Jesus is Alive through our Church

   Since starting as the Bishop of the South Georgia Conference as September, Lawson Bryan has kept our focus steadily on the question, "Where are we alive together in Christ?" He loves the verses from Ephesians 2, "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..."
   It was my friend Allison Lindsey, who helps coordinate disaster response for the 650 UMC congregations in South Georgia, who referred to the amazing "ALIVE sightings" during the past month of storms. She included local churches opening as shelters, Wesleyan College opening their campus to evacuating families of their students, and our Methodist Children's Home in Macon hosting the Florida Methodist Home kids and staff.
   I've seen and heard of similar amazing "ALIVE" sightings in our own church just this week:

• A mom and her two sons spent all day Tuesday serving local older couples, they'd never met before, in their yards
• A family pooling their $10 talents to provide care packages for utility workers
• Another family baking and delivering cookies and drinks to utility workers all over Houston County as they worked 
• One woman coordinating a host of others to prepare meals to feed evacuees housed at Trinity UMC
• People donating diapers and wipes to help flooded families in Texas
• One family of three donating filled UMCOR cleaning buckets and then collecting money to fill more of them
• Others opening their homes to welcome people without power

   Hear Paul's words, again, "God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ." Jesus is alive in Houston County when his church loves its neighbors! Grace and peace, Scott