Support our El Ocotillo Scholarship Students

We presently have 8 scholarship students in grade 8 through university. Scholarships typically provide 1/2 the cost of school expenses and the families provide the other half. We have also created one full university scholarship to insure educational opportunity for all students. An 8th grade scholarship is $275/year; high school is $495/year; university is $1440/year; university full scholarship is $2880/year.

We hope that you will support the continued education of our scholarship students. Please write "El Salvador" in the memo line of your check to the church.

Here are two ways that you can share in the experience of El Ocotillo without traveling 5800 kilometers:

Enjoy a cooking lesson from El Ocotillo: Great chefs in action. You can almost smell the melting cheese!

Meet the Scholarship Students: Translated videos of each student

The Good Shepherd Pupusa Truck is doing take-out!

Support the El Salvador Scholarship Fund and bring your family the experience of delicious Salvadoran pupusas!!

Place your order by Tuesday, March 9th and pick up in the church parking lot Saturday, March 13th at 5:00 – 6:00 pm. Details available in an attachment to the eblast.

(Deliveries available to those who are housebound.)

Pupusa choices are cheese, cheese and beans, cheese and jalepeño, cheese and chicken, cheese and port, and cheese and loroco (similar to summer squash).A typical adult serving is two pupusas. Dinner comes with red sauce, slaw and fried plantains. Send your order choices to Kevin Gross. Please include your phone number.  Any questions? Contact Kathleen Zawicki.

No set cost but a free will offering for the El Salvador Scholarship Fund is greatly appreciated.

BONUS TREAT: A video of our friends in El Ocotillo making pupusas!

The chefs in El Ocotillo teach us how to make pupusas

The scholarship students produced this video to show us how pupusas are made. Pupusas are the favorite Salvadoran food of delegations. They are served piping hot with cheese oozing out of them!

8 students from El Ocotillo introduce themselves

Our eight scholarship students introduce themselves and answer questions about their studies.

Greetings from Rolando Javier Guzman and Elvin David Argueta Nolasco

Guest speakers for 3 Lent; March 7, 2021

Words from Rolando Javier Guzman – 3/7/21

Hello dear friends and brothers of Good Shepherd! So, it is a pleasure for me to talk a litle bit about the scholarship project. So that the community of Good Shepherd to continue to promote in Ocotillo community, right. As we well know, this scholarship project over time has benefited young people here in the community. As we know, we have many of us who have gone to university and studied. For example, we have a lot of professionals here thanks to God. For example, we have professionals in public accounting. We have teachers in middle education. We have professional agronomic engineers and also, we have teachers in mathematics and teachers in language. Also, we have professionals in sociology. Do our professionals direct our thanks to this project? Many young people actually have a career in our community. So, from this project, there are middle educators (currently 2) in our community. Well, dear friends, I will tell you a little bit about my experience as a young man benefiting from this project. Thanks to God first, to my family, and to the community of Good Shepherd because all of you have been believing in my capacity and my responsibilities with each of them and mainly with myself. And also thank to my father, Samuel Guzman, for being a continued presence in our community. So, as we know, Samuel Guzman, was a good person to both communities. So now I will tell you a little bit about my person. I am Rolando Javier Guzman, son of Claudia Perez and Samuel Guzman, graduated from Gerrardo Barrios University with a bachelor’s degree in English. My commitment as a young man is to motivate children and young people in our community to follow their dreams and to value the sacrifice that Good Shepherd made for each of us. We are really very very grateful for this scholarship project. We hope to continue with this and other projects. We are hoping to you have you in our community soon to share new experiences, to share with joys, and to share a lot of experiences with all of you. So, blessing brothers and hoping you will soon be in our community again!

Here’s the video of Mr. Guzman’s message.

Words from Elvin David Argueta Nolasco – 3/7/21

Hello, my name is Elvin David Argueta Nolasco and I am part of the community of El Ocotillo. By this video recording, I want to talk a little bit about myself and how blessed I am by the scholarship program and the sister community Good Shepherd has here in this place. Well, in the first place, I want to tell you that I actually live with my mother who is one of the pioneers of the sister community relationship. Her name is Candida Nolasco. I also live with my wife. Her name is Beatriz Amaya. And I am studying English at the University. And I have been part of the program since I was in high school. I really think that this program has changed not only my life but also the whole community because of the improvement in the level of education in its youth people. Nowadays, there are a lot of professional people in different fields such as teachers, professors, engineers in different areas. For me, this has been a blessing because I was not going to continue studying because I didn’t have enough resources to continue studying. However, I have my goals which I want to accomplish. So, I started to work hard to do that. I was called to be part of the program and now that is the reason why I am so thank you, thankful, sorry, with all of you. Unfortunately, during this (pandemic) period of time it has been difficult to study online but I am trying to do my best in order to continue my learning process. Thanks to God no one in my family has been affected by the virus and hopefully nobody will neither in the community. And again, I want to thank you for all of your support, and I hope that this program can help more students who want to achieve their goals and dreams in the future. Thank you so much. I send you a big hug and may the Lord bless you always! Thank you so much.

