Today’s Word from Pastor Jim…
Our staff made a promise to you 455 days ago. Our promise, at the beginning of the pandemic, was that we would stay connected though we were apart. We would continue to be the church together. We promised to produce content every day: content that would be published in emails, on Facebook, and on our website. For 455 days we have produced some 550 posts, songs, updates, and games. For 65 straight weeks we have produced online worship to inspire and encourage people near and far. Just last week we heard from LaNoir Brown in Crossville, Illinois, population 600. LaNoir told us that our online worship and daily emails have been a lifesaver for her. LaNoir will celebrate her 101st birthday next month.
Our staff made a promise to you 455 days ago. Now that we are approaching our 9th in-person service back on our campus, we will be scaling back a little in our daily writing. We will break the streak on Friday, June 11th. Going forward we will be sending out content about four times a week. We will continue to produce online worship for the next couple of weeks, and then we will begin streaming our worship services live at 8:00 am each Sunday. The live stream worship will then be available for access at your convenience.
I want to thank our writers: Pastor Dennis, Pastor Eric, Rev. Dave Bieniek, Cam Castle, Kelsi Lindus, Denise Wilson, Susan Shira, Mark Winslow, Felicia Lindus, Laura Canby, Arne Bergstrom, Deacon (Old McDonald had a farm) Amy, Pastor Tom Kidd, Sheila Weidendorf, and Karl Olsen.
Finally, I want to thank you! Thank you for reading and worshiping. Thank you for your love and support. Thank you for your good attitude and your encouragement.
Life is returning to a new normal; we were blessed to journey through this pandemic together in the relative safety of Whidbey Island. We have been blessed; never in isolation, we have been blessed to be a blessing to others.
We made a promise to you 455 days ago, never imagining that this crisis would last this long. We made a promise then and we make a promise now. We are in this together; we will carry each other, and together we will carry strangers. We are not signing off; we are simply cutting back a little that we might focus on our shared life.
One day closer,
Pastor Jim
