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Dear Saint Mark Family,
God’s grace and mercy be with you throughout this Lenten season.
Sunday, we shared on learning about gratitude, and I encouraged you to write down one thing you are thankful for each day this week. I trust you have been making your list. Taking the time to list what you are thankful for will make you keenly aware of God’s goodness in your life, and it will create in you a heart of gratitude. Who knows, it may even become a spiritual discipline you will continue to practice throughout the rest of the year. Count your blessings, for it will surprise what God has done for you.
On a separate note, I am inviting you to share with me and the staff the names of members who are sick, home bound, or in rehab of whom you are aware. We are charged to care for the sick and visit those at home, but we are not able to carry out this responsibility if we do not know those who need our care. So many times, it is believed we know when members are sick, but if it is not shared with us, we most likely will not know. You can call the church, send an email to me or the rest of the staff, or you can fill out the prayer cards with the information, but please let us know.
I want to share with you a beautiful thing that is happening at Saint Mark. On Monday, one of our members shared with the staff that her family has two season passes to the Atlanta Braves, along with parking that they would like to offer to any member of the church to use on the days when they would not be going. They sent a list of the days the season tickets and parking would be available. When another member heard about the generosity of this family, he remembered that he, too, has something to offer. He holds yearly passes to the Georgia Aquarium that he uses only a few times per year, so on the days when he is not going, it can be used by others who want to go. He has now offered to share those tickets with members of Saint Mark.
This is such a beautiful example of gift sharing, blessing both the receivers and the givers. I am sensing this generosity is going to extend far beyond these two members, and I am looking forward to hearing more of these stories of gift sharing.
Let me wrap up by sharing with you, this letter I received from Bishop Dease, our resident bishop of the North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church.
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