Pastor's E-Letter

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Pastor E-Letter 3/20/20

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I’m sure your week has been full of questions and concerns, anxiety and fear. The same has been true for our household. This Monday was the first day of spring break and, as of last Friday, was the beginning of a long absence from school for our kids. All four of our kids attend school either here at the church or Suntree Elementary. This was the beginning of a long break from school and a lot of questions about how we were going to deal with childcare and making sure our kids continued getting a good education at home. Like many of you, this is just one aspect of questions surrounding our jobs, our families, our world and even our worship here at church. To say this has been a stressful week, would be an understatement.

When I get to that point of stress and anxiety, I usually try to find a project to keep myself occupied. Monday afternoon I decided I would work on the sprinkler system at the house. The system has been off for a few months. One of our sprinkler heads had been broken and the line buried. I thought I would just dig it out by hand and find the water coming out, but instead just found rocks and dry sand. I got some tools and started digging the hole deeper and found the line with a broken piece on the end. I removed the broken piece and prepared myself for the gushing water and…nothing. The line was dry, I didn’t understand. Then about 6 to 7 inches of mud came pushing out of the line and burst through, right into my face and all over me. I was able to use this new gusher to wash my face off and take off all the mud and dirt and when I did all I saw was four beautiful faces laughing and running through the water. My kids thought it was the greatest thing ever. They laughed and played in the water and helped me put on a new sprinkler head. I was blind with stress and anxiety and then I could see the beauty of the blessings in my life.

Our scripture this week from John 9:1-41 reminds us of a blind man and how Jesus used mud to heal him. As I spent time in the scripture today, I laughed thinking about my kids' faces and the squeals of delight and joy they had. I was so blind to the world that I couldn’t see the blessings that continue to fill me with Joy. It’s so easy to be blind to what God is doing around us right now. It would be easier to follow the never-ending newsfeed of anxiety and fear. Sometimes it might take a bit of a surprise by the spirit to burst forth and show us the light of God all around. I believe as disciples we have that healing balm in Jesus to know the good news of who loves us. To know that in the toughest moments full of all that is wrong in the world, God still desires for us to see the beauty all around. That is the kind of healing I think we could all use.

I hope for all of us to find a moment when we can remove the mud from our eyes and see the beauty around us. As tough as it may be right now, I promise you it is there. It is definitely there.

This week we are offering an online worship experience through our website (suntreeumc.org/live) and through our Facebook page at facebook.com/suntreeumc. Though we may not be in each other’s physical presence, we are together in the spirit. Praise God for the ability to stay connected through this time!

This week we will also be closing the Church Office for normal business hours. If you need to reach someone, we will be able to answer calls to the main church phone line as well as emails to .

With Grace & Peace,

Rev. Augie Allen
Pastor of Outreach
Suntree United Methodist Church

Posted by Augie Allen with