Greetings from your senior pastor. I wanted to give you a brief update on a few things happening here at the church.
- Discipleship Round Table – Last Tuesday (the 3rd Tuesday of the month) was our first Discipleship Round Table. On this particular Tuesday, we also invited small group leaders who are going to serve in our next small group series. The purpose of the meeting was to try and get everyone on the same page with what we are trying to do with our fall series, and to begin a longer conversation about how all of the ministries of the church can coordinate with one another in all programmatic efforts. A huge thank you to Janet Fredrickson and Vera Rhymes for their leadership in this area. As well, a thank you to Carolin Migliazzo as we begin to build out our vision for small groups throughout the church.
- Masks – As is consistent with the direction the session has taken throughout the pandemic, we are following Ventura County’s lead and requiring that all people at the church, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, are required to wear a mask indoors while on campus. Our hope and prayer is that infections will go down and this will no longer be necessary. For the time being, I appreciate everyone’s concern for their neighbor as we all mask up.
- My health – I’m not sure what I should say about this. If I say nothing, and stay somewhat private about my health, people like to begin to jump to their own conclusions. So here is the latest. A week ago, starting on Thursday, August 19, I did not feel well. I had a little bit of a weak tummy, but was sure that it was due to something I had eaten. Thursday night, I got shivers and threw up. When I woke up the next morning, I was sure I had COVID. My daughter and I went to Urgent Care, got tested, and we both got a negative result. Since then I have continued to have gastrointestinal issues. This has caused me to not sleep well, and be incredibly weak. I have no appetite and no energy. This morning, I saw a doctor. He has ordered tests and started me on a medication I am hopeful will get me to a place I feel alive again. At this time, I’m not really supposed to see anyone until the symptoms go away. I am behind in email. I am behind in a lot of things. At this point, I appreciate your prayers. And at this point we as a family don’t really need anything.
In the meantime, there are some big-time prayer requests in the bulletin. I hope you will take the time to read those each week and set aside time to pray for the named needs within our congregation. God willing, I will be back in the pulpit on Sunday. Thanks for reading all of this. I just felt like, as family, we need to be real with one another.
“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
Philippians 4:13
Peace,
