Pastor’s Page

As the title of my column here says: “From the Heart,” I always ask myself that question when I prepare to write each month’s installment. This exercise today, as I prepare to write, produced a moment of Thanksgiving. This is good, considering we are just days from the Thanksgiving holiday!

Our Church Council met this past Monday. At this every-other-month meeting, we hear reports from our various administrative and ministry committees. We discuss old business, and new business. This process takes about one to two hours. As we were well into our second hour, we were beginning to “wind down.” The adjournment was close at hand. As we took a few minutes for “any other thoughts or questions,” I shared a community need that had just arisen earlier that day. We needed more Thanksgiving food items for the Men’s’ Ministry Thanksgiving grocery boxes. A conversation with the Parkford Apartments manager revealed a need for the boxes that would exceed what was planned by about 12 to 15 boxes. The Church Council, having shown some signs of looking forward to the meeting’s end, perked up! There was lively discussion, many suggestions how to fill the need, calculations of costs…this group was excited! I made an observation that the past few minutes, ones filled with how to meet need in our community, were the most “electric” minutes of our meeting time together! Needless to say, a plan is in place and First Bethel will now deliver 38 Thanksgiving grocery boxes instead of the planned 25.

I love this church! And I am very thankful for each and every person that calls it their church community. Thank you First Bethel for your heart in honoring Jesus’ words:

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matt. 25:35).

That’s From the Heart,

Pastor David Ewing