Well church community, winter has finally showed up. It feels like it has showed up on Sundays the last couple of weeks and might again this Sunday. In the past, that would mean we would have a lot less people in worship but with COVID increasing our online capabilities we have had more people in worship. I have been busy getting Ash Wednesday/Lenten packages out to people and the weather has, and might continue, to impact the ability to get to everyone before Ash Wednesday but keep hopeful. I will have more information about Ash Wednesday and the timing of being able to join that worship after I see what the weather throws at us this weekend.
This Sunday in worship we have planned to have Joe Coleman sing, we have amazing songs that Holly Phillips will sing and lead us in, and the message is set to shed light and perspective on our lives and faith. Yet, the ice might affect peoples ability to get our whole team to church. But you know me, and that will not stop worship, we will have worship somehow. I will go to church (crawl if I need to because of ice), I will turn on the cameras and computer, and we will have some form of worship that you will be able to join in. Our worship time might not have the same music as planned, we might not get to hear Joe sing, but we will have worship at 9am. I figure if the ice is that bad there will be a lot of people at home with no where to go so it is the perfect time to send worship out on the internet to the world. So please if we have an ice storm tune in and let your friends and neighbors know that there is something they can do even if they can't go anywhere!!
Now if the ice storm doesn't happen we will have the downstairs Fellowship Hall available to worship and there is plenty of room for all who come to have safe space between others. So if your soul needs to be with others for a time we offer this but know that for now it is safer to stay at home and utilize the many other ways we offer for you to worship together. The plan right now is to open up the sanctuary for worship on Palm Sunday (March 28th) but more details will be coming out later.
You can catch the Facebook Livestream at: https://www.facebook.com/tomscreekumc .
We will start the Facebook Livestream at @8:50am and you will see messages on the screen and hear music playing. This is the best option if you want to interact with others online. Feel free to chat to each other before and during the service. You can put prayer requests in the chat. This is great way to be able to interact with others if you watch it live with others in your church family who are staying home but want to worship as part of an online community. It will continue to be there to watch later and feel free to share or create watch parties in order to share it with others.
You can catch this livestream on our Toms Creek UMC channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX6E7eCwH2ZGYspkSCF0CGw/featured. We will start the YouTube Livestream at 8:50 am and you will see announcements scroll and hear music playing. This format is best if you are watching on a television or large screen with lots of people gathered around. You can have it fill the whole screen and just watch it without any distractions. There is a way to chat on YouTube but it normally has a lot less people and is normally a lot less chatty than the our Facebook livestream. If you subscribe to our channel it will let you know when we go live in future weeks. Later in the day another shorter version of the service is posted but for this coming series I recommend taking in the entire worship experience.
You can go to our website here https://www.tomscreekumc.com/service-videos and by Monday morning there should be a version of our service. Sometimes the whole service is there instead of the shortened version depending on different factors.
You can also use a phone to listen to our service by calling 857-799-9465 from any phone starting at 8:50 am. This will only have sound coming through and you will not be able to see anything that is occurring. If you would like we can we make a DVD of the service for you to watch just let the church office or Pastor Heath know.
To give your financial offering you can sign up to give electronically here: https://www.eservicepayments.com/cgi-bin/Vanco_ver3.vps?appver3=oo37DPDB_IkRvUYRT4XYFR9HODrOVn_HRoRVzfIf6wIC8Jr39BzhtDTFkxI3DZSBugLUwNICM4mn_Vn6Yqj7ze3avdPht8ScFTxSmF__f6NGGfZi-D-1l6WdFZHC1c8U
OR
you can text 844-406-0358 with an amount as the text. It will set up to give over text and from then on you just put in the amount and your donation to the church will go right through
or
you can go to our website and hit the donate button on our webpage, https://www.tomscreekumc.com
OR
you can mail your offering to:
Tom's Creek United Methodist Church
10926 Simmons Road
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
Love has kept us together during this pandemic. We have continued to proclaim hope and love into the world in the midst of the storms of this world. We have not, and will not, let anything silence us or stop us from shining the light of grace and love into the world! So let us continue to journey together.
Blessings,
PH
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