Views from The Ridge 04.24.2024
Sunset Ridge is a church that desires to follow Jesus, reach people, and radiate God’s love and hope to all.
This Week
This Week
Friday, April 26 Church office is closed
Sunday, April 28
9am Worship in the Sanctuary (God at Work - Acts 8:26-40) (see website for more info)
10:15am Formation time (click here for our digital companion guide to our current class series, Practicing the Way)
11am Chapel worship Jess Lowry preaching John 15:1-8
Upcoming
Sunday, May 19 75 Year Anniversary
Interested in what’s scheduled for our campus at large? Please consider subscribing to Goodness Weekly.
Around Our Community
Our community has been adapting well to our new worship schedule.
If you have wondered what to expect from music in the second service, our worship team has put together a Spotify playlist to help you learn the songs currently in rotation.
We are excitedly preparing for our 75th Anniversary as a community. We would love to include some of your favorite memories! Please submit up to five of your favorite horizontal images to this folder from the last ten years by Sunday, May 5th.
We are missing a set of keys to the paper closet and dumpster from the church kitchen. If you have these, please turn them in to the office or a staff member.
Ms. Theresa
Linda Charlton, Sprouts School Director
I am unabashedly not a morning person. I hit snooze two or three times. I complain to the dogs about getting out of my nice warm bed to face the day. I grumble to the cat through the tasks of morning - taking my meds, getting dressed, combing my hair, brushing my teeth - like I am climbing enchanted rock & I am the only person on the planet bidden to complete such unreasonable tasks. I genuinely think that my morning cup of chai saves me from the morning and others from me.
Also, I am unabashedly not a neat person. My kids accuse me of being an agent of chaos. I spill things all over myself. I’m very visual, so I’m afraid that if I put things away, if I can’t see them, then poof! they will disappear. At the same time, I am so much inside my own head that I don’t see things. I walk right past the amazon package on the front porch or the can that the dogs have stolen out of the recycling bin and have been licking under the dining room table or the new kitchen towels my roommate got without ever seeing any of it. I am also a master at losing small things like my pencils or my lists or my sewing needles or my favorite pair of scissors. I think there is a very real chance that those things are self animating & they walk (or more likely run) away.
And somehow I have chosen a career trajectory that requires early mornings & neatness.
But into my chaotic, grouchy mornings, Ms. Theresa has entered. When I open the door in the morning, the smell of cleanliness wafts over me, enticing me to enter. Every room I enter is spotlessly clean & even better, smells clean. The floors are mopped, the sinks are clean, the shelves are dusted, the windows are spotless, even the bathroom is clean & smells good (I have no idea how she accomplishes that miracle! So many little boys peeing everywhere!)
In general, I show up while she is still working her magic. I step all over the wet, freshly mopped floors, generally while she is still mopping cause I am running around making bleach, dropping off supplies, checking classrooms. I’m always like, “I’m so sorry, Ms. Theresa.” But she always says, “It’s ok Ms. Linda, don’t worry Ms. Linda” and she mops along behind me. She greets me with a friendly, “Good morning Ms. Linda” but she doesn’t require any more attention from my grouchy self than an answering, “Good morning Ms. Theresa.”
As my chai kicks in and I get my morning chores accomplished, Ms. Theresa completes her magic in our space & moves on to work her magic in other places. By the time y’all arrive, she is elsewhere and I’m not sure if y’all even know what she looks like. She comes back throughout the day to clean up our muddy footprints or to offer us warm towels when we are wet or to sweep up the snack we spilled on the way to the compost. I don’t know how she always knows that we have made a mess but she has this amazing sixth sense about it.
I have worked in several schools where the things Ms. Theresa does were part of my job & the other teachers’ job. I have also worked in schools where it was a cleaning crew that came in the middle of night. Neither of those systems produced a clean school. Honestly, I have never worked in a school that is as spotlessly clean as Ms. Theresa makes our school. She is absolutely amazing, our school’s best friend, really. And yet her work is kinda invisible.
Today the Sprouts School students and teachers surprised Ms. Theresa with flowers, cards, and treats to show her that her work is not invisible, that it is deeply, profoundly appreciated.
Praises and Prayers
Congratulations to Noëlle Lowry and Scott Adams, who were married in the Chapel on April 20.
Today is Administrative Professionals Day and we are so grateful to our office and facilities staff who work behind the scenes to serve our church and community. Thank you Jan, Nancy, Sean, and Theresa for all the work that you do!
A Blessing to Come Home to Yourself
From To Bless The Space Between Us by John O’Donahue
May all that is unforgiven in you
Be released.
May your fears yield
Their deepest tranquilities.
May all that is unlived in you
Blossom into a future
Graced with love.
