Greetings Grace UMC Church Family!
We are about to embark on a wonderful adventure! This Sunday will be my first Sunday in the pulpit and I am looking forward to sharing in worship with all of you! I am also looking forward to the welcome reception following worship! I am grateful to all of you for your willingness to combine worship services for my first Sunday, so that we can all be together!
For the next six weeks, we will be in a sermon series entitled, “Let the Journey Begin!” We will be engaging with some of the stories in the book of Exodus! The journey of the Hebrew people has so much to teach us about our own journey with God. The book of Exodus has forty chapters. I encourage you to challenge yourself to read those chapters over the next six weeks! Read it slowly and thoughtfully.
Here are some resources for you to engage deeper with the text:
1. Click here for a video summary of the book of Exodus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH_aojNJM3E
2. There is a great book, Fire by Night—Finding God in the Pages of the Old Testament, by Melissa Florer-Bixler that some of you might enjoy.
3. You might consider researching movie options about Moses, there are several. Netflix has a series called Testament out right now.
Let the journey begin!
As a reminder, I am beginning to meet with groups to get to know some of you better. If you are willing to host a group of 10-12 in your home or in a space at the church, reach out to Tracey at secretary.gumc@gmail.com so we can work to schedule a time.
I am also sharing questions for several weeks, hoping to learn from all of you. [You can reply to me at MichelleShrader.gumc@gmail.com ] The questions for this week are:
1. Where is the best place to watch the sunset?
2. What is your favorite restaurant with a water view?
3. Are any of you connected with one of the public schools in the area? I am hoping to meet with administration at the schools and I wondered if there were teachers or staff that we might not know about.
I look forward to hearing from some of you! The title of my sermon this week is, “Take Off Your Shoes.” I will be preaching from Exodus 3:1-15. May we all be blessed by the story of God, Moses, and the burning bush!
I am grateful to be…
With you on the journey,
Pastor Michelle