Here’s the video of Mr. Nolasco’s message.

Thanks be to God.

          Amen.

Creation Care Environmental Movies and Monthly Challenge

Movie Night! Movie Night! Monthly Challenge!

The Creation Care Committee is launching a parish-wide, movie nights party! Each month, we will watch the same environmental movie on our own schedule, on the networks we have available at home. At the end of each monthly movie cycle, all are invited to discuss the movie and our responses to it on Zoom and what we intend to do each month to reduce our personal carbon footprint.

The March movie The Story of Plastic uncovers the ugly truth behind the current global plastic pollution crisis. Striking footage shot over three continents illustrates the ongoing catastrophe– and the global movement and individual actions rising up in response.

 We encourage you to watch The Story of Plastic and to join us to discuss it on Sunday March 21 from 7:00 to-8:15 pm, via zoom. Come to our discussions with Questions…Leave with an Action Goal for yourself, your family, your church or town. to learn how to become part of the solution to climate change

The Story of Plastic is available to watch on the subscription DiscoveryGo streaming service, for rent on Amazon, on Apple TV, and on Xfinity video-on-demand.

Monthly Challenge

We want to focus on the task of reducing our own carbon footprint in whatever way is manageable for us personally right now. The important thing is to make a once a month action, however small and this can be as simple as arranging for a free energy audit of your house. Go to www.actonclimatecoalition.org and scroll down for a list of 6 websites that have all you will need to green your lifestyle – energy audits, electric cars, clean energy etc. Although it refers to Acton, the websites it links to are generally Massachusetts ones so can be used by all our towns at Good Shepherd. All towns also have information on their websites as to their own energy programs.

If you live in Acton, subscribing to 100% renewable energy through Acton Power Choice (APC) is the largest impact you can have on reducing your carbon emissions. Acton Power Choice is a town program set up for all Eversource customers to purchase their electricity outside of the standard offering to enable you to make a 100% Renewable Energy choice for your home.  Go to  www.actonpowerchoice.com to sign up. On the Acton Power Choice 100% renewable program, the cost is 1.68 cents/kwh more. 

If you are not an Acton resident, contact your town’s electric company to find out if they offer a 100% renewable energy choice.

The Rev. Eleanor Applewhite Terry

Sermon for 2 Lent; February 28, 2021

Good Shepherd, Acton

.          Our Gospel this morning is a pretty standard text for the season of Lent.  You’ll recall that in three of the Gospels, Jesus predicts his suffering, death and resurrection three different times.  Three times the disciples fail to understand.  And three times Jesus uses this context to teach about the meaning of genuine discipleship.  Today’s lesson being, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

          I found myself in conversation with a clergy friend this week about today’s Gospel lesson.  We both are preaching today- and at first glance, neither of us found the Scripture from Mark to be particularly compelling.  My friend John joked, “I just can’t find the juice in it!”

          So what is it about this familiar teaching that we find so uninspiring?

          Can’t you just see Jesus shaking his head at the two of us, well-intentioned priests in his Church, and rebuking us, along with Peter: “Get behind me, Satan!  For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

          And so we are!  There is probably no harder directive than the one which asks us to deny ourselves and take up our cross to follow Christ.  And I think part of our aversion to a text like this is our honest admission that actually, we don’t want to do this.  Not really.  Not completely.  Who among us is willing to lose their life for the sake of the Gospel? Who is motivated by this particularly challenge?  Isn’t it more human (and more honest) to be like Peter, and object to Christ’s need to suffer, while avoiding our own suffering at all costs?

          Historically, of course, there have been magnificent examples of courageous and selfless Christian faith— often from times and settings when Christians were persecuted for their faith, when faithful followers of Christ really did give up their lives for the sake of the Gospel.  When rather ordinary folk really did bear the cross, with their lives on the line.

