Dear Church Family,

A beautiful reality:

A knowledge of the truth depends not so much upon strength of intellect as upon pureness of purpose, the simplicity of an earnest, dependent faith. To those who in humility of heart seek for divine guidance, angels of God draw near. The Holy Spirit is given to open to them the rich treasures of the truth.  COL 59

In the news:

1. After nearly 3 months of having church online, we will finally gather at the church this Sabbath for Sabbath school and worship.  As we prepare to gather back together for fellowship and worship, here is a helpful document from our COVID-19 subcommittee and below are some general principles to remember.  No one is out to police this but we ask for your helpful cooperation so that as many as possible can feel safe and welcome at church during this pandemic.
   • Everyone is asked to practice social distancing which means we need to sit at least 6 feet apart in the sanctuary from others families or members.
   • Avoid hugs and handshakes for the time being.
   • No fellowship lunches.
   • Masks are suggested but not required.
   • The board has elected to avoid congregational singing now.  Here is a story that illustrates why.
2. This Sabbath we will resume our regular schedule of services at the church.  This will be the schedule for Sabbath:
   • 9:30 a.m. – Sabbath school begins in the sanctuary and children’s & youth divisions will resume in their various classrooms with the exception of Kindergarten which will not resume this week. There will be one joint lesson study in the sanctuary following the preliminaries this Sabbath.
   • 9:30 a.m. – Milton Siepman will lead out in an online ZOOM Sabbath School lesson studyfor those who are not able to be at church this Sabbath.
   • 10:45 a.m. – Marva Wente will share a brief organ concert between Sabbath School and church.  Note that this and the worship service will be streamed via Youtube.  You can access this via our worship link on the church homepage.
   • 11:00 a.m. – We will share in morning worship in the sanctuary which will also be streamed for those who are unable to attend. Again, visit the church webpage and click on the worship link to access the stream.  We will continue our series on Elijah with a message entitled, “Faithful Rebuke.”
   • 4:00 p.m. – Lisa Johnson will be baptized this Sabbath at Paint Creek. We hope you can come out and join us for this special celebration.
   • 8:00 p.m. – AYA will resume with Dan Sanford and friends sharing beautiful gospel music.
3. Kathy Bumgardner passed away in her sleep this past Wednesday morning and we are all still in a bit of shock. A memorial service has been planned for next Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the church.  In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made to our Community Services Center. As you know, Kathy was our CSC leader and so the whole CSC team has been greatly affected. The CSC will be closed next week.
4. Our mid-week prayer meeting service via zoom will therefore not meet this week due to the scheduled memorial service on the same night. We will resume our study on Romans the following week.
5. Our first senior graduation at Greeneville Adventist Academy will be held at the school gym on Thursday, June 18, at 6:00 P.M. Everyone is invited, and masks are encouraged.  Congratulations to our seniors Shoshanna Grenti, Camille Martinez Ortiz, Nicolas Miller, and Raimey Talbert!
6. The church camp out is still planned for this summer. Remember that for those who would like to participate, the dates are July 31-August 2.  Please reserve your campsite at Cades Cove beginning with the A and B sections.
7. The Waldensian tour and play is still being planned for. However, the bus will not be an option for us.  So we will need to carpool.  We are currently still planning for August 8 but will confirm this in a week or two when I get confirmation from the staff.
8. We had a great turn out for dinner with the doctor this week with around 50+ people I am estimating.  While there was no dinner, guests got to go home with a nice sack lunch.
9. Here is another helpful video from Adventist World Radio regarding COVID-19:

In His Service,

Pastor Jeremy