February 25th

It’s Friday and Sunday’s Comin’!

First the good news: Pastor Mary will be back with us Sunday!! I know we are all excited to see her and Michael. There will be a fellowship from 9-10:15 to be able to welcome them back. Everyone is welcome at the fellowship hall for this celebration. We will also do a welcome time as a brief part of the morning worship service. 

I am so proud of the way you have carried on during this sabbatical time. So many leaders have exercised diligence and put forth such great effort to see this through. Thank you all. My part has been the public part, and has been a joy. But you have continued doing your work in the background. 

The phrase, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming,” (as I understand it) came from an African-American preacher. He was preaching about Good Friday’s despair and apparent defeat, and the coming of Easter Sunday’s radical hope. I see Lent as a 6-7 week reminder of the darkness of Good Friday, with the promise of Easter Sunday out ahead. 

The Lenten season begins next Wednesday with our Ash Wednesday Service. Pastor Mary will lead us into and through this season of humility, darkness and desperation for God’s ways to become the ways of humanity. Pray for her as she reenters the task of ministry and leads us throughout this season of contemplation. 

Thursday morning, I awakened to multiple messages and messengers from Kyiv, Ukraine. Friends were hearing shelling, and seeing plumes of smoke. Yevgenya (Eugene)–who  not too long ago visited us at NUMC, and sang a song for us–sent videos taken from his balcony, of Russian bombing at the Kyiv Borispyl Airport–an airport I’ve come and gone from many dozens of times. I heard from a woman whom I met when she was 5. Her husband had left early that morning to enlist in the military, saying goodbye to her and their son and daughter. I heard from a pastor friend who’s wife was shaking and inconsolable as the bombing broke out nearby. In all of my life, I’ve never been so prepared for the dark, desperation of Lent. It’s Friday…   

– David 


Be praying for:

  • Pastor Mary’s return and her transition back into her pastoring role.
  • All of the ministries of United Methodist Church.
  • Your Vision and Strategy Team as they begin to calendar meetings
  • The Season of Lent, and how you will observe it.
  • Dennis Rhodes and family, in the loss of his sister.
  • The people of Ukraine.