Dear friends,
Greetings in the name of Jesus who is the Resurrection and Life! This Sunday we will look at the text in John’s Gospel where Jesus finds himself in a time of grief at the loss of his friend Lazarus. Jesus recognizes the pain that comes with human loss, especially those dear to us, but also relies on the power of God to bring life even in the midst of pain and loss.
Our church has experienced loss this week. We have lost two (2) saints from our congregation. Please be in prayer for the families of Patricia Casto-Knight and Sue Birdsong. Patricia passed early Monday morning and Sue passed earlier this morning. Pray that in this time of pain and grief God will bring comfort and peace. During these unusual days of social distancing and self-quarantining there will be no funeral services open to friends. However, when things return to “normal,” we will have memorial services for both Patricia and Sue. Please keep these families in your prayers.
This Sunday we will continue our Facebook live-stream worship service at 11 am. For those of you who may not have Facebook but do have email, we will email the service in a YouTube video link at the beginning of the week. Either way you choose to join us will be fine. We have attached a bulletin that you can print to follow the service and have words to the hymns and worship songs. You will also be able to find the worship service posted on our website later Sunday afternoon.
We want to stay connected to you. If you have suggestions on ways for us to do this, please contact the church office. Our new office hours are Monday – Thursday, 10 am – 2 pm. We have created neighborhood call lists for those who do not use email or social media. Every member or constituent of Main Street UMC should receive some form of contact over the next week. If you know of someone that did not, please let us know.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Rich
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.