OCT. 2026
Dear OS family and friends,
As our Season of Creation comes to an end on October 4th with a celebration of creation and a blessing of the animals, I hope that you have enjoyed a little detour on Sunday mornings. Not really a detour- as we still sang liturgy, heard the lectionary texts for each Sunday…. we did the “usual” through the lens of creation! So maybe not a detour, just a different lens for a few weeks. I know I have enjoyed this season of creation and the creativity is opened not only for the sanctuary, giving tangible elements, but also to hear the words of the hymns we sang and to prepare sermons through the lens of creation or with a connection to creation and how we are indeed creatures in God’s wonderful creation. I think we forget that sometimes.
As our seasons change once again here in God’s great Northwoods, we are very aware of creation around us. We can’t help but see it, feel it and even smell it. We taste it in all the pumpkin & apple that overwhelm us during these months.
The season of fall gives us the opportunity to fall into routine again. It gives us the opportunity to perhaps slow down a bit as the summer sun fades and the winter sun moves in with less and less light each day. The season of fall gives us the opportunity to come back to something you once enjoyed. Something even new perhaps. We get out of rhythm in the summer as we take in as much of the warmth, light and opportunity the short summer months give us. So now that it is fall….. what can you take back? What can you begin again?
Will we see you in worship on Sundays? Can you help in the Community Closet once ever 8 weeks? Would you consider helping with the Community Breakfast once a month? How about LIFT on Wednesdays – there is something for everyone! There is even an Adult Bible Study! Do you like to sing? Choir could always use a few new voices. Do you like to read? Perhaps consider being a Lector on Sunday mornings. Quilting is on Wednesdays from 9-2ish – you don’t even need to know how to sew – check them out. There are so many ways you can show up, be involved and find a place. A new place, an old place.
Let’s take back Church together this fall. Make it a priority to come to worship as a family. Make it a priority to find one thing as a family, as an individual, that you can take back, pick up, or begin anew that will enhance your life, bring joy, not be something you HAVE to do but something you can do, want to do, have missed doing!
Between my husband and I, we have been forced on a detour through his early retirement, a health scare for him a couple weeks ago and my recent diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. This detour is not bad, it is just unexpected, and in, with, and through these sudden life changes, we have committed to doing the things we wish to do now…. And no longer wait for the right time. Life is too short to wait for the right time. Life is too short to be mad or hold grudges. Life is too short and we have been given life and joy and abundance through Jesus from our God who loves us so much. Thanks be to God!
What will you find joy in this fall? What will you take back or start new? How can you find joy in the detours of life?
Blessings and peace to you!
Pastor Liz
SEPT. 2026
Dear Our Savior’s friends,
It is hard to believe that we are looking at September in just a week from today as I write. Fall is certainly in the air as temps in the evening and night start to drop, the smell of fall is near, but so far the leaves are holding their summer green!
With Labor Day being late this year some kids are already back to school while others start on the traditional day after Labor Day, either way, fall schedules, routine, busy nights, are back in full swing! Once I can say goodbye to the summer sun, water, warm temps, I love fall too! Time for hooded sweatshirts and all things pumpkin spice!
Seasonal changes always remind me that in all of our lives there are rhythms, whether it be personal, familial, church, school, and yes, nature. Some of these rhythms are predictable, regular and even welcomed. Some catch us off guard or happen sooner than we are ready for. Either way, rhythm is pattern, and pattern is routine, and routine is predictable and comforting.
Sometimes our internal rhythm is off, or finds a new pattern (sometimes for good and sometimes for bad) and we make adjustments and go on with a new rhythm. This happens when a loved one dies, retirement takes place, job loss, illness, birth of a child, marriage, divorce – you see the pattern here.
I am going to share with you a personal rhythm that has changed for me recently. Sharing personal rhythms isn’t easy, and yet, when we can be vulnerable with one another, we can also invite each other into a rhythm of prayer and understanding, grace and compassion with and for each other. As your pastor I have the privilege to hold you and yours, and now I have the privilege to ask you to hold me.
