I’ve now “recovered” from an illness that separate tests seem to indicate I never had, which is implausible given the specificity and duration of my symptoms. Alas, this is where we all seem to find ourselves in 2020 in some fashion. It’s now a mockery that I began the year talking about a “20/20 Vision for 2020.” Not only can we not see clearly where we are going, we can’t be sure where we are or even where we’ve been!
I’m grateful for everyone who responded to even the possibility (I would say likelihood) that my family was exposed to COVID-19. We are blessed to have been prepared and were able to stay entirely at our house for 10 long days. We now have a deeper, more visceral appreciation for what many of you have been doing for weeks or months now. I’m grateful to Bishop Mike, Dr. Alice and Sarah Smith for keeping things going while we battened down the hatches.
I can’t recommend whatever I had to anyone. Besides the weirdly specific loss of taste and smell, even as that started to come back, I was hit with waves of exhaustion and soreness. This was very much a “mild” case, and I’m not sure it’s fully done with me. What I do know is that many of you offered to assist my family in any way possible, and the only reason we didn’t take up more offers is because we’d been preparing for this possibility for months.
I did not picture a massive expansion of Joy’s online footprint as a part of what God was calling us to in 2020, but it’s clearly been an important way for us to stay connected to one another as well as connect with new folks.
At times we’ve been joined in online worship by folks in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Indonesia and even on the road. I’m quite sure others have tuned into Facebook Live from still other places, too.
We’ve figured out how to do a version of online communion, and now we’ll figure out how to do in-person communion during a pandemic in a safer way than our attempts in July. We’ll continue offering Zoom and Facebook Live for the foreseeable future. At some point we may move to a more robust solution involving cameras placed somewhere other than Joy’s podium, but I don’t want to lose the immediacy and intimacy that we’ve gained through Zoom anytime soon.
Now we’re adapting Sunday school and re- configuring our partnerships with Family Promise and Jenks East Elementary. We have a new opportunity to connect with Reading Partners through Jenks East. I’ll be honest, right now a massive proportion of my energy is going into figuring out what school is going to look like this fall for our four kids. But as that takes shape, Sister Jennie and I will continue pouring time & energy into helping folks at Joy and the surrounding community cope, adapt and innovate for the sake of others, showing forth God’s love in our lives and theirs.
Pastor Jon
