Welcome everyone to Midday magazine for this December 5th 2023.
Have your host James here and I am joined by our great friend friend of the station
and all of us here in the community. Reverend Beth Habhackers with us right now
from the Wisconsin Rapids and Moravian Church. Beth, always good to see you.
Good to see you too. Thanks for being here. Appreciate the time.
I want to I actually just want to catch up with Beth after everybody.
She comes to the studio to realize I haven't talked to you in a while.
It has been a while. That's all I want to spend the next half an hour doing.
But we got job to do. We got a job to do. Let's go ahead and take care of things.
Before we get into blue Christmas and some of the great activities that you guys have going
on this month, do you mind if we rewind a little bit and go to the book sale?
I believe you got some numbers on that. I do. It's great to be able to share that we raised over
$3,500 at the book sale this year. So thank you all for coming out and supporting by giving
books and by coming to buy the books. With that we are in conversation with midstate and we will
be able to offer $3,000 dollar scholarships for next school year. And so we are thrilled to be
able to support midstate and we love the fact that the scholarships that we are sponsoring are
specifically for non-traditional students. So people that are maybe going back to school to
learn a new trade or those that maybe have dropped out of school at one point want to go back and
finish up. It's for those students who financially may need the help to be able to do that.
That only that impacts our whole world. You know what I mean it really does. They say just take
for an example because it's a wide range of people this can affect but you bring up a person
going back to school. That will more than likely be a parent. Oftentimes a single parent.
Exactly. That is a person who is going to better themselves, get a better job, put better into
the community, make them being able to take care of their children better, etc, etc. All these
things add up and it goes so much farther than I think we could even realize or put in the word
sometimes. And that's if you guys were able to do one scholarship, three scholarships. I don't know
what number I expected Beth. I didn't expect one that big. That is awesome. Shout out to this community
to all of you guys at the Marievian Church getting all this going. Nice work. Well especially after
last year when we were still just trying to make up from being in the pandemic and we were only
able to give away one five hundred dollar scholarship. And that disappointed us. So we are thrilled to
be able to bounce back this year so well and offer so much to three individuals who are looking to
better themselves. I appreciate the update on this. I appreciate what you guys are doing and
already looking forward to next year. I know that my mom is looking forward to it. I know there's
plenty of people in the community already looking forward to that event. So we'll talk more about it
as we get closer to it. We are right around the corner of the Christmas. We are. And there are
plenty of big and fun things to look forward to around Christmas in this time of year. But this is
also a can be a very difficult time of year. Yes. I know that and I only bring this up one because
Beth is a very good friend of mine and also because you've shared this before. But this is a time of
year that hits you really close to home. It does. It's a bittersweet time of year. And I love to
use that. The song says it's the most wonderful time of the year. But that's not always the case
for everybody. You've experienced a loss this year. I've experienced losses in my life. It's been
15 and 12 consecutively with my mom and my sister. And so coming to Christmas day or the holidays
that we would traditionally celebrate with them, there's something missing. There's grief that
surrounds even the joy of being with the family that we do have with us. And so we want to
recognize that it's okay. It's okay to be sad. It's okay to have grief. It's okay to be struggling
in this time of year because just because the calendar changes or the time of year changes
doesn't mean our life situation always changes. So we want to have an opportunity for the community
to come together and recognize that, to say this hurts. Thank you. As always for sharing.
I appreciate you so much. Love you so much. And appreciate what you do. I don't want to celebrate
Christmas this year. I'll be honest with everybody. I don't really care. I don't really want it's
December 25th. It's just a day. I just got in the last handful of years. I just started to get
into Christmas. I've got a lot of bad memories tied to it. I just started to get into it.
I haven't really addressed this too much on the air, but my grandfather, my papa passed away
in the last couple of weeks. And this was always a really important time of year to him and his
family. He loved the holiday, but what he really loved is that it brought all the family together
and all those things. And yeah, I'm not the only one feeling this might, my mom and dad are in a
similar place and other relatives of mine. And one of the things that we realized in this is
we were open and we were honest with it. Because at first, we were so afraid to bring anybody else
down. Right. It was a big concern with this. And I think that it's something that we don't really
think about when it comes to this subject matter of a blue Christmas, of a melancholy Christmas,
if you will. The idea of, and especially us in the Midwest and the way we handle things,
we don't want to bother anybody. We want to put our problems on somebody else, etc, etc.
