HELLO!

Please keep the family of the late Norm Shannon in your prayers. I was called by Gwen to Norm’s bedside last Saturday, the family were all there, surrounding Norm with love. I told them we/I would keep them in our prayers. Norm died later that week, his funeral will be at Woodlawn United on Saturday, June 6^th at 11 am. When the obituary is available, I will send it out to all 500+ email addresses connected with our church.

Today we celebrated Christian Family Sunday, also Mother’s Day. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP3HddB58rE

Our reading today featured this powerful verse, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you” (John 14:18). It was the theme of this service, of my sermon. I feel one channel of this “I will come to you” and “I will not leave you orphaned” is Margaret’s House. I specifically talked about this in my sermon and gave thanks to the UCW for their part in the food security ministry we offer the guests at Margaret’s House. A more recent example is the Blankets of Love ministry that gathers on Saturday to make warm blankets that are distributed by Bela the street navigator after Margaret’s House has closed on Thursdays. Bela gives these blankets of love to the guests. As I walking into church today, Bernie passed this poem to me, his wife Nancy coordinates the women’s efforts to make the blankets. I hope you find these words as meaningful as I do. Peace, Kevin

PS I may see you Tuesday 7 pm for week 2 of our 3-week Faith Study on The Prodigal Son. Last Tuesday we focused on the younger son, this Tuesday, the elder son, on May 19^th, the father. 28 attended last week.

Blankets of Love by Bernie Schultz, 2026

We gather in circles, of yarn and quiet purpose,

hands moving like small prayers, looping themselves into being.

We knit for the unhoused, for the ones the wind knows by name.

Row by row, we stitch what the world forgets to offer, softness, colour, a place to rest a tired body even for one night.

Some of us knit fast, some slow, some counting stitches, some counting blessings, all believing warmth is a language anyone can understand.

And when the blankets leave our hands, folded, ready, we imagine them finding shoulders that have carried too much, finding someone who needs not saving, just shelter from the cold.

This is how we say, you matter.

This is how we say, we see you.

This is how we keep, one small corner of the world from freezing.