Weekly Update// Pastor Will
Hi, Church!
Have you ever heard the phrase “Blessed to be a blessing”? I recently heard this and thought it was not only catchy, but also had a good message to it. Blessings are nice, aren’t they? It’s also nice to be able to bless other people. Therefore, it’s a blessing in and of itself to bless other people. As I thought about this, though, I wondered if there was a biblical basis to all this and found out there was. In Genesis 12, God tells Abram (who later became Abraham) to leave his country of Haran and travel to Canaan. There God would bless Abraham and make him the “father of a great nation,” which later became Israel – thus giving us the phrase, “blessed to be a blessing.” I say all that because this past weekend we had the pleasure of having Pastor Erwin Lopez, Director of Central Florida Wesley, preach. Erwin not only shared a great message on Jesus’ healing a woman on the Sabbath but also shared all the wonderful things Wesley has done and continues to do, on and off UCF’s campus. One thing that he shared – that was incredible to hear – is the amount of support Asbury has received from Wesley, somewhere in the range of eight to ten interns, some of whom are still on staff. We are blessed to be able to be a blessing for them, but they have also been a blessing to us. If you were not able to give to Central Florida Wesley, you can still do so! Just make your check payable to Asbury and indicate that it’s for this life-changing ministry. The same applies for any donations made through our website.
This upcoming weekend we will take up a different special offering for FJFON, which stands for Florida Justice for Our Neighbors. In a recent email, Pastor Bob Bushong, our District-Superintendent described FJFON as “a hospitality ministry of the United Methodist Church that provides free, high-quality immigration legal services to low-income immigrants throughout the state.” Currently, there are attorneys in Orlando, Miami, and Tampa. However, the need is growing, so during service, we will ask you to join us in giving to this ministry. If you give online, you can give through the Miscellaneous tab and write FJFON in the “note” section.
In other news at the church, we have heard from a lot of young parents about a need to get together with other young parents who are going through similar life experiences. Can I get an Amen?!?! In hearing them, we have organized Parents’ Night Out for THIS Sunday (September 18). We are planning to meet at the church campus at 5pm to drop off the little ones. Then us parents off will walk over to Maitland Town Center together and grab dinner. No need to RSVP, just show up at 5pm. The plan is to wrap everything up at 7pm. One other announcement is our Rainbow Readers program with the Boys and Girls Club in Eatonville. This program is a chance to read with some of the children and help them with their reading and comprehension. While this program has been around a while, starting next week, we are bringing the students to Asbury on Wednesdays and reading with them from 4:00-5:30pm. Then the children will join us for Wednesday Night Dinner. Our understanding is that the Boys and Girls Club can provide as many children as we have volunteer readers, but we need to know ahead of time for planning purposes. If this is something that interests you, please contact Carla Smith at kevcar67@gmail.com for more details.
Lastly, this Sunday kicks off our new sermon series titled “God’s Will: Unraveling the Mystery.” In the inaugural message, Pastor Chris will be looking what it means to say God has a will for our lives. Does God predetermine everything? How does free will come into play? Does God decide in advance who we will marry (if we marry), where we will live, what job we will have, how we will spend our retirement? Or do we decide some of these things? All these questions and more will be answered this Sunday, so don’t miss it! Our two services are the Celebration (Contemporary) Service at 9:30am in the Fellowship Hall and the Traditional Service in the Sanctuary at 11:00am. Both services are live-streamed through Facebook and YouTube if you can’t make it in person.
Have a blessed weekend and see you Sunday!
Thanks!
Pastor Will