Sunday is Coming!

Dear First Family,

Sunday is coming and starting today, warmer weather is heading our way. Those are two pieces of good news we all need after such a long and arduous week.

Today, I want to make sure you are aware of our plans for this weekend.

For those who do not know, on Tuesday evening we did experience a burst pipe in our facility that affected our preschool area, nursery space as well as our choir and orchestra room in building A. When that was discovered on Wednesday morning, there was 2-3 inches of water in those spaces.

A great team of staff, their family members and many other volunteers quickly responded to remove that water and minimize the damage to those areas.

As a result, here are our adjusted plans for this Sunday.

We will not be open for children’s ministry activities this Sunday. Our team is diligently working to develop a timeline to restore damaged areas that are critical to care and serve our kids. As needed, we will also be exploring additional options to reopen our Sunday morning programming for children. We will keep you updated on that progress.

We will have our online children’s worship experience which can be watched live at 10am on our Children’s Ministry Facebook page and On-demand here. Our Children’s Director, Michelle Gery sent out an email yesterday with details on how to watch our Children’s Worship resources. You can find that email here.

At both 9am and 11am, we will be having worship services both indoors and online. The Back Porch, our outdoor space, will be closed this weekend. Many of the items that needed to be removed are in that space. We expect the Back Porch to be open by next weekend, February 27th.

For parents attending indoors, please note that children are welcome to attend worship with you in our Sanctuary. Know that you are also welcome to bring a mobile device if you would like them to watch our children’s worship service during that time.

I know many of you are exhausted.

You may still be waiting on power to be restored or recovering from an extended period of time going without. You have also dealt with burst pipes. I know those in Arlington and other areas have had to boil water for safety.

So many of you have reached out to help one another in a variety of ways.

Thank you for taking care of one another.

Thank you to all our first responders and frontline workers. This week we want to especially say thank you to all those who have worked tirelessly to restore power and water to those affected by this winter storm.

However you are able and in whatever way you may choose to participate, I hope you will be a part of one of our worship services this weekend.

I promise they will be filled with more good news that we all need!

I love you and I am so proud of you,

Pastor David