From our Senior Pastor and Council President

WOW! You never cease to amaze us. Thank you for the faithful, generous and inspiring financial commitments you have made for 2019. It was an amazing weekend last weekend celebrating what God is doing in our midst.

So far, 136 households have offered commitments for the coming year. We reached the $5,000 challenge gift goal of 75 new/increased commitments by Celebration Weekend last weekend AND the $2,000 challenge gift goal of 50 additional commitments by Thanksgiving. That’s an additional $7,000 for our ministry this coming year. Thank you to all of you who have committed to helping make our vision a reality in 2019. There’s still time, though, for those of you who have not yet submitted your commitments to do so.

We promised in last week’s e-news that there was news coming about a big step we are taking right now toward our 2019 vision. Now, we’re ready to share that news!

We have hired Katy Moran as Interim Senior High Youth Director. We have been dreaming about and praying for a Senior High Youth Director for several years. When Pastor Keseley met Katy at a synod meeting, she immediately recognized her as having the gifts and skills of the kind of person for whom we have been praying. While we weren’t in any kind of formal search process to hire a Senior High Youth Director, the church council decided to embrace this “Holy Spirit moment” and bring Katy on board through May.

Katy comes to us as a member of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Herndon and a 2018 graduate of Longwood College. She started college with plans to become a special education teacher and then heard the call to ordained ministry. She will start her Master of Divinity at United Lutheran Seminary in the fall of 2019. Katy has spent the past five summers on the staff of Lutheridge Camp in North Carolina. She is well trained and equipped to bring all of the faith and fun of Lutheran summer camp to our youth ministry. Katy will work alongside our existing youth ministry team “Making Firm the Foundation” in preparation for our Log College Project grant project that will launch next fall.

Katy will start with us Sunday, December 2 and will be present at both worship services and the Abiding Table that morning. Please take a moment to introduce yourself and welcome her to Abiding Presence when you see her. We’re thankful for the work of the Holy Spirit that has connected us with Katy and for the opportunity to bring her on board for this school year.   

We say this often, but we continue to feel like it is an exciting time to be the church here at Abiding Presence. Thank you for all the ways you are helping to grow and shape our ministry for the sake of the world.

Blessings,

Rev. Meredith Keseley
Senior Pastor

Steve Lucky
Council President