This season has been unsettling. As sisters in Christ, we know Jesus is our hope and security. Knowing this, we want to provide opportunities for us to grow and learn together.

Not only are we facing a pandemic, we are facing — yet again — the death of black women and men at the hands of the police in our country. There is deep pain in our city as well as in our church body. We want to provide a place for reflection upon these injustices and the deep sorrow we are experiencing.

I want to update you on the Coronavirus and our church response to best help keep you and your family safe as well as do whatever we can to love, serve and protect our church, neighbors and city….especially the most vulnerable.

Through the years, we have felt God birthing music out of this movement of students and their purity of worship. Over the past year, we have started the process of recording some of this music and students.

At this very moment, whether you know it or not, you are being shaped and formed. Each image you view, the sound you interpret, the food you ingest, and the emotion you feel is shaping and forming you.

Our prayer this Christmas season is that all the traditions we do, big or small, would point us to the One who came not only to live with us but to save us.

"My favorite thing about camp is that we don't have any electronics or our phones." - Sarah | We want to make sure everyone who wants to go to camp can join in for one what will be one of the most transformative weeks of their lives!

On Day 4...As we wrap up our look at rest, we cannot ignore personal peace comes from who we are in Jesus and that he knows us by name, calls us to be his children, sanctifies us (makes us more like him), and prepares a place for us to be with him for eternity. That is true rest.

On Day 3.. I had a conversation with a student this past year who was struggling and commented to them, "you need a Castle Byers," which we sort of both laughed at because they understood the Stranger Things reference. But this student did not have a physical place in which they could go and retreat.

On Day 2.. Sleep is part of rest. So is waking. Pray now for God to help you explore your sleep patterns along with your waking patterns.

On Day 1... Take a brief moment in your journal or your thoughts, and create or describe your perfect day. Describe or create a day or a moment when all things are as they should be.

As we enter Thanksgiving week, my desire is for you all to join me in a four-day series to look deeper at Rest. We will look at rest through the lens of Shalom, Sleep, Sabbath, and Self-Identity.

I've compiled a list of my favorite apps that offer a better way to fill the time.  Whatever your go-to distraction on your phone has become, consider replacing it with one of these apps and begin soaking in the love of God.

Through a strong relationship built with DCS, the “Red Tub Day” project was launched. Foster families would receive a large tub filled with gifts that a child in their home had requested. And to top it all off, there would be an exciting Christmas party.

And as I was learning from you 6 years ago, online on my laptop. I was trying to see what God was doing in your community, and it blessed my team and me so richly. So I am thankful for all that you are doing.