Haven of Rest Newsletters
12/20/2021 From the Desk of the Pastor
Church Family,
Giving honor and glory to God the Father, his Son, Jesus and the precious Holy Spirit; the year 2020 has now come and gone. It was a another compelling year, in terms of our relatively small congregation, but for the love for God and the love for Jesus, our members continued to serve the church and each other with faithfulness. Let us continue to exhibit the attributes of evangelists. On March 13th, Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor, Quinton Lucas, issued an emergency stay at home order limiting our service capacity due to the COVID-19 Corona Virus Pandemic. During the onset of the pandemic, our church officers had to redesign our church program to overcome the obstacles of not meeting over several weeks. We decided to do this by setting-up a conference call-in ministry. This helped facilitate getting God’s Word out to our congregation and continued the fellowshipping with each other over the phone instead of in-person. I would like to express appreciation to Rev. McDaniel, as we continue to increase God’s Word twice on Sunday mornings during this pandemic; our Sunday morning conference call-in ministry and our Sunday morning 90 minutes church service.
During the shut-down of our services, we configured our sanctuary and fellowship hall to conform to the CDC’s social distancing guidelines. Once the emergency stay order was lifted, our church officers determined[through God’s Holy Spirit and his guidance] to meet for 90 minutes of assembly with certain conditions in play, such as having only virtual singing as well as sanitizing all high traffic touchable areas after all services.
During the early months of 2020, we faced a tremendous loss of our devout members: Sis. Nylene Ersery, February 17, 2020, Founding Member, Former First Lady and Church Coordinator, Sister Josephine Nelson, March 23, 2020, Reverend Forrest Williams, October 2, 2020, Brother Franklin Thompson, August 9, 2020 and Sis. Tenola Tarr, November 14, 2020.
As we begin this new year of 2021, we look forward to the anticipation of the roll out of our church website and the Josephine Nelson Library and Conference Room dedication.
Let us remind each other and encourage one another to stay focused and vigilant while being in the Spirit, because we do not know what is on tomorrow. Each day, life’s events are filled with swift transitions, so let us love one another.
During the early stages of the pandemic, we had to limit our in-person church services; however, the maintenance of the church and the building must still be continuously monitored during the pandemic. Below are the past year’s maintenance concerns that were addressed during the pandemic:
February 2020
Repaired conference room air conditioning unit by replacing the power cord and cleaning the coils.
April 2020
Sanctuary basement sump pump malfunctioned resulting in the remediation and sanitizing of the entire basement.
June 2020
Annual eight (8) fire extinguisher inspections by Cintas.
July 2020
Services were provided by Logan’s Mechanical Service and with Baird Heating & Cooling donating a portion of their time and materials to replace the sanctuary’s air conditioning coil. The condenser unit is located in sanctuary ceiling rafters where the unit was repaired and pressurized with Freon.
December 2020
Changed out both the American and Christian flags on the flag pole.
As previously mentioned, in 2020, we celebrated the home going of our devout laborers in the vineyard of Christ. They will surely be missed by all. To comfort the families and their loved ones, we leave them with this passage of scripture:
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
Through the direction of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we have established some goals that we should be striving for in 2021:
To Evangelize and Pray for Healing for the Sick and Shut-In
To Increase The Conference Call Ministry Participation During The Pandemic
To Increase 90 Minute In Service Church Ministry Attendance During Pandemic
To Increase Member Attendance both in Sunday School and Bible Study
To Increase Attendance in Our Outreach Ministry
To Increase Meeting Attendance in each of Our Auxiliaries
In closing I would like to leave you with this scripture of inspiration that is found in
Galatians 6:6-10 KJV
“Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”