A fresh start

     Starting into my 22nd year of full time ministry, it is still great to have new beginnings. It was truly sad to leave the people at Deerfield UMC in Boone NC to make the transition to Chestnut Grove UMC in King NC.  However, the Lord has been faithful to strengthen my heart to grow more love inside of me for the new flock I am called to serve here.  We are off to a very busy start.  There have been several deaths in the month of July which makes for a pretty fast transition for a new preacher.  God has really been with us!  The church is looking at doing some renovations at the parsonage. So there has been a delay in my moving into the parsonage here in King.  We met with our DS Dr. Jeff Patterson last week here at the parsonage and he helped lay out a time frame for us of what kind of meeting needs to come and when.  We are a good 6 to 8 weeks out from being ready to present proposed renovations to the church.  In the meantime, our church parsonage committee and trustees are working with the church finance committee to make sure we have covered all the details of the proposal.  The DS suggested that we add having a conversation with Duke Endowment, and the District Committee on Building and Locations to our homework to do in getting ready to make a proposal to the church council, then to the church.  Already, I commend the parsonage committee and the trustees who have met at the parsonage twice in the last two weeks to go over all the details of the work to be done with a tour, taking the whole group through the whole house.  Right now, this team is working out the details of bids from three different contractors to make sure we are comparing apples with apples.  The trustees are putting together pictures of the work proposed for the parsonage in preparing to present the pictures to the church council and to the church.  Several folks met and did a lot of work on the parsonage on a Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago.  On top of the proposed renovations, upon close inspection, the trustees have found some problems with the foundation of the parsonage and have had to go get bids on having work done on the foundation as well. So all of the work regarding any renovations at the parsonage is at the committee level at this stage as they prepare a proposal to bring to the church council and then to the church through a church conference.
      In the mean time, as I arrived here to King with a stress fracture on my left foot, I wish I could say it has gone away, but the healing is slow in coming. So I do ask for continued prayer for a complete healing for my left foot. I am in the boot about half of the time now, and that is progress. I am not hurting as badly as I was, and that is my best indicator that I am indeed on the mend!
     In the life of our church, this week VBS is unfolding, and we will celebrate a summer's work with our children and youth ministry with them leading the worship service this coming Sunday morning. I look forward to this time of celebrating what God is doing through our children and youth for our community!
    When I arrived the first of July, the Anchor House youth project was well under construction. The leaders of that team meet tonight to look at all the details required to complete the whole project.  I see some of our men leaving late in the day covered with sheetrock dust, so I know there is some hard work going on there even now, to get the job done. We have met our financial goal on this project and that itself is a huge praise. We look forward to planning a service of dedication for this building soon.
     In ministry, we have tackled our prayer list published in the weekly bulletin as a springboard to use with the whole church to pray for the needs of our church family and community and to go out and minister to these needs. We have started meeting on Tuesdays at 10am to pray together and work on cards to mail out to let people know we have been lifting them in prayer.
     God is with us. God is really moving in the life of this church, and as your new pastor, I really do feel blessed so much by God to be here. I look forward to serving you.  Pastor Evelyn