E-note from Pastor DJ

As you are reading this message, I pray that you and your loved ones are doing well.  If you have any prayer requests feels, please feel free to send those to office@fwumc.org. We want to make sure you also know about our survey. We'd love to hear your feedback and learn how you are doing. You can click this link for the survey. If you prefer to share your thoughts person to person, please contact your community group leader to share your responses over the phone. 

This Monday is Indigenous Peoples day. I invite you to take the time to learn more about Indigenous Peoples day. Here are a few links to learn more for your and your loved ones (Link 1, Link 2). I’m remiss that I forgot to mention this important day during our service this Sunday. 

For October 18th, we get to celebrate Laity Sunday. I want to invite you to send in a 1-2 minute video sharing how you are doing, especially regarding your faith. Please send these videos to DJ@revdj.comno later than 7pm on October 12th. If you prefer to, you can also write your reflections and email them to me. We would love to hear how you are doing. Our hope is to get as many voices sharing as possible. 

We look forward to seeing you in worship this Sunday. Let us hold one another and our community in prayer together. 

Indigenous People's day resources https://illuminatives.org/indigenouspeoplesday2020/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/national-museum-american-indian/...

E-note

Church friends and family,

I pray that you and your loved ones are staying safe and indoors while the air quality outside is poor. Since today is the anniversary of 9/11/01, I also hope that you say a prayer for police officers, fire fighters and the many who put themselves in harms way to serve our community, just as so many did after 9/11/01.

I also want to give you a heads up that we'll be studying from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter, 18, starting at verse 21. We'll be exploring what Jesus meant when he talked to Peter and his disciples, about forgiveness. During the sermon, we will especially be focusing on the phrase we recite from the Lord's Prayer. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors...for many of us, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. 

In light of all that is happening in our world, our Country and our communities. Let’s spend some time thinking about what it means. What does it mean as a person of faith to forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors? In the last week, school has started for our local students.

Whether you have young ones or not, please pray for students, parents/guardians,  teachers, administrators, nurses and the many people doing their very best to help our students get a proper education.

You are welcome to join me in the month of September to write a card or send an email saying thank you to one of those persons I just mentioned.  Let's fill our community with gratitude. 

Even in the midst of what is happening in our life. 

May you be blessed this week. 

I look forward to worshiping with you on Sunday morning. 

Pastor DJ.

E-Note from Pastor DJ

Church family and friends, 

What a gift we have in one another and what a blessing it is to serve Jesus. It’s a joy to be able to worship with you online. If you want to watch our last service or any of our previous services, please check out fwumc.org and click online worship. There you can find all of our previous services. 

By my count, we are well past 100 days of Covid-19 quarantine in our area. It’s been a long time since we have been together as a whole body in person. Our church council leadership is in the early process of planning our phases of reopening. One of our primary objectives is to do no harm. We will be working hard to listen to King County’s guidance, Bishop Elaine’s communications and the leadership of our church council. Once we have a clear plan of reopening in incremental phases, we will communicate through our community groups, webpage, email and through social media.

This past Sunday, we had the gift of many different singers and worship leaders. At our church, we have a camera, microphone and tripod available if you are interested in reading scripture, leading worship or another way of participating in worship. Simply contact our church office admin Sharon Wisenburg (sharonatchurch@gmail.com) and she will connect you with the right person to record at our church. We ask that videos be recorded on our church camera and organized through Sharon so that we all may provide the best possible worship service we can. 

Something that has recently happened is Juneteenth. This is an important day in our Country’s history. To learn more about Juneteenth, I suggest you check out the United Methodist Church’s post here - https://www.umcjustice.org/news-and-stories/church-and-society-observes-juneteenth-as-a-holiday-1060.

"I hope you join me in celebrating our interim Music Director’s first month of leading worship Janine Dodd. She’s doing a fantastic job and we are so grateful for her leadership. As promised, at the 60 day mark of the interim music director position, we will be posting the job description and holding interviews for this position. Initially, our hope was to interview in person, I’ll be in communication with our Staff Parish team to decide how best to move forward on this important position. If you have any questions about this process, please contact Sandy Shinbo (Sandyshinbo@comcast.net) or myself. "

It’s a joy to worship with you church. It’s an honor to serve alongside you. Let’s continue to hold one another in grace. Practice generosity. Honor others and seek to be patient with one another and ourselves. 

Peace be with you, 

Pastor DJ