On Monday, morning May 18, Tropical Storm Arthur was sending light waves of rain north into Richmond.
Ronnie Johnson, our head custodian, at Trinity helped me load almost 70 bags of food to deliver to Feed More. With the van loaded, I drove into the city.
If you’ve never been to Feed More it is a series of buildings on Rhoadmiller Street. And if you are at times directionally challenged like me, then that might explain why it took me a few extra minutes to find the drop spot for our donations. As I was getting ready to start unloading, I saw a gentleman coming out of one of the Feed More buildings. Like me, he was wearing a mask, so it took a few seconds to recognize Trinity member, Dan Nichols.
Dan had just finished a morning shift as a volunteer for Feed More. For many years, Dan has been one of those consistent volunteers for Feed More. Every week he is present helping out.
Today, Dan’s timing could not have been better. He asked if I needed help. And before I could answer yes, Dan had bags in hand heading toward the pod.
Many thanks to Dan for his gracious assist, and many thanks to everyone who donated food on Friday. By the time we finished unloading the Trinity van, the three large bins inside the pod were overflowing.
This year, the Outreach Class will not host its annual Veterans pancake breakfast. Our class has enjoyed being a small part of what our Veterans have given to our country through their service and leadership.
Listed here are the Veterans who over the years have notified us of their service to America. Also, we list our Veterans who passed away this year. Our Trinity Veterans are so quiet and humble that often we do not learn of their service until we read their obituaries.
On this Veterans Day, we hope if you have a family member, neighbor, friend, or a stranger wearing a hat indicating a branch of the American service that you will take the time to acknowledge and thank the Veteran for his or her service.
US Marines:
Kevin Bauer Matt Benton Jake Boyd
Mike Cross Barry Dodson Mark Leep
Jake Lupton Bowen Richwine Raleigh Shelton
Robert Skipper Phillip W. Terry
US Army:
Jay Aldredge Joe Andrews Walker Armole
John Bartholomew Scott Bartholomew Richard Bauer
Sandy Berry Dick Burch Lou Cei
Billy Cocke Mike Dishman Mac Elledge
William Goode John Hamilton John Henderson
David Hickman Austin Jones Trey Jordan, III
Jody McWilliams Burnett Miller, III Samuel Mottley
George Norris Jay Robinson Pam Rockhold
James Shannon, Jr. Clint Smith Kirk Spitzer
A.D. Stuart John Taylor Joseph Thompson
Joseph Toler Michael Vines Bud Vye
John Warman Richard Warren Clay Whitley
Jim Woody
US Navy:
Howard Armole Letcher Barnes Ken Beck
Ken Cardoza Hodges Hastings George King
Clayton Leep Megan Boyd Nichols Lin Niedermayer
Jeff Samuel Harold Tanquary
US Air Force:
Jeffrey Allen Scott Boehm David Bratton
Spec Campen Bill Center Bill Cridlin
F. Douglas Dillard Larry Girvin Norman Groff
Roger Hart Mike McGinnis Tom Rockhold
In Memory: Richard Forrester, George Habel, Shep Hanner
Trinity’s Stitchers are offering a bit of hope to the nurses at Henrico Doctor’s and St. Mary’s hospitals. They have delivered 39 prayer squares to St. Mary’s and 46 for Henrico Doctors. Some have gone to front-line ICU nurses and patients in burn units.
We place in your hand this symbol of comforting hope: A pocket prayer shawl–a little hug from God to carry you through your day. May the presence of someone praying for you bring comforting hope, peace, and safe harbor found in each prayerful stitch created especially for you.
(The message attached to the prayer squares)
Keeping the patients, nurses, respiratory, physical and occupational therapists, and all those who are working to help these patients in great need during this time of the coronavirus pandemic.
Thanks to all who have knitted, crocheted and labeled the lovely prayer shawl squares to help provide special tokens of comfort to so many at this time.
UPDATE:
From a physical therapist at VCU/MCV: Thank all of you for the beautiful prayer shawl squares for nurses and patients at the hospital.
5 prayer squares were given to patients at the burn unit yesterday.
“It made their day.”
10 of the squares were given to nurses on the ICU unit caring for COVID patients. Some were given to the Chaplain who is covering the floors with COVID patients to give to patients as the chaplain sees fit.
