I am very pleased to announce that Pastor Terry and Sandra Porter, of Borger First Church, are our new co-directors of Arrowhead Camp and Retreat Center (our district campgrounds).  They will begin their new assignment on October 16th.  I had the privilege of worshiping in Borger this past Sunday as Terry delivered his final sermon as their pastor.  The Porters have served in Borger for 20 years! They are deeply loved and appreciated in their church and in the community. Sandra is our very capable district women's ministry director.  Please join me in prayer as they begin their new assignment...and for the Borger First congregation as they seek the Lord's direction regarding their next pastor. 

 

Congratulations to our office manager, Vania Palacios-Alvarez and her husband, Josh, on the birth of their precious daughter, Elianah Alyssa Alvarez, on October 1st!  As previously announced, Vania will be out of the office on maternity leave until December 1st. During her absence we have a great team of volunteers (including our previous office manager, Ana Carrier) who will be serving the district here in the office.  Pictured here with Ana and me are our volunteers, (left to right) Linda Hines, Raylene Tucker and Raydeen Watson. I am very grateful for their service!

   

I want to thank our pastors, staff members, and local lay leaders for the tremendous job you have done leading your congregations in the Ministry Safe Abuse Awareness training! As I write this all but one or two of our English speaking pastors have completed the "Skillful Screening" training. Our Spanish and Korean speaking pastors are currently in process.  This has been a huge undertaking and will pay great dividends regarding the safety of our children and teens.  I want to thank our District Children's Ministry director, Jennifer Sommers, and Assistant Superintendent, Earl Robertson, for the many hours of work they have put into this very important project. We are extremely grateful!

Please begin to make plans now for the Shepherds' Sabbath which will be held in Abilene on February 1-3.  Dr. Carla Sunberg will be our speaker this year. Check out the promotional flyer below in the newsletter.

Finally, please join me in prayer for Pastor Coleen Scott and our Burkburnett congregation.  This past Sunday the extreme rain that fell in the Wichita Falls area led to the flooding of their main building.  The entire building was under 3-6 inches of water!  I want to thank pastor Eric DeLuna, of Wichita Falls Lakeview, who came over to Burkburnett with a number of his people to help extract the water.  Nevertheless, tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage occurred.  Our district disaster response coordinators, Cal Callender and Marcia Nikl are organizing volunteers to begin the process of recovery on Thursday of this week.  Please let them know if you would like to participate.  Pastors, very possibly we will need to take up a special offering to help them. Please be watching for details regarding this.

 

I look forward to seeing many of you at the Awakening next week in Arlington.  We are praying for a powerful time off worship, instruction and inspiration!

 

For you and with you,