!

With Love in Christ Jesus, Pastor Kim