Dear Northside
I must tell you, it is good to be home!
Sarah and I travelled well. We flew many miles and met with many people. Our time with Thornapple church, especially their Missions Committee was very successful. Our time with Whitehall was bitter and sweet. It was great refreshing our relationship with the people and church, but it was a bit sad we as were part of the weekend Pastor Tom retired. I have been here at Northside for 30+/- years and I have just turned 60, and so I watched what happened closely. Please know, I still feel called by God here at Northside! Please pray for Whitehall church as they look for a new senior Pastor. We are hoping that small teams from both churches will visit us, so they can meet you and you can meet them.
I am preparing a report for the Church Council next weekend and one of the things I have been looking at is what has happened here at Northside and through Northside in the past 2 months and it is extraordinary. God is at work in and through us! Maybe you are asking, where is God? or is God doing anything? Just look at what He is doing in and through us. One of the comments I made about the book of Philippians was that Paul could find joy in everything, the good, the bad and even in the ugly. How was he able to do this? By changing the way he looked at things. He saw God in all things and God using all things for good. Start looking around and start looking for God – you will be surprised!
This coming week schools open. Many parents and children will be grateful. But we also know that this brings great financial pressure. We are praying for everyone impacted by the start of term 2. It also means that our Children & Youth programs will begin soon as well. Please can I encourage you all, if you have children and youth, to bring them. We are committed to helping you parents raise up your children in the way of God. We cannot do that if they are not with us.
Today we thank God, we thank and honour our Mothers! We all have one. Moms are amazing. They:
Model Christ’s love
Offer grace unconditionally
Teach God’s Word
Honour truth
Encourage others
Reflect God’s character
They are an amazing gift from God. As part of the Mothers’s Day décor, Rudo has written out a number of statements about Mothers and one of them says this, “Life does not come with a manual, it comes with a mother.” How true!
Happy Mother’s Day!
God bless, pastor Gary