Hurricane Harvey and Prayer
Most of us are watching the news of Hurricane Harvey with concern for those affected. Some of the North Danvers community is being directly affected, and many of us have friends who are being affected by these storms. It’s important for us to continue to pray for God’s safety and protection of those who suffering from the storm and the subsequent flooding.
There are other practical ways to help. At Carl Grieder's suggestion, some members of the congregation are helping at the Midwest Food Bank today. MFB has been asked to provide disaster relief food boxes for families in East Texas. There will also be costs associated with trucking those boxes to Texas, so more can be learned about these efforts and donations can be made at the Midwest Food Bank website.
Our congregation supports the work of Mennonite Disaster Services, who are also responding to this emergency. You can read about their efforts and make a donation at the MDS website. For those who are able, there is also an opportunity to volunteer in the relief efforts.
I wanted to mention one more thing related to prayer. In my sermon yesterday I mentioned a study that talked about the importance of praying for one’s spouse. If you’d like to read that, you can find it linked here at the Washington Post’s website.
Prayer really does make a difference. I was reminded of this again as yesterday we heard some incredible testimony and praises regarding answered prayer. At the same time, we are currently grieving alongside of those who have received difficult health news despite our faithfully joining together in prayer. In all of these things, we are trusting the God who created us to act in for our good and the good of our loved ones.
A couple of reminders: next Sunday we will continue to meet one more time at 9am for our morning worship service. This will be the last sermon from our series in the book of James. The title is “Atheism for Believers,” and I think you’ll find it an interesting and helpful sermon. September 10th we will be returning to our normal schedule, and our Fall Sunday School classes will be beginning. There are two adult Sunday School classes available, and classes for all ages which will begin at 9am, then our worship service will be at 10:10am.
Make sure to invite a friend to kickoff Sunday! It should be a great day with the young people participating in part of the service. There are flyers available for you to use to invite your friends and neighbors.
God bless!
Brian