Family life has all kinds of “unintended consequences.” For example, you may walk the path together in one way for years and then have to take a different route because of construction… and discover a new and fascinating path. Something analogous happened at St. Paul’s in 2022. After years of strug...

From ancient times, the Church has kept the season of Lent as a time of prayerful and penitential reflection. We fast. We refrain from “Alleluias” (Hebrew for “praise The LORD”). Musical adornment is diminished, etc. It is also, historically, a time of intense teaching leading up to the remembrance...

This is our second-last conversation with Rev. Jason Schockman about “Grieving with hope.” We recorded this, by design, was one half-year after his father’s death. There isn’t a great “milestone” in this episode, and every grief journey is unique, but this conversation is a journey of memory, and a...

Our last conversation with Rev. Jason Schockman occurred just a month after his father’s death. That was a conversation filled with Christian hope and thankfulness. This conversation in our “Grieving with Hope” series picks up after the Schockmans passed through “the holiday season”: Thanksgiving, ...

Full of energy and the joy of Christ, Mary Hickenbottom serves as a sister, a friend, a realtor, a property manager, and as the volunteer Director of The Lord’s Cupboard, the food pantry of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Part 2 of our interview with Mary is an exploration of h...

Mary Kay (Zastrow) Hickenbottom is a “lifer” at St. Paul’s: Baptized, confirmed, married, etc. Oconomowoc community members may know her as a realtor and property manager; many others know her as the volunteer Director of St. Paul’s food pantry, “The Lord’s Cupboard.” In Part 1 of our interview wit...