Friends,
First, let me say “We miss you!
Secondly, we will be faithful followers of both the Living Word (Jesus) and the written word (the Bible). I believe both would encourage us to follow the guidelines given to us by our government and health officials. We do not have to like it, but we can certainly understand the risk we pose to ourselves and others by meeting and through close contact.
Our national and local quarantines have been extended through April. We will honor our leaders by trusting in their knowledge and following their recommendations. Our church leaders have also encouraged us to follow with understanding and wisdom.
As we are about to enter Holy Week. I want to encourage you to celebrate at home. We can and should communicate with one another regularly. Let’s make Holy Week an extra special occasion by doubling our efforts to reach out through phone calls, emails, texts, cards, and letters.
My plan is to postpone our public Holy Week celebrations until after this quarantine is lifted. We WILL celebrate Palm Sunday, Three-Fold Communion, and Easter together, but just a little later.
In the meantime, I have included with this letter another “gem” I found to be both inspirational and thought provoking. Pastor Russ Ramsey grew up in Indiana, went to Taylor University, and now serves in Nashville, Tennessee. May this article bless you and lead you through this upcoming Holy Week.
Thirdly, our new website is almost complete. You can find it on the Internet at roanokebrethren.com.
We have discussed ways to better communicate with our church family on a number of occasions. While Facebook (FB) is a good way to communicate with others… it also presents a number of “challenges.” There are a lot of not-so-good things on FB too. We will continue to “post” updates and notes of encouragement on FB, but we will begin to use our website more and more.
YouTube has become popular with a number of churches. Like FB though, YouTube is not as “safe and sanctified” as we would like for it to be.
Having a presence (website) on the Internet allows us to control our content and eliminate the distractions of ads and other worldly sins and temptations. I hope to post a video message on the website in the next couple of days. Please trust me on the safety of this website and visit the site today and regularly (www.roanokebrethren.com).
Finally, let me say, “We love you!”
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word” (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17).
Love, Prayers, and Blessings!
Pastor Ken and Barbara