Where In The World Is Rev. Maggie Lovins?

Hi y’all! I am hoping everyone is safe and healthy as you read this update. Chad, Daisy and I are here in Pensacola and maintaining in this period of unsureness. Chad is an essential truck driver, delivering dry ice for both commercial and personal use, but most importantly right now, he delivers the dry ice that is needed to ship medical tests and their supplies, so my prayers are with him and all the other essential, medical and first responders for safety daily!
There is so much going on even in this time of quarantine! I tell people my community is the world and therefore I serve wherever I am needed and I thought before we move into the summertime I should update y’all with some of the comings and goings of your UUCP Community Minister.

When I returned from Costa Rica in late March, right before they closed the borders, I did my part and quarantined myself for well over the recommended 14 days, thanks to a relative that allowed me to stay in their empty condo at the beach. In fact, while attempting to get some dinner delivered I met a very interesting gentleman, Blaine, who has a large network with the restaurants on Pensacola Beach and since they were closed down they decided to donate quite a bit of the food they would’ve had to get rid of to me, so that I could act on my calling as a community minister and start a small food ministry to feed as many of the underserved as I could. It started with the owner of the beach Subway, ‘Sundance’, donating 100 foot-long subs cut in half. That’s right, 200 sub sandwiches! I had so much to do that day that my grandmother (94 years young!) and my aunt came out with me to distribute all the subs and some personal hygiene bags that we had put together ourselves. Not only were we able to feed those in downtown/homeless communities, we were able to feed 3 fire departments, the Baptist Gulf Breeze ER employees, and 2 shifts of the medical workers at Select Hospital off of Airport Rd. – and all thanks to Subway at Pensacola Beach!

Since then I have been utilizing our beautiful new UUCP kitchen about once a week to prepare lunches using donations from other restaurants. Blaine came with me on May 5th and helped me cook a nutritious Cinco De Mayo meal; other meals have included fresh egg salad wraps, homemade spaghetti, and chicken chili. I am blessed to have the opportunity to serve our wider community, when I am able, and I am so thankful for the use of our kitchen during this time when some of the programs that the underserved count on are stretched to the point of breaking or are shutting down altogether due to the quarantine. I plan on continuing this service as long as I am able. Since the beach opened back up the donations have almost dried up, but I have some stock to work with so I will continue for now! If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to call or email me; I’m in the online Members’ Directory, on Simple Church and Face Book.

I am also attending the virtual JUST Pensacola meetings on Zoom. I joined with other ministers and members for a couple of Text Studies. These were meetings to dive deeper into the information gleaned from the DART training I attended in Orlando earlier this year based on the book Matthew in the Margins by Warren Carter. We discussed parts of the book and how the themes are applicable in this time of Covid-19. I have also been attending the board meetings in Paula’s stead due to a health concern. I welcome Penny Featherstone to take the lead so I may be her support. For more information see the JUST Pensacola update on page 10.

I have been busy getting ready to take my place on The Mountain Board. Starting in June, I will be on the Leadership Development Team. I look forward to joining a dedicated group of Mountain Movers tackling so many challenges facing this UU institution in this time of quarantine. We will be addressing how to reopen The Mountain and how we can make it as safe as possible as well as how we can assure its fiscal continuation. If you would like more information, or would like to become a sustaining member of this important organization the link is here: https://www.themountainrlc.org/donate.

I was scheduled to visit a few congregations this summer as guest minister, but just as we are in a virtual world at UUCP, most all UU churches are doing the same and I have been invited to deliver my sermons virtually. I look forward to new and exciting ways to produce Sunday services!

I am grateful for our weekly services – thanks to Rev. Alice for keeping us as connected and spiritually nourished! I also am grateful for our coffee hour and thanks to Trista for our virtual happy hour…all these methods to keep us as connected as possible are true blessings to me! Unfortunately, I am all too familiar with being homebound and not being physically able to be at church for one reason or another so I am actually feeling more connected to my church family and I just wanted to say Thank You and send my Love to all y’all!