Dear Friends,

 

One of the blessings of my work is that I get to attend a different worship service almost every week. It's hard to imagine I'll ever get an opportunity like this again in my career. This past Sunday, I attended Mt. Carmel UMC in Chuckey and experienced a lovely service. After it was over, EVERY person stayed in the sanctuary for Sunday School. I was trying to attend another service that morning and tried to sheepishly sneak out. Someone mentioned that I was present and suddenly, everyone gave me a round of applause. I've never had that happen before, but it was a blessing.

 

The second service was at Gethsemane UMC in Greene County. One of the blessings for me from that service was that they decided to dedicate the whole offering for that Sunday to relief efforts in Gatlinburg. This small membership congregation raised over $1500.

 

The pastor of Gethsemane, Cindy Paxton preached about the shoot of new plant rising from the stump of Jesse. Cindy's prophesy for Gatlinburg was that new life would rise up from devastation.

 

As Betty, Amber and I adjust to our new offices at the Boones Creek location, there are times when I grieve the loss of the congregation that was worshiping here. It's hard to let go of things that were so loved. On the other hand, there is hardly a day that goes by that I am not presented with new opportunities for ministry at this location. In fact, the morning I wrote this article, I was offered three different ministry options. This may be the best opportunity in my ministry to be offered a blank slate to create a "new thing". In fact, there are so many options, God has forced me to do something radical...Pray.

 

What if we tried something crazy? What if instead of just jumping in and letting events dictate our path, we had a season of prayer?

 

I have asked Susan Arnold, the pastor of Blountville UMC if she would be willing to lead us in a few weeks of directed prayer and worship.   Susan is truly a prayer warrior. She has proposed having a group of people meet at Boones Creek for one hour on Thursday, January 12 at 11:00 am, Thursday, January 19 at 11:00 am, Thursday, February 2 at 11:00 am, and finally Thursday, February 9 at 11:00 am. We will follow these meetings up by inviting anyone present to eat lunch together at a nearby restaurant.

 

I know that most of you will not be available to meet and pray with us. I would simply ask that you find time to pray for the group. I am not expecting this to be a large group. I just hope that it will be filled with people who would help me seek after God's will. My expectation is that when we finish these 4 weeks of prayer, we will be holding a prayer service open to the whole district. Look for further details.

 

Thank you in advance for any time you engage in prayer for me, for this community, for this building, and for the district. I covet every prayer you send on our behalf.

 

God bless,

 

Walter