Grace and peace to you from God our Father in heaven and Our Lord Jesus Christ.

I can’t believe it is August already.  Where has this summer gone. August will bring another rummage sale and another D-Day.  And then September.  September the church will change.  Not only will we have Labor Day weekend, we will also have Rally Day and God’s Work Our Hands day.  Add to that the next weekend’s U2charist: something completely new. 

September will also be the time when we welcome a new pastor for our youth and families.  You, the congregation of Good Shepherd, have undertaken a very serious and sacred trust by calling The Rev. Paul Bailie.  Taking a vote is easy and we can be very excited about what the future has instore for us.  Now, however, the hard part begins also.  We need to be able to support him and to support his ministries here at Good Shepherd.  He will also need to be lifted up in prayer as well as his soon to be wife, The Rev. Brandi Hacker, who is the Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Madison, Ohio.  This is a big step for our church and it will need to be covered in prayer.

Speaking of youth and family, there are many dates that we can get our young people involved with the goings on at church.  They have already helped to park cars for the fourth of July where they raised over $900 dollars.  They will be helping with the rummage sale: to set up and to sell.  Some of the proceeds will go to the Youth Mission fund.  For the Friday night fish dinner, they will help set-up, serve, and clean-up.  All of this preparation is to help send as many young adults as we can to the 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering in Houston, Texas. 

Philippians 4:13      I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Thanks be to God!!

Pastor Patrick J. Van De Motter