Dear Friends,
As I write this Thanksgiving is only a week away and then Christmas only a month away. It’s hard to believe that we are nearing the end of another year. I suppose it is true that the older you get the faster the years slip by, but it leaves me thinking about the many reasons for which we have to be thankful for this year, along with hope for a blessed new year—2015. As I think about this past year I am particularly thankful for the way in which our congregation supported our monthly mission projects and in addition supported other projects, as well. I am thinking of the Mother’s Day breakfast we had to raise funds for the “No More Malaria” project, which our Conference is supporting. So many people turned out for this breakfast, and I distinctly remember how one of our members said to me, This was wonderful! There was truly a spirit of community and a desire to reach out to those suffering from this dread disease, especially since it is the children in Africa who suffer the most. With our breakfast and additional offerings following on Sunday, we raised $1000 to send to this mission project. This was in addition to funds we had previously raised, bringing our total support to over $2500. We thank the men who cooked the breakfast and those who attended and donated so generously.
Another event this past year that warmed my heart was our yard sale, which also raised approximately $1,000. Profits from this endeavor were ear-marked for our memorial garden, which Andrew Franks will be working on for his Eagle Scout award along with the help of Maury Harlow-Hawkes, the designer and caretaker of our garden. Many of you worked all day on that beautiful Saturday in August, and it was well-worth the effort. The Lord blessed us not only with the warmth of the day but with the warmth of fellowship and community involvement.
I could name other reasons for thanksgiving for this past year, but the New Year will soon be here, and I am anticipating the wonderful blessings our Lord will certainly shower upon us if we only have faith in Him and in ourselves, as the Body of Christ. I ran across the following story, which speaks to me of our need to have faith in the future:
One night at dinner a man, who had spent many summers in Maine, fascinated his companions by telling of his experiences in a little town name Flagstaff. The town was to be flooded, as part of a large lake for which a dam was being built. In the months before it was to be flooded, all improvements and repairs in the whole town were stopped. What was the use of painting a house if it were to be covered with water in six months? Why repair anything when the whole village was to be wiped out? So, week by week, the whole town became more and more bedraggled, more gone to seed, more woebegone. Then he added by way of explanation: “Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present.” May we each take hold of our God-given faith and believe in and work for the future of our church. God is at work. Shouldn’t we?
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Sandra
