Hello Church family,
It is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and my weekly email is arriving into your mailbox just a little later than normal. There is some important information at the end of the email, so please read through everything.
This week is a week to think of everything that we are thankful and grateful for. This year, it may be harder because of how 2020 has turned out and I know that many of you will be alone for Thanksgiving or that you might not have as full of a table as you are used to. Please know that all of you are in my prayers for this week and will be adding you all to my blessings for 2020. I know I say it a lot, but I am very grateful for you all and how you all have welcomed me into the Redeemer family. I look forward to worshipping with you all in person once it is safe to do so.
Sunday begins our Advent Season where we will celebrate the coming of Christ and how God sent his Son to be our light in a dark world. While Advent will be different this year, I hope that it will still be just as meaningful as it has been in years past. I hope we can find the light, the peace, and hope that I believe we all need right now. Thank you to all who have signed up to be our Virtual Advent Wreath this year! I cannot wait to see what you do with your wreaths! If those of you that are making wreaths would like, send me a picture of your Advent Wreath and I would love to share it in our weekly email.
On Sunday we will have Angelo from NEOCH sharing a message with us during the service and we will hear about the work that we have done with them and how we have supported NEOCH in the past year. Joyce Roper will also share a mission moment with us about the upcoming Advent Offerings. If you would like to purchase the Street Chronicle, which is the newspaper that Angelo sells, please let Charlie know. This edition of the Street Chronicle will be their newspaper but will also have wrapping paper included!
Last Friday Vivian sent out an email about Poinsettia Orders for Christmas Eve. If you would like to purchase Poinsettias please fill out the form that I have attached to the email and mail it back into Vivian or drop it off to the church mailbox by the ramp door. Order forms are due Tuesday December 8th.
On Saturday November 28th the Hopewell family will be gathering to celebrate the life of Mary Hopewell. You all are invited to attend Mary’s memorial service over Zoom on Saturday. The service will begin at 1pm and will be recorded if you are unable to watch online. I will send the link for Mary’s service on Friday afternoon, so please look for that email after lunchtime on Friday. If you have any questions please email or call me or Vivian at the church and we will answer them for you.
Our scriptures for the First Sunday of Advent are: Isaiah 64:1-9, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, and Mark 13:24-37
Our prayer for the week, it is the prayer that I shared at the beginning of our service on Sunday. It comes from Sharon Seyfarth Garner and The Belly of the Whale Ministries.
A Thanksgiving Prayer for 2020
Gracious God, this Thanksgiving
we gather full of both gratitude and grief.
We are grateful for the food on our table
and grieve the empty chairs around it.
We are grateful for technology that connects us
and grieve the loss of a simple human touch.
We are grateful for seasons of abundant harvest
and understand that fields must sometimes lie fallow.
We humbly ask that you feed our hungering hearts,
weary spirits and beleaguered bodies
with generous helpings of your sacred strength,
extravagant love and radical resilience.
Thank you, O God, for this gift of life
and the privilege of living it.
Amen.
I pray that this week lands gently on you all.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Megan