Until the Story is Told - Parent Connect

A community of parents finding their way.
Through the highs and the lows of everyday.
A place to meet other people
experiencing similar family stages.
A safe place to connect with God
through parenting.
Learning together and supporting each other.
Tears of happiness and sadness,
a first soccer goal or a bad day at school.
A place of belonging no matter the shape or size of your family.
Everyone is heard, all the successes and struggles of parenting are celebrated and
shared in community.
With transparency and togetherness
friendship grows.
Finding new connections
and meeting other parents.
Parent Connect cultivates real conversations.
Breaking down the superficial ideas and pressure of being a parent.
With compassion and understanding, a group that meets every week.
Everyone is growing, exploring and learning together.
Through exciting news and vulnerable conversations.
As busy as life gets there is a space to confide in,
to receive prayers you may need.
A place that helps your parenting struggles feel attainable.
Through times of confusion and loneliness,
we find a place to connect here at church.
Showing up is something enough, a reminder of your progress.
Parent Connect is a safe place to help lead you through spirituality and parenting.

By Evelyn Erickson and Megan Leschinsky

Parent Connect meets Wednesday nights from 7-7:45pm during the program year in Lower Level Room 140 and is led by Alana Erickson and Nancy Johnson.

Until the Story is Told - The Community Meal

Food is a basic necessity.
Every Monday, food is ready for anyone who needs it.
This weekly meal lets people focus on other things in their life.
Starting with a small indoor gathering distributing 30-70 meals.
Growing into something bigger than expected.
With new ideas, volunteers, lots of work,
the meal now feeds an average of 140 people.
Volunteers show up no matter what,
even in horrible weather; there is need.
This meal feeds and helps build connections in the community.
It’s one and a half hours of all ages and all communities gathering.
It is rewarding to help people and to meet new people along the way.
An immediate impact that changes lives.
Living in a wealthy community,
it’s still important to acknowledge the need for food.
It’s clear with the turn out, it has a lasting impact.
Everyone is welcome.
Everyone deserves a meal.
Whether you’re too tired to cook.
Whether you don’t have the resources.
The reason doesn’t matter, this meal is for you.
This community is made to serve.
Looking for ways to reach even more people.
Seeking God through service.
Seeking God in others.

By Megan Leschinsky and Evelyn Erickson

Until the Story is Told - The Prayer Team

 “To pray means to open your hands before God. It means slowly relaxing the tension which squeezes your existence with and increasing readiness, not as a possession to defend, but as a gift to receive. Above all, therefore, prayer is a way of life which allows you to find a stillness in the midst of the world where you can open your hands to God’s promises, and find hope for yourself, your fellowman and the whole community in which you live. In prayer you encounter God in the soft breeze, in the distress and joy of your neighbor and in the loneliness of our own heart. Prayer leads you to see new paths and to hear new melodies in the air. “   
-Henri Nouwen, With Open Hands 

This quote encapsulates my experience as a member of the MOPY prayer team. Prayer is a way that I connect with God, others on the prayer team, our congregation, the community, and the broader world.  

In December of 2021, my husband Scott and I were sitting in a pew during the Sunday worship service, and it was time for prayers. Two days prior, the hospice nurse had told us that Scott’s mother had only a few days left with us. I raised my hand to speak a prayer for Scott’s mother during worship, but tears came instead of words. Pastor Beth knew what was on my heart and offered a prayer for Scott’s mother and our family as we approached the end of her life. The support and sense of love and connection I felt after participating and praying in worship were a source of strength and peace during this time. 

The Mount Olivet prayer team, extends this support and connection beyond the worship services. Members of the Prayer Team take time each week to lift up before God the prayers of our congregation, the community and the broader world. Prayers are gathered from the worship services, the prayer wall, the outdoor prayer box and the emails that people send via Mount Olivet's website. In addition to weekly prayers, we also gather as a group once a month to pray for the community and share our individual joys and concerns. Sometimes we pray around a candlelit table, and other times we pray as we walk the outdoor prayer labyrinth. We believe God hears all of our prayers, no matter how big or small. We listen for God’s voice in each other, the silence and the breeze blowing through the trees. Together we find hope as we seek to find God’s promises for us and our world. The Prayer Team helps me "open my hands before God."

