November 2022 Newsletter
November 2022 Newsletter
Grace and peace to you in Jesus!
Dear Family of God at Grace,
Even with all the suffering and loss that has happened in our community from Ian, this November there is still much for which we can give thanks. We are alive! We are rebuilding! We still live in this beautiful place! The Church had no damage! November signals the end of the hurricane season! Thanks be to Jesus!
November means Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving means the end of the church year and the beginning of a new church year. We start November with All Saints Sunday. This year we toll the bell for ten members who have departed this earth life for the life with Christ in heaven. While we mourn the fact that they are no longer with us like before we celebrate the fact that they are with Jesus and so are we and that in Christ we are never separated from our loved ones even when they depart to be with Jesus in heaven. Where Christ is there is the whole church. They are there with Him at the throne we are with Him in the battle, yet we are together as one church! Thanks be to Jesus!
Once again as we say farewell and Godspeed to saints who have departed,we also welcome in new saints into the family of God at Grace. We are welcoming eight new families. Some who have been with us for many months and some who joined us recently. It is great to have you as part of our family here at Grace. May we be a blessing to you as I am sure you all will be a blessing to us.
From All Saints we then have Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving Eve Service will be on Wednesday 23rd
at 6:30 Come and give thanks to our Lord for all His benefits to you! Then come back on Thanksgiving Day at 3 PM for dinner. If you have no where to go or if you have somewhere to go but you’d rather eatwith the Family of God at Grace, then come and enjoy some good food and good fellowship. We will have turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, candied yams, a relish tray, tea, coffee, punch, and pies for dessert. If you want to help, we welcome the hands, feet, and cooking knowledge. We will start early, 9 AM. There may even be a football game on the big screen or maybe a parade or two. Come have some wonderful fellowship and food!
Finally, we start a new church year in November with Advent. This year the Elders and I have made a change. We are going to use the one-year lectionary series for the next three years. What does that mean to you? Well, probably very little. We still have an Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel Readings. We have been using a 3-year series which rotates through Matthew, Mark, Luke,and John. You get more Bible in the 3-year than you do in the 1 year but in the1-year you get the readings more often. You get to hear them every year verses every 3 years. Originally the 3-year series came about with the hope that more Bible meant more growth for the hearer. I’m not sure that has happened. 3-year or 1-year really matters little in the grand scheme of things,so this change is not earth shattering. In my 27 years I have never used the 1-year series. For that matter in pastor Kudart’s 45+ years he has never used the1-year series either. Let’s try something new!
Let me close with some wonderful news. We have collected to date about $42,000.00 for the matching funds for hurricane relief. With the $50,000.00 that gives almost $100,000.00. That is fantastic. Work is going on in the homes of our members who had damage. I have walls! The drywall is up and should be finished and ready to paint by Sunday the 6th.
After painting then it will be flooring over Thanksgiving and then kitchen and bathroom work can begin. Hopefully I’ll have a refurbished house early in the new year! Thank you to all who have been so generous with donations! Thank you for all the offers to stay in your home! Please understand that for all of us who have been impacted we are in a fog. We want some normalcy, whatever that means, and we don’t know how to make that happen. We love all of you! Thank you so much!
A blessed November to you all!
Pastor Lingsch