NEWSLETTER
of
First United Methodist Church
10246 Warwick Boulevard
Newport News, Virginia 23601
Telephone: 595-0383
FAX: 595-8814
nnva@www.gbgm-umc.org
John T. LeGault Jr.
Pastor
jlegault@iname.com
From the Pastor's Desk . . .
As I sit here on this cold, gray late December
morning, I think of all that is before us as a church.
However, I am more aware of our hurting world.
How can I chirp about the "business of the church,"
when the events of our world are so crucial and so
scary? In Iran nearly 20,000 people have lost their
lives in earth quakes. In California there have been
mud slides and in other places like Iraq the job of
rebuilding and re-establishing the country goes on
at a very expensive rate. If I simply tell you that we
should be "nice little Christians in 2004," you would
think our faith rather trite in the face of the world's
problems and so would I.
Our missions committee is getting
ready to house PORT for seven
nights here in our church where the
on-going work and ministry of our
life of faith goes on all the rest
of the time. We will live and
work around PORT as June
Loving and her volunteers get
moving on this project we have to
give homeless folks a place to eat
and sleep on cold winter nights when the rest of us
are in our own beds in our own homes. In short, as
January looms the world still needs a faith
community that looks for ways to grow in faith and
express its faith in action in a world that hurts
mightily. Mr. Wesley said to do "All the good we
can, by all the means we can, in all the ways we can
in all the places we can, at all the times we can, to
all the people we can as long as ever we can." Our
work is cut out for us. The world needs the church
in January and in all the days of 2004.
God bless you.
