Motherhood is a labor of love and a gift to each of us. It may seem that mother’s work goes unnoticed and is unappreciated. This Mother’s Day – and all days of the year – we can take time to celebrate and remember our mother’s selfless acts of love, show her our appreciation and thank her for all she does. Remember mother in prayer:
In all her joy and weeping hold mother in Your keeping. Increase her faith, we pray. Oh, strengthen her and guide her, Your wisdom, Lord, provide her to teach her children every day. O gracious Heav’nly Father, our mother gently gather to Jesus’ heart of love. Through all of our tomorrows we cast on Him our sorrows and yearn for heaven’s home above. (SHZ 423:5,6)
Happy Mother’s Day and God’s abundant blessings to you, dear mothers.
Updates on LLC Activities
Although the LLC office was closed for the month of April, staff were able to work remotely from their homes.
Due to COVID-19, Northern Michigan University (NMU) has closed all its buildings through the end of the school year and gone to online classes. As I write this, we are preparing a contingency plan for Summer Services if they need to be canceled. An announcement about services will have been made by the time you receive this issue of the Voice of Zion. Regular updates on Summer Services planning can also be found on the LLC website.
Contingency planning will be prepared as well for the LLC Annual Meeting, how a virtual meeting might be organized if this is needed. We will look into meeting apps that can be used for such things as virtual voting.
To prepare our congregations and their delegates for the LLC Annual Meeting, a video outlining the main points of the 2021 draft LLC Operating Plan will be sent to congregations by May 15. The meeting notice, agenda and related information will be included.
All foreign mission trips are on hold as the COVID-19 situation remains closely monitored. This includes LLC’s summer mission trips to Finland.
We will continue to monitor plans for the SRK and SFC mission trips scheduled to North America this summer, with prayerful hopes that they happen as planned.
All LLC-sponsored camps are canceled through May. We will continue to monitor the situation with our camp directors and make adjustments as necessary.
A contingency plan is being worked on in case LLC confirmation schools in July and August need to be altered. We will make any announcements regarding changes by June 1.
The HLC Language Camp scheduled for July has been canceled, due to the significant amount of planning required and the uncertainty of international travel.
The Humanitarian Aid Committee (HAC) sent a larger than normal quarterly grant to our foreign mission areas. Many in those countries are experiencing an interruption in daily life that also affects their daily bread. It is good to remember them in prayer.
Because of the uncertainties due to COVID-19, we will wait to see how this situation unfolds before posting for LLC office positions being vacated by employee retirements this summer and fall.
The current situation has also brought positives and blessings. It seems that God is giving opportunity to consider other ways of doing the work and is preparing us for the future. The short evening devotions that started due to the request of those confined and lonely have been very positively received. Plans are to continue them at least for the near-term.
Congregations have requested Sunday school support. Staff will continue to develop digital lessons to assist in this, similar to the first more broadly distributed lesson on Easter Sunday.
Jon Bloomquist and Jim Frantti served Ecuadorean believers with online services on Easter weekend. The brothers served from their respective homes and Maria Wuollet translated from her home in Phoenix to listeners in Ecuador. It is one small way we can support those in faraway lands during this time of uncertainty.
God has graced us with a time to work. May He continue to guide the efforts in His kingdom.
Eric Jurmu