But that's what the world is built on. And that's what this time of year is about.
Is leaning on each other, is being there for each other, right?
It's interesting that especially in the Midwest, we're all about helping each other. And we love
the feeling of being able to help somebody out. And then we don't think to ask for the help.
And then I've said, I had to say this to my mom as she was dying as well, because she felt guilty
about having us help her in those last weeks. And I looked at her, I said, mom, you know,
that feeling you get when you help others? She said, yeah, I said, you realize you deny
others that feeling when you don't let them help you. And that's something that we need to remember
is that when we ask for help, we're allowing the other person to feel what we feel when we are
the ones helping. Took me into my forties to realize that. I hated knitting that, but it really did.
It took so long. I used to just never ask anybody for anything. All of that stuff and think I was
doing right by people. When really I've been holding back and I've been depriving my friends
and family, the people that mean the most to me, having the feeling that I get when I help them.
It's so Midwest. It really is. And I love that about us. I love that about our people.
It's a good thing. I'm not saying it's a bad thing necessarily, but it's also one of those things
that, hey, we're all getting older. It's all important to grow as a human being and realize that
actually the strongest thing you can do in life is leaning on each other, is being there for each
other. We were brought into community. We were created into community. And so we need to rely on
community. It being pulling ourselves up by our bootstrapped is a double ed short. It's good to have
the motivation to try to do things as best you can, but there's a reality that we can't do
everything on our own. And to have people there to surround you, to support you, to love you through
it is a wonderful thing. And that's one of the reasons why we want to offer this worship service.
And the Blue Christmas service started from our congregation. It's something I brought with me
from my previous parish that I really appreciated. And I'm thrilled that now our greater rapids area
churches for ecumenism, our grace group has taken this on as a community effort. So it's not just
our church, even though it will be held at the Moravian Church this year, on December 20th at 6 p.m.
That's a Wednesday evening. So don't look for us on a Sunday. It's a Wednesday evening,
December 20th at 6 p.m. But at least two other churches, the Port Edward United Methodist Church
and Grace Lutheran Church here in town will also be participating in that. So we are thrilled that
this is going to be able to expand and hopefully reach even more people. It's wonderful. We've got
several of our funeral homes in town that do special services for families that they've served
throughout the year. Sometimes that's not always a convenient time or the right place. So if you're
looking for another opportunity, we hope that you will consider joining us for this one.
Are there other things apart of this event that we should let people know about?
Yes, if you would like to bring some type of a symbol of what you're struggling. Now, for me,
it's the loss of loved ones that I wish would be here to celebrate with. So I will be bringing
a picture of both my mother and my sister. We encourage you, if it's financial, if there's
something health-wise, if there's a symbol that you have during the worship service, there'll be
an opportunity to come forward and put that on a table and light a candle to represent that
you're lifting that up to God. We're not going to keep them. You will be able to take them back
with you at the end of the service. But it's an opportunity to have a little bit of a ritual
with it because when you can tie something physical with the feeling, it helps you to process it
a little bit more. So we want to offer that opportunity as well. Our brains like routine. The
human brain loves routine from day one to the end of days. It's the way our brains work. And
traditions are very routine-based. And creating a new tradition like something like this is a great
way to keep that person in your holidays, in your spirits, in your memories, in your mind,
bringing them with you for future holidays and for future generations for younger people that
maybe didn't get to experience them and stuff to be able to have a chance to get to know them
a little bit more. It's a great window into that. Right. And for me, I was blessed that both of my,
my mom and my sister had a symbol that they loved. So my mom collect frogs. So for her, it stood for
fully rely on God. Oh gosh, that's good. So she had probably 1,500 different types of frogs
by the time she died that we were able to give to people at our funeral, that they were able to
take a piece of her with her. And so I have frog ornaments that I put up on my tree every year.
