Interim Update for May 15, 2020

Education Team meets

The Education Team met Wednesday evening to discuss our Christian ed plans for our kids. The team will prepare single use activity kits for any children who attend with their parents when worship opens on June 7. We hope to do some YouTube/Zoom content for kids during the summer, which would include songs and Bible lessons. Of course not sure yet about confirmation in the fall, but definitely will do Zoom meetings if on-site gatherings are contraindicated. Thanks to Heather, Sherri and Rebecca for their leadership.

Plan for recognition of graduates

We've all got memories of our high school graduations, and this year's class will have a unique set of memories of the class who graduated during a pandemic. At St. John's we will recongize our graduates on Facebook and in our email and hardcopy newsletter/messages. I have contacted our three grads by home visit, phone call and email to request info, including photo and future plans. Our three HS graduates are:

• Braxton Berry
• Hannah Seamon
• Ryan Hildebrandt

Each will receive a separate post on our Facebook page.

We have one college grad that I am aware of: Kegan Lilly; Bachelors Degree, Business Management and Technology, BGSU. BGSU graduation date is tbd. A 2016 graduate of Bellevue High School and son of Rich and Linda Lilly.

If you know of other college grads, let me know, and we will be sure to acknowledge their accomplishments.

Wednesday Night Live!

After sharing our highs and lows, we concluded our look at the Lord's Prayer during our Wednesday Night Live! Zoom meeting on Wednesday night. Not sure yet what we'll do next, but be sure to check your email on Wednesday afternoon, as you'll get more info then, along with a link to join the meeting by computer, tablet or smartphone, or landline.

Bishop Daniel's Message

You can read Bishop Daniel's weekly message here.

ICYMI (In Case You Missed It)

I put this in the Wednesday Mailchimp message, but am repeating it here -- some of the results to last week's survey on returning to the church building for worship. There were 24 who completed the survey.

As local governments begin to lift bans against churches meeting, which of the following best describes your attitude toward returning to a worship service at church?

33% I will return the first opportunity we have 8 responses
29% I will return at the first opportunity but with some concerns and precautions 7 responses
17% I will wait several additional weeks before I attend 4 responses
0% It may be quite a while before I return 0 responses
21% Not sure 5 responses

Would you be okay if we had to check every person’s temperature as they entered the building?

88% Yes 21 responses
8% No 2 responses
4% Undecided 1 response

If local guidelines require all church attendees to wear a protective face mask, how would you feel about attending?

58% I am ready to attend in a mask 14 responses
21% I would rather worship "mask free" at home 5 responses
21% Not sure 5 responses

As soon as we receive clearance for public gatherings from our local officials, which of the following would you prefer for our church?

38% Resume in person worship services at our church immediately 9 responses
21% Meet in smaller groups or size limited gatherings for a few more weeks before resuming in person worship services 5 responses
29% Keep all activities online-only to see what happens with the virus 7 responses
13% Undecided 3 responses

Many thanks to all who responded!!

New ELCA Worship Resource coming!

We won't be doing much singing in worship any time soon, but it doesn't mean we can't dream and keep looking for new things as we look forward to when we unleash our voices in worship again. More than two years in preparation, All Creation Sings — the new liturgy and song supplement to Evangelical Lutheran Worship — is nearing completion. You can go here for more information, along with links to sample pages of this new resource. I took a quick look -- looks like it will have some possibilities.

Preschool Update

Governor DeWine has announced that Ohio child-care centers will open beginning May 31. Since the St. John's Preschool is registered and licensed as a child-care center, when school opens in the fall, it will be subject to the guidelines that all centers will be required to follow, for example, classroom capacity for preschool and school-age children will be limited to nine. Children will be greeted by caretakers wearing masks, and be given daily temperature checks. Parents will drop their kids at the doors. Thanks to Linda for all her hard work in staying on top of all the details!

Dr. Osterholm on Meet the Press

Last week I shared a link to a rather long video of Dr. Mike Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota speaking to an ELCA pastors group in Minneapolis, and ELCA member. Dr. Osterholm appeared on the May 10 edition of Meet the Press, which you can view in its entirety here. The segment with Dr. Osterholm begins at 6:20 and ends about 15:00.

Some other helpful coronavirus resources

• A video of how the spread of microdroplets and the coronavirus spreads through coughs and sneezes. You can view it here.
• A video of how singing can spread Covid-19. You can view it here.
• The official ELCA Guidelines for returning to in-person worship. In pdf format, you can download it here.

Sarah's Facebook post

My daughter, Sarah, announced on her Facebook page the completion of her second year of her PhD program at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, in Mathematical Ecology. After graduating from Capital University in 2014, she enrolled in a PhD program at University of California Irvine. She spent a year and a half in that program, until her fellowship funding was terminated and she had to withdraw. She moved back to Ohio and worked for two years at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus doing biomedical research, until she enrolled in her current program at USU. Here is her post:

Because it is now transcript-official:
Through course work and explosions of research projects, the adoption and death of my childhood-dream-come-true cat, the passing of my longtime guinea pig, an untimely mid-fall hard drive crash, the adoption of my second cat, serving on call committee at my church (that role is no joke, y’all!), continued math anxiety leftover from my first grad school outing, and watching my original cohort begin to graduate without me.
Through a pandemic.
I’ve successfully completed the second year of my second attempt at a PhD. I’m so grateful to feel respected by my department and colleagues and supported by my friends and family.