A Season of Gratitude and Anticipation

Pastor Arun Paul

November 2023

감사와 기대의 계절

Dear church family,

Greeting in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

I hope you all are enjoying the beauty of the Fall Season, a season with
stunningly beautiful fall colors, so picturesque, so lovely! At the time of writing,
I am in India getting ready to travel back to the States. My time in India has
been great and full of ministry opportunities for which I am so thankful to God.
Thank you for your prayers for me during this trip and for my family, We
appreciate you!

With less than two months to go, we are at the tail end of 2023. We are so thankful to God for all his goodness, grace, love, and mercy upon our church this year and for helping us move into a new denomination with a new chapter in the life of our church. Let’s keep focusing on the goodness of the Lord as, with grateful hearts, we enter into the season of Thanksgiving and then Advent, a season full of hope and anticipation of the coming of Christ into the world.

I am patiently waiting and looking forward to Christmas, to celebrate the birth of
Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of the world. I hope we are getting to know
more about the wonderful character of God through our sermon series in the
book of Jonah. And that we can grow in Christian discipleship to join God to
accomplish His mission in this world; to turn the world to Christ, so that they
may also experience the goodness of God.

In our last church council meeting, we evaluated and reflected upon Ministry
Day Sunday that we had on September 17. We recognized and blessed the
“Connections Team” to work towards preparing and developing our church
facility and the congregation to be a multi-generational and multicultural
community in Christ.

Please pray with me for God’s peace and comfort for the members of our church families who have recently lost their loved ones. Please also pray for those who are recovering from various surgeries and those dealing with health concerns. Encourage one another and provide care for one another!

Finally, let’s remind ourselves that Grace Methodist Church is a loving,
caring, and compassionate community of God’s people that welcomes,
receives, and cares for all those who come into our wide-open doors. We are a
vibrant community of believers who come together to worship God, study God’s word, pray, enjoy each other’s fellowship, and support one another. We are committed disciples of Jesus Christ, and we passionately reach out to the world through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, participating in God’s mission both locally and globally.

With love, prayers, and blessings,

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you,
and be Gracious unto you; the Lord lift His countenance upon you, and give you
peace” (Numbers 6:24-26).

Pastor AP