Past occasional thoughts and musings from Pastor Mark
at Faith Lutheran Church
in Redmond, Washington.



Faith Lutheran Church is a member of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, which founded in 1988 out of the traditions and heritage of many Lutheran churches.

Pastor Mark has been serving Faith Lutheran since June of 2007.

October 27th, 2009

It's been a while since I've blogged with you folks for good reason.  October has been busy both in the church and in our household.  The church you know about.  The household has been a different matter.  Honoring the Fourth Commandment, explained in the Catechism, is an important part of the Christian walk: 

      We started with my father in the hospital for a week and then my mother needed help. Evie soon had kidney issues and then, about midweek, needed a pacemaker to see if increased bloodflow might help her kidney function.  There was a short rally, but on Sunday afternoon things turned as we came back from the Seahawks game (we lost to the Cardinals...badly) and we had to ask for full comfort measures that night to manage her pain. She passed away on Monday morning.   We had time to say goodbye and to hear her words of love for us before she drifted away with the pain meds.

       Evie was an immigrant from Canada, the daughter of a Saskatchewan farmer - grocer who came to this country to set up shop in North Dakota.  It was there that she met my father who was a young pastor fresh out of Luther seminary serving his first parish.  She was proud of her education in nursing at Concordia College. She loved music, crafts, sewing, cooking and family.  And she survived two cancers that were among the most deadly forms of that disease.  Modern medical science has moved forward with wonders and miracles that we take for granted.  God provides. 

         What we remember now is not her last year with us, which was often full of pain, weakness and mental confusion.  Death gives the opportunity to look at the whole story, from beginning to end.  Among other things, we remember a wonderful grandmother to our two children.  A devoted wife to Bob for some 57 years.  Wedding vows are important and together they lived up to the meaning of their promises, "in sickness and health."  And we remember her witness to faith, even in difficult times.  She had the prophet's keen sense of justice both in the church and in our society.  For what she was, we give thanks for the grace and mercy of God. We give thanks for the strength of family, as we gathered from far away for her.  Funerals are a wonderful time to share the story, to affirm the strong bonds of life in the time given us in our own generation, to cling to each other in the darkness even as we look to the light.  And thank you to the Faith Lutheran family, for your wonderful support and witness in this time.  All Saints Sunday is now much more personal.