I have felt for quite a few years that there is something not quite right happening in my body. I have doctored off and on for fatigue and pain. My ankles and feet first, then my wrist and thumb. Long story short…. In mid-July I was diagnosed with seronegative Rheumatoid arthritis. The seronegative means my blood work won’t show it. So, through other tests, x-rays and MRIs my rheumatologist concludes it is SNRA and joint damage has already taken place in my thumb and wrist and my ankles. There is no cure, the damage is done, so now the rhythm is to manage the pain from the damage and get my immune system shut down enough so it stops attacking my joints.
The side effects from the meds last a couple days for me so far and I have adjusted my rhythm to accommodate those days. For the most part, I feel good with the exception of some tiredness, and two days post med-day. I share this with you so that you can keep me in your prayers as I navigate this new normal, this new rhythm of life. I share this with you not so you can feel sorry for me, for I am not alone in this. I share this with you so that I know I am NOT alone in this. Thank you for caring, for hearing my story and for holding me in your prayers.
A bump in the road doesn’t change who we are or what we do, it might slow us down for a bit, but with time and adjustments, and learning a new rhythm, life is business as usual for now!
God’s peace,
Pastor Liz
AUGUST, 2026
Dear friends of Our Savior’s,
This last Sunday’s gospel reading (7/26/26) still has me thinking about all the images that come to mind to fill in the statement: The kingdom of heaven is like….
The kingdom of heaven is like a red kayak that carries my weary soul across the ripples of water on the lake as the loon sings, the leaves of the tress dance, the fish of the lake swim underneath me and my heart starts to beat again and my soul slowly comes back to life. This is my personal kingdom of heaven metaphor.
The congregation engaged in other metaphors on Sunday as well and so as I write to you today, I have those images running through my head.
I have a friend whose parent suffered from Parkinson’s. The parent is no longer able to speak much if at all, and appears to be in prison in their own body with no control, no ability to be present and yet one day with all their children around celebrating all that was once good in their life, the next morning they were able to articulate joy and happiness by saying, “my smile is so big it could swallow my whole body.” I have carried that with me – what would make us so joy filled, so happy, so at peace that we could smile so big it feels like our smile is swallowing up our whole being?
For me…. Children in worship. Their joy, their eagerness and excitement to RUN to the communion table to receive Jesus every week as if it is there first time. Their little voices, high fives, hugs and smiles ~That makes me smile so big it could swallow my whole body!
How about you? What has brought you joy this summer season? Where have you found peace? And if you are in a season of suffering, unknowns and disjoy…. How can you invite the Holy Spirit- our Triune God- into the unknown with you? Is it possible to find joy in the midst of suffering? Of course, is it easy – no!
I invite you the rest of this summer, to take in inventory of all things that bring you peace, that bring you joy, and if those things have been absent from your life lately, how can you get them back? What can you do to find a moment of peace? What can you do that might bring you even a moment of joy? Perhaps – be still. Stopping moving. Stop thinking. Stop and be.
My favorite verse that helps me find peace in the midst of things that can feel hard is Psalm 46:10. Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
May peace and joy find you. May peace and joy know you. May you know and find both peace and joy in these last weeks of summer!
Pastor Liz
June 2026
Greetings Our Savior’s,
The weather this spring has been a bit crazy and particularly cool! As I write this, I look forward to next week as the temperatures will reach the high 70’s and even 80’s, I am ready for that! The building should begin warming up then as well!
We have gone from rain to snow, and back to rain to an occasional warm day, and back to freeze warnings! We have to navigate the spring weather, the in-between times in our seasons, just like in our life, in our faith and in the seasons of the church year. In order to get from one place to the next, there will always be in-between times, and it is in those times that we can really learn, know and begin to trust that this too shall pass. Our faith grows, our faith changes and in turn-we grow and change too.
This is one of the beauties of living in Northern Minnesota where we get the opportunity to experience four seasons a year! These seasons mirror the season of the church year so nicely too! Easter is here and it is spring. The trees are budding, the flowers are poking up out of the grounds, the birds return and life gains a spring in its step this time of year.
As we live into the resurrection, we see new life where once it was dead. We experience a changed faith and transformation. We remember that we are indeed resurrection people!
Pentecost has come and gone and has reminded us that the Holy Spirit blows through our church and you-its people-to remind us that we are called to this time and place to share the good news, to work for justice and peace, and to love kindly as we walk in and through life with our God and one another.
