God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble
Psalm 46:1-3
March 17, 2020
Harris Ohana,
Our Refuge and Strength
We are in a troubled time and our prayers get deeper and urgent. Coronavirus shakes all aspects of our life. Fear is there and an unpredictable future challenge our ability to maintain a normal schedule. Amid unpredictable concerns and speculations, I urge you all to pray for wellness and peace. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” I trust the Spirit has been in our living and strengthens our faith. And the Spirit leads us to the right path to recover our wellness. And there are few decisions I made as your Pastor as follows:
Worship Alone, Worship Connected
In accordance with all findings of the outbreak, it is most prudent to NOT have an “In-person” worship and all the church activity if it requires in-person gathering more than 10 people. As we worshipped last Sunday and shared our thoughts on the issue, it is obvious that we should not continue our worship in person in the sanctuary. I do know how important it is to have worship each Sunday, but it is mostly important not to have worship that may slow down the activity of the virus and eventually recover our normal environment back.
Our Bishop and Cabinet decided that we as a church must cooperate with CDC and other medical readings that we as a faith community add positive energy to overcoming the outbreak. As of today, at 8:30 PM (Hawaii Standard Time) the Bishop sent a letter to inform all the churches not to have “In-Person” worship until further notice. It must be a very challenging decision as a faith community, nevertheless, it is the most appropriate decision that we all must comply.
Care for You, Care for Church
As I talked with our DS, the letter will not specify a date when we could have a normal worship. As of today, CDC recommended 8 weeks, and I suggest that we will continue to communicate with each other constantly, and at the end of April we may visit with each other to discuss more specifically when to have worship. As Mona Bomgaars informed the situation with the outbreak can be different each day so that it will be very important to have our communication open.
Many of the Ohana ask about how to give offerings to the church. We are in the process of setting up our electronic offering thru our website. Should you have any questions about the process, please contact the church office. I will inform the staff to have the information available all the time. Also, for those who are not familiar with an electronic offering, just mail your offering to the church office at Harris UMC 20 South Vineyard Blvd. Honolulu, HI 96813-2317.
For your information, it looks most likely that the General Conference, scheduled in May 2020 will be postponed by the request of the Bishops’ Council. We do not know how long it will be postponed. And the same is true with the Annual Conference, scheduled in June this year. All the decision-making processes will be delayed. As we have been talking about the future of the denomination, this may bring a very confusing thought to the life of the General Conference to the local churches.
Weekly “Online” worship is planned and will be available as soon as possible. Paul Nakamura, our multimedia staff, will be helping us with this.
We are Here for You
The church office will operate normal hours (9 AM-1 PM for the secretary; 9 AM-3 PM for the facility secretary). We have also suspended all room rentals as well as all outside groups from using our facility. The parking lot remains open for now. I will keep my office hours as much as I can. And I will be present in the church office during worship time unless I go out of town. Please contact my cell (the church office has the number) anytime you need me.
The Board of the preschool also met this afternoon to decide as to shut down the school, and for how long. The director Kapua and the board have been faithful to bring worthy care and education to the children and the parents. Harris includes them in their fervent prayers for their wellness and for future
I do know there are many items that I need to share with you. Please let me know through email address, cheolkwak@gmail.com.
Again, be well, do not congregate, and wash your hands as frequently as you could. Let us pray for one another. Make this time to deepen our relationship in Christ. As I shared, “We all are in this together. So be prudent, humorous, and patient.”
May God be with you.
Pastor Cheol