 By Kathy Grinde and LaVerne Johnson

Until the Story is Told - Aunnie as a Guide for 8th Grade

Aunnie grew up in a church that did not have room for questions about God. She was told what to believe even when she wondered differently. So, when she had children, she looked for a church that had room for questions, where not everyone had to be the same. And as Aunnie found her place, she knew there was an offering to give that was not in dollars. She said yes and invested herself in leading a group of 6th grade girls, who just now started their last year of middle school. As much as she teaches, she learns. She notices their curiosity and their kindness, the willingness to make room for difference and to be in relationship with God and others just as they are. The beginning and ending of faith, and Aunnie is right in the middle as faith is nurtured and worked out.

Photo by Pastor Beth Horsch
Written by Pastor Beth Horsch

Until the Story is Told - The Giving Garden

There is a garden that we all know is there.
Do we really pay attention to the food that it shares?

The people who work through the heat and the bugs
don’t get paid, but they do it out of love.

I asked why here when you could do this anywhere?
They said it’s gardening with a purpose, and that’s why we care.

Written by Feven Harder
Photo by Ellie Harding

Until the Story Is Told - The Housing Team

A team of leaders convened in January 2022, open to being curious and patient, to discern where Mount Olivet is being called to give voice and investment in the work of affordable housing. The team continues the work Mount Olivet began in 2010. As a church, we have built houses with Habitat for Humanity, and formed a leadership team to advocate for affordable housing via Beacon InterFaith Housing Collaborative, a statewide developer of affordable housing. This led to advocacy for Beacon’s affordable housing project, Cranberry Ridge in Plymouth, and hosting unhoused families here at church via the Families Moving Forward program.

Each conversation with community organizations, government liaisons and other churches leads to another and of course there is the Holy Spirit revealing the path ahead. It takes guts to be curious and patient and to know the next step is not always action. Good thing this group is centered in the call to love God and neighbor so more and more people can have a place to call home.

The Housing Team members include Bob Swanson, Bob Carlson, Kelly Bishop, Steve Gartland, Paul Nelson, Pastor Kristin Dybdal, and Pastor Beth Horsch.

Written by: Pastor Beth Horsch

Until the Story is Told - Dorothy and the Baptism Napkins

Through baptism, children are welcomed into a faith community
with prayers, promises, and traditions—
water is poured over heads, the sign of the cross made,
and a child is named and claimed in love.
The child’s wet head is then patted dry - but with what cloth?

In the past, women in the church embroidered small pieces of cloth with a cross to be used for this task, and then saved as a remembrance of the day. But circumstances change, interests are replaced by other interests, time becomes scarce. Church practices adapt.

A creative and kind woman, yearning to honor tradition, saw an opportunity to use precious textiles that she had saved to keep the custom alive and serve the children and families of her faith community. So Dorothy Sohn took the beautiful pieces of cloth — napkins, handkerchiefs, table linens — that she had lovingly stored, and embroidered crosses on each one to be used for the baptism ceremony.

Unique and a thing to be cherished —

Thank you, Dorothy, for your thoughtful gifts!

Written by Joy Miller
Photo Collage Arranged by Joy Miller

Until the Story is Told - Every Meal

Blue. Green. Orange. Purple. Yellow.

Colors in the rainbow, yes.

Mount Olivet members who volunteer at Northport Elementary School in Brooklyn Center also know them as the five different kinds of food bags for kids and families, each packed with culturally relevant fruits, vegetables, proteins, and grains for weekend nourishment.

On Friday afternoons during the school year, many Mount Olivet hands make for light work, putting nutritious food in the backpacks of little ones as they board the bus for home.

It feels great to serve, but to look into the eyes of a child who needs food brings a whole new level of meaning to our service and giving.

Story by: Pastor Kristin Dybdal

Find out more about Mount Olivet’s Community Partners HERE.

Come to the Living Room

Take a look, have a seat... in Mount Olivet's new Living Room.

Thanks to the generosity of grant funds through St. Catherine's University and memorial gifts, Mount Olivet has a new Living Room.

The intent of this updated space is to welcome small groups and individuals who are seeking quiet space for prayer, meetings or conversations.  

Over the last two years, a group of Mount Olivet members have learned more about contemplative practices through a grant sponsored by St. Catherine's University.  This team will be hosting an open house on Sunday, September 17, 2023 for the Mount Olivet community to see and experience this new space.  The team will also be inviting the community to participate in contemplative practices this fall.