August 2020 Newsletter
ST. MATTHIAS NEWS I pray everyone is enjoying their summer as we prepare for the start of the school season. We continue to provide online Sunday Morning Prayer and Wednesday Evening Prayer on our Facebook page. We had our first Deacon’s Mass and will continue to have them on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. As usual, if you can’t watch the services live, they can be viewed anytime on our St. Matthias Facebook page. We continue to make deliveries to the Women’s Shelter, Food Pantry and HANK (Helping Abused and Neglected Kids). Thank you everyone who donates items especially during these times. I’m back at the Food Pantry now that I can concentrate more time on our outreach ministries. We can always use more volunteers to help stock shelves, unload deliveries and help clients shop. Please let me know if you’d like to help. We’ve had a drop in our church income due to the suspension of in-person worship services but the mission of St. Matthias continues. We started a donation button on our Facebook Page for folks who want to do more. I want to thank everyone who donated funds to replace our aging altar linens. The new material is beautiful. We ordered the fabric in the different liturgical season colors and Meg has already started making them. We hope you are enjoying our online services. We continue to reach more people every week. We are going to purchase a more professional audio and visual system for our online services. We currently use Meg’s cell phone and it’s time to upgrade. The new system will allow us to have different camera angles and better sound instead of a stationary view that requires Meg to carry the tripod to the altar for the Deacon’s Mass. This new system will still be used even after we resume in-person worship services for everyone who can’t attend. If you would like to help us with our audio/visual equipment, please click on our Facebook donate button or you can send a check to our St. Matthias P.O. Box 683, Devine TX 78016. During this pandemic our outreach is so important to reaching and helping those in need. We were recently blessed by a couple that don’t attend St. Matthias but watch us online. They donated four 4x8 plywood boards to shore up our handicap ramp that goes to the Parish Hall. They said it was their way of saying thank you for the services we stream online. Again, this shows we are reaching folks who wouldn’t normally attend our church. We will be saying goodbye to Halle as she heads off to college August 12th. She may be separated by miles, but she plans on staying connected with St. Matthias online. I’m seeing what we can do for our annual Blessing of the Backpacks if we haven’t resumed in-person worship services in time for the start of school. AUGUST BIRTHDAYS 10 – Chelsea Walters 15 - Eric Fenton 21 - Savannah Walters 24 - Karin Dalton Tap here to add a caption The Episcopal Church Welcomes YOU! Please keep our children and teachers in your prayers this month as they prepare to go back to school either online or in person. We have several teachers and children in our congregation and it’s still uncertain what the classroom will look like on opening day. I offer this prayer, “O Eternal God, bless all schools, colleges, and universities that they may be lively centers for sound learning, new discovery, and the pursuit of wisdom; and grant that those who teach and those who learn may find you to be the source of all truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen” (BCP p.824)
Blessings, Reverend Dexter Lesieur +