Our Mission Statement:
We are a Gospel-centered community of people blessed by God to be a blessing to others.
All church activities, including in-person worship, are canceled for the next few weeks due to the coronavirus.
However, the Sunday morning service at 10:30 will be live-streamed through the church's Facebook page.
Joe Nolte is in charge of setting this up. You can contact him with any questions, at jtnolte22@gmail.com.
Get involved!
Highlights of our upcoming events:
The Coming Back Together Committee
-A new committee has been formed to make decisions about worship as we deal with COVID-19.
Want to spotlight your event? Email the webmaster at popdsm@gmail.com and we'll put it here!
This month's letter from Pastor Roger Osbeck
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
So, how are you doing? I have been opening up my comments each month this way since the
month of May. I am truly wondering how are you all doing in this ongoing COVID 19 centered
craziness? It is hard to conceive that the conditions under which we live has continued for such
long a time. March 15 was the last Sunday we gathered together as a congregation for worship in
the "usual" way.
The interruptions this virus has caused has not been unfolding in the manner of the script I
imagined in my mind. I sensed, in the first wave, we would be hit hard with thousands of cases
and many resulting in deaths. Then, we would learn how to flatten the curve with the
appropriate action dictated by our medical experts. With at least 85% of the population
complying to their advice, I thought we could avoid another massive wave of illness. After, at
most, 3 months, relatively harsh conditions would begin to subside and we would journey on the
way to recovery. Even though the discovery of a vaccine would be doubtful, we would be able
to safely gather again in the "usual" way.
WOW! I was off-base on all that!! I'm sure you can imagine the frustration I have felt in the
prolonged disruption of our "normal" livelihood. The disturbance in our ministry at Prince of
Peace has been especially exasperating. Whenever I find myself at the peak of aggravation, I
keep saying, "I didn't sign up for this!" I think back so many years ago when I walked away
from educational pursuits after High School to work at several jobs to earn enough money to
fund myself through college. Upon graduation, a promise of financial aid to attend seminary was
broken. I had to quickly attain further employment to afford the cost of that tuition which set me
back another year. (Mine is not a sob story, however, since the delay in my vocational
progression allowed me to meet the love of my life who became the mother of our children and
so, a new journey of discovery began.) The point is, I didn't put in all the work of the past to
spend time impersonally preaching and teaching into a small iPad camera lens. It is certainly not
my idea of "church life." I became a pastor to serve congregations in personal interaction. I
pray, with you, the end of all this disruptive intrusion is soon near.
Before I go any further, let me assure you, I realize when you joined in membership at Prince
of Peace, you also didn't sign up for this kind of "church life." It has been a hardship for us all.
We've had to give up so much activity we are used to enjoying in fellowship with one another
and the ministries in which we regularly engage together. Things to which we looked forward to
joining in for spiritual maturity have been delayed. Ministries in which we usually partake have
had to be put in hold. This COVID-laden world, with all its uncertainty seems to have tried our
patience to the extreme.
Thus far in the year 2020, we've had to utilize our best accommodative abilities to adjust and
adapt to alternative ways of coping with the viral fallout we've unfairly been handed. Although
there is much in which we might despair, we are grateful for the technology, as limited as it may
be, which allows us to reach out and share the Gospel through the iPad. No matter how much
further into the future we may have endure this, let us remember, light of a new day is dawning.
God's hope in Christ is with us. In our baptisms, God signed us up for that.
Peace to you. See you, sometime soon, in church,
Pastor Roger
Outreach links:
Meals from the Heartland
Habitat for Humanity
Lutheran Services in Iowa
Lutheran World Relief
Make Malaria History
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