While we just celebrated Ash Wednesday, preparations for Holy Week at Ascension are already underway. In the Latino Ministry, we have begun coloring sawdust to prepare our traditional alfombras for Good Friday. During Journey to the Cross, families began the first alfombra.

Some of you have asked me where all that large amount of sawdust comes from. Sawdust is not just from one place, last month, I had to visit Bliffert, Waukesha, Home Depot, Waukesha and Bliffert, Germantown. We have enough material to make all of the alfombras for this year. The sawdust that those stores collect is put in the trash, but for the month of February, they invite us to use and do wonders with material that is normally garbage. I showed them photographs of last year’s alfombras. They said, “Wow! Thank you for inviting us to be part in some way in this project!” Yes, everyone is invited to participate in some way in the alfombras during Holy Week.

In previous years, I have colored all the sawdust by myself. This year CRASH students were invited to experience the colorization of sawdust. The students really enjoyed it and learned a new skill. This was not only a time of work, but it was also a time for fellowship, sharing and continuing to learn about what Ascension is and what God is doing in our multicultural Christian community.

As we continue to walk this Lenten journey, let’s think about God’s call to us to pass the good news to others. In Holy week, we invite you to participate in our Good Friday procession. We will start our procession from the three crosses in the memorial garden. We will lower the cross and the participants will be able to pass the cross to the people who will carry it on our trip to the tomb (Latino Sanctuary). In the sanctuary, we will, as always, have the experience of walking and experiencing how the beauty of the carpets disappears.

The beauty of the savior living among us dies, but that is not the end. Three days later, beauty returns never to disappear from our lives. Jesus continues to reveal the beauty of the kingdom of heaven here on earth through us and others. We are invited to spread the message of the kingdom of God from where we are.

May God open your eyes this Lenten season to help you find the beauty of the kingdom of heaven in your lives.

Pastor Edwin