From the Pastor's Desk

Three of our youth participated in the Florida Future Chef Student Cook-Off. Our three young men were excited and privileged to learn from the best: Costa Magoulas, the Dean at the Mori Hosseini College of Hospitality and Culinary Management at Daytona State College, Chef Michael Taylor from South Beach, and Chef Perry Li of the Cocky Rooster in Deltona. Our aspiring chefs cooked Sazon Gator with ...

Many may ask, "What's the point of confirmation?" or "Isn't that a Catholic thing?" If I had to choose one thing that you found a way for your teenager to do, it would be confirmation. It's so important for the spiritual development because it helps them understand what's different about Christianity from all the other belief systems in our world. As our students go through the important process o...

Did you know that as a church, we host events for other organizations and people? In a given quarter, we may host a health screening, birthday party, board meeting, scouts, and a sheriff's meeting. It's been part of the church's goals over the past 2 years to make our spaces available to the community. We work to keep our facilities up-to-date and looking nice. We don't want them to just sit aroun...

This is going to be a long post, and I'm sorry for that. There are two sections though, so some of you won't care about all of these sections. The first is my reflections after attending Annual Conference this year. The second section is the official report from the Annual Conference, with more technical details. You can jump to which section you want to read. We started conference off with an eve...

Legacy Scholars Academy's 4th Annual Student Art Showcase was held on May 17th at the historic Enterprise Museum. A large crowd of local leaders and art enthusiasts converged to see and learn about the amazing artwork done by our incredible artists from the Legacy Scholars Academy at Residing Hope in Enterprise under the direction of their teacher Melissa Stilwell. The artwork by artists from sixt...

I want to share that the year ended strong with the Boomers and Bannerman. They delivered 11 months of mailbox appreciations along with something in the workroom for the teachers. Along with these items, the Boomers also provided breakfast multiple times and an appreciation bar for Teacher Appreciation week that was "grab and go" style. We also started to work with businesses in our community to h...

Last week, I took time away to plan the remainder of 2024 in regards to worship. I love spending this time with God and listening to where he wants our church to go. Most importantly, how he wants our energy to be spent. I'm a firm believer that when this type of work is done in advance, it makes it easier to adapt to all the things life throws our way. I have seen this come true so many times in ...

A Story Arc is one or more consecutive comic book issues that define a story with a beginning, middle, and end.The Bible is not just a collection of stories but a saga that intertwines with our own lives. It's the tale of Yahweh and Adam, the prodigal son and his ever-gracious heavenly father, humanity in its rebellion and God in its grace. This narrative begins with Eden and concludes once creati...

In 2019, Circle of Friends Services became a division of the Florida United Methodist Children's Home, now known as Residing Hope. This was a very important and vital addition to the growing range of services being provided by the Children's Home at that time. By providing trauma-based therapy to children and families at an earlier point, it was possible to avoid the need for higher levels of care...

I am so excited about the number of new families joining the church in the past year. These new families have brought many new children, and Katie has done a fantastic job in Kid's Club. I'm trying an experiment to connect our new families with a group called Friends Unleashed. Over the summer, we're going to do some fun weekend outings that are family-friendly so you can bring the kids with you. ...