Saturday Evening:  The Youth Group will be meeting at 5:30 pm to make Pizza and watch a movie at the Harbaugh/Norris home.  If you know a young person who might like to join, let us know! 

This Sunday:  The book of Esther is often called a Persian Diaspora Novella, and while it never mentions God, it is the Biblical connection to the Celebration of Purim for our Jewish neighbours.  Come and hear a recounting of Esther’s story. 

FYI and keep in prayer:  Teresa and her husband are facilitating at a retreat for Aoyama Gakuin Women`s College at Okutama Bible Chalet for the weekend.   Prayers that hearts will be tender to receive the Bible teaching and for Mike and Teresa who will have the challenge of making ministry flow – in Japanese.   

WTUC CALENDAR

Oct 7th:   10:55       Worship.  Pastor Teresa Preaching

Oct 14^th:    9:30:     Confirmation, Church School, Adult Education (Joy)

                10:55:      Worship  Pastor Teresa Preaching.

Oct 21^st:    9:30:     Confirmation

               10:55:      Worship  Pastor Susan Preaching.

Reach Pastors Teresa and Susan at wtucrev@gmail.com.

Food for Reflection:

Isaiah 11:6

“The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

Reflection by The Rev. Lillian Daniel

In Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand,  the enchanting debut novel by Helen Simonson, you are invited into a quaint English village to meet 68-year old Major Pettigrew, a retired widower, whose brother has suddenly died. In his grief, the Major comes to look at his life differently, and realizes how lonely he has been.

When he turns to his grown son, Roger, he finds a self-centered materialistic young man whose only interest is his own social advancement. Next, the Major looks at the quaint customs of his village and longs for more than superficial chit chat at the golf club. Suddenly, through eyes made sharp with the knowledge that life is short, he sees anew a woman he has known for years – the Muslim shopkeeper Mrs. Jasmina Ali, a widow from a Pakistani family who runs the convenience store at the center of the village. And he develops a mighty cross-cultural crush.

But like any good love story, it is not without its complications. The Major, an Anglican, wonders about her religion. The intellectual and educated shopkeeper misses none of the insulting assumptions that come her way from her parochial neighbors.   His friends want her to remain an anonymous shopkeeper. Her family wants him to stick to his own kind.

At the climax of the courtship, the Major takes Mrs. Ali as his date to the annual costumed themed dance at the village golf club, where frumpy village ladies in ill-fitting saris and their boozed up husbands in British colonial military uniform all re-enact the last days of the British empire in India with disastrous results. But somehow, these star-crossed lovers keep returning to one another, despite their differences.

The prophet Isaiah said that the savior would preside over such unlikely pairings. As these two characters in the novel discovered love late in life and across religious lines, I imagined God laughing along with me as I read about these unlikely bedfellows, in a story of grace, mercy and understanding.

Prayer
:  Who are the unlikely people in my life? Who have I been afraid to connect with? What would happen if I did? Bless the unlikely relationships, loving God, and allow them to draw us closer to you. Amen.