MIDWEEK MESSAGE 25
Good middle of the week my friends! I am writing the beginning of this MM on Monday morning so I can honestly say, “I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day!” Perhaps more appropriately I can say, “I hope you had a wonderful Labor Day.” I sincerely hope you took the time to consider how blessed we are and that we live in this great country-flaws and all.
As I wrote the heading to this week’s MM, I typed the number “25.” It is hard for me to believe I have been writing this for that long and this whole mess has been going on that long. I just hope you enjoy reading it and hearing how things are going in our/my neck of the woods. Hmmm. Since I live in town I’m going to have to find another way to say that. I don’t have any woods…or trees for that matter. Some of you know that I write a daily devotion blog at http://livingintheshadow.ovcf.org/ where I have a couple of daily readers. I think there are more but they don’t leave comments so who knows? 🙂 If you would like to know what I think on a more daily basis {Caution: proceed carefully} please check it out. I’d be honored if you would come by. Come to think of it I’m not ever sure my own family reads it. But I know where they live and sleep!!
Top on the agenda is to remind you of our Volunteer Appreciation Night at the Tivoli this Sunday night. For the past oh-so-many-years (that is Grandi-speak for I don’t know) the three of us on staff (Diana, Ryan and me) have been treating you to a night of thanks for your volunteer service to the church. We started out at the church building with a catered meal and a prepared program of laughter and speeches, but then we decided to switch it up and go to the Tivoli. It was a great success so we have continued doing that. This will be the third year. We provide a free popcorn and drink for you (anything extra is your responsibility) plus we have a ton of door prizes we have drawings for. We ask that you plan to arrive at 5 and we plan to start the movie no later than 5:45. We will be showing Incredibles 2, a movie the whole family can enjoy. Just a heads up: we will have to observe the Tivoli protocol of wearing a mask when we enter and when getting refreshments. You don’t have to wear them when sitting down.
*Note from Diana: Bill, Jo and Tami did not RSVP but we will let them attend anyway! J We are looking forward to seeing you all!
In case you were not here or online Sunday, Ryan announced the plan to restart the Sunday morning youth programs on September 27th. He has consulted the teachers and helpers for their thoughts and they have put together a plan for getting things started again. Many of you parents were good about responding to his questionnaire and expressed your desire for the youth classes to restart. Thanks so much for making your thoughts known. I am excited to see things open up some and will be super excited to see many of you.
The only caveat to that is the Nursery will be open for you to bring your nursery-aged children to but it will not be staffed…at least not until Governor Holcomb says we are in Stage 5. Ryan is taking some of the toys out and is asking you to bring some of your own for your children so there will be no “sharing of slobber.” i.e. We can keep things disinfected and not share germs! J
If you have any questions about any of the youth program restarting, please harass ask Ryan. Thanks to all the teachers and helpers who will help make this a doable option for our kids.
I understand from Tami that the Live Stream is not going to the church’s FB group (the private one). But she also tells me that someone has been sharing a link for it from our group page (Thanks Christine!). I’m sure you know this already but the Live Stream goes to the church’s FB page and also to YouTube automatically. You can watch it there. Tami says she is going to go and check out (again) why it is not being streamed to the private group. Meanwhile, please keep signing in for us. And thanks for letting us know about what was happening this past week. We have no way of knowing if something is awry unless you tell us. I understand we finally got it fixed. Ryan found some settings off. Unfortunately, Ryan had to leave playing drums during our music set to fix things. It would be great if he didn’t have to worry about that. If you would like to learn how to do the Live Stream we could certainly use your help.
Here is what is coming up in the sermon department for the next few weeks in the series Q & A. This week’s will be “What about Stones?” After that will be “What about Words?” “What about Storms?” “What about Doubt?” “What about Anger?”
One more thing you can be thinking about: Did you know OVCF will be celebrating our 16th anniversary on October 18th? More to come.
Just know I love you and look forward to seeing you.
Pastor Bill