Ordinary time and summer is upon us. And this is an extra-long season in the church. It is a time for a vision, a mission, a plan of growing ourselves, our church, our communities during the ordinary summertime of life and church!
I leave you with the poem by Mary Oliver called:
“ Whistling Swans”
Do you bow your head when you pray or do you look up into the blue spaces?
Take your choice, prayers fly from all directions,
And don’t worry about what language you use,
God no doubt understands them all.
Even when the swans are flying north and making such a ruckus noise,
God is surly listening and understanding.
Rumi said, There is no proof of the soul.
But isn’t the return of spring and how it springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint?
Yes, I know, God’s silence never breaks, but is that really a problem?
There are thousands of voices, after all.
And furthermore, don’t you imagine (I just suggest it) that the swans know
about as much as we do about the whole business?
So listen to them and watch them, singing as they fly.
Take from it what you can.
Happy almost summer~
Pastor Liz
May 2026
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
Easter greetings members and friends,
Easter brings us a renewed sense of hope, not only in our faith life, but as we look out the window and see that Spring is springing! The snow is gone, the trees are beginning to bud, the ice is off the lake for opening fishing weekend, with all the seasonal changes around us, this Easter season in our church can also bring changes.
Changes in liturgy, changes in who we see in worship as folks begin to head to their cabins and the lake, changes in our music as we celebrate the Good News that Christ is Risen through our hymns. I love changes. I get tired of the same old thing so the seasons of the church help move us along not only in our faith walk, but in our journey through the life of Jesus. This seasonal movement can help us through the seasons we go through in our own lives as well. Hard times, times of sickness, times of grief and sorrow as well as good times that we celebrate, rejoice and find happiness in!
As the grass begins to turn green again, as the frogs return, the birds start to sing again, can you feel the change in you too? It’s almost like coming out of hibernation from the winter. We work to shed our winter coats, get back to smiling, being active and growing again.
What will you do differently this spring when you put off all winter? Will you find your cup of coffee and devotional book waiting for you near the window each morning where the sun shines in and the birds singing can be heard? Will you find your ear buds under that winter hat, waiting with a new playlist to carry you through a few mile walk after a long day as the sun is getting ready to set, the deer are moving about and the smell of spring is heavy in the air? How about getting those “thinking of you” cards out to the ones you have had on your mind all winter? So much to do in the in-between time of seasons isn’t there?!
Around church, we have work to continue in as well. The pipe project is about to take on a new phase that includes us and our time and work. We have yard work to tend to. We have maintenance projects to keep up with and we have new members to welcome. All part of the cycle of change and seasonal transition!
Happy Spring! May it bring to you good changes – changes of growth and joy. Changes of new hope and a renewed spirit!
Happy Easter!
Pastor Liz
April, 2026
Happy Spring Our Savior’s and friends!
This time of year can be most challenging as we have spring fever and want to get outdoors, and yet, the weather keeps us indoors. There is hope that spring and summer will come again as we welcome more and more daylight each day, hear the birds chirping and feel the heat in the sun when it shines!
Hope can be deceiving and yet it is hope in which we cling during times of difficulty, tragedy, the changing of seasons, medical tests, and so much more. And we hope as we long for wholeness.
Is our faith deep and strong to offer us a hope that is also deep and strong and enough? What has this Lenten season shown you, taught you, enlightened you about? We have gone through the stories from the gospel readings: Temptation/Wholeness; Nicodemus/Mystery; The woman at the well/Relationship; Man born blind/Community; Lazarus/Authenticity. All stories that bring us an element of wholeness.
How do we find hope and wholeness in the midst of pain and suffering, whether it be personal, communal or worldly? Where do we turn for such hope and assurance? How do we find wholeness in the midst of feeling broken?
We turn to the Lord. We cling to the promises of God who named us and claimed us before we were even born. We find respite and repair in the one who knows suffering more than anyone of us ever can or will.
As our Lenten journey has come to an end, we are reminded as we approach Holy week that while the world grows dim as Jesus is hung on the cross left to die…. We know as Easter people that death does not have the last word. We know as Easter people that the light of the world is our hope and assurance, and resurrection and salvation are real!
As you prepare your hearts and minds and imaginations for Holy Week and look with hope toward Easter, may you be blessed with assurance, with grace, with love that is real and known from our God, who is the true hope of all hope, in a world that feels quite broken right now.