And so mom's there. My sister loved pigs. She loved the cute little barnyard pig kind of,
so I have a pig ornament that I put on my tree. So there are symbols that we have in our homes
that allow us to keep that person alive with us. And for me, when the Bible says love never ends,
it's, it's something just because the person we know and love is no longer present with us,
doesn't mean that we don't still love them. And it doesn't mean that we don't still feel the love
they had for us. That's what it means when love never ends. Well said. With an event like this too,
it's, um, it's a great opportunity to not be alone to, to not feel alone to understand that
you're not alone in this and that other people are, are struggling. Um, I, I, I think that it's
one of the, the greater gifts we can give to each other is, is leaning on each other in these
moments and being there, but also sharing of these things. Um, it's so brave and so, um, uh,
so incredibly, uh, beautiful to see somebody share things like you just did or, or, or, or that,
you're able to be a part of that and understand that your pain, while it is yours and your,
you, you deserve to feel all your feelings, um, that you are not alone to give a little
perspective to this too and stuff. And I, I think that as human beings, we, we need that at times
and here's an opportunity for that. I, I also don't want to skate past the idea of, uh,
multiple churches coming together. I, I will never normalize this. That's beautiful. That's
incredible. And it makes our community that much stronger, our, our faith that much stronger,
our people that much stronger. It, it, it, it, erising tide raises all boats and that's what this
does. I, I really commend all of you for working together and coming together. That's not something
that I grew up with or I grew up around and I'm so thankful to see this day and age where that's
where we're going as a society where it's, it, it isn't, it isn't that way anymore, you know,
that's cool. Well, we choose to focus on what we share in common, which is our belief in God.
And that's what we choose to live out. That's a, a, a very, very beautiful and unique thing.
Beth, when again, what are the details of the event again? Again, it's going to be Wednesday,
December 20th at six p.m. It's going to be held at the Wisconsin Rapids Moravian Church at
three ten, first avenue south. It's on the corner of first and goggins and third and goggins.
So come on in. We, we will be glad to welcome you into the warmth in addition to bringing a
symbol with you and being able to light a candle. If you choose, there will be people that are
off to the side of the sanctuary that you can go to. If you would just like a prayer, a private
prayer with somebody to kind of just uphold you and support you in that time as well.
It's a really nice thing to offer. That's a really good idea. I, I, usually in this, we used to have
a break and I would take it right now because I need it. I clear my eyes at everything, but I
want to keep moving because we got other stuff to talk about. Another great thing's going on
over at the Moravian Church. And you have Christmas caroling coming up on Sunday. That sounds fun.
We do. And actually our children's Christmas program will be a part of our worship experience
this Sunday as well. So if you like to see little ones telling you a little bit more about the
Christmas story, this is the week to come or join us online. We live stream on YouTube and at our
station, Wisconsin Rapids Moravian Church, we also have a Zoom link so you can come to our website
at WR Moravian.org and click that and join us that way. And then following worship, we'll have
a little reception and at 145, we'll be doing some Christmas caroling. And we have found that it
has worked really well because of the age of our congregation and knowing that the weather
doesn't always cooperate with us to go out and about, we do it via cell phone. So we will gather
in our social room around a couple of tables. We'll call some of our shut-ins or people that we
know and love that we want to share this with and put the cell phone on speaker in front of us and
we'll sing Christmas carols over the phone to our shut-ins and those that are in our nursing
care facilities. That's a great idea. That's a wonderful idea. I've heard of anything like that
before. I love that. We started doing that with COVID, not knowing because a lot of the nursing
facilities weren't allowing people in. So this was our way of being able to stay connected even though
we weren't physically able to be together. Beth, if people are just hearing about this and they
would like to be a part of it. Come on over. Join us. The more the merrier. Especially you might need
more better singers to drive out people like me. It might be a good idea. Remember,
it says make a joyful noise. It didn't say it had to be any good. That's true. That is an important
detail of it. That's going to be a lot of fun. How about if somebody would like to be on your list
as far as like person that you call? Give us a phone call or shoot us an email and let us know and
make sure that you give us the contact information. We would be glad to add them to those that were
or if you're there. You say, hey, let's call. If you've got their number, we'll give them a call.
And we'll give you the contact information before we wrap up today. But I do want to go on to
something else. And this is kind of interesting. This came up. You mentioned your mom loved frogs.
