As we celebrate the Easter season, we call on all Mount Olive members to participate in this Love Made Visible Challenge as we care for our precious world: a time of stewardship, of challenge, a time to move forward together. On to week 3!

Continue to send photos/videos/recipes during our Love Made Visible Challenge to missions@mountolivechurch.org. And sign up now (same link) for next Saturday’s (May 9) Care for Mount Olive’s Rain and Butterfly Gardens. Bring your own mask/glove/tools. You’ll work outside, at a distance from others.

Worship: “Almighty God, we thank you for making the earth fruitful, so that it might produce what is needed for life: Bless those who work in the fields; give us seasonable weather; and grant that we may all share the fruits of the earth, rejoicing in your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer)

Inform: Twin Cities farmers’ markets—considered “essential” under the governor’s stay-at-home order—are gradually opening, with limited offerings until crops begin to be harvested. The owners of the Minneapolis Farmers’ Market, near downtown, told a reporter they’re increasing spaces between vendors, eliminating samples, and adding sanitizing stations.

Act: Check out the schedule for your favorite farmers’ market, and shop there until it closes in the fall. Try new things. When you shop, follow the latest pandemic rules.

Worship: “You change deserts into pools of water and dry land into water-springs” (Ps. 107:35, ELW).

Inform: Municipal water systems in Minnesota and the nation provide tap water that, with some notorious exceptions, is safe and, in most places, has a pleasant or neutral taste. For most Americans, bottled water is OK in a pinch but not as a daily habit.

Act: Do an internet search for “real cost of bottled water.” If you haven’t already, get a stainless steel bottle and fill up at the tap!

Worship: “Triune God, whose will it is that humans live in community, bless family life everywhere and fill all homes with respect, joy, laughter, and prayer. . . .” (ELW, p. 83)

Inform: One of the exceptions to “stay at home” is that we can go walking, running, or biking, whether out our front door or after driving to a park or trail.

Act: Choose a route that’s either new or one you haven’t taken for a long time. With one or more family members, challenge one another to notice significant or interesting things, maybe in nature, architecture, history, or people. Take a picture or video of you and some of your discoveries.

Worship: “Let the vineyards be fruitful, Lord, and fill to the brim our cup of blessing. Gather a harvest from the seeds that were sown, that we may be fed with the bread of life” (ELW 182).

Inform: Food writer Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma and other books) says: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Following that advice is good for our planet and good for our personal and societal health.

Act: Try one of the recipes shared by Mount Olive friends. More recipes have come in since last week. See the full listing here: Perhaps try the recipe for “Butternut Squash Gratin with Goat Cheese,” from the Mount Olive Lutheran Church Centennial Cookbook (2009).

Worship: But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11).

Inform: “I’m only one person. What difference could I make?” Nearly all of us have had that feeling. The truth is that as individuals we can make a difference. But we have to act.

Act: By phone or email, tell your legislative, congressional, or city council member where you stand on an issue that’s important to you. Give money and/or volunteer for a political campaign. Write a letter to the editor.

Worship: “Gracious God, . . . make us quick to welcome ventures in cooperation among the peoples of the world, so that there may be woven the fabric of a common good too strong to be torn by the evil hands of war. In the time of opportunity, make us to be diligent; and in the time of peril, let not our courage fail; through Jesus Christ of Lord, Amen (ELW, p. 76).

Inform: Today individuals, groups, and nations are more globally interconnected than ever, whether we’re talking about flows of goods and services, capital, knowledge and technology, people, or taking on the challenge of climate change.

Act: Reflect on ways global connections and the speed of those connections is affecting you and your family. Do you think of yourself as an actor in this global theater or as playing a mostly passive role?

Make protective masks.

Learn four ways Lutheran World Relief is working to fight climate change.

Help Lutheran World Relief get clean water from rainwater cisterns.

Worship: “No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light” (Luke 8:16).

Inform: The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, signed by President George W. Bush, didn’t ban the sale of all incandescent bulbs but did require about 25% greater efficiency for bulbs that traditionally used 40–100 watts.

Act: Take an inventory of your indoor and outdoor lighting. Your highest priority should be installing efficient LEDs in fixtures that both require high lumens (a brightness measure) and are on a lot. Choose an LED “color temperature,” in Kelvins, that you prefer (3000K is traditional, 5000K is really white)

Do you want to do more? Check these resources. This page will be updated and added to weekly.