This week, both Dr. Dave and I will be out of town.  He’s down with Sam and Jill to help them care for Kaydence, his newest granddaughter who was born several weeks premature.  Please pray for them as it has been a difficult road for this set of new parents.  As for me, I’ll be with a number of the high schoolers at Modgnik.  Pray that we would have a profitable time worshiping and fellowshipping and that the Lord would work mightily in our hearts.

Though your pastors won’t be there this coming Lord’s Day, we leave you in the capable hands of your elders and Rev. Matt DeLong.  Rev. DeLong has been one of the missionaries that we have supported for a number of years, and he is the RUF-I teaching elder at George Mason University.  Please pray for him, his wife Sherrene, and their son Isaac, as they minister to the students there.

Rev. DeLong will be preaching from Leviticus 19:33-34, teaching us about loving the stranger.  In an area as transient as the DMV, we inevitably will interact with strangers.  Maybe it’s a new co-worker, a new neighbor, or a new visitor at church.  Maybe it’s someone that you bump into more than once at the public library or in the grocery store.  These strangers aren’t just people to be friendly to, but people the Lord is putting in your path to welcome in, care for, and minister to.  As we prepare to hear God’s Word preached, I’d encourage you to meditate upon the routine, mundane, and often overlooked interactions with strangers in your life.  Are you exhibiting Christ in those interactions?  Are you reflecting the purpose of the command that we find in Leviticus?  And though we will be worshiping apart this Sunday, both Dr. Dave and I are excited to hear what the Lord will be doing in your midst in and through Rev. DeLong.