Guest Preacher "Journeys"

 
Celebrating the Gifts of Women, March 23 2014

Guest Preachers: Ellie Sterling, Donna Rahmann, Katelynn Fleming

Topic: “Journeys” … women who have been sources of inspiration

1.      Ellie Sterling’s notes from her message …

Carol.  Name means a song of joy.  Born in Pittsburgh PA.  Loved camping in a Hudson hornet. 
Happy childhood.  But at age 5, abused by an uncle and threatened not to tell or he would kill her and her mother. Took solace in conversations with her "living loving Jesus".   Very spiritual at a young age.

At age 7 she read a book on St Maria Goretti who put nutshells in her bed as penance.  Carol had no nutshells so she lined bottle caps on the bed and went to sleep.  Her older, and heavier sister Mary Lou, received a night of torture and Carol was forbidden to do it again!

At 13 she entered the convent of the Benedictine Sisters as she believed she had special work to do.

In her senior year of high school she transferred to The Little Sisters of the Poor. This is where she was trained in working with the elderly and dying.  At the hands of these incredible women of God she learned the art of love and compassion and the skill of being a beggar.

The sisters sent her for LPN training in Cleveland Ohio.  This enabled her to be able to care for others with new knowledge and skills.

Left the convent at age 21 to help her dad after her alcoholic mother was murdered.  This secret was only revealed to Carol at Age 40.  Her Dad had sworn the family to secrecy to protect her. She had been told her mother died of cirrhosis of the liver.  The following year she started in Karate training and competed throughout the East Coast.  At age 25 she moved to NJ And worked as a visiting nurse and later a hyperbaric nurse at St Barnabas Medical Center.  

Her faith continued to be a guiding force in her life.  In the riots in Newark NJ she drove through the gunfire to help the Little Sisters of the Poor so they could get some relief.

She married Gary Bamesberger at age 30.  Two daughters were born and two other pregnancies ended in miscarriage.  Carol loved having her little girls and she spent many hours singing and playing with her babies.

She volunteered at MMH as a chaplain assistant and was recommended for chaplain training. She was trained at Overlook Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson.  Last year Carol was honored for 25 years as a certified chaplain.


For 27 years Carol worked on the frontline in the AIDS epidemic. She was in the first training from CDC for the NY NJ area. She started many programs for families living with AIDS on the East Coast and in Africa. Through the Angel Connection they created: Under Cover angel to get our little ones warm coats; Princess for a day gifted our Moms with a makeover, new clothing, hairdo and a foot massage;   Magical Mystery tours gifted our families with surprise destination events;  Angel food was a way to get healthy food and gift cards; annual holiday hug program which provided over 4000 gifts by direct request, for children in families living with AIDS. These were given directly to the parents or guardians so that they had the honor of gifting their little ones.

None of these things could have been accomplished without the incredible generosity of the volunteers.  Ellie and Charles were often at the forefront of these events giving great hugs and cuddles, super pots of chili, and the guidance of sages by serving on the Board of directors!
 
Today Carol is serving as a member of the Red Cross Disaster Spiritual Care Team.  In this cavity she served in the Alabama, the Super-storm Sandy victims, ten days assisting the victims and families of the Boston Bombings, the Santa Monica College shootings and most recently the people at LAX who were impacted by the shooter.   

Add to all of this major celebrations of life with family, RVing friends, old buddies and new acquaintances across this great country.  A Heinz 57 pickle party, a two story suite at the Parsippany Hilton for Ellie to recover, and a fancy ball to celebrate our people with AIDS.  These are only a few extraordinary moments in life.   Ahhhhh. Sweet bliss!

We are each of us a member of a global family.  We love honor respect and empower each other. Together we have all that we need and there is a constant replenishing of all that we need.  We are celebrators of life... Sharing our joys and our sorrows.  In all of this... Divinely Guided!  One World...one Family  … Ours.  Human.    Kind!

2.      Donna Rahmann’s message …

Good Morning.  My name is Donna Rahmann.

The organization called Presbyterian Women, formerly Church Women United, publishes a magazine called Horizons.  The topics range from stories of faith, issues of peace and justice, and women’s global mission projects.  You are updated regarding their faith in action, how funds are raised, who receives those funds and what goals have been attained with the use of those funds.