          My daughters were quite taken aback by the description of young Tarcisius, who was featured in Lent Madness last week.  He was a 3rd century child martyr who died at the hands of an angry mob while bringing the Sacrament to prisoners, on behalf of the priests.  It was a dangerous time to be Christian, and the priests were easily recognized.  So young Tarcisius, an altar server, was tasked with bringing the consecrated Eucharist to the jail.  When a Christian symbol was spotted on the lid of the box he carried, a mob turned on him.  He preferred death to allowing the Sacrament to be spilled or desecrated.  Is this what it means to bear the cross?

          Consider another 3rd c. example- that of Cyprian of Carthage in North Africa.  In a letter to his friend, Donatus, Cyprian wrote:[1]

          “This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden under the shadow of these vines.  But if I claimed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands you know very well what I would see. Brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas, in the amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding crowds, under all roofs misery and selfishness.  It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world…”

          Would we say the same of our own contact, eighteen hundred years later?  We may not have brigands on the highways, or pirates on the seas, but our lives do know something of theft and greed.  Humans in every time, it seems, have been known to take delight in the misfortunes of others.  And in these hard times of our own, it is not difficult to find examples of misery and selfishness in our own context.  What would we see if we climbed some great mountain, or the tower above our church, and looked out over our own community?  -An environment in peril?  Avarice and greed?  Rising economic disparity between rich and poor?  A nation divided by politics?  Relationships in trouble?  People frustrated by the ongoing pandemic while more than half a million American families mourn their dead?

          Cyprian goes on to write, “Yet, in the midst of it I have found a quiet and holy people.  They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure in this sinful life.  They are despised and persecuted but they care not.  They have overcome the world.  These people, Donatus, are the Christians, and I am one of them.”  Cyprian himself became a bishop.

          What if this were said of Christians today?  Wouldn’t it be something if people looked upon us, worshipping and praying and trying to lead faithful lives in the midst of these challenging times, and knew us to be a quiet and holy people, who have discovered a joy a thousand times better than any pleasure in this sinful life?

          Sometimes, we achieve this.  Sometimes our faith can free us to a peacefulness that surpasses human understanding.  Sometimes we can experience a grace so special, we know ourselves to be held in the embrace of a loving God.  Sometimes our experience of Christian community can be so fulfilling that it overcomes the burdens of the world.

          Other times, we find ourselves in Jesus’ words, setting our mind on human things, rather than on divine things, and we are far from Cyprian’s loving description.

          Jesus’ challenge to us, one that Cyprian’s community seems to have met well, is to overcome the world for the sake of Christ.  I suspect that most of us find this neither desirable nor easy.  For the truth of the matter is that we do live firmly rooted in this world.  Even in these days of quarantine, none of us are free from the demands, temptations and burdens of everyday life.  Christians we may be, but we are also mothers and father and grandparents, children and caretakers, workers, and retired folk.  We have obligations and desires that are not necessarily grounded in Gospel values, but that define our lives nonetheless.  We worry about worldly things: our income, our health, our families, our homes.  We pursue pleasures that bring meaning and happiness to our lives, and while not necessarily harmful, may not always be of God.  More often than not, our minds are set on human things because we are human and we do the best we can.

          Yet, Lent is a time for us to challenge ourselves. To face the Scriptures that demand much of us.  To acknowledge the commitment and devotion that Christ does ask of us.  It is tempting to explain away the Scriptures like our Gospel.  We convince ourselves that while Jesus may have needed his disciples to take up their cross, to lose their lives for his sake, such a demand is not relevant to us.  Perhaps in Cyprian’s day, when Christians were being persecuted, it was necessary that they overcome the world- but in our time- our world’s not so bad that we must forsake it completely.  Right?  We even trivialize the notion of taking up our cross: equating it with that annoying neighbor or our chronic back pain: “I guess that’s just the cross I have to bear!”

          The reality of the Gospel, however, is that the cross is not just some unfair burden we must bear, but a means of death.  To take up the cross is to take up that which would kills us, break us… not just annoy or pain us.  And most of us choose to avoid this at all costs.  In fact, I’ll suggest that it is likely we will always fail this challenge.

          I guess that’s why my friend John and I were resistant to this Gospel.  Here again is Jesus demanding something of us that we are loathe to do.  Here is that age-old challenge that we know we will always fail.  Take up your cross.  Lose your life for my sake.  Deny yourself.

          In our Gospel, Jesus directs his comments to Peter, the other disciples, and the crowd.  But he is also speaking about himself.  For it is Christ who will take up the cross, who will lose his life for the sake of others and the Gospel.  It is Christ who will forfeit his life, rather than gain the whole world.  It is Christ who gives his all to us, in return for his life.

