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Shepherd Of the Valley United Methodist Church |
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Memorial Garden & Funeral Planning Memorial Committee Information Cross & Flame Logo Information Desert Southwest Annual Conference
(Formerly known as Center Doar) |
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Deb’s Doodles
I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:3-6 |
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Have you ever visited someone that you did not really know, but as the visit progressed you grew more and more comfortable with each moment? Well that is how I feel about my first two months at Shepherd of the Valley United Methodist Church. Each day I experience more and more joy for being appointed your pastor. What a privilege to serve so many wonderful people. One of my goals as your pastor is to be able to meet personally with all of you. I want to hear your story; where you came from, what brought you to Arizona, details about your life and of course, your faith journey. Sorry to say I have not been able to complete that task, but hopefully that will change in the near future. So please don’t be surprised if you get a call from me asking if I could “just stop by.” These past couple of months, I have been drawn to different books of the Bible, mostly in the Old Testament, the Psalms to be exact, because of the Summer with the Psalms sermon series. Now I am reading from the book of Philippians. What a joyful letter from Paul to the people of Philippi. I share this same joy for all of you that Paul shared with these people, even though my circumstances are completely different than Paul’s. Paul writes his letter while in prison in Rome. I write from my beautiful office at the church in Phoenix. But what Paul and I have in common is the desire that each of us seek to know Jesus Christ more and more; thereby finding a joy in Christ that no circumstance we may go through can diminish. There are many things we want to accomplish as a church in this community. I have heard your hopes and dreams of what our church can be. My prayer is that together we will spread this joy in Christ that Paul is talking about and in so doing others will want to experience it also. Joyfully rejoicing in what great things God has done and will do,
Deborah |