Annually, as part of the Presbyterian Women’s Horizons Magazine, an annual Bible study is published.  The focus for 2013 was about Exodus and Deuteronomy and the migration of God’s people from one land, becoming immigrants in another.

I consider this migration a journey.  During their migration, God’s people were in limbo, so to speak.  They most likely anticipated a new land filled with fertile soil and an amply supply of clean water for themselves and their livestock.  They had to trust God to lead them to the Promised land.

Have you ever been limbo during your life?  --In between employment, waiting for the promise of employment, or even the day of retirement - the day of graduation, of acceptance into your first choice of college, in limbo in a relationship, waiting for the birth of a child, or for some semblance of change – a new life.  During that time of being in limbo, were you unsure of where you belonged?

God nurtures us during this time of not being sure where we belong, or where we are headed.  He nurtured His people with the hope of a new home, a place where they would belong and finally receive the fulfillment of His promise, His covenant.

During the Lenten season, some Christian groups “give up” something.  I would like to, however, concentrate on the “not giving up” of something, or “not giving up on someone”.

I had a time in my life when I was in limbo, of no longer feeling a sense of belonging.  It was during this time that I was being nurtured and guided back to where God wanted me to be.  I had someone who would be my compass, who walked beside me on my faith journey, someone who would, was and pretty much still is walking beside me.

So, I would like to introduce you to my dear friend, Lisa Gray.  Lisa and I have been friends for over 20 years.  She first knew me as the mom holding the then little Henry Rahmann, IV, who wanted to partake of my communion elements during a service at Long Valley Presbyterian Church.

She knew me as “that Donna Rahmann” who would walk up to a woman during fellowship time and say, “Hey, I didn’t see you at the last Spring Gathering.  Will I see you at the next one?” 

She was the friend who drew me into co-leading bible studies.  I gleaned from her, her talent for research and for using a variety of resources to bring the topics to life.  She has, however, a witty sense of humor which I can never replicate.

Many years ago, she provided a scholarship for me to attend a retreat when I could not financially afford it.  Attendance at that retreat began the healing process of the hurt I endured on my journey of “not belonging”.

We attend craft fairs together, Presbyterian Women Gatherings, and numerous other events together; we share prayer concerns.  We even grieved the loss of our mothers at the same time.  Her first granddaughter’s name is Lydia, and my first granddaughter’s name is Lilya.

Her nurturing friendship has meant so much to me that when she hesitantly relocated from Long Valley to Stewartsville, I promised that I would keep in touch.  I have kept that promise.

It was Lisa’s continual guidance and nurturing that kept me on God’s path through my valley of “limbo”, to lead me to continue my journey of God’s will for me, which eventually led me to my new home here at Fairmount Presbyterian Church.

Lisa, I thank you, for walking beside me, for being my compass, for sharing your friendship, your talents and your faith.

So, I implore every one of you to never pass up the opportunity to befriend someone – car pool to an event, say a prayer, cook a meal, read a bible passage, or just walk up to someone and say, “Hi, I am --- and would like to get to know you.”  Celebrate whatever gift God has given you, and share that gift as all of the women who have come before us have done.  Help others on their faith journey so that they can never say they were an alien in a new land.  Trust that God has placed you in that situation for a reason.

You never know what new journey the sharing of your gift will lead someone.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a prayer which a woman, Ann Brower carries with her, from Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle, by Ted Loder*:

            Help me to believe in beginnings,

                        To make a beginning,

                        To be a beginning

            So that I may not just grow old,

            But grow new each day

            To this wild, amazing life

            You call me to live

            With the passion of Jesus Christ.

*Wakefield, Dan; How Do We Know When It’s God?

3.      Katelynn Fleming’s message …

Have you ever wondered about God?  Have you ever questioned something about Him or the Bible?  For those of you who don’t know me, I am Katelynn.  I am fifteen years old.  I am a freshman in high school in all honors classes.  But when I was little, I didn’t go to Sunday school every Sunday.  I went more when I got older, but still not every week.  I especially liked family Sundays at church because I got to hear the singing.  That was my favorite part.  But by the time I got to my eighth grade year and Confirmation class started, I had studied more science in school than religion in church.  I drank up the new information, but I also found some things that seemed strange and contradictory to me in the Bible.  For example, Noah’s Ark.  How did Noah fit two of each of species on earth into one boat?  How did God create the whole universe in six days?  Are some parts of the Bible human error?  During the long span of time over which generations passed down the stories orally, did they alter them or simply misinterpret them along the way?  And do we have free will or do we have pre-determined destinies?  I could go on and on with all the technical questions that my scientifically trained brain has wondered over the years.