You mentioned your sister loved pigs. And I immediately thought of how many of those frogs
did you buy your mom? How many came from you and stuff? Because I know my mother is like this with
Coca-Cola items. And out of the out of all the thousands of items she has, at least 25% of for me,
like for birthdays and stuff. The other things I got her were point set us. Yes. My dad got her
a point set up for Christmas when I was a kid. And like for the next like 20 Christmases, I got
her point set. Because they're a great, they're a great plant. She likes it. And it's a perfect,
it's the Christmas plant. It is. And you guys are doing something really unique with point set us.
Oh, every year we invite members of the congregation to provide a point set up in our church sanctuary
to help decorate. And then on Christmas Eve, we list who they are in memory or in honor of.
So if you would like to help decorate the front of our sanctuary with a point set up, you just
drop it by the church. You let us know who it's in memory and in honor of. And it will be placed
in our sanctuary. And then after Christmas Eve, after the Christmas season, you are welcome
to take it home or maybe give it to the person if it's in honor of someone, give it to them or
place it someplace that will allow you to remember who it's in honor or memory of.
It's a it's a beautiful way to to keep that memory going and to honor that person.
And especially with a plant and something living and breathing, something some beautiful as a
point set, you know, it's a really nice combination right there. I really like that.
We have some members who are able to keep them going year round, which I really appreciate,
because I am not able to do that. Yeah. Yeah. You and me both. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to
those people. Those are great. They got a whole green hand. That's just a green thumb.
You guys also have stars available. Moravian stars available for purchase as well.
So the Moravian star is a different type of Christmas star. It's also known as the star of
Bethlehem if you see them in like Walmart or other stores. I knew that because Beth taught me that.
I just want to brag for a second. I actually knew that. It's a star that has 26 points,
not like a traditional five-pointed star. And it was originally created as a geometry project,
because the base of each of the points is is either a square or a triangle. And you have to know
how many squares are triangles and what configuration to put it together. That was so cool.
So we it is a traditional symbol for the Moravian church. We put it up usually for the first
Sunday of Advent, which is sometimes the Sunday after Thanksgiving, sometimes not, but it's
always the fourth Sunday before Christmas day. I heard you guys talking about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So I was very proud. You guys got that right. So it's just a beautiful star that you can put up.
We have some that are tree toppers so that you can use that for your Christmas tree indoors.
Or we've got some larger ones that you can hang on your porch or in your window.
This past summer, I was privileged enough to be able to go to Harrenhut, Germany,
which is where the star factory is. Oh wow. And purchase some original stars from the factory that
aren't just white. That's traditionally what we think of and what we sell at the church.
But I have a green one. I have a blue one that I just put together because that's the color of
the Advent season. I got a purple one. I got some smaller ones. I got some bigger ones. So they
come in all shapes and sizes. We have two at the church currently that we would be glad to let you
come purchase or cruise. We also have them available on Saturday mornings at the winter's
farmer's market. So you can always buy them there as well. And a perfect segue to get into the winter's
farmer's market. But we do want to encourage you to go to www.maravian.org to find out more about
some of these things that we've talked about here again, www.maravian.org. You can go under activities
and find the list of everything that Beth and I were just going over. But let's touch on the winter
farmer's market. It is going. It is running strong. I've heard nothing but good things. And every
time I pass you guys on a Saturday of the church, it is packed over there. It is. It is. And it's
been going since the middle of October. We will wrap up this part of the season on Saturday,
December 16th. So we've only got two more opportunities. No, just one more. Just this coming Saturday
is our last chance in this calendar year. I'll put it that way. We do start a four season again
in January. So you'll be able to come back. I believe it's that first Saturday in January,
which is got my calendar in front of me January 6th. You got it before me. You can join us then.
But we are taking both Christmas weekend and New Year's weekend off. So this coming Saturday,
if you're looking to join us this past Saturday, we had Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus with us. We had
all of our vendor space rented. So it was a full basement. It was a joyous time. We had a live
pianist for some of it. So it just was a wonderful sense of community and feeling and we're hoping
to carry it through this week. So come check us out again. I know that there's a number of people out
there that are always looking for things to do this time of year, especially as it gets cold
around and we get more snow and everything. It's great to have something like this, a community
welcoming event. It's free. Everybody can come. Doesn't matter who you are, what age or anything.
That part of it is really fun. It's also this time of year, people scrambling like I don't want to
get the same old same old for somebody. I don't want to get my mother another Coca-Cola item.
