PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode Pastor Mark discusses feeding hungry people in Hackensack and applauds the work of Family Promise and the volunteers from Clinton Avenue Reformed Church in Bergenfield.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/853354/
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #10
March 6, 2023
Food Insecurity
Each year our congregation supplies food for the hungry in the nearby city of Hackensack. We do this by working with an organization named “Family Promise.” This group has one mission; to end hunger. It is a very noble cause. Our congregation brings food as well as supplementing the Family Promise volunteers in distributing this food. It is a well-established mission for us and we have done this work since anyone in our congregation can remember.
This mission has changed in recent years. Formerly we needed more volunteers as we were required to staff steam tables and serve the people who either lived in the homeless shelter or in some cases, had homes but were living near the poverty edge. These meal were a good supplement to their diets. In the past, most of the volunteers had come from the churches and organizations who would supply food and personnel. Since COVID, fewer people eat in the dining room and most dinners are delivered to hotels where people are housed or passed out from the loading dock to those with houses nearby. Volunteers have shifted from being supplied mostly from contributing organizations to the majority being Family Promise volunteers.
The instructions to helping churches and organizations have been the same for years, “prepare sufficient food for 150 people.” For years some of us in our congregation wondered about amount. It seemed that frequently we had many leftovers as we had served 90 to 110 people. Yet, we continued to cook for 150 people.
Two weeks ago, we received a great surprise. We served not 150 people, but 180. When I expressed surprise at this number, our supervisor told me that two days prior to our serving, the volunteers had set a record by providing more than 200 hungry people. When I asked why there were so many more people, I received a lesson in economics.
A volunteer told me that inflation caused food prices to rise. Many people who live on the economic edge, are now priced out of buying their own food. People with surplus income can adjust shopping habits to accommodate the new prices. Those without a surplus cannot adjust. Even a small price rise can make them food insecure.
I often take my lifestyle for granted. I am not rich but I do have an income surplus and I am certainly not near the poverty limit. I suspect that many of us who have similar incomes to mine don’t realize how good we have things in life. For people like me, inflation is a nuisance but for others it is not a nuisance, it is a serious health concern that, at times, forces many people into poverty.
This is a shout out to the members of Clinton Avenue Reformed Church who continue to do what they can to give relief to those who are hungry from poverty. It is also a shout out to the volunteers of Family Promise who work every day with the purpose of feeding hungry people. I pray that more people will rise to the occasion and join in this good work.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#FamilyPromise #FoodInsecurity
#Inflation #Hunger
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode Pastor Mark begins his Lenten journey and reports on an encounter he had with a guilt-filled woman who he met while offering her Ashes on Ash Wednesday.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/843324/
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #9
February 27, 2023
Reflections on Lent, Ash Wednesday and Worthiness
For several years now, I have begun my Lenten journey by distributing ashes on the outside of our sanctuary building on the morning of Ash Wednesday. I rather enjoy it. In doing so I find myself interacting with people that I would not normally interact with. The bulk of those who accept our invitation to receive ashes are either staff or parents of students at the pre-school that is housed in our building. These are people I see occasionally and know casually but have rarely had any deep conversations with. Ash Wednesday this year was a little different.
One woman in particular stood out for me. She was nervous about accepting Ashes. She asked me a few times if she would be allowed to receive ashes. I assured her that she was. She told me that she had not been to church recently. I assured her that she this was fine. She could still receive ashes. She told me that she had not recently been to confession. Again I told her that she could receive ashes. She told me that she was of Roman Catholic background. Once more I pointed out that this was not an obstacle.
Finally her pre-school daughter walked over to me and asked for ashes. “Of course,” I said and afterward remembered that I should have asked her mother for permission. I looked at her mother who smiled and nodded. Her mother pulled the girls hood back and I gave the little girl a blessing and ashes for her forehead. Of course, her mother followed her and was now willing to receive this blessing. There were tears in the mother’s eyes as she received ashes and my prayer for her.
I can’t imagine how many people are outside of our church walls and, like this mother, believe that they are too badly tainted to receive grace and a blessing. Many, if not most people, don’t know that grace is a gift that is not earned. I for one have never lived a good enough life to be worthy of the grace that I have received. I don’t know why people feel that one must be pure in order to receive God’s grace but that surely is not the message of the church of Jesus Christ. We teach that it is the most tainted that receive the most grace and mercy and they are obligated to live lives of gratitude forever after.
I feel badly that this woman did not learn the lesson of grace. Hearing this woman’s doubts about herself give me a little bit of guilt and shame. How many other people need to hear the teaching of grace but are waiting for us, the faithful, to leave our sanctuary buildings and teach these lessons on the street corners.
Rather than giving up something for Lent this year maybe it is time for us to add something for Lent; regular trips outside our walls to hear these words of doubt and anxiety in the street corners near where we live.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#Lent #AshWednesday
#Ashes #Repentence
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please order copy of his book: https://deepriverbooks.com/books/the-circle-of-seven/
PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode Pastor Mark celebrates Rev. Sally Azar who was the first Palestinian Christian woman to be ordained in Old City Jerusalem. He also prays that this new event will be the beginning of positive changes toward peace in the Holy Land.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/833102/
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #8
February 20, 2023
Some Good News From Old City Jerusalem
Just a few weeks ago our news media were full of stories of an uprising of violence in Israel and Palestine. It was sad to read about the attacks, the killings and incarcerations between these half- brothers and half-sisters.