Peace this Holy Week and hope to you in the Eastertide! See you in church!
Pastor Liz
GREETINGS ~
March is a few days away and you know what that means? Well, yes Lent. Yes, soup suppers and midweek worship. Yes, spring is almost here….
But I am talking about March madness! March madness is all about basketball! The NCAA college men’s and women’s tournaments take over much of the month as well as High School state tournaments both hockey and basketball!
I don’t know about you, but I grew up in a sports family and home. All my siblings and I played sports and evenings were often spent in the gym or on the field.
I want to share with you my basketball story. I was never a starter, a top athlete or high scorer, but I loved basketball. I worked hard; I just didn’t have the natural ability like some do. When I was a junior in high school, I had just turned 17 in September. The basketball season was going to start mid-November and I had spent the summer working on my basketball skills. I could be found in the driveway every day in the summer shooting, dribbling and working to gain a spot “off the bench” my junior year.
It was the Wednesday of MEA week in October and I started to experience some weakness on my right side. I was having trouble picking up a textbook from my locker. In gym class my knee kept giving out and I kept dropping my hockey stick. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but just chalked it up to me being clumsy. By the last hour of the school day, I was in the school office and when I went to shift my weight from my left side to my right side, I fell to the floor. I was now concerned that something wasn’t quite right.
I went to volleyball practice (I was the manager) and talked to the coach, who recognized that my parents needed to be notified immediately and I needed to get to the clinic or hospital. The next several days were somewhat of a blur from there.
I was hospitalized that afternoon in the Virginia hospital. By that time, I had lost all control and mobility of my right side. I could not get my leg, toes, arms, hands or anything on the right side to move. They had no idea what was going on. They observed me through the night and at the time (this was 33 years ago) the Virginia hospital did not have an MRI machine; it came as a mobile MRI in a semi-truck. My parents were not comfortable with that set up, so they had me discharged and had the hospital call ahead to Duluth and my parents drove me themselves down to Duluth for an MRI.
It was one MRI (45 minutes long) then they had to inject dye and I had another MRI. That two hours I was kind of out of it, unaware of what might be happening. Afterall, I was only 17 years old.
I do remember sitting on my hospital bed wondering if I was ever going to be “normal” again (whatever “normal” was for a 17-year-old in the 90’s). I remember wondering if any of my friends would still want to be friends with me. It was a very scary time for me.
Finally, the doctor came to my parents and I to tell us that I, at the age of 17, had a stroke. It was unusual. It was shocking. It was scary. A stroke??? It turns out that there was a small blood clot in my brain, but the clot didn’t block the entire vein, it allowed blood to trickle by it slowly. This explained why I didn’t have any numbness or tingling and only lost all control and mobility of my right side.
I spent a couple more nights in the hospital before going home. I would have to start physical and occupational therapy right away. I had to walk with a cane. I experienced severe headaches and migraines. It was a devasting experience and at the same time it was an experience that taught me so much about life, about priorities, about perseverance. I grew up really fast that year!
I lost some friends, but we all know they really weren’t friends in the first place. I discovered who my real friends were. I was teased in school because I walked with a limp and a cane. I was different. I would forever be changed by the stroke I experienced in October of 1993.
Basketball season was starting one month after my stroke. I was still learning how to walk, let alone how to run. I had to write and do all my homework with my left hand because I still couldn’t hold a pencil with my right. I had lost everything I had worked so hard to gain over the summer when basketball season came mid-November I wasn’t sure I would ever get off the bench now.
I still went out for basketball. I loved the game. My friends played. The coaches were very protective of me and my head. But I still worked as hard as I could. I began to walk and run again without limping, with full strength. I wasn’t fast, but I could run. I showed up for every single practice. I sat on the bench for every single game. I would get in now and then, but the coaches really were very cautious and protective.
It was early to mid-December, it was a home game, and we were playing Tower-Soudan. This was going to be my first game of the season because I finally got cleared by the doctor. The coach calls me from the bench. I check in and on the next whistle I get to the enter the game. To my surprise, the enter gymnasium rises to their feet and applauds as I entered the game. MIB and Tower-Soudan – the enter gym! Clapping for me. I am sure that at the time I really couldn’t comprehend the accomplishment, the mountain I had just climbed in two months, but they sure did.
