There’s an old saying, “You want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.“

We had lots of plans for Lent, Easter, and beyond. The lock-down has changed all that. This pandemic and the response to it were a surprise for all of us. But it hasn’t been a surprise for God. Our plans didn’t include being stuck in our homes, but God’s did.

Not Just an Inconvenience
While we have all be inconvenienced and, possibly, even harmed by the coronavirus and the response to it, there are some opportunities.

There are opportunities for…

• Growing stronger as families
• Deepening our personal devotion times
• Caring for one another
• Caring for our neighbors

As we pray for a quick end to this pandemic, let us also pray that God would work in our lives and our community for good.

Online Worship Services:
We will be having live-streamed worship services every Sunday. Tomorrow, March 22, our first live-stream service will be on Facebook Live at 9am (that’s right, in the morning). As a special first service, we will be uniting in worship with the congregation from the Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity in South Tampa.

(A recording of the service will also be available after the service in case you can’t make it at 9am.)

Communion:
Obviously, I can’t distribute bread and wine through the interwebs, but we still want to be able to make Communion available. We are still working on the details, but we are looking into either having a time when members can come by my house and receive communion in their cars or where I come to you and bring Communion. I’ll post more when I have more details.

Tithes and Offerings:
For most of you, giving is a part of your worship each week. It’s an expression of thanksgiving for all God has given and a means of supporting the ministry God is doing through the Faith Lutheran congregation. Even though we are not meeting in person, you are still able to give online. Go to https://faithwesleychapel.com/ and click “Give” in the upper menu.

Informational and Voter Meeting:
The Informational Meeting scheduled for this Sunday and the Voter Meeting scheduled for next Sunday have been postponed. We will still have them soon online. We just need to work out the technical details for how we will hold the meeting. As soon as the tech is worked out, we will set a date.

Growth Group Bible Study:
We will be having Bible study every Friday evening at 7pm. The Bible study will be done online through a Zoom conference call. Zoom will allow the interaction that we desire in the Bible study and allow for anyone to join in whether online or via phone. We’ll post more information about the Bible study next week. 

Devotions:
I plan to continue to The Other Six daily devotional blog posts. I am also looking into starting a daily evening Family Devotion video. This will be a short video you can use for a devotion time with the whole family. This is a great time to strengthen your family devotional time!!

Keep In Touch:
I want to encourage you all to keep in touch with each other. Check in on people at least once a week to make sure everyone is doing well and see if anyone needs any help.

Reach Out to Your Neighbors:
Keep in touch with your neighbors as well. If you don’t know them, this is a great time to walk around your neighborhood, knock on the door, stand 6 feet back, and then ask how they are doing and if they need anything. We, especially, need to be caring for those who may not be able to leave to their house to get groceries and other supplies at this time. Let’s shine the light of Jesus into the darkness.

I’m Available:
Please feel free to call, text, or email any time whether you need help, have questions, or just want to talk. I’m here for you, virus or no virus, and I’m overjoyed to be your pastor.

I’m excited about some of the opportunities we have in the coming weeks and I hope you are, too. 

God bless!