Spiritual Life
A6
Thursday, February 3, 2022
SPIRITUAL LIFE HIGHLIGHTS
Sermon series explores
transformation
SUBMISSIONS
Churches and faith-based groups are encouraged to submit Highlights for the Spiritual Life
page by 4 p.m. Tuesday for publication Thursday. Submit by email to news@lagrandeob-
server.com (with Highlights in the subject line).
ENTERPRISE — Enter-
prise Community Congrega-
tional Church, also known as the
“Big Brown Church,” welcomes
Interim Pastor Rev. Dr. Craig
Pesti-Strobel, who is leading a
sermon series about living and
loving like Jesus. Pastor Craig’s
Sunday sermon on Sunday, Feb.
6, will be “New Direction” and
explore the fi rst step to transfor-
mation, based on Scripture found
in Mark and Isaiah. Worship is at
11 a.m., and Bible study is held at
9:30 am.
link will be posted to the church’s
Facebook page Saturday, Feb. 5.
Taking Jesus at his ‘Word’
yields amazing results
Recorded service may be
viewed at any time
LA GRANDE — St. Peter’s
Episcopal Church will meet for
Holy Eucharist on Sunday, Feb. 6,
at 11 a.m., followed by a time of
fellowship. Masks and social dis-
tancing are required. The service
will be streamed live and recorded
for viewing at a later time. The
LA GRANDE — The sermon
at Faith Lutheran Church on
Sunday, Feb. 6, will expound on
Luke 5:1-11, in which Jesus is
calling some fi shermen to follow
him. The fi shermen had been
working hard and caught nothing.
Jesus had been speaking the Word
of God to them, and he told them
to “put out into the deep and let
down your nets for a catch” (v.
4). Simon Peter responded, “But
at Your Word I will let down the
nets” (v. 5), and they then caught
so many fi sh that their nets began
to break. Taking Jesus at his
“Word” has amazing results.
Following the Divine ser-
vice will be the First Sunday Pot-
luck and then the monthly elders’
meeting.
Members encouraged to
fast and donate
NORTHEASTERN OREGON
— Feb. 6 is Fast Sunday for mem-
bers of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. Members are
encouraged to fast for two meals
and to donate the resulting sav-
ings to the Church for the support
of the less fortunate. During the
Sacrament Services members of
the congregation will be sharing
testimonies. Those who wish
to support the people of Tonga
impacted by the volcanic eruption
may also choose to donate to the
Church’s humanitarian fund.
The “Come, Follow Me”
lesson for the week of Feb. 7 will
be based on Genesis 12-17 and
Abraham 1-2. The focus will be
the Abrahamic Covenant and
what it means to each of us. The
Book of Abraham, which con-
tain Abraham’s writing that were
translated by Joseph Smith, pro-
vides information on his life and
this covenant.
Worship service streamed
to YouTube
LA GRANDE — Zion
Lutheran Church will off er
in-person and online worship on
Sunday, Feb. 6, at 9 a.m. Masks
and social distancing are required.
The service will be livestreamed
to YouTube. The link for that
stream will be posted on Zion’s
Facebook page and website on
Saturday, Feb. 5.
What does spirituality
mean to you?
LA GRANDE — The
Observer welcomes thoughts
and comments from community
members on spiritual matters. If
you would like to share how you
experience spirituality, email
news@lagrandeobserver.com
or call 541-963-3161. Ongoing
monthly columns and one-time
submissions will be considered.
Columns are generally 500-600
words and include a photo of the
writer.
‘Seek and you will fi nd’ will
be theme of sermon
LA GRANDE — Pastor
Archie Hook’s message will
be “Keep on Asking” at the La
Grande First Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) on Sunday,
Feb. 6. He will refl ect on Luke
11:9-10: “So I say to you: Ask and
it will be given to you; seek and
you will fi nd; knock and the door
will be opened to you.” Worship
begins at 10 a.m. and masks are
required.
— The Observer
Scientifi c advances — including vaccines — are gifts from God
the days following the
explosion, there was an
interview with James
A. Michener, author of
“Space.” In that novel
(spoiler alert), Michener
added an 18th Apollo
mission, which ended in
disaster. In light of the
actual disaster with Chal-
lenger, Michener was
asked why he had added
a disaster in telling the
story of space exploration.
Michener responded it
was because there should
have been more disas-
ters in the space program,
given what we were trying
to do, and how risky it
was. The space program
had been unbelievably
ROBERTA
SMYTHE
WALKING WITH
THE SHEPHERD
ast week was
NASA’s Day of
Remembrance,
honoring those who lost
their lives in the space
program. It included the
astronauts killed in the
Apollo 1 fi re and those
who lost their lives in the
Challenger and Columbia
Shuttle accidents.
I don’t remember the
Apollo 1 fi re, but I very
clearly remember when
Challenger exploded. I
also remember that in
L
lucky up until Challenger.
Science can be like
that. Although there
may be setbacks, and
times when experi-
ments and medical treat-
ments don’t work out as
hoped, we are benefi cia-
ries of a long line of ulti-
mately successful scien-
tifi c advances, including
the fi eld of medicine. We
have eradicated many dis-
eases, like smallpox, and
have treatments for many
more, like HIV. There are
organ transplants, heart
valve replacements and
bypass procedures. There
are medicines to help treat
blood pressure, choles-
terol, diabetes and mental
illnesses. I consider all of
these to be modern mir-
acles. Though they may
have been created with
human minds and hands,
they are no less miracu-
lous, no less gifts from
God.
