Dear Friends,
Today I find myself with students, their parents and teachers very much on my heart. I have listened to my wonderful next-door neighbors, with a kindergartener and a third grader, trying to make school work at home for their kids, while working as nurses at El Camino Hospital. I listened last night in Guadalupe Oak Grove Park to a freshman in college at Chico State, who has only two teachers out of six teaching by Zoom, the rest just posting assignments. I have listened to several teachers share the challenges of mastering the technology and the sadness of not getting to be in person with their students. Everyone is trying to make the best of a hard and stressful situation.
Last year at this time, I was anticipating my new “gig” as a volunteer in reading and math in a kindergarten classroom in Albany, Oregon. I was delighted to get to be “Miss Kate,” not “Rev. Kate.” Too many of the five and six-year-old children in my classroom were food insecure and at risk for neglect or abuse. School was a safety net for these things. I am grieving for those little ones who are now still at home while entering first grade.
May we all be praying daily for the kids, parents, teachers and administrators in our congregation and community who are struggling with the pandemic “normal.” May we pray especially for those children and youth who are most at risk.
Kate