Pastor Letter: June 26, 2019

Dear Church Family:

I am writing to you from the outskirts (!) of beautiful Bagdad, KY, where I am serving as camp pastor for Crossings Ministries at Cedarmore for about 718 students and their adult leaders. I am told that this is the largest camp ever at Cedarmore. I am certainly impressed with the way the staff here is so gracious and accommodating to so many hundreds of campers. Even though they have so many fun things to do here, from zip lines and rope courses to archery tag and bazooka ball, they keep the Gospel central to everything. I am enjoying myself very much and I feel the prayers of so many of you lifting me before the Lord. I am having some physical challenges right now and I need you to ask the Lord to give me strength.

If I am at camp, it means summer is here in full strength. I love summer with all of the outdoor activities and vacations. I want you to enjoy your summer to its fullest extent. The glory of God is shown in summer in a marvelous way. I ask you, though: please don’t neglect worship. I understand completely that many of you will be traveling some this summer, but when you are here, make every effort to attend and worship with your church family. We really need each other. We do not livestream our services so that you can stay home, but so that those who cannot be here can watch. It would grieve me to know that anyone used technology as an excuse to disobey the Lord’s command that we gather together on the Lord’s Day. Make worship attendance a priority!

My joy and pride in our Vacation Bible School compels me to express my deep gratitude to Mel Brewer and her cast of 115 adult leaders! That’s right! We had 115 adult leaders during our VBS who ministered to 200 kids. That’s quite a ratio that demonstrates our commitment to training children to know the Gospel and the love of Jesus.

The culmination of VBS was our church picnic and pool party. Wow! We had somewhere over 400 people attend, many of them families that we reached during VBS. I was overjoyed with the many new faces, the beautiful diversity of families, the sweet fellowship, and the opportunity to make new friends. Thank you, precious church, for being so excited to reach people for Jesus.

Finally, thank you for allowing me to take advantage of opportunities to maximize the impact and influence of Buck Run by preaching to hundreds of students this week. I am awed and amazed by the pastoral staff the Lord has given us. They come around me and encourage me, expand my ministry, strengthen my strengths, and complement my areas of weakness with their gifts and hard work. We are a very, very blessed church indeed to have them.

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday. I pray and hope you are enjoying the study of Luke as much as I am!

I love you,

Bro. Hershael