The prayer squares brightened everyone’s day, and they appreciate this outreach from our church very much.
I gave Melinda 36 prayer shawl squares for MCV/VCU. I told her that we have extra pray shawl squares at church if she would like us to get more for her to give to others at the hospital.
I am certain that my granny, Margaret Harrod, wanted to burn or toss in the Haw River my favorite book, the story of Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather. But, she never did.
Also, I know for certain, there are parts of my life story that I would like to burn or toss out too. But, I can’t. All I can do is ask for forgiveness and learn.
Right now, I suspect we are all thinking, I wish COVID-19 didn’t exist. It is an unwanted intruder, a story we don’t want.
Every day, I learn another person’s story related to COVID-19. This virus is quite a puncher. It’s impact is far reaching. Often, those stories have sad endings.
But, at Trinity, I’ve seen the counter punches to COVID-19. Here are a few.
The leadership of a program staff committed to bringing worship and other programming to our congregation and community with the use of technology. Even, Holy Week was preserved with quality and creativity.
Our office staff constructed a staggered schedule that gives them the flexibility to provide coverage each day of the week for the church.
Ronnie Johnson, Bobby McShaw, and Juanita Woodson have been keeping an eye on the building.
And way up in Haymarket, Virginia, our communication specialist, Kim Johnson, has figured out how to do a million things for us in a nanosecond.
Church Council, the Finance Committee, the Trustees, and the Trinity Foundation are meeting via Zoom. Heck, even my 92 year old mother-in-law figured out how to Zoom! But more importantly, these congregational leaders are working cooperatively to keep us on track.
But here are some more good Trinity stories for you to consider… our Lenten devotional book gave us a lot to ponder from many perspectives, the Stitchers and all of the masks they have handmade for workers in need, and your generosity with the food collections.
We had no idea how the food collections would turn out. But, here is something we learned…even kind hearted people who we hadn’t seen at Trinity for a long time participated by dropping off a much needed donation.
I have thought a lot about my parents and their families during this pandemic. I keep coming back to one word…sacrifice. They embraced it.
This morning in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the quote for the day caught my eye. Everett Dirksen once said: “I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times.”
As rigid as we might be in our traditions at Trinity, in this initial confrontation with COVID-19, I think we have shown our ability to be flexible.
Continuing to punch back at COVID-19 will require us to be flexible.
And there is one more piece to our story for COVID-19 from Matthew 28:10, when Jesus said on the morning of his resurrection: “Do not be afraid.”
If my granny can endure reading to me Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather a million times, we can punch back COVID-19.
Trinity, we will get through this.
And we will do it with flexibility, endurance, sacrifice, and without fear.
We wanted you to know that the Trinity Stitchers are busy making cloth masks for factory workers in Hopewell. The call went out Monday afternoon from Louise Girvin: “Our son, Andy, is plant manager for a large industrial plant in Hopewell. His plant is considered “essential” since they supply the material that goes into fertilizer used by farmers. One of his biggest concerns right now is keeping his workers healthy — and keeping the plant running. A huge task! His workers wear masks when operating the machinery. As you know, all masks (of the type he normally uses) are being diverted to the healthcare industry. Hence, he is running short of the disposable masks and needs to consider alternatives. One is to make reusable masks; hence, my involvement (since I’m the only one in the family who knows how to use a sewing machine!). Once he gets all his “ducks in a row,” he would like 50-100 masks (with perhaps more later). I need more hands than just mine to get them made in the short amount of time he’s looking at.” And the Stitchers are responding! Want to help? Contact Louise Girvin or Janet Hill.
Update: Here’s a picture of all the masks (145 and counting) Stitchers made in little more than three days. We delivered them to our son, Andy, tonight and he was thrilled. Plans to distribute them to his workers tomorrow. It was heartwarming to have Stitchers embrace this project so enthusiastically. God was truly working with us through this project as materials we needed would miraculously show up just when we needed them! Louise
We are seeing up to a dozen or so adult students (and an additional 6-8 children) each week in the ESL class held on Sundays from 3-4 PM. Juliet, Elizabeth Dwyer, Rhunell Pierce, Susan Smith and Nancy Kindervater are doing great work. The class really is more about English conversation and we would welcome anyone to drop on and/or volunteer, even if it is just for one class to say “hi.” It’s a great group!
