This is a note from our kids Sunday School teachers. If you haven't received your packet by Tuesday 9/8/20, contact Eleanor Ravens.

Dear Sunday School Parents and Students,
Your Sunday School teachers want you to know that we have missed seeing you in person the past months and hope before too long that we can meet again together in our room. For the fall, we will continue with activities that can be done at home or at church depending on how the Covid safety progresses.

Dear Church,
I want to take a moment to introduce you to our Fall Lineup. While we have been planning for this fall, we knew that it was going to look different than it has in the past. We need to make sure that we have healthy practices for gathering together so we can watch out for one another. We also know that we still need to be able to engage our faith, and do so as a community of faith gathered in God’s presence.

You can read our July newsletter by clicking on the link if you didn't get it by email
July Newsletter
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​Below this is the full text of Pastor John's article

First I want to thank you all for your patience as we have been working our way through these extraordinary times. Even the phrase "extraordinary times" has lost a lot of its meaning the longer we have been dealing with our current crisis.

​I do have good news! The Governor has moved Missouri into Phase 2 of its reopening starting on June 16th.

Over the course of the last couple of weeks we have seen another crisis come to the forefront of our national conversations. However, this one isn't a surprise. It has been with us from the founding of our nation. We have tried, and failed, to do something about it.

You can read our May newsletter below, or you can click the link as well. Included in this month's newsletter is a copy of our reopening plan. If you have any questions, please contact the church.
May Newsletter

What is contained in this plan is subject to change based on extensions of, or new stay-at-home orders and the direction of our bishop in Missouri. It is unlikely that the timeframe will be shortened. If changes are made it will be because we are needing to increase social distancing and/or stay-at-home orders

Hello Church,

I wanted to give you an update on what we are doing here at the church, especially now that we will be under a Stay at Home Order starting tomorrow morning (4/3).

Until the order is completed or rescinded, and we are able to safely gather again for worship, we will not be having in person services. We have also made arrangements for our church secretary Beth to work from home and the mail will be checked on a daily basis. We will still continue host the food pantry so that we can continue to help others during this crisis. They have already altered their distribution process to be in compliance with the order.

All phone calls to the church are being forwarded onto myself or Beth. This means that we won't be having others in the church to answer the phone. If you don't get through to someone, please leave a message. We will be checking those messages on a regular basis.

Because of this, some of the plans that we had started for Easter are being put on hold. We won't be having any in person Holy Week Services and our Easter service will be online only. We had thought to try something different, but decided against it in order to maintain the spirit of the order.

That being said, we aren't canceling Easter! We're just changing things around a bit.  Next week I will be posting daily devotions to Facebook and YouTube for anyone that would like to be a part of it. When they go up in the mornings I'll be there in the comments to visit if you would like. We'll continue having Bible Study on Zoom, and other things that we can come up with.

My plan is that our first Sunday back together will be Palm Sunday, we'll follow with Holy Week, and then join in what I hope will be an amazing Easter Celebration that second Sunday. It will be good to be back together then.

As we go through this time, please continue to call, text, email, message, videochat, send smoke signals, and so on to each other. We are all in uncharted territory, but we know that we always come through on the other side. It may not always be what we expect, but no one expected the first Easter either. With God's help we will come through this, and we will make the journey together.

Peace,
Pastor John