Confirmation class beginning and the “hacking” of Our Savior’s e-mail
Thursday October 8, 2020
“Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, Rejoice!”
Dear friends and family of Our Savior’s,
I invite you to rejoice in the Lord with me. We have good news to share. Last night I and faith mentor Julia Berg met with the 2018-2020 confirmation class to begin finishing the Covid-19 interrupted spring term. Yes, we all wore masks, social distanced - we had our own table in the dining hall and sanitized our hands upon entering the building. Yes, each student grew a bit taller over the summer. Yes, it was good to see them again and be back studying God’s word in the book of Acts. We are planning their confirmation service on Reformation Sunday, October 25 at the 9:30 worship. If you are looking for something full of hope and excitement. If your faith needs a shot of spiritual vitamins. I recommend reading the book of Acts. With Jesus work complete on the cross and resurrection, he ascends to heaven. He said that he was going away to send the Holy Spirit. In chapter 2, The Holy Spirit is poured out upon waiting disciples with a rush of mighty wind, tongues of fire resting on each disciple and given the ability to share the good news of Jesus crucifixion and resurrection in the languages of the world. They are Christ’s witnesses inviting all to place faith in him and find life. Luke tells us how God’s work unfolds in the first generation of Christians, Peter, Paul, the first martyrs James and Stephen and of Paul’s three missionary journeys in spite of the persecution of the first Christian churches. I invite you to join Joan and myself in our devotional reading of this magnificent book and rejoice how God is working in our world!
Secondly, the hacking of Our Savior’s e-mail was both malicious and well planned. It was foiled when you called to alert me that you had received a strange message. Here is what I can tell you. Last week thieves hacked the churches e-mail and sent this message pretending to be P. Dave seeking your help and directing you to purchase a $300 I Tunes card. The thieves were probably operating out of Nigeria, North Korea, Russia or Iran. The cards would be sold immediately on ebay. To hide their scheme and keep you from e-mailing the church to ask, “What going on?”. They set up a “rule” in the programs settings directing any incoming messages to O.S. e-mail address oslcinsandwich@hotmail.com to the Deleted file. You thwarted their plan by alerting us with your phone calls and my real cry for “help” directed to my son-in-law David Lausch. We immediately changed the e-mail password. Then we discovered something was amiss when we received no e-mails this week. We again contacted David L. who told us to check the “deleted file” and see if some one had placed a message in “Rules” directing all incoming messages to the deleted file! We found both and corrected them! Never could have fixed it without the help of David L., Joan, Judy and an amazing helper who desires to remain anonymous! Thank you! I am happy to announce that oslcinsandwich@hotmail.com is back in business for your e-mails. I am also thankful for God’s presence in these stressful times, for you and your prayers and concern. Let’s rejoice in the Lord. Think of something to be thankful and joyful about!
I look forward to seeing you at worship this weekend in person or on the broadcast, God bless, P. Dave :)