You all may remember Jason Goulet and the football injury that left him paralyzed that same fall. Jason and I had PT and OT together. Tower-Soudan fans knew as they had been rallying around one of their own athletes that year too. It was no wonder why they were standing and cheering as well!
Back to the game. When we got the ball, it was passed to me, I took the shot, made it and once again the crowd stands and cheers.
I was so excited to be playing basketball again! I didn’t care if I was a “bench warmer”. I had recovered from a stroke at the age of 17 and the basketball court, the bench, my coaches and teammates had my back, they loved me, they pushed and protected me. I needed them at that time, and I know they needed me!
I always wanted to be a basketball coach. My experience on the bench gave me the opportunity to see the game in a different way. To see all positions, to see the whole court, to observe the other team. I learned how to analyze the game and not just play one position. In a lot of ways, it was a gift!
I coach basketball because I love the sport. I coach basketball because I want young girls to know they are loved, seen, and cared for no matter what their skill level is. I coach basketball because I care about our youth. Not because I was a star player and want to live vicariously through my team. Not because I have something to prove. Not because my team goes to state every year (we have never been to state). I coach because God has given me the skills, the understanding, the compassion and the love for the game. I coach because God has called me to the game as an extension of the ministry I offer our communities as a pastor.
My girls know that I am a pastor first and foremost. They know that I am a Christian. They know that I pray for them. They know…. And so does the community…. And so does the school…..
When I was called here to Our Savior’s and it was written in my call papers that Our Savior’s supports my call as a basketball coach and would not expect me to stop coaching, that you as a call committee, on behalf of the congregation, recognized basketball as an extension of ministry and as one way I care for myself during the long winter months. Thank you, Our Savior’s! What a gift!
I coach basketball to keep active, as a form of self-care, to inspire and encourage girls, to be a positive and healthy role model and to shine God’s light into sometimes very dark places in the lives of my players both on and off the court. It is a gift to me, to them!
Thanks for hearing my story. It was life changing for me and I can only hope that my coaching can also be life changing to my girls as well.
Jesus promises that wherever two or three are gathered he is there with us! Even on the court, in the huddle and on those bus rides! Thanks be to God!
Pastor Liz
Aka: CoachRev
Mid-winter greetings Our Savior’s and friends,
How are you? Mid-winter always seems like a good time to check in with loved ones and friends. Though it may appear on the outside there are smiles all around, in the bleak midwinter there is often struggle. Struggle with less day light. Struggle with energy. Struggle with the cold temps and not being able to get outside and breath in that fresh air. Struggle with the state of the world. So much…
Winter can feel heavy for those of us that are here in God’s great north woods, unless you are an avid skier, snowmobiler, ice fisher person. The winter does offer a lot of great outdoor activities when the temps stay above zero!
But the point here, is how are you doing? Where are you at in terms of grief, joy, life, discipleship? What does your soul long for? We can get caught up in the everyday busyness of life and forget to check in with each other and ourselves.
As we enter into the second month of 2026, it will be filled with red and pink, hearts and chocolate as February 14th is Valentines Day. So, while the world around us consumes and buys into this secular “holiday” why don’t we buy into this notion of love and spend the month loving on each other? Who knew February 17th is National Random Acts of Kindness Day! Let’s make it an entire month!
Checking in with friends, church family, loved ones. Send a letter, a card, an email just to say, “hey I’m thinking of you.” Why not make February a month of random acts of kindness and love?
I challenge you to do something kind for someone each day this month with no strings attached and no need to receive anything in return. Because the reality is your heart will be filled with joy by the end of February.
February 18th is Ash Wednesday, a day we come together and accept the invitation into the discipline of Lent. The day we are reminded that we are but dust, and to dust we will one day return. A day we pause to worship, pray, confess and come together as followers of Jesus and bring with us all that weighs us down so that during the season of Lent we can begin to unpack our heavy hearts, clear out our cluttered minds and prepare our imaginations to be ready to receive the Good News on Easter morning that Christ is alive! Alive for you and for me, and for the world!
Beloved family, let us love one another in a time such as this where division, hatred, lies, twists, deception, name calling, and so much heaviness is consuming our souls, our hearts and our minds! Let us love one another as God first loved us! May it be so!
Pastor Liz
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