Pastoral Letter, March 21, 2020

Greetings Knox Church Community, 

It's Saturday evening, and I thought it was time to send another note to people connected with Knox Church about a few updates plus some important prayer requests.   

First, an update regarding the OUT OF THE COLD ministry at Knox: This afternoon a dedicated crew of volunteers from "Team 3" carefully prepared nutritious meal in the Iona Kitchen as 'take-out' for guests from our community.   Between 5 and 6:30 PM, a total of 142 meals were given along with beverages and an encouraging note from Knox Church.  Guests from our community were so very thankful as they lined up outside on the sidewalk at the corner of Elgin and Lisgar, distanced 2 metres with taped markers, before entering the Narthex marked similarily, receiving their meal, and exiting toward the Garden Courtyard.   I was so proud  of "Team 3" led by Rob Burr, and so impressed by the gracious and thankful attitudes of our guests. 

Secondly, you'll notice the format of this letter is different, being sent directly from our website.   In conversation with the company from Vancouver which provides our website hosting, Knox was offered a "Newsletter" feature at no cost.   One of our Student Interns, Molly Brant, inputted all emails into the new database today, and if you've received this email, it means everything's working properly!   Thanks Molly, and also the Ascend Website company in BC.    

Third, if all goes well tomorrow (Sunday), you should be able to experience a little taste of "Knox Worship" via either an 11AM Livestream event on our Facebook page (Knox Presbyterian Church Ottawa) or recorded and posted later in the day on our website.   Rather than give you any spoiler alerts about content, I'll just leave it at that.   Check it out in the morning!  

I do have a couple of specific prayer requests at this time: 

• Warren Perkins has been hospitalized and in need of surgery for a serious infection on his foot, though he is very frail with pneumonia and has also been diagnosed with cancer, all of which prevent from making him a suitable candidate for the surgery.  To make the situation more challenging for his family (including Sue & Keith Williams from Knox) the hospital is no longer permitting visitors due to the health pandemic.   Incredibly, Sue informs me her Dad is "keeping a sense of humour and is in good spirits".   If you've known Warren well, maybe you're not surprised.   Do be in prayer for Mr. Perkins.
• Bob and Jean Hage are experiencing great difficulty finding their way back to Canada during a vacation to New Zealand.  They are presently in Christchurch, NZ, and have tried various options for return flights with no success to date.  All things considered they are well, healthy and with a place to stay for now, though they very much welcome your prayers for a safe return home as soon as possible.     

There is much more which could be written, though these focused thoughts and prayers seem enough for now.  Please do check in with Facebook at 11 for the Livestream if you are able, or look for a recording of this worship event later in the day.   It won't be too flashy or hi-tech, though we'll do our best to make it authentic, engaging, and hopeful, for both kids and adults alike.   

As with the previous recent Pastoral Letters, I'm including an 'admission' of adding emails to this distribution without specific permission of some of you.   If for whatever reason you want to be deleted from this list, please send me a note at pastor.jim.pot@rogers.com.   I'm thankful to some of you for already responding with the opposite reaction of "Thanks for including us!"  

Till we meet again, most likely 'virtually' for now,  

Pastor Jim