Dear fellow Esperanza members:
I am thrilled to share my thoughts on stewardship this year as our second annual program is in flight – “Hope Grows Here!” Indeed, we have accomplished so much over the last year.
Just imagine a year ago. We were still working with Pr. Paul Campbell as an interim pastor. We grappled with uncertainty as we thought about how we could sustain worship and community while keeping our members safe from the Delta variant. We were finalizing our mortgage refinance. We welcomed Pastor Annemarie in January to our congregation. Over time this year we were able to get back to in person worship in addition to online, and now we can worship in the sanctuary. The beautiful thing is we are now enabling digital “from anywhere” live streaming YouTube services and have a pretty decent weekly following.
With all this progress comes the need to continue broadening our mission and outreach with the community. To do so we need your time (volunteering!), talents (skills you are amazing at!) and financial giving. So many of you are already participating in our ministry to the world: Habitat for Humanity, the Kyrene Family Resource Center Food Bank, the hospital meals project, prayer shawls, hearts for nurses and more! I’m excited to think of what more we can accomplish in impact and HOPE to our community by increased giving in Time, Talent & Treasure. There is so much need, but we are truly blessed in our congregation. I heard a statistic the other day that the average age of a homeless person in Arizona now is 7 years old. If we were to put all these individuals together in one place it would fill the Cardinals stadium 5 times over. It saddens me to think these kids worry about their next meal. This is just one of many needs. I look forward to our congregation refining our mission to determine what we want to take on to help those in our community.
Just imagine next year as our stewardship team reflects on the work this year’s collective efforts produced. I think the best way for us to grow our presence is to reach others and show them the WAY to love each other. I hope you will consider your pledge this year thoughtfully and do what you can to support our efforts – on all fronts: Time, Talent and Treasure.
In Christ,
Michelle Tinsley