Dear Church Family,
The new year is off to a great start. I hope that you are all making 2014 a year where you will invest in your relationships with God and those who are close to you. I know that is something I long for this year. I want to spend more time with my family and more time with God in 2014. I know that these relationships are foundational to my life and ministry.
It is certainly winter! With our frigid temperatures and treacherous weather this month, I thought it would be good to review our bad weather policy. Our policy is that we never cancel Sunday morning worship. Now, we certainly do not people to try to make it if they feel that it is unsafe. However, if you are close enough to make it and feel safe, we will have an opportunity for you to worship here.
I have many exciting things to share with you this month. First of all, I will tell you that we are in our third year of our Revitalization Project. This year we are focusing on Youth Ministry and Missions. As many of you know, we have received grants each year to help with our project. This year, we received another grant from the West Ohio Conference. Part of this grant is to fund sending leaders from our church to the Change the World Conference on April 3rd and 4th. This is a national conference with world-class speakers that us held right in Tipp City at Ginghamsburg Church. If you are interested in coming along for this conference, please let me know, and we can discuss the details.
As I announced in worship on January 19th, I will be the director of Young Spirits beginning in 2015. Therefore, this will be David Wion’s last year as director. This year, I will be assisting him as an Assistance Director. I know that it is hard to imagine Young Spirits without David, but he assures me that he isn’t going anywhere. He will still be around. After all, he has been involved in every Young Spirits musical in some way since the beginning (44 years ago). He has been the director for 26 years. These are some big shoes to fill, but I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with this organization to continue passing on the love of God through song!
Another exciting adventure is my trip to the Holy Land. Chanda and I fly out of Dayton on February 3rd. Then, we fly from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv, Israel (an 11 hour flight). As you can imagine, we are very excited about the trip. There are 120 people going. Bishop Palmer is hosting the trip. I am looking forward to being in the places where Jesus was born, lived, died, and resurrected. It will certainly be the trip of a lifetime.
I want to invite you all to join me on the trip by praying for me and Chanda each day. Below, I have shared with you where we will be traveling each day. I invite you to pray that God would allow us to learn and grow as a result of being in that place. You could do some personal research on each location so that you might journey with us. So, here is a very abbreviated itinerary/prayer list:
Feb. 3- Flying (Dayton to Philadelphia to Tel Aviv)
Feb. 4- Arriving in Tel Aviv; Tiberias
Feb. 5- Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Jordan River
Feb. 6- Caesarea, Cana, Nazareth
Feb. 7- Jericho, Mount of Olives, Samaria
Feb. 8- Bethlehem, Garden of Gethsemane
Feb. 9- Jerusalem, Via Dolorosa
Feb. 10- Masada, Dead Sea, Qumran
Feb. 11- Ein Karem, Garden Tomb, Yad Vashem
Feb. 12- Flying (Tel Aviv to Philadelphia to Dayton)
As you can see, our schedule is packed. Your prayers can include those for strength, good weather, and focus. Most of all, pray that we will be able to handle being away from Wesley for this long period of time. Chanda and I are very anxious about that, but we know that he is in good hands.
I have no doubt that this trip will change the way that I read the Bible and preach forever. In an effort to begin sharing the trip with you, I am going to be sharing pictures and experiences from the trip during Lent. The series will begin on March 2nd. I hope you will join us for this exciting series.
Yours in Christ’s Service,
Pastor Justin
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