April 3, 2020
by Dr. David Silvernail
Category: Pastoral Letter
Pastoral Letter for a Distributed Church April 1, 2020 
Dear friends, The above description of God is a good kick-off to our 30 Days of Prayer for the month of April. The PCA Committees and Agencies, as well as pastors and elders of the General Assembly, want to invite you to join them in 30 Days of Prayer for our churches, our nation, and the world.
The last few weeks have been challenging. The rapidly changing events may have taken us by surprise, but they haven't taken God by surprise. We want to join together in prayer as we hold on to the attributes of God that remind us - He's got this. We want to lead people into a deeper understanding of who God is.
What to do:
Go to the website (https://pcaga.org/prayer/).
Download the Prayer Guide.
Watch the video.
Pray, pray, pray!
Invite those in your church and community to pray with us.
I hope you will join us. This is a joint project of all ten PCA Committees and Agencies. It’s curated by CDM (Committee on Discipleship Ministries – the committee James Murphy serves on) and hosted by the AC (Administrative Committee – the committee I serve on). This is the fourth pastoral letter of the coronavirus pandemic and I hope it still finds you healthy and safe. Hopefully, we’re all into the new routine by now, which for most of us, means spending a lot of time at home. However, the Session continues to work together, and here’s some things you need to know.
1. We want to continue the focus on prayer. Not only are we going to join the rest of the PCA in 30 Days of Prayer, but we’re starting a few prayer initiatives of our own. First of all, as I mentioned in the last letter, except for Spring Break (April 5-11) our now Online Community Groups will be meeting weekly with the additional meeting devoted to prayer. The Session is concerned that we need to be more engaged with each other during this time of being apart, as well as be very intentional about praying for one another. So, we hope you find this change to be a helpful one.
Furthermore, for those who aren't currently in a group, now is a great time to connect (it's not like you have a lot of schedule conflicts right now). So, just look for one of the groups on Realm and ask to join. If you need help, contact Andrea Pogany and she'll get you set up.
And second, as we’ve started having the Adult Sunday School class on Zoom, we’re going to make every 4th class a dedicated time of prayer, so please join us for that. We’ll have a prayer guide ready for everyone to pray through.
2. Not only did we start the Adult Sunday School class last week, but we’re also posting the Sunday School materials for the younger elementary children. It comes with a video too. You can find those each Sunday on our website (www.potomachills.org) – just click on the latest sermon and go to downloads.
Another initiative I’m pleased to announce is that Katherine Culver is going to post a Children’s Bible Story Time video on our YouTube channel every Wednesday. This will be a short (5-10 minute) song and Bible reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible. It will be a fun time designed for our preschoolers.
3. Speaking of videos, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. All of our videos (sermons, children’s stories, and whatever else we think of and aren’t too embarrassed to do) will be posted there. Go to YouTube and search for PHPC or try this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYgRYaRNvD3ueqIQgZ0v6mA
4. Please don’t forget to support our church. We know times are tough for some of you financially, and they’re about to get tough for others, but everything we do has a cost attached to it. You may give in 4 different ways – Billpay, mailed checks, through Realm, or through PayPal.
Billpay service is provided by most banks through their website. Just have the checks sent to the church office:
Potomac Hills Presbyterian Church
2 Cardinal Park Drive, SE
Suite 101A
Leesburg, VA 20175
You can also mail your checks to the church office at this address.
If you have a Realm account, you can give through the “Realm Connect” app on your phone, or through the “Giving” tab when you’re logged into Realm. Even if you’re not in Realm you can give by going to this link,: https://onrealm.org/PotomacHills/-/give/now or by texting PHPCgive to 73256.
Thank you so much for continuing to support Potomac Hills. If you have any questions please contact Andrea Pogany at akpogany@potomachills.org.
5. Many of you will remember Samantha Mhlongo. Samantha attended Potomac Hills several years ago while working in Leesburg as a nanny. Well, now she’s back in South Africa working for The Gospel Coalition – Africa. She’s mostly doing Social Media and helping post online content for them. Frank Wang and I got to talk to her Tuesday on Zoom, and she sounds great, though living under the same type of lockdown that we are. Samantha has to raise support for this ministry position, and so the Session has agreed to give her $500 for 2020 and, depending on what our financial situation looks like this Fall, will consider picking her up next year as another of our regular supported missionaries.
What does it look like to rest in the certainty of God’s character in the midst of all this uncertainty? Sometimes the bravest, most God-glorifying thing we can do is to just “do the next thing” (a quote often attributed to Elisabeth Eliot). It doesn’t have to look radical. It can be doing that load of laundry. Calling a neighbor. Speaking kindly to your roommate or spouse or parent. Taking longer to play with your kids. Getting off social media and into the Word. Going on a long walk outside. Staying in the moment with God, with the people of God, with His Word, with whatever large or small task He sets before us.
May this season of uncertainty be a time that we all remember what’s most important and rest all the more in the steadfast certainty of God.
As I’ve thought about this strange time we find ourselves in, I’ve been reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 2:17, “But since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face.”
May that day come soon!
Dr. David V. Silvernail, Jr.,
Senior Pastor Potomac Hills Presbyterian Church