October – November 2007
As most of you know, Pam and I have just returned from the Minister and Spouses Gathering in Natural Bridge. Thank you once again to the congregation of Preston Wesleyan for providing us this time away for rest and renewal. I also want to thank my mom and dad for coming from Allentown to watch James and Anna for the weekend. I was good to have them here and to be with us for worship on Sunday .
I also want to thank Frances and Charles again for sponsoring me on the Emmaus Walk. The 72 hours spent there was life changing. I am still basking in the glow of that event. I came away with a fresh understanding of the love of God and His amazing grace and mercy. My prayer for you is to daily experience God’s love, grace, and mercy. It’s only when we realize God’s grace, love and mercy that our hearts are truly softened. That’s the experience I had. It’s knowing that God loves me, that compels me to do what I do. It’s God’s love that should compel us to give our lives to the Kingdom. I know that I am beginning to sound like a broken record, but Kingdom building is what it is all about. That’s the command that Christ gave us, his disciples before He went back to be with His father.
I want to repeat what I said on Sunday and what Pastor Greg Reynolds said to us on Saturday. We need to stop apologizing for being Wesleyan. Over the next few weeks, we are going to continue to take a look at what it means to be Wesleyan. I encourage you to be here this coming Sunday—if you get this before Sunday, for a time of communion. I will be sharing about communion and what that means to us as Wesleyans and as the Body of Christ. — the holy, universal, apostolic church. As I shared on Sunday, the more I learn about what it means to be a Wesleyan, the more I am glad that I am one.
What lies in store in this issue of The Informer. You will find out about the grant we received from the Shenandoah District to enhance our technology. One of the things that we ran out of room for, was an announcement that as part of our new database software, we have the ability to pull in pictures. This will allow us to print a pictorial directory much cheaper. If you have a recent picture of your family, please let us scan it. This way we can add it to the church database.
May the grace of God be showered on you. Dale.
