12/17/09

By John Dorhauer, Conference Minister

About two months ago, our Samoan Church here in the Southwest Conference showed up at their church only to find the building vandalized.

Doors were busted down. Interior and exterior walls were spray painted with gang tags and foul language. Cinder block walls were knocked over. Air conditioners were damaged. Furniture was strewn about. The 97 boxes of humanitarian supplies that church members had collected to be sent back home to victims of the Tsunami were torn open, and the contents were either thrown around the building or just taken.

Members of the church were devastated.

And to make matters worse, after hours and hours of time cleaning up the building and restoring it to some semblance of order again, they arrived on a Saturday morning to continue their cleanup and restoration only a to see their building vandalized all over again.

No one can count the tears that were shed.

When asked by the local police force to install a security alarm, the members of the church wondered aloud where they would find the money for such an extravagance.

I arrived on the same Saturday morning that the second act of vandalism was found, and I witnessed a community saddened and pained by the images they encountered as they walked their property - but a community resolute and determined to restore their church to its former condition.
The very next day, I was asked to participate in a service of celebration at the Scottsdale Congregational United Church of Christ.

I was moved to tears when, halfway through the service, their Interim Pastor Bob MacFarlane read a letter from one of our sister Congregations in the Southwest Conference. The letter was, in fact, from the Samoan Church in Phoenix. They apologized for not being present, but wanted to express their love for SCUCC as they celebrated 50 years of Christian service and ministry. With the letter was their love offering: a check for $250.

It was an act of mercy and grace. It was an act as selfless and as covenantal as any I have witnessed.

The next morning in my office, I had a call from both the Interim Pastor and the Moderator of SCUCC. They were both asking the same question: how can we respond to such a gift. I gave them some details about the Samoan church's plight.

So, guess who showed up this past Saturday to help repaint and repair the damaged property of the Samoan church? And it isn't just their brothers and sisters at the Scottsdale church that have reached out. We were able to identify funds in the Southwest Conference to share the cost of the security system they have been asked to install at the church - funds made available to us through your gifts to the Wider Church.

I can't know what Christmas has come to mean to you, but I can speak for myself. No carol, no gift, no film, no decoration has touched my heart this holiday season quite like the witnessing of this outpouring of love. I am moved by it. I see in it seeds of what we all hope and pray for during this Holiday season.

Our Advent prayer is always "Come, Lord Jesus."

I believe he has.