From Pastor Heather

I was hiking on Wednesday morning with our lay leader and I was telling him about my friend whose church has always struggled financially in a small town on the Oregon coast. But in the midst of the pandemic, this church decided to give people $100 a week who had lost their jobs.  People started donating and the relief funds came pouring in.  Their food bank is giving four times the amount of food out that they did the previous year.  And yet they have never run out of food or funds for the first time in 6 years.  They responded with abundance and have been blessed. This is just one story of one church across the country that has stepped up into the midst of uncertainty and made a huge difference.  

But you Faith, have also stepped up when the need is great.  Just last week you adopted all of the students in Osage County Foster Care who needed help with Christmas.  After doing that you helped provide Christmas for the 8 families in Family Promise after Tina made me aware that there was a need.  Your Mission committee responded to our partner school, Darnaby Elementary, when the school counselor made us aware of families that needed help with Christmas.  In addition, next week the Mission committee will deliver handwritten cards with a gift card for each staff member at the school. 

You gave generously to our Crises Relief Fund and we have carefully given these funds away to folks in need.  Every time I ask Glen if we have run out of funds to help people, he tells me that they have been replenished.  Our new food ministry has had weeks where we did not know where the food would come from, yet we have always have had food to give away. I have seen names (from our church of families) where someone has lost their job yet they are still helping out with Care Portal. Because of your faithfulness, I was able to put a mom and baby in a hotel when their car broke down and relatives couldn’t arrive for them until the next day.  And the Missions committee was able to send $2500 in relief funds to UMCOR for hurricane relief because of you.  

Why do I share these stories of God working in our midst?  Because so much of the news we see or read is depressing and fraught with strife.  God is still working and in unbelievable ways. 

Yet, the need is so great that it can sometimes overwhelm us.  There are so many good and important places to give our resources and funds.  It is hard sometimes to decide where we can do the greatest good.  We faced this challenge again this year as we discussed our Christmas Eve offering.  You see, we give this offering away every year to a need.  In 2018 we started the funding for Family Promise to launch.  In 2019 we focused on children who had incarcerated parents through CJMM. 

This year the Missions Committee has decided to give the Special Christmas offering to help fund a new church plant in North Tulsa.  Ed Goodrich has made a video explaining why this project is so important to us and for our community.  The pastor chosen for this incredibly difficult task is Rev. Gwen Collins-Derrick, and she came and preached here as a guest.  We are so proud and excited that our Charge Conference leadership voted to pursue partnering with Gwen and her vision for this brand new church.  I ask you to add Gwen to your prayers because I know how much she needs them.  God is indeed leading us into unexpected places and paving the way for us to do even more Kingdom work!  

I am so proud to be on this journey with you, 
Pastor Heather