Dear Grace Family,
I wanted to keep y’all in the loop on a few things, as we are in the yearly transitional phase of school year to summer break. First, I wanted to let y’all know that rather than coming back on the diaconate from his sabbatical, Tom Jackson has decided to step away from the diaconate at this time. Tom is being a dutiful son and son-in-law to his mom and mother-in-law. He is serving them by taking them to their prospective churches most Sundays, making it impossible for him to serve here currently. When y’all see Tom, thank him for his 14+ years of service to our church as a deacon. We are grateful for all the hours he’s committed to making a difference in the lives of so many of our members! Second, it’s time to say goodbye to Nathaniel McGowan, one of our youth staff members for the past year. He has invested his time, energy, thoughtfulness, and prayers to our youth as he faithfully taught, loved, and served them. Nathaniel will be graduating from State and moving to Memphis to begin his career. When you see him this Sunday, please wish him well on his future endeavors. In that same vein, Raychel Sanders and Henry Trice will be away this summer working various jobs. So, y’all pray for Mary Blake Brashier, as she will be the only staff member in town to facilitate youth ministry. Klint McCafferty has graciously agreed to teach Sunday school for them this summer, so they will remain in good hands from a teaching standpoint. Third, please go ahead and make a mental note that we are slightly modifying our August schedule from the way we’ve done it the past few years. We will continue to take Wednesday nights off in August as our college students are unavailable to serve. However, we will NOT be taking the month off from Sunday school. We realized last year that several visitors were showing up in anticipation of a new school year and we had nothing to offer them for their children. We will run the summer semester of Sunday school through August 13 and then transition to our fall semester on August 20. Lastly, this is the last Sunday to nominate men for the office of deacon. Please make sure you complete a nomination form, if the Lord has put someone on your mind to nominate. Ok! I think that covers it all for now. See y’all Sunday.
Humbly yours,
Seth