Anyone who knows me knew how uptight and worked up I was about last Sunday, so I am extremely grateful to everyone who was participating in worship. You all made the day amazing by your presence and contribution!

It was indeed a full morning of celebrations for us! We had the mayor and our alderperson visit us! We had two people join the church. We had more than average attendance in worship! We had several volunteers who participated in leading worship! My heart was full!

I don’t know if I express enough how grateful I am to be part of this amazing community! I am blessed to call you my church family. Yesterday, (Thursday, Jan 22nd), within a matter of an hour, we decided that we needed to open our building as a warming center!

We are in the third week of January. Last year for this week, my enews started with these words, “The ongoing wildfires in California, relentless genocide of Palestinian people, continued climate change, upcoming transfer of power in the political makeup of our country, and much more that our world is experiencing; so much is changing around us, some of which causes a lot of anxiety within us…”

Not much seems to have changed since then, and if anything, it has only been exaggerated.