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If you are like me, you might be overwhelmed with emails and conversations about COVID-19. I promise to keep our updates limited and not be changing plans daily. To that end, we are making the following plans that will hold for the next several weeks. We have made these plans in prayerful discussion with our area pastors and church leaders. Prayerfully, with these short term modifications we can return to a more normal pattern in the weeks to come. All COVID-19 News from Timothy can be found at timothystl.org/coronavirus and at Timothy's FaceBook page Facebook.com/timothystl

 

1. All "in person" group events are cancelled until further notice. This includes the Easter egg hunt, Easter breakfast, Rummage Sale, Lenten Meals and "in person" worship.

 

2. We will still continue our Sunday worship and Lenten midweek services by live stream. We also intend to have Holy Week services as well by live stream. The only persons in attendance will be those conducting the services. You can access the services via our YouTube channel "TimothySTL" please like and share the channel to those that you think would be blessed by it. You can also access it by our website timothystl.org/live. there you can find a bulletin to download to more easily follow along.

 

Please continue to support the work of Timothy as we labor in sharing the Gospel and love of Christ from our neighborhood to the Nations. If you have not signed up to give online at www.timothystl.org/give, now is a great time to begin, the church office can help you set this up if you need any help. 

 

3. Mother's Day Out is cancelled until April 8.

 

4. Food Pantry will have a modified service that greatly restricts the interaction of our volunteers and clients.

 

5. Leaders in the congregation will be reaching out to every household to check in on your family and to maintain a connection to each other. If you learn of any needs that we can address as well, please let us know. 

 

6. We will provide Sunday School material via mail to each child to use with their families.

 

7. We still will be taking prayer requests, you can do so online at our "Connect" page www.timothystl.org/connect

 

8. We are continuing to work with our sister congregation to work together in helping each other care for the Body of Christ.

 

If you have any concerns please contact Pastor Dinger at 908-635-7464 or pastordinger@timothystl.org

 

Finally, a short thought as I reflect our partnership in the Gospel at this time:

 

When I was serving in Taiwan, the wife of the local pastor I worked with was very fond of using Chinese proverbs. One of these proverbs is “It's better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic time.” This proverb has been interpreted into English as a curse, “May you live in interesting times.” 

 

Today is an interesting time. And for many this can be seen as a curse – life will be harder during interesting times, life will not be peaceful, and things will change. The church will be challenged, and it will be hard, and the future is uncertain. Today is an interesting time.

 

But I prefer to see it as a blessing – life will be more challenging and so more rewarding, life will be exciting and so not dull and boring, and things can change for the better. How can we use this time of social isolation to build deeper connections to each other? I don’t have all the answers for how we can do this, and so I am glad that I have you all to work through this together and learn together in our care for one another. 

 

Every generation sees themselves as living in interesting times and this generation is no different. And we as the Church exist within these interesting times. We might be pressured to stop coming together completely, even by other Christians. We might be pressured to cancel our outreach events, and even Easter celebration. The times we live in are interesting to say the least.

 

We could easily throw up our hands and throw in the towel Living in interesting times is hard and that the work ahead seems too hard. In interesting times we can lose sight of the real purpose of why God has left us here. Listen to how Martin Luther understood this purpose as he reflected on 1 Peter 1:3 “We have no other reason for living on earth than to be of help to others. If this were not the case it would be best for God to kill us and let us die as soon as we are baptized and have begun to believe. But He permits us to live here in order that we may bring others to faith just as He brought us.”

And so it is a blessing to live in interesting times because God has still permitted us to live here in order that we may bring others to faith just as He brought us. I look at these times and thank God that He has chosen to place me here and now in interesting times because life will not be boring, it will be challenging and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit things can change for His glory. Let us thank God that while disease and disruption is not from Him, let us see how God will use this interesting time for good and while socially isolated, He can draw us closer together and closer to Him. I am thankful for you, as we serve together in this interesting time.