By Elaine Rassel

This past week was another week of heat and humidity. We have had some welcoming rains that have made lawns green and growing again.
Tuesday (Sept. 7) we attended the funeral of Myrt Hansen at Remsen who passed away on Friday, Sept. 3 . Services were held at St. Paul’s church with not many empty seats. For those who knew her, she found time to be busy! She would have celebrated her 99th birthday on Sept. 25. Peg Hansen from Marcus was her sister-in-law.
One of the “J’s” that has my concern, John, Tammie Jorgensen’s husband, is starting intravenous treatment at Le Mars for Lou Gourid’s disease. It is not a cure but is being studied for slowing down the disease. This treatment was on Sunday morning news a month or so ago. Now it can be used in our area.
I asked how school was going for Tammie in Sioux City. She has been 8th grade science teacher (I think ever since she began teaching in S. City), but this year was put down for teaching 6th graders at West Middle. Their school is not required to wear masks, but can if they desire. Their lunch time is 10:30 in the morning! I don’t know if because the meals are free, and that more kids are eating, there isn’t the room there used to be for eating, that that time is lunchtime. It has been said that the kids are very hungry in the afternoon, due to the early lunch time.
A retired minister from Marcus, Rev. Ray Ohlendorf, was the speaker at 10:30 Sunday morning for Main Street Living (Missouri Synod) on Channel 9. He was representing rural Trinity Lutheran church, Marcus.
The next Sunday ministry program was from Sunny Brooke in Sioux City. This church is an hour long with approximately 25 minutes of speaker (sermon) and the rest of the time is music. Their speaker this morning came from another state and was endorsing one of this church’s programs_having a child in a certain foreign country, choose you. You are to come in on this Wednesday night and have your picture taken, tell how many children you would like to choose you, and be given what it will cost you to have been chosen. Usually, you choose a child, but this time it is the opposite. The more children you wanted to choose you, the more it would cost you. No price was mentioned.
The speaker said that many years ago, he had found a 14 year-old girl in a foreign country that was going twice a day to the only water available to get water for her family. Sometimes she had to wait until some animals were done drinking and relieving themselves before she got her water. It was no wonder that people in this village were not healthy and were dying. So, the speaker’s church had members sponsor this girl. It cost each of them that were sponsors, $39 a month.
Having good drinking water brings to mind the well that Hazel Rupp’s family (a few years ago) funded and made possible for a village in a foreign country. There are too many of these villages that have no wells but have to go to a local water pond shared with animals to get water.
In looking for my previous memory stick (and not finding it), I came across a newspaper article where a church in Minnesota was asking older members to go away. It was a struggling church in Cottage Grove, Minn. They want older members to leave in hopes of making it more attractive to young families.
This church was closing in June with plans to relaunch in November. The present members, most of them over 60 years of age, will be invited to worship elsewhere. The Grove United Methodist Church is asking that they stay away for two years, then consult the pastor about reapplying. This church is the product of a 2008 merger with a larger church in Woodbury.
This church has struggled with membership and finances. Seven years ago, Methodist officials said they could no longer pay for its minister, so the church switched to lay ministry, with weekly sermons by members. The church’s attendance and finances have stabilized recently, with an average weekly attendance of 25. The town of Cottage Grove is growing quickly and the church should be growing with it.
The Methodists’ regional body is paying $250,000 to restart the church. They have hired a specialist (a 30 year old who moved to Cottage Grove with his wife and two children) in starting new churches. The specialist says that its a new thing with a new mission for a new target and a new culture. The older members will not be physically barred from attending, but the expectation is that they won’t.
For this to be truly new, they can’t have just a group of 30 or less people. The older members can come to the other church they consolidated with. There is only one couple with children who were members of this church amongst the older members. They didn’t mind being the youngest members and if the older members are asked to leave, this younger family won’t be coming to this church anymore. They just didn’t like the age discrimination thing that is being planned. (Evidently the older members are not wealthy and in this case, MONEY talks.) How would you feel if your church asked you to leave in order to get younger ones to join??
Remember televangelist Jim Bakker and wife, Tammy (who wore a lot of eye make-up)? She has since died and he has remarried, a Lori. He was the minister on television (in a church in South Carolina) that gathered people in and they really sent him money when he asked for it. He was finally found out when an investigation came about and one of the things was_he used money to air condition his dog house! Many people were convinced that sending money for “this and that” would evidently get them to heaven quicker. After they died, families found their parents were “poor” thanks to Bakker and investigations began.
Now he and his southwestern Missouri church will have to pay restitution of $156,000 to settle a lawsuit that accuses the TV minister of falsely claiming a health supplement that could cure the coronavirus. The settlement agreement calls for refunds to people who paid money or gave contributions to obtain a product known as Silver Solution in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The settlement also prohibits Bakker and Morningside Church Productions Inc. from advertising or selling Silver Solution “to diagnose, prevent, mitigate, treat or cure any disease or illness.” Bakker does not admit any wrongdoing.
In March of 2020, the Missouri Attorney General sued Bakker and Morningside. The Attorney General sought an injunction ordering Bakker to stop selling Silver Solution as a treatment for COVID-19 on his streaming TV program, the Jim Bakker Show. The lawsuit said Bakker and a guest made the cure claim during 11 episodes in February and March of 2020. Bakker has already made restitution to many consumers, and must still pay back another $90,000 to others. The Silver Solution was offered to those who agreed to contribute $80 to $125.
When Bakker was confronted with, “This influenza that is now circling the globe, you’re saying that Silver Solution would be effective?” Bakker replied that, “Let’s say it hasn’t been tested on this strain of the coronavirus, but it has been tested on other strains of the coronavirus and has been able to eliminate it within 12 hours.”
In March of 2020, U.S. regulators warned Bakker’s company and six others to stop selling items using what the government called “false claims” and that they could treat the coronavirus or keep people from catching it. Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission warned companies that their products for treating COVID-19 were fraudulent and posed significant risks to patient health and violated federal law.
Silver Solution, a form of colloidal silver, consists of silver particles suspended in a liquid. The solution is often described by manufacturers as having the power to boost the immune system and cure diseases. However, it has no known benefit in the body when ingested.
Bakker and Morningside Church Productions are pleased to put the matter behind them so they can “continue the important work of Morningside Church.” They still say they have not violated any laws or misled any consumers.
Steve Schuetz will be celebrating a birthday Sept. 16. Jeanette will be celebrating a birthday on Sept. 23. Jeanette called me the other day and asked if I would make Creamed Chicken on biscuits for her birthday supper. The two in my household are saying, NO More Chicken, so they will have to give in for this one time!
Remember to keep in your prayers and thoughts, those who have lost loved ones to death, have been diagnosed with an illness, are struggling to make ends meet even when they have gone back to work, or are still working on closing the gap that will make them a family again.

I will close with this quote from Bill Keane (1927-2011), American cartoonist: “Yesterday’s the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.”