March Ministry Updates

Dear Church Family,
Like sheep in need of a shepherd, some of our flock have strayed. It is a regular occurrence and found in almost every church. We need to go to them and lovingly bring them back. Will you help make a call or two? If you are one who has strayed, “We miss you. Please come home and rejoin the flock.”
Praise God for the beautiful new digital sign. It will have scripture verses and encouraging words to minister to the driving public each day.
We try to make our church as attractive as we can and the ministries as pertinent to the lives of our people regardless of age. Yet, there is always room for improvement. We are praising God for making some of those improvements as He has put it on the hearts of several of our people to begin new ministries. You are probably aware of the Prayer Team ministry that is very active taking groups of faith-filled believers to various homes where they pray for individuals who have serious illnesses. They are blessing people with their genuine concern and hear-felt prayers. If you would like to be involved, call Butch Ryan.
We have women who have special needs, such as being a widow, the mother of teenage a daughter or being a single mother with a new-born child. A new and exciting women’s ministry team is about to be launched at our business meeting next week. It will be multifaceted and broad in scope attempting to minister to ladies of all ages with a variety of needs. Come to the business meeting on the 16th to learn all about it.
The Youth Fundraiser was a huge success raising over $1500 dollars that will be used to send our kids to camp this summer. Thank you, East Ridge for always being supportive of our youth. Please keep them in your prayers.
The world’s eyes are focused on the horrors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Last Sunday, a lovely  lady from Ukraine with family living there gave an up-to-the-minute report from her brother. The part of the country they live in has yet to come under attack, but they feel certain it will be just a matter of time before they will need to flee their homes. Please pray for them and for the entire country. Please pray that God will intervene and the evil Russian leader, Vladimir Putin will be stopped.
The Weishampel family needs your prayers. We are planning to go to the Liver Transplant Center in New Orleans to have our daughter, Christina, tested and evaluated to see if she is a possible candidate for a life-saving transplant. We pray for her healing with or without the transplant. Thank you for being so supportive and joining us in prayer as we go through these difficult days. A special “Thank You” to those wonderful ladies who have provided meals and for those who stay with Christina each Sunday enabling Pat to attend church, worship and play the piano. You are a special blessing.
Please pray for the Dishong family, as they, too are going through extraordinarily difficult times.
Bro. David brought a great message on being good servants of the Lord last Sunday night. He encouraged us to be humble enough to wash each other’s feet and compassionate enough to pray with and share Jesus with a stranger.
We love you.
See you Sunday.
Bro. Alan