Greetings dear friends and family of Saint Matthew UMC,

I want to begin by telling you all that I am so very moved by your response to our new children’s project of raising money to help those less fortunate. Your response Sunday morning was phenomenal. The children ended up collecting $198 in change and small bills. For those of you who placed large bills in the bucket, I’m grateful for you. In the next few weeks, we will have newly decorated buckets, and we will have one large bucket for each child who comes to church.

I also want to tell you that our project with Bill J. Elliott Elementary School is off to a roaring start. We delivered quite a few pairs of undergarments to the school, and I have just been informed that the socks are already starting to show up at the church for our next event with the school. Your generous hearts are the perfect example of a follower of Jesus Christ putting action to their faith. We will have information very soon about a warm coat drive. This drive will include sweaters, hooded sweatshirts, coats, and warm mittens. Connie Michael is our liaison to the school, and we are grateful for her work.

I am excited by the many new connections we are making in our community. I’m also very excited about the work that we continue to do that we’ve always done. I know that a couple of our anonymous angels reached out to Charlotte Holder Sunday afternoon just to make sure that she had everything she needed. I was able to visit with Bill and Linda Parker that same afternoon. Bill is still recovering and still telling those same dad jokes that he always tells. We look forward to the day when Bill and Linda are back with us in worship.

By the time you read this letter, I will either be in the middle of or just finished with my interview with the District Committee on Ministry. You are all aware that the Board of Ordained Ministry opted for me to wait before being approved for ordination as a provisional elder in the United Methodist Church. I was devastated by that decision last March, but from where I stand today, it was one of the greatest blessings of my life this year. The work that would have been involved in being a provisional elder in the UMC is more than I would have been able to complete successfully given the events of 2024. I look forward to talking with DCoM on Thursday, and to interviewing with the board again next March. Your prayers and your support are absolutely vital to my success.

These horrid temperatures and the unsafe conditions they create will remain with us for the foreseeable future. It looks like it may not even be safe to go outdoors during the day before September. I also want you to be aware that mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus have been found in our neighborhood, making dusk also an unsafe time to be outdoors. Please try to remain indoors as much as you can over the next couple of weeks. I look forward to being outdoors with you in the fall, maybe even having a cookout or an outdoor worship service sometime in October. Speaking of October, on October 13th, Texas Health Fort Worth Faith Community Nursing will be at Saint Matthew from 9:00 AM until 11:00 AM giving flu vaccines. The vaccines are not the senior dose of the flu vaccine; we will not have any supply of the senior vaccine. However, we will have plenty of regular flu vaccines for those folks in the congregation who want to receive a free flu shot. We will also be sharing this event with the elementary school for the parents to come and be vaccinated at our congregation. More to come as we will need volunteers to help with setup and managing the traffic I’m hoping we have that morning.

My love to all of you and wishes for a cold front to come sooner rather than later into our lives,
Mary