The Coronavirus has become a focal point of discussion this week. Yesterday afternoon, there were two significant announcements – the Virginia governor closed all schools in the state for a minimum of two weeks, and President Trump declared a national emergency. Beyond that, sporting events, concerts, parades, and other events with large numbers of people are being cancelled around the country.
This virus is highly contagious and especially dangerous for people over 60 years old or with chronic health challenges.
Since last weekend when there was one confirmed case in Virginia, on Wednesday there were nine, by Thursday seventeen, and as of 6pm last evening there were 30 confirmed cases in the state. This is a rapidly developing and changing situation each day… and even, throughout the day.
In an attempt to be prudent without overreacting with irrational fear and panic, we have been discussing what adjustments we should be making to our Sunday morning service. In the end, we concluded we should cancel the worship service tomorrow morning in order to mitigate the possibility of the older high-risk members be exposed to this virus… and recognizing that there likely are other members who have been exposed and may be carrying the disease.
Shortly after President Trump’s press conference declaring the national emergency, he also declared tomorrow, March 15, a National Day of Prayer. Let’s take this opportunity tomorrow to specifically pray for each other as a church family but also our community and nation during this time of uncertainty. This is an opportunity to show we have faith and confidence in God… and we have hope beyond this life.
If you have specific prayer requests you would like our church family to be aware of, please call me or send a text message. I will try to send out an email with the requests tomorrow forenoon.
Here is a good reminder from Ivan’s sermon last week from Philippians 4: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
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