          We may be expected to do the same, but the truth is that we will fail in our attempts every time.  It is only in our dependence upon Christ, to walk the way of the cross on our behalf, that we are saved.  It is not by our own doing.  But by the selfless act of Christ, who does for us what our own selfishness prevents us from doing on our own,

          I once heard someone suggest that Lenten disciplines are most effective when they really challenge us.  For what do we gain from giving up coffee or chocolate for 40 days, other than the self-satisfaction of having met a goal?  But by choosing a discipline that challenges us to fail, we come to recognize that they only way we are to grow spiritually is through our dependence upon Christ.

          Our Gospel provides a similar challenge.  Christ calls us to bear our own cross, to lose our life for the sake of the gospel, to follow him, even into suffering and death.  He sets the bar high.  His standards are impossible to meet.  And, ultimately, it is Christ who must do it for us, since we cannot do it ourselves.  By failing this challenge, we come to recognize our dependence upon Christ for our salvation.  We cannot do it alone.  It is the cross Christ bears for us.

          And for this we say, with upmost humility: Thanks be to God.

          Amen.

The Rev. Eleanor Applewhite Terry

Sermon for 1 Lent B; February 21, 2021

Good Shepherd, Acton

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts, be always acceptable in your sight, O God, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.

It’s been hard to get through the last month without thinking about the weather. The cold and snow here has been manageable, but I’m hearing more complaints about it, especially as we endure the isolation of the pandemic on top of winter. The real weather news, of course, has been out in Texas and the Pacific Northwest, as millions in those regions have experienced uncommon winter storms resulting in horrific challenges. Our hearts are with those who have lost their lives and all those suffering as a result of loss of power, water, and access to help. For those of you who might be able to assist, I commend the efforts of Episcopal Relief and Development. Their disaster relief fund is providing much needed assistance to communities affected by these winter storms across many states.

When I lived in Portland, Oregon for three years, the only significant snow I ever saw was in the mountains. But rain, as you might imagine, was plentiful, especially in the winter. Their rain, however, is very different from our rain. Oregon winter rain is like mist— damp and fine. Thunderstorms and heavy downpours are rare. I never quite got used to the odd phenomenon of “rain with sun breaks” out there- which often meant you needed to drive with both your windshield wipers and your sunglasses on at the same time. Bright, glaring sun would shine down between clouds that drizzled damp, cold rain. A meteorological oxymoron — but one that produced brilliant rainbows.

Rainbows are always a welcome and stunning sight, don’t you think? In Oregon, they helped keep me sane in the midst of the otherwise dreary winters. -A promise that the rains would eventually end, and a sign that, yes, the sun still shines up there somewhere. I pray that those who suffered through the Portland snow and ice storms recently, will soon be treated to rainbows instead. And may they shine over Texas, too.

Rainbows, as we are reminded in our first Scripture today, are a sign of God’s promise and covenant with us. In this passage from Genesis, the great flood has ended. -Perhaps all that is left of the rain is the light mist of an Oregon drizzle. And Noah and the animals and his family are invited by God into an eternal covenant. “Never again,” God promises, “shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” A rainbow is given as a sign and reminder of the covenant God has established with Creation. And from this point on in Scripture, water becomes a sign of life, rather than death.

So it’s fitting, that as Jesus begins his public ministry, he does so after rising from the waters of the Jordan River. Jesus’ baptism, like our own, inaugurates and empowers his ministry. In baptism, that which has always been true becomes known: Jesus is named, and claimed, and loved by God. And it is through the waters of baptism that Jesus is strengthened for the challenges which lie ahead. Immediately after his baptism, the Spirit drives him into the wilderness, where for forty days he is tempted by Satan. How quickly the glaring light of God’s Spirit, descending like a dove on Jesus, is overshadowed by the wilderness of temptation!

I have never been to the Holy Land, but I am told that the contrast between the lush fertile valley where the Jordan River flows and the barren desert just over the mountains is startling. Martin Smith, in a wonderful little book of Lenten reflections called A Season for the Spirit describes the landscape as viewed from the ruins of the ancient city of Jericho. “Imagine yourself sitting with me in these ruins,” he writes. “We are looking south down the deepest cleft in the earth and in the distance the Dead Sea is shimmering in the intense heat like a lake of mercury. To the east the river Jordan snakes towards it, and the mountains of Moab from which Moses had seen the Promised Land tower beyond. To the west rise the massive brown hills of the wilderness, rent by deep gorges… This is the place where we are all invited to stand at the beginning of another Lent to take in the meaning of this movement from the river to the desert, and to be caught up in it ourselves.”

