Summer message from the Rev. Terry Troia

June 25, 2006

Dear Friends and Family of New Utrecht,

I want to wish each and every one of you a peaceful, restful, safe, sane, happy and holy summer break from school and work and the pressures of city life. I know that each of you carries a burden that God seeks to lift from your shoulders: the mourning of a recently lost loved one, a sick or aged family member, a child in trouble, parents or family who need you but who live far away, or the experience of your own spiritual or physical or emotional frailty that gives us pause. I invite you, as the disciples yielded their fear to the Jesus present among them in this week’s gospel reading, to allow God to lift the fear and the burden from your lives. Trust in God’s power to calm the storms we suffer. Trust in God’s power to hold us safe. Trust in God’s power to bring peace and stillness to our lives. Do not be afraid of the storms of life. More so, do not fear the power of God in your own lives. Yield yourself over to God and the spirit will work within you and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit will be present to you, drenching you with grace.

As many of you know, I have been preoccupied with the serious illness of my father these last four months. He is now being sustained on a respirator at the Intensive Care Unit of Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital and he lingers between life and death. I ask your prayers for him that God may heal his lungs and allow him to breathe independently again. I ask your prayers for myself and my family that God may sustain us in this time of journey.

Please know that while I am not filling the pulpit this summer to seek my own rest, renewal and to give of myself to my family, I am available to New Utrecht for its pastoral needs and concerns. Do not hesitate to call contact Deacon Rose Lood at 718-745-1269 over the summer. She will reach out to me as I am needed.

Take care and Godspeed ----terry

The Reverend Dr. Terry Troia, minister of the New Utrecht Reformed Church since 1994, also serves as the Director of Project Hospitality, an interfaith effort serving hungry and homeless persons and people living with HIV in Staten Island, NY. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the City Univeristy of NY - College of Technology. Rev. Troia is a graduate of St. Mary's Seminary & University, Baltimore and completed post graduate work in Christian Ethics at Union Theolgical Seminary, NY and the Seminario Biblico Latinoamericano, San Jose, Costa Rica.