First Church Family:
What a year it’s been! The way we have reached out to serve our community and world in 2022 has been astonishing!
We raised more than $20,000 dollars last December and January that enabled us to provide fresh water for people who had none, digging and building two wells in Guatemala. This spring we raised more than $25,000 that is enabling us to build a Habitat for Humanity house for a family without a roof over its head in our own community.
A month from now, we will provide full Thanksgiving meals for 150 deserving, impoverished families in our community. All of that financial support is outside of and beyond our church’s planned budget.
FUMC’s response to God’s call to serve the poor, in the midst of a pandemic, has been nothing short of extraordinary! That’s the kind of congregation I, and other modern people, want to be a part of.
Now it is time for us to focus on the support of our church’s ministry, and make certain we finish our financial year in a positive way. November and December are the months that churches and non-profits catch up financially, so that they can move forward with their ministries.
God has blessed us richly in 2022. Over the next two months, we need to respond to God’s goodness and remember our commitment to resourcing His church here in Lenoir. Please pray about how you might be a part of that, helping to ensure that First Church is ready to serve our community and world in 2023.
As members of our church family, you have the right to know that I will be completing my 2022 financial pledge to the ministry of our church and will offer gifts over and above my pledge amount to help ensure we will be able to meet our 2022 financial obligations. And then, I will increase my financial pledge to FUMC for 2023.
That will not be easy for me to do; but frankly I don’t of a better investment that I can make with my resources than to support the work of my Savior, Jesus Christ, here.
Would you join me in responding to God’s blessings?
With much gratitude for both your commitment and God’s blessings,
Dave Melton
Senior Pastor