Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)
22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Thank you Father for your mercy and grace for each of us for this day!
Cowlitz County has entered phase 2 of the reopening plan for our state. The governor has also given churches the privilege of opening their doors for services. However, there are still restrictions as to how we go about the reopening process. According to the state regulations we can have 25% of our occupancy capacity or 50 people, whichever number is smaller. The regulations also call for social distancing at all times. Members of the same household, or those who rode to church together in the same vehicle may sit together. There is supposed to be 6 feet between the groups. The guidelines also require attendees to wear a face mask for the entire time of the gathering and no physical contact between servers and members or visitors. The guidelines also bar anyone with a temperature of 100.4 or higher from attending the service, which is something you will need to self-monitor because we will not be taking temperatures at the door. There are several more regulations that pertain to housekeeping issues that we will take care of before meeting on Sunday.
We plan to do something similar to what we see in the stores around town regarding marking out six foot spacing. We plan to seat families and individuals in compliance with the 6 foot guidelines to the best of our ability, which means you may be asked to sit in a different place than you have been accustomed to. Thank you in advance for cooperation.
At this time, we are planning on having the 8:15 and the 11:00 worship services in the sanctuary. Because of social distancing guidelines we will not be having Sunday School classes meet yet. For those who are not yet comfortable in being in a group setting we will continue to live stream the services on youtube through our website. You can also listen to an audio recording of the messages on our website. We will reopen our Wednesday evening service in the sanctuary beginning on Wednesday, June 10th at 7:00PM. There will not be a breakfast served on Sunday mornings or a supper served on Wednesday evenings.
To date there are only 75 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Cowlitz County, the last two being added to the list this morning. In this county there are right at 100,000 people. We have been blessed thus far in the fact that there have been no deaths attributed to the virus. There have been close to 2500 people tested for the virus and had their test come back negative. 48 people have recovered, with 29 active cases at the moment. While the virus is very contagious, we are thanking God for his grace to us in this community sparing us from a widespread outbreak. Let's continue to pray for God's divine intervention here and around the globe. Let's also continue to pray for the end of the rioting and the looting taking place in our major cities. Pray for all of our leaders locally and nationally.
We are looking forward to being together in "our house" on Sunday morning!
We love you all, and we are praying God's best to your portion today!
Pastor Bob
