Hey McFarland! Pastor Wayne here with an update.
- We continue to monitor the COVID-19 numbers in our community. The numbers are not looking good. At the Holston Annual Conference level, the COVID task force has been reconvened and they are currently advising that we follow the CDC recommendations. The current recommendation is that everyone should wear a mask when indoors and maintain social distancing while inside our facility. At this time, we are encouraging you to wear your masks indoors. If there are any changes to our policy, we will let you know here, on Facebook and via email and (possibly) text message. Please encourage everyone that you know to get the vaccination for COVID-19. It is the best way for us to move beyond this disease.
- School has restarted. This year, instead of collecting backpack supplies, we are providing Wal-Mart gift cards to the teachers at Rossville Elementary to purchase the supplies that they need. To support this mission: write a check to McFarland UMC and note that it is for RES mission and drop it in the offering box on Sunday morning; mail it to PO Box 156, Rossville, GA 30741; or give online using our secure giving page with a credit/debit card or by ACH from your checking account. Simply click here and choose “325 – (RES) Schools Ministry” in the “To:” dropdown box. No matter how you give, your gifts will be appreciated by the teachers at Rossville Elementary.
- Annual Conference Update. Because of COVID-19, our gathering to do the business of the Holston Annual Conference has been very fluid. Ann Russell is our Lay Member of Annual Confernce. We met together online at the end of June to hear reports and the first reading of proposals that will require voting. We were scheduled to meet together in person on August 28, but now that meeting will be hybrid with some meeting in person and others meeting online. Because of my responsibilities with the Annual Conference, I will attend the in-person gathering. Because I will be in Johnson City for that online meeting, the Reverend Steve Overall (retired) will preach for me on August 29. Please keep us all in prayer through this situation.
- Be on the lookout for information about the annual coat drive for the Mountain View Head Start and Pre-K sometime in early September.
- We are heading into Charge Conference season. This means that preparations for leadership in the new year will begin soon and some committees will meet in preparation. Our Charge Conference will take place in November as part of the Southern Mission Network. The date and location of this charge conference will be announced later.
- Thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and concerns for Charlene as she recovers from a full right knee replacement. She is on-track with her recovery and is doing well. With that in mind, I will be out of the office and out of the pulpit from Friday, September 24 through Sunday, October 3. The Reverend Mark Davis (retired) will cover for me on Sunday, September 26 and October 3. We will be traveling along the Eastern Seaboard for an extended vacation, our first extended vacation since coming to McFarland on July 1, 2018.