I finally came to a vague opinion of my religious beliefs on my own, but it wasn’t until a conversation with my sister, who is a teacher of biology and physical science, that I found validation and support for those scientific conclusions and spiritual convictions. Confirmation, one could say.  You might be wondering how a biology teacher could bring me clarity about my religion.  Well, I realized that I believe her views perfectly balance science and religion, without compromising what we know about either to understand the other.  Every Christian has their own interpretation of the Bible and the stories that it contains. Some will say that every single word in the Bible, the stories in it, and how they relate to what we see around us is literal truth.  However, scientific observation that we can make with our own eyes occasionally contradicts that viewpoint. On the other hand, some might say that it is all meant metaphorically, that we are supposed to learn lessons, not history, from the Bible, like it is one big parable.  I do not believe that either of those perspectives alone is entirely realistic, and that a middle ground is where truth lies for Christians.

Jennifer’s belief is different from what you might learn in church.  She told me a story once about when my grandfather asked her how she could be a biology teacher and still believe so fervently in God.  She responded that science doesn’t contradict religion, it affirms it. Just because science implies something different from what the Bible says doesn’t mean that they can’t both be true. Jen believes that God is like an all-powerful chemist with any and all materials at His disposal.  Science says that our universe started with a big bang, but what ignited it?  God showed me through Jennifer.  Perhaps the Master Chemist flipped a switch that made the little spark of His ideas or His will explode into everything that exists today in the universe.  Scientists say that the formation of animals was through evolution.  In the 4 million years that there has been life on this planet there should not have been enough time to evolve a brain as complex as humans have.  We needed help… and there again was God.

I mentioned that it seemed unlikely that God could create everything in 6 days and in fact, science says that it evolved over billions of years, but what is time for an immortal being? Six days for him could be six billion years for us.  In our conversation, my sister and I delved into the paradox mystery of the beginning of life and the improbability of the scientific theory of evolution and I discovered our perspectives were relatively similar.  Did you know that (out of trillions of possibilities) it takes some 20 precise combinations of molecules - mass produced in a very specific order - to spontaneously create the building blocks of living things?  Even in a volatile environment like early Earth’s, with many chemical reactions happening in rapid succession, the likelihood that all 20 were present simultaneously in a constantly changing boiling mess is miniscule.  Did you also know that living things need a certain kind of DNA in order to modify proteins to be useful, and that those same proteins are used to create the tools that make the DNA in the first place?  So if the DNA is the chicken and the proteins are the egg, well, you get the idea.  Suffice it to say, that it is almost a physical impossibility that the DNA could exist first.  And then there’s evolution. Considering the trillions of possible mutations, the probability of the -let’s just say gazillions- of gene mutations or other minute changes that had to have occurred in the DNA of, say, one organism in a thousand, in order to lead to the complexity of the organisms that exist today, is so close to impossible that mathematicians have called that probability ‘almost zero’.  Think of our brains.  How likely is it really, that that many coincidences could have aligned perfectly in the relatively short time life has existed on Earth with no guidance from a higher power? In fact, the evidence is so overwhelming that even many scientists today believe that evolution must be being guided by a higher power of some sort.

Of course, spirituality isn’t about probabilities or science or fact. It’s about having faith and being able to believe in what you cannot see, prove, or analyze to death in a laboratory.  As I grew up, I took everything I saw around me, added the things I felt, the wisdom that just comes to you as time goes on, call it intuition or faith.  I added all the information I learned in school, on the science channels, and talking and philosophizing, for fun and without making a conscious effort to do so, with the people I love and respect.  A conviction formed in me without my even knowing it and continued to change and develop as I did.  And then I happened upon a fascinating conversation with my sister one day which helped me to express those vague impressions within me and make them into something I could really understand and know.  And so my sister gave me enough factual evidence to back up my very own interpretation of how that Great Chemist could have made the world that I see today and also be the Creator that I read about in the Bible.  I don’t know, but that seems like God’s work to me.