Click here to view this week's community news and notes
Dear friends,
Won't you join me in pausing to lift up each of these leaders, community members, and needs named in our own circles and around the world? Let us be reminded that in our living and breathing, God meets us wherever we are, however we are. Let us pray.
With love,
Pastor Doug
Joys
Among the joys in our community and beyond,
We hold in our prayers all the youth, parents/guardians, and family members gathering this Thursday at 6pm to dream up their year ahead. Pray for each of our youth, as individuals whose stories to be shared are as sacred as they are unique, we will be able to foster a group that is anchored in trust, where each person feels and is reminded of their inherent worth in their partaking of the community that we build together.
We pray for our youth chaperones and all who will have a hand in building, companioning and tending this vital ministry in the months and years to come.
For God to continue to open our minds and hearts to the needs and hopes of all our youngest fellow humans.
We pray for our new congregational leadership as they prepare for their first board meeting later this month. With gratitude for the leadership and gifts offered in 2022 that have prepared us for this day by '22 Moderator, Jeanette Sanchez-Izenman and Vice-Moderator, Alison Unterrereiner, and for our new leadership team, including 23' Moderator Alison Unterreriner, Vice-Moderator, Gloria Utley, all ministry team leaders, officers and board members, and for the important, faithful work done by our staff and office volunteers. For all these, we pray for the strength needed to fulfill the Call God placed on each of them, for a heart of openness and receptivity to the Spirit's "next right steps" as we continue to build our programs that nurture all God's children, in our advocacy for justice and equity for the most vulnerable of our neighbors, in our stewarding of the land and resources for which we have a shared responsibility, in our partnership with the Low Income Housing Institute, with the ministry offered in service and the many lives transformed through the Tiny House Village, and in the ongoing work of our Mission Possible team as they explore the prospect of partnering with LIHI to build permanent affording housing on the corner of 6th and Orchard.
We give thanks for the support provided to Pastor Doug by his Pastoral Relations Committee, for Sue Simpson's leadership of this group, and for it's members, Lee Utley and Alison Unterreiner.
We give thanks for the gift of community that is blossoming around us, through the blessing of artistic expression offered by our community of artists in residence and for the many whom their gifts of teaching and mentorship serve, in the faithful, justice-oriented service and companionship for the journey of life that is kept alive in groups like Disciples Women's Ministries, in the questions shared and spirituality ignited at each of our weekly bible study groups - the Spirit continues to weave us together, and it is good!
Concerns
Among our congregational community Concerns,
We add to our concerns this week Susan Pearson's cat Mia who continues to recover and act more like herself after undergoing a leg amputation last week.
We continue praying for:
Mark and Charlene Housman
Mel Peabody
Mel Peabody's partner, Bear
Lalonnie Mills
Rachel Morford
September Peterson
Steven Lynd
And for our homebound friends, Helen Bosley, Harry and Margaret Lobberegt, Jane Nelson, Marylu and Joseph Mills and Jim and Kay Thompson and Lenora Cook.
Among our local and global community concerns:
We pray for the communities in Alabama affected by a recent tornado, including those who have lost loved ones.
We lift up those who continue recovering from a series of winter storms in California, most especially in the past two days. Pray for the first responders, for families still awaiting news on the whereabouts of loved ones, and for those who are still in harm's way.
We pray for our neighbors experiencing homelessness, in Tacoma and around the world. We pray for a fire to be lit underneath us all, from each of us, all the way to our legislators and lawmakers, that we would find the issue of homelessness to be OUR issue, and that we would continue to work together to help all our neighbors in need and make homelessness history.
For our Global Ministries partners, this week in El Salvador.
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If you'd like to share a prayer joy or concern, please contact Pastor Doug at doug@fcctacoma.org or by calling the church office. Please indicate whether your prayer is to be shared publicly, or if you'd like it to be kept private.
Click here to view this week's community news and notes
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