So it started about a week ago.  I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea needling me.  I had read the Adirondack Express earlier in the day, with a front page article entitled “Carving Out Memories” announcing a new snow sculpture contest to benefit the Tayler Schmid fund.  I awoke with a sense that I should enter.  For the next couple hours I couldn’t settle into sleep – my mind was fully awake to sculpting ideas.

It has been my growing desire for our church to be the voice of faith in this community.  I know that won’t happen as long as we are confined to the walls of our building.  Most people in our community will never (or rarely) enter our building.  Even if we were filled to capacity we’d be reaching about 150 people a week.  But what about the hundreds more in our community?  How will they be exposed?

Recognizing that, I’ve sought other avenues.  Lately, I have written two articles for the Weekly Adirondack – a Christmas poem and a reflection on Martin Luther King Jr.  We redesigned our ad in the Adirondack Express and will keep updating it every few weeks with new content.  We’ve launched the website and Facebook page.  This snow sculpture contest struck me as one more way to communicate to a wider audience.  We could use the snow piled at the church entrance as a seasonal billboard of sorts.  A simple message could be conveyed with a little creativity.  There’s enough traffic that passes by to make it worth a try.

In the morning as I got ready for work I told Sue about the idea that had kept me awake that night.  She suggested I give it twenty four hours and see if I was still convinced it was a good idea.  By the next morning the idea had settled into a resolve. I would at least give it a try.  Over the next few days I began to carve out a message in snow.  I started with an empty tomb, then added a cross, then the word HOPE. These simple components communicate a powerful message that can be ingested at 25 mph – or at least chewed upon

I have posted two pictures of different stages of the development on our Facebook page so some have already seen it.  Today I added food color and took a few more pictures in fading light.   At this stage it is nearly complete.  I will just clean it up for the judging on Sunday.  Help me capitalize on the power of social media.  If you have a Facebook account, do me a favor and share the picture on your wall. Let your friends see it.  As I worked on it I saw many people checking it out as they passed by.  Some stopped to chat.  Yesterday there were two snowmobilers taking pictures of it when I arrived home from work.  It’s just another way to get people thinking about our church.  And if people come away with the impression that this is a church that proclaims a message of hope, what better use could there be for a pile of snow?

Have a wonderful week.

Pastor Phil