Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
A recent sermon at the beginning of our stewardship campaign afforded me the opportunity to tell the following story:
My youngest daughter is named Claire and she turned eleven on October 7. For the better part of two years, she has been dealing with severe abdominal pain that a bevy of doctors has been unable to conclusively diagnose. It has been a long, hard, slog, one that at some points made it difficult for Claire to even make it through entire school days. There were nights when the pain would be so great that all I could do was to hold her in my arms while she cried and cried out like the psalmist “Why won’t God help me? I keep asking him and he doesn’t help!”
Yet this school year has been better. The attacks of pain are much less frequent.
After a recent Wednesday night Evensong service in our chapel, with its contemplative worship in the candlelight, and she said to me from the back seat, “I like coming to church. I really do.” “I am so glad to hear that,” I told her.
She said, “I feel like for so long, that I kept asking and asking God to make me better, but now I am better, and now instead of asking him over and over and over again to make me well, I can come to church and just thank him for helping me so much.”
This is a story brought to you by God’s grace manifest in your faithful generosity. Your giving truly changes lives for good and for God, something that week after week you make visible in our midst.
It is time for us to again prayerfully complete and submit our estimate giving cards, our best prediction as to what we will contribute to God’s important work here at Reveille in 2020. You can learn more about how to bless your church, its leaders, and its ministries by going to www.reveilleumc.org/stewardship.
Most importantly, please allow me to say “thank you” for all you do to make Reveille such a special, unique place, an outpost of God’s kingdom on earth that truly transforms communities and changes lives. You are making a difference.
Peace,
Doug