GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!

I want to thank all of you who were there for me during my father’s death. It has been a rough couple of months as his health continued to decline and the final two weeks of his actively dying. Your cards, calls and visits helped comfort our hearts both during and after our vigil at his bedside. So, I start a new stage of my life, one many of you are all too familiar with as well. I have no parents or grandparents still living. Things have been so busy that I have not had time to ponder that much or really feel it in my heart. I expect it will hit home very soon! Thanks again for being such a loving, compassionate congregation!

This is the week of Vacation Bible School and as usual, Jamie has her army of servants organized and prepared for the coming invasion! Once again, we have more children wanting to come than we have spots to fill as word spreads through the community about the high quality of this ministry. By the time you read this, most of the event will be over and we will need to reach out to those who were here without a church home. During the next few weeks, those parents with children you see in worship could very well be some whose first contact with our church was through VBS. Be sure and give them a warm welcome and help them settle into our church family!

Also, by the time you read this our youth group will be headed to Florida for their mission trip. Keep Taylor, the volunteer leaders and all our youth in prayers during this important time. Frank and his younger adult group are headed to Mexico for a mission trip as well. Prayers are needed for these groups’ safety and effectiveness in sharing the love of God!

Randall Hickey, David and Becky Krall, Genoa Hawkins, Al and Gretchen Young, and Christine Fisher all became members of our church since my last writing. Christine’s son Oliver was baptized and received into our preparatory membership. We received her son Clayton as well. Proud grandparents are Al and Gretchen Young. God has again blessed us with new members in our church family!

You have noticed a lot of work going on around the church. The most expensive has been the new roof and $20,000 plus work on the air conditioning. We have had to dip into our line of credit to pay for these. We appreciate your help in paying for these capital improvements. The Finance Committee will soon bring an appeal to the congregation to pay for these necessary repairs. Please mark you gift as “church repairs” when you give!

All across our Midwest flooding is creating devastation in people’s lives. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is there helping to bring the necessities of life to those hardest hit. If you would like to help them, please mark your gift to UMCOR and we will see that it is delivered to those who are going through this terrible experience!

God’s Blessings!
Bro. Steve