Pastoral letter, from Lance

This weekend, Garrett, Cameron, Jillian, Patty, Ellen, and I attended the Fellowship Southwest Compassion and Justice Conference in Dallas. We heard challenging speakers and made connections through the weekend. Save the date for the next Fellowship Southwest Event: Advocacy Day on Tuesday, February 25 in Austin.

On Wednesday night, the second “Serendipity” will meet in Maresh Hall. Last week, we filled the Atrium and kept bringing in more chairs. Join us as we continue this gathering for prayer, fellowship, and a study in “The Gospel According to Armand Ganache.”

Our Habitat build continues with the Rodriguez Family every Saturday through November 16. Our website has waivers, directions, and more.

Thanks to Mike Massar for filling the pulpit yesterday. Please pray for Garrett as he recovers from illness and for everyone on our list in This Week at Woodland.

One of the big lessons I learned this weekend is how we view and name people. Here at Woodland, we serve immigrants through ESL and ELIM. We serve people who experience food insecurity and homelessness with our CAM Ministry by making sack lunches. How do we view the people we serve? We were challenged to reframe how we view them and name them by calling them all neighbor. They are ours; they belong to us. They are our neighbors and we love them.

Have a great week, neighbors.

Lance Mayes