10805 Main St. Huntley, IL 60142
LOOK AT WHAT’S HAPPENING AT SHEPHERD OF THE PRAIRIE
Prairie Crafters
All Are Welcome
Looking forward to our 2024 Craft Show 
Looking for:
- New Members
- New Ideas
- New Friends
- New Crafters
All money raised from crafts goes toward paying down our mortgage.
Contact: Annette Kandell quangels2015@gmail.com
A Note
From Pastor Ryan
As you know, we’ve been exploring the power of words this year. Starting with the word we received on the back of a paper star sometime in the first part of the year and continuing through our Lenten journey with The Difficult Words of Jesus, we have been wrestling with our words, growing into them, listening for God’s voice to teach us something or for the Holy Spirit to guide us through them.
While I’ve been carrying the word from my star with me (which is youth), another word has crept into my life this year and taken hold. That word is curiosity.
We are living in a culture and society that seems to be more concerned with certainty and being right rather than keeping an open mind and approaching things with a desire to learn or an openness to be changed. All around us—in our families, in the public square, in politics, and in religion/faith—we can see people who have drawn lines in the sand, planted their flag in one camp or another (you choose the metaphor). They become certain of something and close their hearts and minds to anything that might push back against the line they’ve drawn or the flag they’ve planted.
The antidote to this, I believe, is curiosity. Imagine how different our world would look if everyone approached everything with curiosity rather than certainty. Imagine if we approached all people, belief systems, cultures, history, science, and yes, Scripture, God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and faith/religion with curiosity instead of assuming we’ve got it all already figured out. How different would all our interactions be? Think of how we could better connect with others, especially others who are different or believe differently from us, if we interact with them with a sense of wonder.
Imagine how Scripture could come alive in our hearts, minds, and souls if we approached every verse with a sense of curiosity rather than certainty. As a pastor, I have many conversations with people who hold a very rigid, certain view of Scripture. The fact is, Scripture is so ancient, so complex, so rich, and translated so many ways that we fool ourselves if we think we could ever be definitively certain of the meaning of each verse. No matter how scholarly someone becomes, how well-versed in Biblical studies, there always comes a point when knowledge gives way to interpretation.
None of us was able to walk with Moses or Abraham. None of us was able to walk with Jesus and witness his ministry firsthand (not even any of the New Testament writers). We must, instead, rely on the spoken and written accounts of who did, and interpret their interpretations of what they saw. This is where the beauty of curiosity opens up. The Scriptures are living documents, speaking in new ways to new people in new times and new places. God finds ways to speak people of every time and place through the Words that have stood the test of time, and when we approach them with curiosity, we find new ways of hearing God’s voice, new ways of experiencing Jesus’ calling, and new ways of feeling the presence of the Hoy Spirit.
Here is my challenge for you. There is a difference between embedded theology (the faith/assumptions we carry with us simply because it was taught to us by our parents/grandparents or by Sunday School teachers—the kind of faith we’ve carried since childhood and never wrestled with) and deliberative theology (the kind of faith/understanding we develop through reflection and learning, always giving deep consideration to new/unexpected/unusual/uncomfortable information). Think about any assumptions you have/are making about God, Jesus, and Scripture. What assumptions do you tend to make about faith/religion? What assumptions do you make about your neighbor or a stranger?
How could you further shift your life to approach everything with curiosity? In what ways may God be trying to open your heart or mind to something new?
May you be blessed with a spirit of curiosity and wonder, and may the love of God go with you today and always,
Pastor Ryan
email Pastor Ryan at pastorryan@sotpmail.com
Pastor Ryan
Email Pastor Ryan: pastorryan@sotpmail.com
Special Request
From Our Offering Counters
Just a reminder that in 2025 everyone will receive offering envelopes by mail quarterly. We realize that some of you in the past have opted out of receiving envelopes so before you throw these envelopes away, we encourage you to remember a couple of things related to your giving to Shepherd of the Prairie.
When the offering counters receive an envelope which has a check enclosed and the distribution is marked on the envelope, this helps our counters tremendously to quickly account for your gift. We just need to open the envelope, make sure the figures agree on the check and envelope, and put each one in separate piles to be totaled.
When a loose check is received there are several more steps to be taken in order to process each donation.
Our counters must look up the name on the check, then fill out an envelope form which is a copy of the back of the offering envelope, with the giver’s name, envelope number, and gift amount. This is then paperclipped to the check and given to the counter that is opening envelopes that day. As you can see a loose check takes our volunteers much more time to process to be sure each gift is given proper credit to donors. So far, we have processed over 180 loose checks from households that opted out of 2024 envelopes.
Please keep the 2025 envelopes to be used on special services and various things that come up during the year like the food pantry and memorials. Of course, regular giving may be done online which is also a wonderful way to easily give to the ministry we share at SOTP.
Thanks again for your ongoing support. We are surely blessed by the generosity of every gift received!
Contact: Ralph Wehnes
New Photo Directory
Updating Pictures & Information
As you may know, we are now publishing our Member Directory with members’ photos. 
If you need to update or add your photo, please send your photo to Donna Kelly donna@sotpmail.com, or Ed Cuttle
edschn28@comcast.net and we will update or add it to the directory.
We publish an updated directory every time we receive new members, so 4 times a year. If you would like to receive the updated
directory via email, please let Michelle Rankin know, michelle@sotpmail.com or you can pick one up at the office or at the Registration Desk.
If you have any questions, contact Donna Kelly, donna@sotpmail.com or through the church office.
Treasurer's Report
Friday Flourish for the Weekend of February 3 & 4
We Encourage You to Read This Reading for This Upcoming Weekend
Reading: 1 Corinthians 9:16-23
If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.
For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39
As soon as [Jesus and the disciples] left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Wheels Show - June 2
Register Your Wheels Now
Summer is kicking off with an Ice Cream Social & Wheels Show.
Join us Friday, June 2nd from 6:30pm-8:30pm for the Ice Cream Social.
Sign up to bring your wheels at www.bit.ly/SOTPwheels23 . They can have 4 or 3 or 2 wheels, maybe someone even has a unicycle!?!?
The best decorated kid’s wheels will win a prize.
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We will also have games, relays, face painting, an ice cream Pinata, and lots of fun!
Let us know you’re coming – register at www.bit.ly/SOTPsocial23
Contact: Jill Gillming jill@sotpmail.com
Altar Flowers This Weekend
For more information on how to donate altar flowers, go to www.bit.ly/SOTPflower
Contact: Diane Mollis dem910@outlook.com
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Ministry Musing
By Donna Kelly
Life today seems so full of anger, mistrust, and anxiety. Our country has become extremely polarized; we seem to be developing into a people who draw lines in the sand between “us” and “them” and refuse to welcome others who see things differently than we do. But even more concerning, we sometimes forget to love like Jesus has called us to. In Matthew 25, Jesus tells a story of how when we feed the hungry, give a drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, care for the sick or visit the prisoner, we are doing it to him, and when we refuse, we are also refusing him.
But sometimes we let feat overwhelm us and allow power, security, control and self-sufficiency to become our principal values and believe that our way or point of view is not only the best way, but the only way.
So how do we wipe out those lines in the sand, or our idea that those who hold a different opinion or value system are enemies? How can we mend broken hearts and lives and learn to live in harmony again? Well, in Matthew 5 Jesus challenges us, “I’m
telling you to love your enemies…Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your trues selves, your God-given selves…You’re kingdom subjects.
Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.” (The Message)
This prayer of St. Francis of Assisi calls us to live as Jesus taught:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives, it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.
Donna Kelly
email Donna at: donna@sotpmail.com