There are also vac-
cines. There are the
tried and true vac-
cines for polio, mea-
sles, mumps, diphtheria,
whooping cough and tet-
anus. All have dramati-
cally improved our quality
and longevity of life. And
there are the newest vac-
cines, for COVID-19.
Given the swift spread of
COVID-19, I consider the
development of an eff ec-
Jessica Chastain felt
guilty for judging Tammy
Faye Bakker before
playing her on screen.
The 44-year-old actress
portrays the late televange-
list in the new movie “The
Eyes of Tammy Faye” and
believes it was a way to
atone for her “harsh” views
of her alter ego when she
was younger.
Chastain said of
Tammy Faye: “I didn’t
watch religious televi-
sion, but I knew she was
silly and easy to make fun
of. She was on the cover
of tabloid magazines, so I
thought she must be a ter-
rible person.”
The “Molly’s Game”
actress explained that her
opinion on Tammy Faye
changed after she had
watched a documentary
about her life — which
served as inspiration for
the fi lm.
Tammy Faye’s mar-
riage to her husband,
Jim Bakker (played by
Andrew Garfi eld in the
fl ick), fell apart after he
was convicted of fraud
but Chastain feels that
her character was harshly
treated for his mistakes
due to her looks.
She explained: “Her
husband made some mis-
takes — and Tammy was
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vilifi ed for it. But really, it
was because of her appear-
ance. Women have been
commodifi ed in society.
So much is about physical
appearance and that’s how
women have been judged.
“People would look at
her and go: ‘She’s the kid
from a broken family.’
That’s how it was. She
knew what it was like to
be unloved and unwel-
come. Her thought was
to connect and reach out
to strangers, because she
believes in God’s good
grace.”
The most valuable and
respected source of local news,
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been vaccinated.
My faith in modern
medicine is not blind,
uninformed acceptance.
I expect there to be doc-
umented and repeatable
data on the safety and
eff ectiveness of medicines
and medical procedures.
And my faith in
modern medicine is not
at odds with my faith in
God. God can and does
work through human
beings, including doc-
tors, researchers and other
scientists.
———
Roberta Smythe is the
pastor of La Grande’s Zion
Lutheran and St. Peter’s
Episcopal churches.
Find more news online at lagrandobserver.com
Actress playing Tammy Faye Bakker
revises judgment on character
By Celebretainment
tive vaccine in just a year
to also be a God-given
miracle.
I know there are those
who question whether
a vaccine developed so
quickly can be safe, and
yet we now have nearly
18 months of data on the
use of these vaccines, with
relatively few adverse
reactions. I also know that
there are those who doubt
their eff ectiveness, given
the breakthrough cases,
especially with omicron.
Yet again, the data shows
that those who are vacci-
nated have milder cases,
and the majority of those
requiring hospitaliza-
tion are those who haven’t
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541-962-7557
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ELGIN ELECTRIC
43 N. 8th Elgin, OR
541-437-2054
Northeast Oregon Directory of Churches
Cove United
Methodist Church
1708 Jasper St., Cove, OR
North Powder
United
Methodist Church
390 E. St., North Powder, OR
JOIN US... Catch the Spirit!
First Christian
Church
(Disciples of Christ)
Worship
10:00 a.m.
~Join us at The Lord’s Table~
SUMMERVILLE
BAPTIST CHURCH
LA GRANDE UNITED
METHODIST CHURCH
A church for your whole family
Visit us at summervillebaptistchurch.org
The Place
62848 Philynda Loop in Island City
901 Penn Avenue 963-2623 “We are called to Serve”
lgdisciples@gmail.com
Worship: 9:00 a.m. Cove
Worship: 10:00 a.m. N. Powder
Sunday Services:
Sunday School & Adult Bible Classes
9:45AM
Children’s Church & Worship Service
11:00AM
Family Worship Service
6:00PM
Wednesday:
Prayer Mtg, Children’s Bible Club, Youth
Group 7:00PM
GRACE COMMUNITY
LUTHERAN CHURCH
Sunday School for all ages - 9:00 am
Sunday Worship 10:00 am
Phone: 541-568-4230
grace.lutherancove@gmail.com
www.lagrandeumc.org
www.imblercc@gmail.com
Sunday Services
9:00 a.m.
10:00 a.m.
Sunday School
Worship Service
La Grande Seventh-day
A Place where hope is found in Jesus
Join us in Fellowship & Worship
Saturday all age classes 9:30 am
Saturday Worship 11:00 am
1612 4th Street – 963-2498
For service information go to
440 Ruckman, Imbler 534-2201
Adventist Church
“OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS, OPEN DOORS”
Pastor Taylor Gould
Imbler
Christian
Church
2702 Adams Avenue, La Grande
963-4018
109 18th Street • 963-3402
Sunday School 9:15 a.m.
Sunday Worship 10:30 a.m.
lagrandeor.adventistchurch.org
Learning for Today and Eternity
Little Friends
Christian Preschool/Childcare 963-6390
La Grande Adventist Christian School
K-8th Grade 963-6203
FIRST LANDMARK
MISSIONARY BAPTIST
CHURCH
1812 1st St. La Grande
Pastor Dave Tierce • 541-605-0215
We use the King James Version Bible
Sunday School - 10:00 am
Worship 11:00 am
Sunday Evening Bible Study - 3:00 pm (Effective June 10)
Wednesday Evening - 6:30 pm
“Where you can find TRUTH according to the scriptures”
www.flmbclagrande.com
Services
This
Week