Dear Glen Mar,

I hope you have been enjoying August family worship as much as I have! We will continue this week with the theme “Journeying Together.” I’m sure glad to be “on the journey” with you!

I hope you will join us next Tuesday, August 24, at 7 pm in person in the chapel or on Zoom for our monthly Ministry Connections meeting. The theme will be Growing Disciples and Growing As Disciples. We’ll hear from our HUB ministry team about small groups and studies offered this fall, as well as strategies for disciple making that will bless you in your ministry and in your personal walk with the Lord. Ministry Connections is open to all, and is designed to help Glen Mar communicate, connect and grow as servant leaders. For the Zoom link, please email Kyara Kelley at of****@gl********.org.

This week, Eric, Nathan and I dropped Lydia off at college in New York, and we found ourselves talking about all the ways that God has worked through the Church to shape our daughter into who she is today, and who she will be in the future. I’m thinking of people like Donna Stinchcomb and Kathy Molinari, and Denise Wagner and Margaret Lang. I’m thinking of Pastor Andy who baptized her, and all the people at Journey of Faith church and Covenant UMC that nurtured her. Her confirmation class at Covenant and youth leaders who took the time to tell her how much she is loved, all played a part in her growth. Now, she hopes to find a campus ministry with “great theology, of course” to continue her growth as a disciple and a Rochester UMC to visit. I mention it because it is in groups that Christians are formed—Christian education groups, small groups, Bible studies, Mission Trips, music groups. If YOU will get involved, YOU too will grow as a disciple and help others grow too!

See you in Church—and don’t forget your mask (for now),
Pastor Mandy