Even though I don’t believe that the violence will help the Palestinian cause, I can understand the rage of the Palestinians, especially those living in East Jerusalem. In East Jerusalem, Palestinians are forced to use license plates of a different color to distinguish them from their Israeli neighbors. They pay taxes but are not given the right to vote. In short, they are treated as second class citizens in a nation where they and their ancestors have lived for thousands of years. My guess is that any violent outbursts from Palestinians against the authorities of Israel or its citizens simply results in harsh reactions from the Israeli military.
In the midst of this turmoil, I heard some very good news from the Old City of Jerusalem. Rev. Sally Azar was ordained as the first Palestinian Christian Woman to be ordained in the Holy Land. Rev. Azar grew up as a Palestinian Christian in Jerusalem. She completed her theological studies at the Near East School of Theology in Beirut, Lebanon and was ordained on January 22, 2023. She is now an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan, the Holy Land and for all Christians in Palestine.
We in the Reformed Church in America ought to feel especially happy over this ordination. One of the most influential instructors in Rev. Azar’s education was one of our Reformed Church missionaries, Rev. Peter Ford. He and his wife, Betty, have been missionaries in the Middle-East since the 1980’s. By coincidence I was present in Rochester and saw his senior exams for ordination.
Now we see the fruit of his work in the ordination of Rev. Azar. There have been times when we wonder if our mission work and our financial contributions will ever bare fruit. I imagine that all of us have wondered if our faithful efforts are worth it. I haven’t seen Rev. Ford in forty years but I imagine even he wondered at times if he his efforts were in vain. Now we see the reward for his labors with this new “first” for this region.
I can only hope and pray that this is only one of new “firsts” for this region. Will other new things come? Will Israel grant full citizenship for Palestinians? Will new settlements in the occupied lands cease? Will Israel return the occupied lands to Palestine? Will Israelis and Palestinians learn to respect and love each other as the half-siblings that they are? With this new event in Old Jerusalem, one can only hope that this is only the beginning of better things.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#Mission #PeterFord
#RevSallyAzar #WorldMissions
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please order copy of his book:https://deepriverbooks.com/books/the-circle-of-seven/
Our daily devotional is a re-post with permission from Words Of Hope. Come view our website at www.clintonave.org.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (v. 17)
About one billion Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year worldwide. That’s a lot of cards expressing love and devotion! God sent the ultimate Valentine’s Day card to all of us by sending his Son, Jesus the Christ, to die for us and rise again, so we can be in a loving relationship to God.
You have probably figured out that maintaining a loving relationship with someone is not always easy. We mess up. We hold grudges. Our pride gets in the way. And when we do something to hurt our loved ones, someone needs to take the first step in reconciliation. And then, to make the relationship grow healthy and strong, both parties must respond to each other’s love.
God desires to have the most intimate, loving relationship with us. He does not mess up, but we do. A lot! And because God passionately wants us to be his, he has taken the first step in reconciliation. He has forgiven us. The innocent, perfect Son of God took on all our offenses, forever making restitution and clearing away all our guilt. Proverbs 16:6 states, “By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for.” God has sent us the most fervent Valentine’s Day card we will ever receive and wants us to respond with our own love and devotion to be his. —Donna Harold
As you pray, respond to God’s Valentine’s Day card by devoting your steadfast love to him.
PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode Pastor Mark talks the tragedy of the earthquake in turkey and Syria how you can contribute to relief efforts.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/823573/
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #7
February 13, 2023
Donations for Turkey
My life is not perfect but compared to how most people live in the world I have a pretty privileged life. Whenever I find myself complaining over stupid things I look at the news from the world. I usually see reports on people suffering in ways that I have never experienced, nor do I want to ever experience.
Last week I did not have to seek out the news. The news found me. My social media and news alerts all sent me notices of the massive earthquake that struck the nation of Turkey. The first reports I read told me that there were 2,000 people died in the quake. The early reports I read did not reveal how many people were injured or left homeless.
As later reports came out I learned that 25,000 people died in the quake. In addition, 80,000 people have been injured and 2 million are now homeless refugees. These numbers can overwhelm any nation. Turkey has been overwhelmed and refugee camps are struggling to shelter and feed the massive amount of refugees.
To put this in context, the town of Bergenfield is 28,000, just a bit more than the amount of the deceased in Turkey. The total population of Bergen and Hudson counties is about 1.5 million people. The amount of Turkish refugees exceeds the population of our county and the county to our south. Can you image these two counties needing to evacuate and needing to be housed in tents? Is there any doubt why the Turks are overwhelmed trying to care for the living and burying the dead?
And so it is that I, as someone who lives in peace and prosperity, feels obligated to contribute to our Reformed Church in America Fund in order to fund these refugee camps and to help alleviate the suffering. I will be praying for these refuges, those who have been injured and those who are morning these deaths, but that is not enough. I need to “put my money where my mouth is.” This weekend I made a contribution to relief in Turkey. I ask that anyone who is reading this blog to also contribute.
It is easy to contribute. Simply click on the following weblink to make your contribution:
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#RefugeeRelief #Mission
#Generosity #WorldMissions
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please order copy of his book: https://deepriverbooks.com/books/the-circle-of-seven/
PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode Pastor Mark talks about how finite our lives are and the need to do go today and not put it off for tomorrow.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/812094/
Pastor Mark Author 