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Brothers and sisters,

For this week’s Illuminator, I want to highlight a story I heard the other day of someone going way above and beyond to be kind to another person. While I don’t know the religious affiliations of anyone involved in this story, the thought and dedication to another person is something we Christians ought to emulate.

In Pocatello, Idaho, there was only one video rental store still in business, a place called Video Stop. Run by its owner, David Kraning, the store had been there for years. Kraning had actually taken over the business from his father years ago, but his profits had taken a huge tumble due to the rise of streaming services like Netflix. Within the last year or so, Kraning finally came to the difficult decision that he needed to close the store. Video Stop closed on February 1st this year. He was losing money on it and had been for a while, but there was a reason he’d kept it open even when it wasn’t turning a profit.

Christina Cavanaugh is the Video Stop’s most loyal customer. She also has Down syndrome and is mostly non-verbal. As part of her weekly routine, Christina and her mother, Toni, would come to the video store three times per week and that has been going on for the last fifteen years. Christina loves Disney movies, especially Mulan and Hercules, and it brings her a sense of order and security to have these excursions to the video store. She also gets to work on life skills while she’s there—picking what she wants, interacting with cashiers, presenting cash, and thanking the cashier. It’s an important part of her life.

When Kraning realized he needed to close the store, he said that he was upset not just because of the death of the business, but he was worried about how it would affect Christina. Routines are extremely important for folks struggling with disorders like Down syndrome. As it happens, Kraning also owns the convenience store next door. So, as February 1st approached, Kraning cleared out a corner of his convenience store and set up shelves from Video Stop. He then stocked them with about 200 videos—50 Disney movies for Christina and his next 150 top rentals. His employees christened the display, “Christina’s Corner.”

One day, when Toni came to the convenience store, Kraning showed her Christina’s Corner and Toni said she burst into tears, barely able to thank him. “David is such a humble person, and he’s usually very quiet. I had no idea he’d been worrying about how closing the shop would affect Christina. I thought, ‘My gosh—he’s been losing money, but he came up with a plan just for my daughter?’ Who knew this guy’s heart was so big?” Regarding all this, Kraning said, “It felt good to know that Toni could continue to bring Christina in. I wanted to do something nice for them both. I knew there had probably been some struggles over the years.”

May we all look out for our neighbors the way he looked out for Christina.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

Within the last couple of months, I’ve joined two book clubs over in Chapel Hill. One of them is less traditional; it’s a Silent Book Club. Basically, a bunch of people come to a local bookstore, we all read different books separately for an hour, then we come together for about 30 minutes of discussion where we introduce ourselves, our book, and something interesting about it. Essentially, once a month, everyone in the Silent Book Club gets a list of recommendations from other readers!

The other book club I’m part of is set up in a more traditional way. We have a book that we read each month. Then, we come together at a different local bookstore, drink coffee, and talk about the book we read. This club, in particular, is a fantasy book club, meaning we read fantasy books. Last month’s book was about a scientist who studies faeries (highly recommend!) and this month’s was about a pawn shop in a different dimension (medium recommend). I want to talk briefly about the core question this month’s book, Water Moon, asks — how do our choices affect our character?

Let me give you the quickest summary of Water Moon’s premise. Hana, the main character, lives with her father in a pawn shop in a different dimension. At their pawn shop, Hana’s father buys people’s choices; that is, he buys any sense of guilt or uncertainty that their choices have burdened them with. On the morning when Hana was meant to take over the pawn shop from her father, she awakens to find the shop ran-sacked, her father missing, one of the choices they’d bought stolen, and a strange man named Kei standing there asking her to make a choice rather than seeking to pawn one of his own. From there Hana and Kei set off on a journey across her world to find her father, locate the missing choice, and set things right.

