Good morning,
Although I still maintain my Facebook and Instagram accounts, I don’t post to them nearly as often as I used to. I still check them frequently, however, because I do enjoy being up to date on what is going on in my friends’ lives, particularly those old friends that I’m not as close to as I once was because of life changes and physical proximity.
Last week was not one that I’ll remember fondly for a number of reasons. Like all families, ours has its shares of struggles and stressors and things we have to deal with that we’d rather not have to deal with. And the culmination of those things had me feeling a bit “down.”
Then I checked my Facebook page, and things were put into perspective for me. One old friend who has been in a battle with cancer posted that he was transitioning to hospice care. An old college roommate posted that his teenage son had gone missing (as I type this they still don’t know where he is or what happened). Another old friend posted that his yet-to-be-born granddaughter is going to have to endure 3 separate heart surgeries within months of being delivered to simply have a shot at a somewhat normal life.
Each of these friends have a strong faith, which I am sure they are leaning hard on right now. Each one expressed their trust in the Lord even in these very difficult situations. And on Sunday night, as I closed my laptop for the evening, I was reminded of these three truths:
My own struggles, as real as they are, aren’t nearly what other people are facing.
Even in this world of great hurt and heartaches, God is great, and God is good. He is always both of those things at the same time.
I have much to be thankful for, even in the midst of my own struggles.
Enjoy this season of gratitude, everyone. We have much to be thankful for.
Here’s what’s happening:
- Thank you to everyone who brought food for the meal on Sunday and especially to the kitchen committee for all of their hard work.
- We collected 65 shoeboxes for OCC!
- Men’s Breakfast is this Saturday at the Hometown Kitchen at 8 am.
- Advent begins next Sunday, December 3rd. I am once again looking for some folks who would be willing to provide special music during the morning worship services.
- Junior Youth meets after the worship service on 12/3.
- The Senior High Youth Group meets after the worship service on 12/10.
- The annual Christmas Caroling will be on Friday 132/15. We are meeting at the Kreider home at 6:15 pm.
- We will begin our advent collection for Solanco Neighborhood Ministries starting on 12/5 and running through 12/17. We will be collecting items for their SWEEP program. I’ll talk more about this next week but if you see a good deal on Ramen Noodles, Pop Tarts or granola bars starting stocking up!
- Christmas Eve Candlelight service is set for 7 pm.
- We will not be having Sunday School on 12/24 or 12/31 to give our teachers a holiday break.
This week we conclude our sermon series on Nehemiah! By the end of chapter 12 the walls have been dedicated, the city and the people are thriving, and all seems well. Then Nehemiah writes in chapter 13 how quickly things deteriorated once he went back to Persia. We’ll look at what happened, why it happened, and what Nehemiah did once he returned to Jerusalem.