From the Desk of Pastor Kim
FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR KIM February 12, 2019
Warm greetings family and friends of Branchport UMC~
Winter 2019 finds us in weather that NY is famous for! Snow storms, ice, winds, a couple days teasing us with spring and back again into the snow! As I write we are in the midst of a weather advisory and the day has brought snow, ice and rain all within hours. I consider the days we face. During the warm, spring days we enjoy the sunshine but go about our business, easily taking it all for granted. Yet, as I drove in the snow storm this morning, grasping on to the steering wheel as the tires of the car were being swayed by the unplowed roads I realized it is amongst the storm that I recognize my need for God the most.
In our Christian walk of faith, we will go through some tough times, but remember storms never last forever. In the midst of the storm seek the Lord and run unto Him for shelter. He will protect and help you endure. Don’t think about the bad weather, but instead seek peace through Christ. Meditate on His promises and be strong. The sun doesn’t always have to be out to give the Lord thanks so continue to give Him praise. Draw closer to the Lord with prayer and know that His presence is near. Be still, God will comfort and provide for you. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.
Praise God for all His love shining down upon us at Branchport UMC. Hard to believe that we are into the second month of 2019! The days of celebrating the birth of Jesus and the birth of our savior have brought us into studying His ministry and the calling of His disciples. We are so grateful to Ray Hagen and Boy Scout Troop 43 for the great job they did refabricating our nativity scene and being a part of our Christmas Pageant along with a wonderful program that the children helped out with. I am so grateful to have youth and all of you join us throughout the year for special events and occasions and would love to see them and those we do not see often enough join us at service on Sunday mornings.
In January our congregation teamed up with Milo Center UMC to serve at Grandma’s Kitchen. This is an afternoon program for the student at Penn Yan Academy students to feed them between classes and their afternoon/evening activities. We had a great time and the students were so polite and grateful.
We are about half way through a small group study called Imagine No Racism. We have joined in conversation in a safe space to see what we can do to better understand our call into the union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations, and races. Each of our histories has had an effect on our views and beliefs and it is an important and necessary to have conversation to better discern God’s intention.
A group gathered the first Saturday of February for breakfast and cleaned the stage in the fellowship hall in preparation for Dessert and a Show. On February 23rd the band G.P.S (God’s Plan for Salvation) will be performing on our fantastic stage as a thank you to the friends and family of BUMC and the community. I am so excited to finally be a part of seeing the stage be put to use. Please plan on attending! A love offering will be collected to thank our musicians and the show begins at 6:30pm. We are all ready to get out of the house and the love and energy of the evening will surely warm us up!
We continue to assess what the needs of the church building are and how we can best represent God’s whole Church. We are so grateful for all that we were able to accomplish last year with the roof, pew cushions and missions in the community. But, we have a lot of work to do and what an honor and privilege it is to do so in the name of Jesus Christ. I celebrate each and every one of you. We are missing many faces not able to worship with us this time of year. Please know you are in my prayers. I urge you to pray for one another, Branchport UMC, the United Methodist Church, those traveling to the Special Session of General Conference at the end of the month and all of God’s creation. We praise Him in the sunshine and in the storms and find refuge in His love.
In warm winter blessings~
Pastor Kim