I don't want to think of something different. You go to the farmer's market. You're going to
have a plethora of things to choose from and stuff. It actually might make it even harder for you
to figure out now. Okay, now I got too many options. It's a good problem to have. Absolutely.
You can know that when you do something like that and you're purchasing those items, you are
helping our ag industry, you're helping our vendor industry, our people out there that
every penny counts. This is such a great opportunity for them to be able to have this. We
didn't always have a winter's farmer's market. So appreciating even just having it, let alone
what we're able to do for our great vendors out there, the great workers out there.
So it starts at 9 a.m. It goes to 1 p.m. We also sell some food. We've got some agrioles
a vendor that sells agrioles. I think the fry pies are coming back as the tamales might be there.
So they're cookies that are sold. So it's a wonderful different various spices and apple cider
and all sorts of things that are being sold there. So come check it out.
And spread the word about the winter's farmer's market. We all know that word amount is the
greatest advertiser of all. Spread the word, let people know about this. I know the market's been
around long enough. But I still think it is relatively new enough to where not everybody might
have heard about it yet. So spread the word about this. Encourage people to check it out.
And especially if you happen to know a vendor out there. Because you guys are still taking vendors.
Absolutely. Absolutely. We have some that will do it for a month. Some that will do it for the
season and some that do it week by week. So if you're a vendor and you're not quite sure if you
want to commit one Saturday, commit to one Saturday and see what we offer. And then maybe you'll
consider joining us more often. We'll give you that information how to contact Beth and the team
over there in just a moment. Because I didn't want to make some time for just a couple of other
events that you guys do. The Moravian women you guys meet. Are you guys are meeting coming up here?
Yeah. Yes. We are Moravian women group meets once a month. Usually it's the third Wednesday.
And for December, they're doing their holiday gathering. So they meet an hour earlier. They'll
meet at noon. And they bring finger food and just spend some time in Bible study and in fellowship.
I love finger food. That sounds like a really nice moment. A really nice chance to come together.
And some more camaraderie. Yes. Absolutely. And Friday morning breakfast Bible studies.
This is awesome. I don't know if we've talked about this before. Yeah. Every Friday morning,
we at nine o'clock. So it's a later breakfast. We usually have some type of a pastry that we'll
share. But we're studying a book, which is called The Way of Solomon. And it's a Jewish rabbi
who has translated the book of ecclesiasties. And it's more the intent. It's not a word for
word literal translation. But it's by author Ronnie Shapiro. And it's one that I came across when
I was in seminary and found very powerful. So he comes at it more from a Taoist perspective.
And how, you know, we often think of it as vanity of vanities, all as vanity. And it really is more
of an emptiness. And if something's empty, then there's the opportunity for it to be filled.
So it's just a different perspective on that book. So if you'd like to join us,
that is open to anybody who would like to come at nine a.m. on Friday mornings.
I think of the Dao Pu and some of those books. And how they kind of got people a different way
of helping people learn more about, you know, a subject matter. This book really does that.
It's something that my mom has given me tons of books to read. But not only certain books you have
to read. Like I'm going to get a book report from Haran and stuff. This was one of those books.
And it's, and I'm so thankful that she did too. While it was a long time ago, it still impacts.
It still hits you. For me, even just thinking about it when you were talking about it and everything,
I can immediately be brought back to that and some of the teaching, some of the lessons that I learned
from it. And we've had some wonderfully rich theological conversation around the table.
It's just been wonderful to hear different perspectives on it and what it means for each one of us.
If people want to be a part of this or learn more about any of the great things you guys are doing
over there, Beth, how can they get in touch with you? You can give us a call at the church office
at 715-423-0180. You can email me www.rmcpasteratgmail.com. You can check out our website
www.rmaradian.org. Or you can always catch us online if you'd like to see and experience some
of our worship services. Once we livestream, we keep it up on our channels. So you can go to YouTube
and look up Wisconsin Rapids Meradian Church. Thank you for pitching today. Thank you for filling in.
We appreciate that. And I always appreciate the time for you, Beth. You take care. We'll talk
again real soon. You as well. Thanks for having me. Well, a more midday magazine for you tomorrow,
right here on WFHR, locally grown radio.
