Dear friends,

“Blest be the tie that binds!”

From January 4 through the 12, our church shared with three churches in the Palisades Presbytery in responding to ravaged New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina. Ambassadors from The First Presbyterian Church in Tenafly, The First Presbyterian Church in Ramsey, West Side Presbyterian Church in Ridgewood, and our church comprised the delegation. Don Tripp, Norm Friberg, and I were privileged to serve with this mission work team as we cleaned out homes, removed sheet rock, lifted floor boards, took down ceilings, and then carried it all to the trash. This was accomplished in modest and upper middle class homes, a nursery school, and a church. It was arduous labor; yet working in tandem with this group gave each of us the added stamina, strength and determination needed. Our completed tasks made clear to our Southern sisters and brothers that someone cared. We gave and we repeatedly were touched by the manner in which these people received us and our offerings. In both the giving and receiving we were blessed.

This lesson is shared each Sunday as we worship: the power of God’s grace to change lives; the grace given and received when God’s healing touch is graciously offered and gratefully received. Spending a week amidst this was an intimate, transformative experience.

Norm Friberg in his sharing on Sunday expressed the end of a typical day this way:

“One of the churches has invited the group for dinner. The ladies of the church have outdone themselves: Jambalaya, cornbread, hot dishes and salads of every description. The work has made you ravenous, and you know that it wasn’t easy for them to put this meal together.

Each parishioner shakes your hand and thanks you as if you were personally saving his or her life. There are prayers together, and there are tears on both northern and southern faces.

You lie down, finally, on your air mattress on the floor of the host church, knowing you have done what you can for one day, and that it is, in one sense, a drop in the bucket, but in another sense, it has made a difference in someone’s life. It has given them hope. And you realize that perhaps there is hope also for this beautiful city, and hope, perhaps, for humanity.

“And you also know that you have received a blessing this day, and that the sore muscles and bruised body are a small price for the joy you feel in return for making a difference.”

It is timely for us now to express gratitude to God for one of the “ties that bind”: the Presbyterian Church. As a connectional church, we are connected to all churches in the PCUSA. That is how we were partnered with the Lakeview Presbyterian Church in New Orleans; it was the foundation that provided the relationship between all the churches involved.

Pray together to recommit firmly to continue “building up and not tearing down the Kingdom of God on earth” through our relationships. Let us be God’s ambassadors wherever we find ourselves, whatever our dreams and challenges may be.

In Prayer,

Your pastor, Fran