May 2026

From the Pastor
By Pastor Rebecca Borke

Dear First Wausau Family of Faith,

I am so excited that our area is starting to warm up! It seems like all of creation is being resurrected, and hope is blooming again. I happen to be writing this on Earth Day (April 22), and learned that the theme this year is “Our Power, Our Planet”. It helps us focus on how we work cooperatively in every day actions and hasten our transition to clean energy. As Christ-followers, we believe creation care is a primary part of God’s biblical call to us as stewards of this earth.

When I was in college, I became close friends with a woman in her late 80’s named Dorothy. She lived alone in a big old house in Cedar Rapids, and loved hosting my friends and I overnight when we came to visit her. She would always say, “This isn’t my house, it belongs to God. I just take care of it, and welcome you to stay in God’s house.”

I kept in touch with Dorothy over the years, and visited her in her late 90’s after she had fallen in her driveway and laid there for several hours before the neighbor children found her on their way home from school. She assured me that she hadn’t been afraid, but enjoyed watching the blades of grass and the tiny insects crawling around as she laid on the cold concrete with several broken bones. On her ambulance ride, she eagerly told the EMTs about her rediscovered wonder of God’s creation. She reminded all of us that this world isn’t ours, but belongs to God.

I hope no one gets hurt in order to get such a close-up view and renewed appreciation of creation. But I encourage you to get outside and walk in a garden, park, prairie, forest, or waterfront. As people of faith, I believe there is also room to improve on the theme of “Our Power, Our Planet”. Perhaps “God’s Power, God’s Planet” would better remind us that we are divinely gifted and empowered as stewards of creation. We honor God by how we care for creation and use earth’s resources wisely and sustainably.

For All the Earth,
Pastor Rebecca