By the time you receive this, we’ll be just a few weeks from Resurrection Sunday. During Lent, we’ve talked about and practiced Meeting Jesus At the Table (by Cynthia Campbell and Christine Foy). Since I haven’t been able to literally sit around a table with each of you, I’d like to share some things.
We started a daily reading challenge to complete the Bible in a year. Our weekly Wednesday night study has been about digging more deeply into the scriptures. I invited our online family and friends to participate as well. There are about 20 of us reading and meeting together each week in person and another 70 who are participating in the online group!! What an amazing experience to grow in God’s word together and strengthen our discipleship. I’m excited to see what God will birth from this time. I wonder what new ministries and leaders will emerge from 12 months of daily study.
March 6th will be one year to the day of the parsonage fire. In the way traumatic events do, it feels like it just happened and at the same time was a lifetime ago. I’m so grateful to those who took care of me through the whole process (are still taking care of me through the process) and loss. And, I am so grateful to be home again. The parsonage is beautiful. We’re in the process of restoring the landscaping and taking care of the exterior. I love being able to host the congregation for fellowship and bible study in the remodeled parsonage. I am humbled by this community’s outpouring of love and generosity in helping me restore what had been lost.
I feel confident most of you have heard me talk about my dad at some point in last the seven years. I’m unquestionably a “daddy’s girl.” I am very proud to share that my father, Retired Major Merle Vernone will be honored posthumously for his decorated military career, specifically his service during the Vietnam war, by being inducted into the Pavilion of Honor at Goodfellow Air Force Base. The induction ceremony is March 29, which is also Good Friday. I will be in San Angelo for the induction. We will have come and go prayer stations between 11am and 4pm for our Good Friday worship. I’ll get in my car early Saturday morning and drive back, ready to worship Easter Sunday with you.
The last few months have been busy in general, but a few others and I have also been working on writing grants for different ministries and needs of the church/pastor. We just heard that we did not receive the grant we submitted for the food pantry. So we’ll spend some more time researching other possibilities. I am also in the process of writing a grant to help with the feasibility of me taking a 3 month sabbatical in 2025. Our district superintendent, members of the board, and I have been in conversation about what that might look like and how it would benefit all of us.
So, how are you all? What is happening in your lives? How are your families? How is it with your soul? What conversations are you having around the table with your people? What conversations would you like to have? What is God doing in you? Would you like to meet for a coffee and some holy conversation? Let’s make time to gather at the table together.
Blessings, Pastor Michelle
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