People of Grace,

Due to the serious and evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the elders are canceling public events held at Grace Church until further notice. This cancellation may extend to the end of March or longer as deemed necessary. This difficult decision is based on careful consideration of current scientific information and recommendations of the medical community.

We encourage everyone to monitor the situation and follow CDC and local health department recommendations.*  At this time, we are not discouraging small meetings in homes, but prudence with “social distancing” should be the rule.  Pastor Greg will Live Stream a sermon on Sunday morning via Facebook.  You can tune in by going to the Grace Church Facebook page at 10:15am Sunday morning and when Pastor Greg begins, you will see a message, “Grace Church is Live”.  Click on that link and Pastor Greg will know you are there.  If you don’t have a Facebook page, you may want to establish one before Sunday. We hope to also archive the sermons if you want to listen to them later.  We may also try to record the sermon separately and put it on the website (we will see). There will be a live video message on Saturday morning at 10am so we can all test the system.

You can also continue to give through online giving on the Grace Church website, graceofdelaware.com.  Obviously the bills will continue to come, so faithfulness in this area will be a big help.  The online giving is fairly easy to navigate.  Just click on the ONLINE GIVING in the top right corner of the front page of our website.  You will be led easily through the process.

COVID-19 is a new disease.  As such, we do not know how it will pan out.  Several things, however, are known.  It is very contagious.  It is at least 10 times more lethal than influenza, although the exact mortality rate will likely be adjusted with time. It is especially lethal in the elderly with medical problems. In China and South Korea where successful control has been achieved, careful isolation has been done based on widespread testing and quarantine.  This pre-emptive action is coming a bit late in the US.  We still do not have widespread, timely testing available. That said, the way to control spread is known–avoid contact with those infected. If you are sick, stay at home and communicate with your healthcare provider.  If you are over 60 or have underlying health issues such as immune compromise, heart disease, diabetes or lung problems, you should be especially careful to avoid contact with others until the situation improves.

As Christians, we know that God is in control.  He loves us and promises to work things out for good.  The scripture also gives us encouragement to be wise. We shouldn’t cower in fear, but rather be at peace with God’s kind and gracious hand.  We should consider how to minister to each other and the community during this time (reaching out via social media, email, or phone). Please feel free to share prayer requests and needs with one another.  We will be glad to send e-mails out from the office.  This could actually be a good time of learning how to communicate, care for each other in new ways.  Perhaps some of the more vulnerable folks could use help with shopping.  We have always been a caring church, so I am sure many will step up and begin to meet these needs.

Everyone stay in touch.  We look forward to our gathering again in person once this pandemic has passed.

Prayerfully,

Pastor Greg and the Elders