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From Rev. Sandy Taylor

As a pastor there are times I experience bereavement overload. It is an experience that comes from suffering too many deaths within a certain period of time. Dave, my husband, and I have experienced the death of his parents within two weeks; his mother, Ruth, and his step-father, Sam. This was in the mist of six deaths in the church family and community right before and right after their deaths.

We were in the mist of renovating the house Sam and Ruth were to move into when illness, grief and heartbreak struck us all. Our family wept as we buried Sam and Ruth.

Just as you and I are faced with choices in our personal experience with loss, we also are faced with choices in our life's work as caregivers. If we can support and accompany people as they fully enter into their grief, chances are we can become a catalyst for a renewed sense of meaning and purpose in the lives of people we come to know and love.

That is what I find in our congregations, God's people who know how to care and love. Dave and I are eternally grateful for the caring attention we received. In the Baltimore-Washington Conference, this is what we do. We connect with and love one another.

I give thanks to God, for people like you who know the heart-beat of God's love and are able to offer God's touch of the Kingdom, while on this earth. Thank you for your healing power of prayer to enable us to be visited with joyful memories in the quiet moments that have nourished our soul. God bless you.