Dear Grace,
I hope that you are experiencing the steadfast presence of the Lord in the midst of the crazy weather that is Maryland! 90 degrees one day, 60 degrees the next. As they say, “If you don’t like the weather in Maryland, just wait an hour.”
In all seriousness, even while the weather that is Maryland spring is so unpredictable, God continues his faithful work of bringing forth life all around us. It’s so consistent and faithful, year after year, that we call it “seasons”. Don’t overlook the miracle.
In thinking about seasons, I’m thinking about the number of new babies that the Lord has added to our number. What a sweet time! Sarah has been calling a certain group of these babies, “praise babies” because so many on our worship team have welcomed newborns over the last 6 months. Rejoice with me over…
- Chris & Tatiana Calcaño – daughter, Olivia
- Luke & Megan Dix – son, Ezra
- Daniel & Brooke Chow – son, Joshua
- Adam & Andrea Lentz – daughter, Adeline
- Isaac & Hannah Brunk – son, Oakley
Let’s praise God for our praise babies!
Sarah and I visited with Todd & Julia Harris last Friday after they welcomed their daughter, Faith, into the world during Holy Week. Faith is a miracle baby because all throughout the pregnancy, the doctors advised that Faith’s chance of survival was very slim. But here she is! She still has a long and hard road ahead, so join me in prayer over the whole family, including Faith’s grandparents Warren & Rena Tolson, who have been a part of our church family for so long. May God continue to sustain life and give his joy as a gift for however many days He has ordained.
What a start to Missions Month – full of joy and purpose. We had a number of people attend our Refugee Workshop with World Relief, eager to take the next step of putting faith into action – hospitality into service.
If you’re wondering how our theology and commitment to Scripture informs our plans and actions in welcoming the stranger, I encourage you to consider joining our study, “Welcoming the Stranger”. It’s a 6-week dive into Scripture held on Thursday nights. You can find out information here.
This coming weekend, we’re excited to have a guest speaker who will inspire our hearts and minds towards loving our Muslim neighbors. While he will speak on Sunday, he’ll be with us all weekend as we host the Catalyze conference – a Friday to Sunday gathering led by Frontiers USA. The time will feature lots of learning around the challenges and great opportunities to reaching the Muslim world. We’ve got people coming from all over the country for this with lots of space and time to hang out and meet like-minded practitioners. Come for all or even a part. (Note: there is a registration cost, so make sure you take a look at the details.)
Sarah and I are experiencing great joy as we just about wrap up our preparation for Grace’s first ever Marriage Retreat for pastors/elders and their wives. We’ll be heading to Deep Creek Lake next Thursday (4/23) – Saturday (4/25) for a time of living into the vision of marriage as a sign and wonder. Would you pray for this time? I believe it has the potential to change the entire church, and Sarah and I are also looking at it as a pilot for what we’re dreaming about for all the leaders of our church.
As you pray for this time, please continue to pray for clarity regarding our two open pastor positions and for an executive assistant for me. These spots have been vacant for longer than I’d like, but we are wanting to be deliberate and prayerful. There have been many answered prayers along the way! We’ve got some good candidates for each position, but we don’t want to hurry it in these last few stages. Pray for clarity, calling, and a sense of God’s leading as to who He is adding to our number.
It seems like our pastors have been busy making lots of hospital visits lately: scheduled surgeries, unplanned accidents, chemo infusions… it’s been the whole gamut. As respective pastors share updates around how our people are doing, there’s a joy that we all feel, even in the midst of difficult circumstances, that God is in the midst and present with us. There’s no better comfort and joy than sharing that.