Greetings Green Trails Family!
First, let me say that I am honored to be your new pastor! As I begin my pastorate at Green Trails, I am in awe of the kind and gracious welcome that I have received, even during this pandemic. I have met many of you during the Porch Drop Tuesday mission events, while staying safely distanced and masked. Some of you I can even recognize by your eyes!
Speaking of the pandemic, the church remains in Phase 2 of our reopening process, which means that we will continue to have online worship only with no groups meeting in-house. Our reopening task team is carefully monitoring CDC recommendations, city and state guidelines, new cases in St. Louis County, as well as local school district guidelines. They have established a set of benchmarks that must be achieved in order to safely move to Phase 3, which would include limited in-house worship. This team will continue to monitor and will reassess at the end of August. I am so proud of the care they are taking to “Do no harm” and protect you and your family.
We are, however, looking at ways in which we can safely gather on the outside grounds of the church. To that end we are planning an early morning outdoor worship celebration, practicing social distancing and masking. The date planned is August 23 at 9:00 am. The early time is so that we can beat the heat. We would most likely use a reservation system so that appropriate seating could be arranged and to limit numbers. The service time would be 30-40 minutes. All of this is an effort to provide a safe way to have worship in the great outdoors, for those who so choose. More details will be coming your way soon. Also in the coming weeks, we will migrate from pre-recording our worship service to a livestream format, premiering it at our regular worship time, 10:00 am. The target date for that is August 16.
Our Porch Drop ministry has moved outdoors in the interest of safety and distancing. But that has not stopped your generous participation! We recently collaborated with Webster Hills UMC in a diaper collection to benefit LifeWiseSTL. And friends, not only did you meet our goal of 10,000 diapers, you far exceeded it! We had a combined total of 30,000 diapers collected, about 15,000 from each church, in addition to monetary donations. That is a true testament to your giving hearts, and proof that ministry thrives in the midst of a pandemic. You are living out 1 John 3:18: “Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” In other words – your love is showing!
Please know that the staff and volunteers of Green Trails continue to work hard to provide opportunities for online worship and ministry, keeping you connected to God and to your church. We have WOW (Word on Wednesday), Children’s Sunday School, and Women’s Bible Study, all via Zoom. And of course, our Porch Drop on Tuesdays. And in the coming weeks we will launch our Zoom Plaza with the Pastor! A fun way for me to get to know you and your family. I can’t wait! If you would like to sign up, contact Amee Colvin and she’ll make it happen.
As you can see, church, we are on the move for Jesus! Therefore, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds…” Hebrews 10:23-24.
Spurring on,
Pastor Linda