Brothers and sisters in the Lord, what a blessed spring we have experienced here at Coker UMC. Our Lenten season was a powerful time of worship and exploring holiness of heart and life in new and deeper ways. Our Good Friday service packed the sanctuary with nearly 600 people and took us on an amazing journey through the entire holy week story beginning in the upper room with the last supper and culminating in the death of Jesus. I heard from many people that it was one of the most powerful worship services they had ever attended. And then Easter morning we celebrated the resurrected Jesus Christ and his power in reconciling the world to God with 1600 people in attendance that day.
Coker has also been reaching out this past spring. We have sent several hurricane recovery teams down to the Texas gulf coast to aid in the recovery effort following Hurricane Harvey. We hosted our annual Joshua Build through Habitat for Humanity and had a wonderful time as a church family building the walls to a home that will be inhabited by a deserving family someday soon. We made over 200 hygiene kits for UMCOR to distribute as a part of hurricane recovery and our Coker Health and Wellness Ministry was awarded the “Food Pantry of the Year” award from the San Antonio Food Bank, honoring the hard work and dedication of over 70 volunteers leading that ministry.
All of this, and I’m really only scratching the surface of what God is doing here at Coker. Within the pages of the Courier, on our blog, on our social media pages, and through talking with others you can hear about many of the ways God is at work within the community of Coker UMC; stories of healing, stories of the power of a spiritual friend, stories of music ministering to those in our community. And again, it just scratches the surface of what is happening at Coker. As I write this I am thinking about a story I heard in the last few weeks about a lady in one of our Wesley Groups who says because of that group, for the first time in her life she feels like she knows how to be a witness for Jesus. I have also had the pleasure of speaking with a Coker member whose life has been radically changed by the Holy Spirit and is now answering a call to ministry. God is at work among us, come Holy Spirit, come!
This summer we are journeying through an 8 – week sermon series called “The Good Book” and we will be looking at the entirety of the Bible from a “30,000 foot view.” We’ll be studying the overarching narrative of scripture, from Genesis to Revelation and the bigger themes that are found throughout the story. In addition to the sermon series several of our Sunday school classes will be studying the same thing along with us and we’ll be launching some other small groups at the same time to go through the study. If you are not currently in a group or Sunday school class I hope you will join one for this study this Summer.
Vacation Bible School (VBS) is happening June 25-28th and our youth will be going to the Texas gulf coast for their mission trips this Summer with high school going June 17th-23rd and middle school going July 22nd -27th. Our adult mission trip to Mexico is partnering, once again, with the Methodist clinic in Cuernavaca. These groups need our prayer as they go out and serve in the name of Jesus Christ.
All in all, there is a lot happening here at Coker. God is blessing us with more and more as we deepen our dependence on him and our desire to be the church he wants us to be. I am so thankful for you all and your continued partnership in ministry. Continue to pray for the work of the Spirit to lead us, as we all fulfill the ministry God has called us to here at Coker United Methodist Church.