As I mentioned earlier, the novel asks the question, “How do our choices affect our character?” Throughout the story, Hana and Kei must choose certain actions, face the consequences, and reckon with what that means for their identities. As a Christian, it brought to mind the way our Christian identities are formed. Often, particularly as Baptists, we think about one choice that a person makes — the choice to come down the aisle, profess our faith in Christ, and be baptized. But to be a Christian is to spend our lives making choices. When someone is hurting, we must choose whether or not we will help them. When we are faced with anger or aggression, we must choose how we will respond. When we are facing injustice ourselves or are made aware of injustice elsewhere, we must choose what we will do. All these choices have the possibility to make us into better Christians. Will we regularly choose the path of Jesus, even though it is hard? Or will we take the path of least resistance. There is an old saying that gets misattributed to Aristotle that says, “We are what we repeatedly do … therefore excellence is not an act, but a habit.” I largely agree with that, though I’ll amend it for a Christian context, “We are what we repeatedly do…therefore to be Christ-like is not an act, but a habit.” May we get in the habit of acting faithfully, becoming more like Jesus each day.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,
Valentine’s Day is this week. In previous years, I’ve taken this Illuminator article to reflect on love or tell a story about Valentinus, the saint the holiday is named after. But today, I want to keep it simple because, at its core, love is simple. Love is caring about another human being. Love is believing that another person deserves to be treated well, with dignity and respect. Our ability to love others comes from God and we Christians are called to love others.

So, rather than fill up a page with random thoughts I have about love or funny things I found on the internet, I’m just going to give you some suggestions of things you can do to remind others they are loved:

• Go to dinner with someone special to you and pick up the tab.
• Call a friend or family member and check in. Be sure to tell them, “I love you.”
• I’ve said this one a lot, but it’s always true—go out of your way to thank a service worker today.
• Consider making a donation to a charity that works with folks in need (any organization that works with refugees could use help right now).
• Treat yourself (remember that Jesus taught we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves; so, show yourself some love)!
• Spend some time with God—it’s never a bad idea to ponder the love of God.

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben

Brothers and sisters,

It’s that time of year again. Super Bowl Sunday is quickly approaching! When I watch stuff on YouTube, I’m getting ads that say, “See the full version February 9th during the Super Bowl!” So, understand, that means I’m getting a commercial that advertises an upcoming commercial! And, of course, the matchup for the Big Game has been set—a rematch of Super Bowl LVII, the Philadelphia Eagles vs. the Kansas City Chiefs with the Chiefs chasing three Super Bowl wins in a row, a feat never accomplished in NFL history.

However, earlier that day, our church will be pursuing its own kind of repeat. On Sunday, February 9th, immediately following worship, we will be hosting our second consecutive Souper Bowl of Caring luncheon! Kathryn and others in our church have been planning this event for a while now and it sounds like it’s going to be a wonderful time! We’ve already got lots of different kinds of soups coming—chilis, chowders, and even a vegetarian option! We’ve got sandwiches coming, too, as well as a variety of desserts. All this will be happening in our Fellowship Hall. Everyone is invited—if you come to worship, if you don’t come to worship, if you brought something, if you didn’t bring something, family, friends—again, everyone!

We are not charging anything for lunch, but we will be accepting monetary donations (cash, check, or card) and all donations will be split between two organizations we’ve partnered with in the past: Urban Ministries of Durham and Baptists on Mission. Just in case you’re not familiar with what all they’re doing, let me tell you a little bit about each one.

Urban Ministries has a mission statement on their website that reads, “Urban Ministries of Durham connects with the community to end homelessness and fight poverty by offering food, shelter and a future to neighbors in need.” The list of ways they help our community is impressive. They provide shelter. They have a clothing closet. They have a food pantry. They provide three meals a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year to folks in need. And, having gone with volunteers to deliver food for our ACC Tournament Food Drive (more details on that in the weeks to come), I can honestly tell you that they do connect with the people they serve. They are a wonderful resource for our neighbors in need and a great partner in ministry.

Baptists on Mission continues to do good, long, difficult work in the western part of our state. Hurricane Helene may have hit four months ago, but the recovery effort is still ongoing. There are still folks out in western North Carolina who are without the basics—water, shelter, electricity. Volunteers have poured in from all over the state, but the geography of the mountains makes it such that everything is just a little bit more difficult than you’d think. That being said, Baptists on Mission is committed to staying and helping the people for as long as it takes. So, it makes sense to do what we can to continue to support their efforts.

So, on February 9th, come eat soup, sandwiches, and desserts. Fellowship with your brothers and sisters here at Hope Valley. And consider making a donation to help our neighbors here in Durham and in western North Carolina! Also, go Eagles!

Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben