Christ Our Hope Lutheran Church

P. O. Box 961690
Riverdale, Georgia 30296
(770) 997-7117                                        (770) 997-3312

Jeffrey M. Halenza, Pastor                                                                                                                                                                                           June 24, 2020

Dear Members and Visitors,

         We are now worshipping again on Sunday mornings and this past Sunday thirty-five adults were in attendance. We are also proceeding with videos of the services – check your email for the link. We do remain very concerned about the increase in new cases and will watch the numbers carefully to determine if it will be safe to continue the services.

         Please note that we have not yet resumed Adult Sunday School, Wednesday Evening Communion, or the Thursday Bible Study classes. I would love it if we could, but it’s just not wise or feasible at this point. But you can always join in on our Wednesday evening conference calls and we urge you to do so! Please check Pastor Flanigan’s email for the phone number and access code.

         Below is the prayer I will pray during our conference call tonight, June 24, at 7:00 PM. In some respects, it is a rather personal prayer since the sadness mentioned in the title and in the prayer is the sadness I have been feeling and the questions asked are the questions I have been asking God and myself and the flowers on our deck (where I think and pray and write) for a while now. Then again, every prayer is rather personal and all I can do is pray that the prayer will speak to and for you and become, in a sense, your prayer. The hope the prayer expresses is the hope I find in God, a hope that is rather frayed many days but a hope that has never failed to lift me day after day and get me through all that needs getting through. To put it more accurately, the hope I have is not so much a hope I find in God as it is a hope that finds me as I look for and listen for God not only in Scripture, but in all that happens day after day, and especially in the sheer beauty of a day, in the sheer beauty of any number of stunning roses surrounding me on our deck along with the trumpeting blossoms of two magnificent mandevillas and one awesome coleus, and the sheer beauty of the sunshine I so love, a beauty that not all the ugly actions, or ugly language, or ugly behavior that so many today enjoy can destroy and hence the hope that finds me is an unfailing hope, the very hope only God can give.

         May God bless you with courage and faith and hope throughout these days of ongoing uncertainty and chaos,

Pastor Halenza

JMH/nvn