Thanks for Your Labor of Love.

As we enter the new year 2024, I want to take the opportunity to thank all of you for your labor of love and effortlessly contribution to keep the running of our church. I am thankful to God for His gracious love for what has been happening in our midst.

Through the course of the year, there were moments I came alone to the sanctuary, sat at the chancellor, thought about what we are as a church. In those moments, I imagined the number of people who have been coming through the doors of our church since its inception and have their lives transformed and touched by our outreach programs and the Gospel of Christ.

I imagined happy moments of baptisms and weddings. I also imagined somber moments of deaths and funerals. I am caught up as well with the challenges of what the present is and how the future is shaped. We are a small size church with a large sizable program.

This year, we have continued our involvement into the community with the Chubby project and the Hopewell Council of Churches. We have expanded our different mission outreach programs and have hosted PTS students in our midst. We have built a new program, “Thanks God It is Wednesday “(TGIW) that is re-starting in February 2024. We have repurposed the Sunroom community fellowship that has become the hall mark of our building.

We have also offered so many cups of coffee and become known for “Dave’s coffee.” We have provided meals on Sundays and during Hayride. We have lifted so many of our members and friends in prayers during the morning worship services and in our Wednesday prayer meetings. We have provided a sizable discretionary financial support to those in need. We have paid one hundred percent of our shared ministries at the conference level.

Our vision in 2024 is to move to phase 2 of the repurpose project of Burton Hall to make available a modern conference room and a prayer place dedicated to church members and the community at large. We intend to pursue a Family outreach to the North East Hopewell “Imagine New People Project (INPP) and create a greater presence in the community by hosting discussion forums on TGIW. A Family and Children Ministry program is overdue and we will continue to work on it. We are committed to offer a vibrant worship Service, small groups such as Reading Book clubs and women Bible studies. We intend to host the celebration Sunday in the third quarter of the year, a church strategic planning for the next ten years.

Another project is to establish local and international partnership with a couple of churches. We intend as well to diversify our sources of income by exploring non-members support for specific projects. In the first part of January , we will welcome three guest speakers ( Rev Amarachi Joseph, a Presbyterian Elder from Nigeria and master’s degree student @PTS, Rev Allie Rosner Bass, an United Methodist elder of the Virginia Conference who is pursuing a Ph.D. program and our own Oscar, a Nigerian pastor and who is enrolled in a master’s degree at PTS as well.

We might feel like grasshoppers facing giants ( Numbers 13:1-3; 17-20, 25-33) we are, however, a risk taking church not foolishly but with confidence that God is with us and calling us to advance His Kingdom in our community.

My prayer is that you will join us in the journey of Hope as we continue to be relevant in our community.

Peace and Love!

Pastor Will.