Dear Siblings in Christ,

Every good and perfect gift comes from God above, and God is so good! That God gives good and perfect gifts for us is part of God’s love story since the very beginning of time. God created everything, generously blessing creation with every gift to create and sustain life, and God called it all good, even very good. Then God made a covenant, a sacred promise, to Abram and Sarai that God would bless them in order that they would be a blessing for others throughout many generations with as many descendants as there are stars in the heavens.

God’s people are blessed by God’s promise to be a blessing!

Out of great love, down through these many generations, God’s people have experienced blessing and the fulfillment of God’s promise through the gift of Jesus Christ and his ministry of preaching, teaching, feeding, healing, restoring, welcoming, and blessing. And finally, from the cross Jesus died and was resurrected to new life. After ascending to heaven, the promised gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out on that first day of Pentecost calling the Church into being that all might know the blessing of the good news we have in Christ Jesus.

God’s people are blessed by the gift of the Holy Spirit to be a blessing!

Still today, we find blessing when we are gathered together, as the body of Christ, to worship, pray, praise God, and receive God’s grace through the gift of the sacraments, because God has always been faithful to God’s promise. In the waters of baptism, we are blessed by God’s promises for forgiveness and new life, and again as we are anointed with the gift of the Holy Spirit and while we pray for the on-going gift that the Spirit be “stirred up in us.” At the table, we are blessed by the grace we receive through the sacrament of Holy Communion. We are nourished by bread and fruit of the vine—the body and blood of Jesus—so that we might be sent into the world to bless others with the good news of God’s great love that has been made known to us.

God’s people are blessed to be a blessing!

Indeed, by every good and perfect gift God has given in abundance for the life of the whole world, we have been richly blessed by God’s faithfulness and steadfast love. All that we have is a gift first received from God—our talents, our time, and our treasures. And with them, we are called to “proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the world.” By our baptismal promises and the sharing of God’s abundance, this is how we are called to be a blessing to others.

Having received God’s good and gracious blessings, and by our ministries at Grace, we strive to live out these promises in loving service toward our neighbors. This fall, as we begin our Fall Stewardship Campaign, we hope that you will prayerfully ponder how you, too, have been blessed to be a blessing at this very time and for this very place. Please consider how you will respond to the invitation this fall to support the on-going ministries at Grace, that this community may continue to be a blessing for the sake of the world God loves.

Graces Good Garden – Decommissioned

Greetings,

    After our 11th season, on May 13, 2025, the garden was decommissioned!  All of the raised beds built by the boy scouts in 2013 had severely rotted.  The fence was a mess after a huge branch fell on it last year.  We would have faced a major rebuild to make the garden look good again.  The future of this space is yet to be determined, but for 11 years it served the community by providing more than a couple thousand pounds of fresh produce to Open Door for distribution.

    We have had more than 30 congregants who participated in this ministry over the years.

Look at the pictures.  In what was a fitting end today, Bill Kilcoyne, the young boy who built the garden as his Eagle Badge project, was on campus to repair an air conditioning unit.  Where he helped build the raised beds and gate as a youngster, he carried the last boards to the dumpster as a young man.

     With gratitude for your contributions to the success of this ministry.

Kurt Meyers

   If you love digging deep into historical facts and want to better understand why racism is so embedded in our current culture, read “When Affirmative Action was White” by Ira Katznelson.  Or you could try reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ award-winning book “Between the World and Me.”  

   Also, you could watch the powerful & thought-provoking true story “Just Mercy” about systemic racism and the battle for justice.  You can currently watch this move for FREE on all digital networks.

   Another excellent book is White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.   Other informative, challenging, and well-done resources include Selma  (movie),  Dear White People (movie and Netflix series), andThirteenth   (Netflix documentary).

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me…. Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”  – Matthew 25:40-45.

Mental Health Resources:   For you or someone you love…

NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness)  HelpLine can be reached Mon.-Fri., 10am–6pm, ET.  1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or info@nami.org

Montgomery County Mobile Crisis  Immediate support for crisis

situations available 24/7 at 1-855-634-HOPE (4673).

Mont. County Children’s Crisis Support Program  Immediate

support for crisis situations available 24/7 at 1-888-HELP-414.

Mont. County’s teen talk line  If you’re a teen feeling overwhelmed & need another teen to talk to, please call at (866) 825-5856 or text (215) 703-8411. It is available, free of charge, Mon.-Fri., 3 to 7pm.

PA Department of Drug & Alcohol Program (DDAP). To find

addiction treatment or a treatment provider, call the 24/7 toll-free

1-800-662-HELP hotline.

Laurel House  (domestic violence)  24/7 hotline: 800-642-3150,

Women’s Center of Montgomery County’s  (domestic violence)

hotline: 800-773-2424.

Alcoholics Anonymous   www.aa.org for help with a drinking problem