Overwhelming Gratitude

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. What an amazing fourteen years of God gathering us closer together as a community, inviting us into deep relationship, and growing us in our ability to love our neighbors together. Thank you for your welcome and generosity with a young pastor. Thank you for your grace and love and support during these months of transition. It has been joyful to reflect and share memories and meals with so many of you over the last few weeks. Thank you for the cards and gifts and oh my word - a surfboard!!!! I will give thanks for each of you every time I use it.

Pastor Matt

Sometimes the words ‘thank you’ feel insufficient. This is one of those times. Thank you, our dear community at YVPC, for your ongoing love and support in this transition, and also over the past 14 years. On Sunday I wanted to thank you each individually, and I am tempted to do so again. Apparently, God knows sometimes I talk too long so that sudden rain shower kept me brief. ;) There are concrete memories I have with each of you and the ways I have learned and grown in wisdom from being a part of this community. Thank you so much for being loving adults my children could trust, and for sharing your lives with us. Thank you for letting me serve this community and giving me the space to shape a role that worked best for our family. Thank you for your kind and thoughtful words on Sunday to Matt and our family, and thank you for your loving cards and for your generous gifts. On Sunday night, we sat around the dinner table and continued to share specific examples of how God has shown up through people’s generosity and grace to us over the years. I am beyond grateful for this community, honored to have been Matt’s partner as he pastored here, and humbled by your ongoing acts of generosity.

With gratitude and love,

Susannah

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you for everything you all have given and done since I was born. I can’t even count all of the times I was having “the worst day in the world,” and at the end of church I was smiling. Thank you all for the little gifts, the awesome Bible, letting me and Ruby color in the back of the church way too loudly, your generosity, and your kindness. The next pastor and their family will be the luckiest people in the world because they will have you all in their lives. Again, thank you. A thousand thank yous would never repay the kindness you have shown us.

Xoxo, Monrovia Scarlett Scout Prinz

P.S. Two last things to always remember: one, tears are for winners. Second, “goodbyes are not forever, they are not the end, they simply mean: we’ll miss you until we meet again!”

Thank you for the Bible and the 50 dollars. Also I want to thank you guys for all the love throughout all the last 10 years. I love being in the church with you. I’ll miss you and I love you.

Love Ruby

Community

1. Great News – Beth Thompson is working in the church office. She will be helping support the ministries of YVPC and keep folks connected. She will be in the office every Tuesday and Thursday from 3 – 6pm.

2. Check out our new website – yvpres.org. Great place to find these letters, request prayer, and donate online if you desire. If you have suggestions for additional resources you’d like on the website, please let Sylvia or Beth know.

3. Don’t grow weary of creating community - Please continue to call/text/send cards to three different members of our community to check in on each other and ask to pray with each other.

4. If you have an urgent prayer request – please call Paula Ash (925) 435 – 2859 to start the prayer chain.

5. Join the Zoom call this Sunday for our worship gathering. Zoom is a digital platform that facilitates online group meetings. You will find an invitation to the Zoom call in your email. A reminder that every Sunday morning the Zoom link/meeting number is the same. You can always log in from a previous email. You can use your smartphone or computer to join. Please bring juice and bread to the call so that we can all share Communion together. (If you are having trouble with Zoom – please reach out to Singeh Saliki to help (405) 714 – 3641.)

6. Even as we don’t see each other in person, our church continues to have our ongoing expenses. If you are able, please mail in your offering to YVPC, 2140 Minert Rd., Concord, CA, 94518. You can also give your offering through the website yvpres.org if that is easier for you.

Connecting with God

1. Lament – As the number of COVID-19 cases spike and we wrestle with racial justice in our society, remember the importance of lament – Use a bowl of salt and a bowl of water, share with God what breaks your heart/makes you angry, sprinkling salt, like tears, into the water.

2. Use the ‘Common Prayer – A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals’ by Shane Claiborne for daily prayer and to guide our weekly worship times. You can find it online at commonprayer.net or call me and we will get one delivered to you.

Loving our neighbors

1. We are gathering food to partner with Mision Hispana de Concord. We need dried beans, white rice, cereal, spaghetti, cooking oil, and tuna. Schedule the drop off with Kathy Youngson.

Grace and Peace, Pastor Matt