I want to start by expressing my sincere gratitude and appreciation for the sabbatical I was able to take recently. The kindness and generosity of our elders and this congregation is truly amazing! It was really good to step away from the regular routine of the daily and weekly demands of worship ministry for a time. This time away was indeed a special blessing to me and Mary!

But before I share what all we did while away, I want and need to express again how grateful I am to Avery Huffman and Nathan Schmidt for leading so capably in my absence! They stepped into a big responsibility and served faithfully – they are truly a blessing to me and to this congregation. In addition, I am so thankful for our entire worship team (those on the platform as well as those behind the scenes). They are a wonderful group of devoted Christ followers who work hard at serving this local body as they prepare to lead worship on each Lord’s Day. LifePoint Church is extremely blessed by the individuals that God has assembled to do this work of service each week.

While on sabbatical, it was good to worship corporately without any responsibilities, as we enjoyed spending each Sunday morning together worshiping in churches in North Carolina, Virginia, and here in Indy. And while it was good to be away, it is so good to be home. There just isn’t any place like LifePoint!

I also enjoyed and benefited from reading more than I normally do, and I was glad to be able to go through the ACBC (Biblical Counseling) Fundamentals online training course. This was time very well spent.

Mary and I also volunteered at JAARS (Jungle Aviation and Relay Services) in North Carolina for four weeks. It was a wonderful blessing meeting and serving with other volunteers and staff (many of whom are retired missionaries). We served in various ways while we were there, but our main jobs were helping in their museums, archiving and cataloging documents and artifacts. JAARS' founder, William Cameron Townsend was a gifted and devoted Christ follower who was passionate about Bible translation and evangelism. He also founded SIL and Wycliffe. It’s a wonderful and fascinating history and we were blessed every day as we were reminded of God’s faithfulness and how he moved and worked in and through those he chose for that mission. By the way, God is still at work in and through these missions agencies today!

Again, Mary and I were extremely blessed by my time away from the weekly routine of ministry and are very thankful to have had that time together. I am all the more committed to helping LifePoint better understand worshiping and singing together as we gather each Lord’s Day, and I’m praying that we would truly desire to honor God in our congregational worship as we let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in our hearts to God.

Blessings,

Pastor David H