There are so many things about this congregation that I love.
The first thing that immediately comes to my mind is the Vacation Bible School that we held last month. Vacation Bible Schools have been around for decades and over time can become routine, but not at OPC. If you have never joined us during the worship time at VBS, you are missing something wonderful. To see over 100 children singing, learning bible stories, and being embraced by this church is a marvelous thing. Shelley and her team do an outstanding job of keeping it fresh and new, and also of welcoming new families into fellowship. This year’s VBS was a marvelous ministry of the church.
The week after VBS, we sent our children to Calvin Crest Conference Center, near Yosemite, for a great week at camp. It’s more than just a week in the mountains with God’s beautiful creation, it is another chance to hear of the love of God that comes to us in Jesus Christ. Whenever we baptize children, we make promises that we will nurture and encourage them to embrace and grow in their faith, and I think we are being very faithful to those vows.
Later this month we head back to Mexico to build houses and renew friendships at the orphanage. I love this trip for so many reasons, but perhaps most of all because I have seen God touch and heal so many lives through it. We will build two more houses this summer, which means that this congregation has built nearly 20 houses for families in Mexico.
I want to share one final reason why I love this church. Over the last couple of months, we have had an influx of visitors join us in worship. I have had the chance to meet with some of them and learn their stories. Some have come to be with us because they found themselves in difficult and complex places in life and have found that they are loved and accepted and nurtured by this congregation. They see it as a place to find healing and hope. Life is complicated, but OPC is a place of hope and new beginnings.
So much for a quiet summer! The Spirit is moving through us and it is wonderful to be a part of it.
Blessings,
Jeff Holland