Another book of Lenten reflections, A Spring in the Desert, which we will be discussing in our Lenten forum beginning today, explores a similar theme, “rediscovering the water of life in Lent.” As we come upon almost a full year of pandemic life, the images of desert and water, resonate with me as I thirst for new life after so much time in the metaphorical desert of quarantine.

The closest I have ever come to being in desert wilderness was in the Grand Canyon where my husband and I once spent 17 days hiking and rafting and camping along the Colorado River. One day our guides took our group on what affectionately became known as “The Death March.” -An 11 mile hike up a side canyon, across a desert plateau, and down another canyon, where we would meet up with our rafts (and the less adventurous members of our group) five miles down river from where we had begun. Because the rafts would need to travel these five miles to meet us, there was no turning back. Once we committed to the hike, we had to go all the way through.

It was an extraordinary day: exhausting, exhilarating, hot and amazing. After hiking all morning up the tedious switch-backs of the first, steep, side canyon, we came to a lush oasis, where a spring of water gushed from the side of a canyon wall. Trees suddenly appeared. There was shade and cool breeze, and even a somewhat tame wild turkey that begged for scraps from our lunch. It was amazing to experience the life that suddenly sprung forth in the midst of a desert wherever there was water. After our lunch break, we hiked away from the spring and across a flat, barren, hot desert plateau. It took hours to cross. And there was nothing around us except low desert brush, the occasional cactus, and the potential for rattle snakes.

The difference, of course, between the lush oasis and the total desolation of the desert was the presence of water. It was not something created or controlled by human beings. And as we hiked across the swath of desert, it was easy to feel insignificant. Nothing in that landscape relied upon us. And the landscape offered us nothing back in return.

Lent invites us to enter the desert landscape of our spiritual lives. To journey to that place where the only life-giving essence comes from God. Where we are forced to realize that we neither control nor create anything that we need. We are utterly dependent upon God.

Often, such experiences of spiritual wilderness sneak up on us when we least expect it- and when we are least prepared to handle it. We don’t always get to the choose, as Bronson and I did, to enter the wilderness as tourists, accompanied by our beloved, and some skilled guides who know the trail and how much water we would need for our journey. Instead, the landscape of spiritual wilderness often overtakes us uninvited, and catches us off guard- making us profoundly aware of how much we must rely upon God for our survival and well-being.

Yet even though we can’t always know when the spiritual wilderness will overtake us, the Church, in her wisdom, has set aside these forty days each year as practice for when the going get really tough. If we take its disciplines and challenges seriously, Lent helps us get spiritually in shape for the trials that may be yet to come. For Jesus, his forty days in the wilderness prepared him to better face the challenges of ministry, and eventually, the cross. And for us, these 40 days of Lent provide the opportunity to develop spiritual disciplines that can sustain us for the long haul.

As we enter Lent this year, consider how God might be calling you to use these forty days as you travel the landscape that lies between us now and Easter. What intentional practice of prayer, Scripture reading, study and service might you take on? What habits, temptations, and parts of you might best be let go?

In the words of our Ash Wednesday service, “I invite you therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.”

We pursue these disciplines not because we have to, but because they can be life-giving. Like the water in the desert, and the sun-splashed rainbows on a rainy day, they can sustain our spirit and make us ever mindful of the need we all have for a deepened relationship with God.

May yours be a holy and life-giving Lent. Amen.

Lent Madness

Lent Madness 

If you are looking for a fun and different way to practice Lenten devotion, try Lent Madness!  Rev. Tim Schenck and folks at Forward Movement have selected a collection of saints and placed them into a tournament-like single elimination bracket.   You get to review or learn about different saints as they face off against each other each week.  Just like basketball's March Madness, the pool of competitors whittles down until there is just a final 2 and then the winner!  

 The best part is you can play along.  If you want to play less officially, fill out a bracket and send a picture of your choices to Taryn . You can also officially vote for your choice for the winner of each battle on the Lent Madness website or the Lent Madness Facebook page (@lentmadness on Facebook). Either way, we hope you take a look and consider reflecting on this impressive group of faithful people as we journey toward Easter.  

Sunday Adult Formation

 A Spring in the Desert: Rediscovering the Water of Life in Lent

Our Lenten Adult Formation class will be based on the book A Spring in the Desert by Frank and Victoria Logue. The book provides a Lenten journey inspired by the imagery of water and desert. The course will begin on February 21 and continue through March 28. We will start shortly after the Zoom service ends at 11:15am. Each class will be about 45 minutes.

There will be a few hard copies of the book available. If you would like to purchase your own hard copy you can go do so here or you can order a Kindle copy from Amazon here.

The Zoom link for the Adult Ed gathering will be separate from that for the service.