Dear Friends,

I pray that you are well and being safe. It is difficult to avoid crowds and casual contact at Christmas time. We want to be with our families yet the doctors and scientists tell us to wear our mask, social distance and wash our hands often. The most painful is not gathering for a meal or family celebration. I am sorry. Chris and I are staying in our bubble so that we can remain healthy and offer our very best.

This week, we are celebrating the Advent theme: Joy. Our scripture is from Luke 1:46-55. Elizabeth and Mary greet one another and something special occurs. Best of all, Mary offers her song, the Magnificat. Please take a look and prepare your hearts for worship on Sunday.

With the positivity rate at 28% we are offering one service at 9 a.m. in the CLC. It is live streamed on Facebook and available on our website at 1030 a.m.. I highly recommend going to our website: livelovegrow.org/videos/  to view the service. There will be no buffering or issues connecting. We are working to make the sound and video as good as possible. If you live stream the service and it begins to buffer press the pause button, wait 5-10 minutes, press play and it will run smoothly. It’s like getting on the highway at rush hour, sometimes the traffic is heavy and moving slow.

Christmas Eve is an important service, one we look forward to. It will be recorded and available on-line beginning at noon on December 24^th Christmas Eve. Holy Communion will be offered from 3-6 p.m. via drive through at our portico, main entry. I am sorry. This is disappointing for many of us but to gather in the CLC with a large crowd, several times increases the risk of sharing the COVID19 virus which is not prudent.

My prayer for you this holiday season is for good health and a joyful heart. We have endured many situations and we will make our way through this pandemic.

God bless us every one, Pastor Mark