Supporting the Dymund Families Medical Leave

The Rev. (almost Dr.) Sarah Dymund sensed a call to ministry for a very long time. But like many with such a call on her life, she avoided it for as long as possible. Then, as the Holy Spirit tends to do, Sarah was moved to eventually find her way to seminary and then ordination, serving within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) as a pastor at Trinity Lutheran in Regina, Saskatchewan.

In early 2022, Sarah and her family's life was upended when she was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer that she named it Boris (from Rocky and Bullwinkle). With the need for this “highly suspicious mass” to be removed, “Boris” was given an eviction notice and Sarah was booked for a mastectomy on Feb. 23, 2022. Sarah began a medical leave from her call in February 2022 and is now on long-term disability as she continues ongoing treatment and chemotherapy for cancer.

While our church (ELCIC) provides long-term disability income support, it does not cover all Sarah and her family need. As people of faith, Jesus calls us to care for our neighbour - to tend to the sick and suffering.

We have all witnessed Pastor Sarah living out her faith in her care and advocacy for others. Let us now give that same care to her and her family by sharing our prayers, encouragement, and financial support.

Who will these funds go to support?

Sarah’s multi-generational household includes her mother, stepfather, spouse, three children (ages 18, 16, and 11), and three pets. As a full-time pastor in the ELCIC, she was her family’s primary wage earner and was a few months away from graduating with her Doctor of Ministry when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

It is becoming increasingly difficult for her family to meet the rising cost of housing, utilities, food, clothing, and her children's education and extracurricular activities on a reduced income. They have needed to make difficult decisions to avoid further debt, such as temporarily allowing Sarah’s work health plan coverage to lapse due to the high cost of her premiums.

Your donations will help alleviate Sarah and her family’s financial stress until she is well enough to resume full-time work. Once the fundraising goal has been met, any additional funds above $6000 raised will be devoted to sending the Dymunds on vacation, as they have not been on a trip together in 19 years.

About Rev. Sarah Dymund’s important ministry:

Pastor Sarah has a unique and much-needed ability to be direct, grace-filled, and funny.

Since joining Trinity, Pastor Sarah has walked with the congregation to discover how God is calling them to participate within their neighbourhood, as good neighbours, while at the same time navigating all the other usual congregational dynamics: decreased membership, finances and capacity, aging population, changing demographics, etc. She works with the congregation to provide food for those who are food insecure with a food pantry open to all who need it; she began conversations with community organizers, collaborating with the community association to host community events.

Pastor Sarah also serves beyond the walls of Trinity, primarily engaging in advocacy and allyship. She is a Chaplain with Camp fYerfly - an organization for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth; has joined in protests for Climate Justice, BLM; endeavored to have Lutheran representation at Pride; organized and participated in an inter-faith prayer vigil on legislative grounds for Tristan D. Through the pandemic, her family welcomed the congregation into their home weekly for Sunday morning worship and worked to create a shared internship site with Luther College for a local Seminarian, along with finding funding to financially support it.

Pastor Sarah’s theology is rooted in that we are all broken and sinful people. But that we are also a resurrection people - with good things coming out of the ashes. And, God loves us more than we could ever truly know. She has a wide-reaching understanding of what it means to follow Jesus, which regularly looks like: listening to, following, and amplifying the voices of those driven to the margins and pushing back against patriarchy, misogyny, racism, and -isms of all kinds. She has implicit faith that anything is possible with God and a very healthy dose of belief that God calls us to make God’s work happen in our world. Sarah is tenacious in her ability to make people sit in their discomfort of the hard parts of following Jesus.

In her free time, Pastor Sarah volunteers in the community, including serving on the executive of the local figure skating club. And then, she entered into a D. Min program in transformative preaching.