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Saturday March 14, 2020

Oakwood family -

The Peace of Christ rest upon you!

Psalm 46 says,

"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

In the past 48 hours, I've been in contact with the pastor's network of Greenville churches, listened to the wisdom of the Classical Interim Committee of Grand Rapids North, and the CRCNA. The recommendations are that churches with a worshiping body of over 100 should not meet. As we do not normally have that many, we plan to gather for worship tomorrow, Sunday March 15.

Council has prayerfully reflected on the situation we find ourselves in and has agreed that we will conduct a full worship service at our regularly scheduled time with the intent of worshiping, but also to provide a video recording of the entire service to the Oakwood Family that will be posted online by Sunday afternoon.

Additionally, we have agreed to cancel Sunday School, and will NOT be providing nursery nor children's worship. There will be activity bags (which will be sanitized) provided both for younger and older children. Additionally, the pray ground will remain open for parents to use with their children during the service. This means that each parent will be responsible for their own children.

We invite you to attend worship if you are healthy and feel comfortable doing so. We recognize that some of you will choose to stay home, and we bless you to do so. We hope that you will be able to feel that you are part of our worshiping body by watching the video when it is posted later Sunday afternoon.

Our staff has taken extra measures to sanitize and will continue to do so. We will also eliminate the passing of collection plates and will be modifying communion procedures as well.

While we are greatly concerned about the physical and emotional well-being of our church members, we also feel in this time of uncertainty, that spiritual well-being is just as critical. So, we are convicted that worship needs to continue to be provided to the Oakwood family; hence, offering alternative formats to experience the service, based upon each individual's preference and comfort level.

We trust your worship of God will exalt God and bless you whether you are with us in body or in spirit.

Blessings!
Pastor Kevin