Thank you!

30 Dec Thank you!

Happy “almost” New Year y’all!

Before we get too far down the track from Christmas, I wanted to send out a HUGE Thank You to the Living Water Family this year.

In so many ways, 2021 was a more challenging year than 2020. We actually thought for a time that SARS-Cov-2 was behind us…and then it wasn’t.

But like the longer lockdowns of 2020, the Living Water family moved into a higher faith gear & I thank God for each of you.

Thank you too…to everyone who put their hearts & hands to service throughout the Christmas celebrations!

Worship at the best of times is a community-wide experience with many people involved. When restrictions & requirements & compliance necessities shift over and over again…and right in the heart of the Christmas season with multiple services right in a row…it really requires everyone’s involvement…and whenever Living Water needed a set of hands or a voice or a helper…there was always someone ready to step up. Thank you.

Thank you too to the Living Water Steering Team. It could not be a more challenging time to be in a leadership role and they have not flinched. I am deeply appreciative of each of our servant leaders. Those who are not on the Steering Team in 2022 will simply find other ways to serve and grow…and perhaps step back in at a later time. There’s always room for someone new on our team!

My great prayer for 2022 is that we see more people involved in worship leadership. Philippa and I have been talking about that for a number of months looking for ways to engage more diverse and varied worship participation. Now is that time. So…when we ask, please put up your hand and say “Sure, I’ll give that a go.”

Also…Leonie has been talking at length about different ways that we can deepen our personal experiences of Scripture & broaden our devotional practices. One of those, that seems to have generated some interest, is the F260 Bible reading plan. You can access it via the YouVersion Bible App or via a printed guide that Leonie has made available or via their website… https://replicate.org/f260-bible-reading-plan/

You can download &/or print the Week by Week Guide from there too. This is the Plan I’ll be following this year as a bit of a shift from my long-followed read-through-the-Bible every year experience. I’ll also be pairing this F260 5-day-a-week Bible reading with some daily devotional reading. Leonie has made a few of those available as well. If you’re not yet settled on how you will read & engage the Word of God in the coming year, talk to me or Leonie and we may have some insights or ideas.

That’s probably enough for now…I’ll have some more updates as we move into 2022 & I’ll be taking a few days off for a family trip early in January.

But until then…

“This is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life.” – 1 John 5:11-12

All we are…all we do…is life received in Christ from the Father & empowered by the Spirit.

We have untold opportunities to share that in the coming year…especially with those who right now live, but don’t have life.

Be blessed in that life!

John