One of the many good things about our congregation is that whenever there has beena need and I have asked you for your help, you have responded generously Whetherthat need is a new young mother in Pleasantville who just had a baby and has nothing with which to care for that baby, or a family in need at Christmas, or a person battling cancer having a benefit, or Ranch Hope needing to build a new Administration Build-ing destroyed by fire, or People in Pass, MS. needing to rebuild their homes, or or-phaned children in Uganda needing someone to build them a home, you have gener-ously responded! And those of us who have had the privilege of taking these resources to these peoplehave been so blessed to see the faces of those to whom these gifts have meant not justHope, but Life. Many of us have been there to receive heartfelt thanks, often with tearsand to see the shine in their eyes. You have been so generous when we needed to care for our immediate facility and property improvement as we entered intothe Capital Improvement projects that have renewed our sanctuary. While the economy has caused us to scale back and delay our long term project, there are some projects we continue to move forward on, such as the replacement of our sanctuary windows, the repair of our steeple, air conditioning for our children's Sunday School rooms and for Adams Hall, parking lotimprovements, etc. Your gnerous support is helping us make a lasting investment in the future ministries of our church andthe children, youth, and young families whom God keeps sending us.I wish you could hear the vibrant energy on Sunday mornings of over 100 children, youth, and teachers in interested and ex-cited conversation about God, leaning bible stories of our faith. I wish you could see the faces of almost 40 youth in ourbasement on Sunday rights in JYG and UMYF and Confirmation Class having fun and talking together about their faith. I wish you could see- -on Tuesday mornings, our Toddler room filled with young Moms sitting in a circle with Bibles on theirlaps while little ones crawl and toddle around the room and Moms talk together about God's Word and how it applies tothem right now. I wish you could see the faces of 23 people in Bible Study on Tuesday mornings in the Chapel, and 15 at theBeanery in EHT on Tuesday nights, and some 15 in Bible Study the Chapel on Tuesday night, growing in their faith, and somuch more. There are 90 adults, youth, and children involved in choirs, praise teams, music classes practice almost every right of the week, and men playing Basketball in Adams Hall on Monday nights, and on and on.I remind you of these wonderful stories of our growing faith family and ministries to also tell you of another need. Some-times in caring for all the needs of others, we can forget about the needs we have in our own ongoing caring ministries. While we continue to care for all these wonderful needs, our giving to our own ongoing ministry has been struggling. Since January, we have significantly cut back on spending for our ministries, asking each department to be frugal, yet income to ourregular ministry has fallen short each month of our expenditures. As of the end of February, we have expended $23,500 morethan we have received. Obviously, we cannot continue to spend more than we receive. Fortunately, because of your generousgiving in prior years and prudent spending by our ministry teams, and careful investing by our Financial team, we have re-serves we have been able to draw upon.I know that for some in our church family, during these last few months, daily family life has been seriously impacted by thepotential loss of home, the loss of one spouse's job, and the tightening of belts. We are trying to be a support to the families we know who need us. So in these difficult times, we need your continued faith generous, even sacrificial support where pos-sible.Candy and I, facing our own challenges, like you, but we have purposed to God, we will continue to be faithful to Christ withour tidies and offerings of thanksgiving. God has been so good to us throughout all of our lives. We will continue to stretchourselves to make a healing difference in this world for Christ through His Church, Thank you for all you are doing and forthe lives we are able to touch for Christ because of you.
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