Dear Glen Mar friends
As Lent begins I want to thank Pastor Melaina for her powerful message on Sunday. I had the honor of teaching confirmation class at 9:30, where the topic was “grace” and also “items in our toolbox that help us interpret Scripture/know what God wants us to do (aka the Wesleyan Quadrilateral).
Our Lenten series is called “I give up…” and each week we will examine things that “get in the way” of our growth in Christ. As part of that Lenten journey, we are inviting people to join us in our daily (M-F) Lenten devotions, written by your pastors. You can find them on our webpage under Blogs or go to https://glenmarumc.org/lent2022/ In addition, each day of Lent we will be invited to put an item in a donation pile as outlined in the Lenten devotions. There’s also a calendar with the suggested donations in them that we will post as well. The items collected are pretty easy to donate and if you need help in finding a donation spot, we’ll have a list of local spots to take your items. For each day, if you cannot donate an item, we are inviting you to donate some money into a “giving jar” as your Lenten giving discipline. Bring this jar to church on Easter Sunday where we will bless it and donate the contents to Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center. They provide services to alleviate homelessness, hunger and help in a crisis in Howard County and Glen Mar is a huge supporter of their programs. This additional offering will make up for the cancellation of the Glen Mar Classic Golf Tournament and provide needed help to them. Their website is https://grassrootscrisis.org/.
I know you join me in praying for peace in the Ukraine—and for those in harm’s way. If you want to donate to help Ukraine, go to https://umcmission.org/umcor/how-to-assist-the-ukrainian-people/ UMCOR is a very reliable and helpful United Methodist agency that responds to crises around the world. We are working on plans for further help. Stay tuned.
See you in Church this Sunday, in person or online, where I’ll be helping us say, “I Give Up…Chasing Approval”
Pastor Mandy
PS The United Methodist General Conference, the annual, global, meeting of our global church, was postponed due to the pandemic….and has been postponed again to 2024. I’ll talk more about what this means in general and for Glen Mar in my next pondering…the short answer is, we will continue to be who we are, and do what we do…and continue to pray for the gathering. I’m grateful that participation is being prioritized—the delay has a lot to do with delegates needing visas and that process being currently very backed up….
