Dear New Life Family,

Who would have thought a year ago that we would be in these pandemic circumstances?  We’re sending this letter out to you to inform you of how we see things, ministry-wise.  We also want to encourage you to press on in your own spiritual journey in order to stay faithful to God.

Restrictions

Given the announcement of February 5 by health official Dr. Bonnie Henry, the church remains closed for ministry events of greater than 10 people until further notice.  The exception remains for youth programming which is allowed with a maximum of 50 people.  Our youth program, Switchlife, continues to meet at the church on alternateThursday evenings, with Covid proticols.  Weekly worship gatherings will continue virtually with pre-recorded services until further notice.  We are hopeful, based on the February 5 announcement,that if cases continue to decline we can return to in-person gatherings soon.

Life Groups

Meeting together in small groups at home or at church remains restricted as well.  This makes it difficult to sustain Life Groups at New Life, especially as using video conferencing platforms (Zoom, Skype, etc.) becomes more tiresome.  We acknowledge that this is a difficult time to continue with meetings.  However, we encourage Life Groups to continue to keep connection.  Let us press on and “fight the good fight (I Tim.6:12),” and “spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not give up meeting together…but encouraging one another (Hebrews 10:23ff).”  If your Life Group is “taking a break” —

• we encourage you to pick it up virtually (even as second-best, it’s still a blessing to connect!),
• connect briefly, read a Scripture passage together, see how everyone is doing, close in prayer,
• meet for one-on-one walks,
• extend an invitation to friends who do not have community to connect in your Life Group.

Serve Opportunity

Thank you to everyone who responded to our January call to service! Throughout the month we offered the opportunity to sign up for grocery delivery with the Archway Food Bank.  We had more volunteers than the Food Bank could handle at this time.  Thanks to the drivers for your willingness to serve.  For the month of February we are moving on to a new opportunity with “Best for Babies” (click here).  Since the start of 2021, while we are still in this pandemic, we’ve been shifting our focus into serving the community.  We are still all about gathering to worship, still all about being community, but now is a time to serve.  And because of your response, New Life is being an agent for a radical impact!

In Christ,

Nathan Elgersma (Lead Pastor)

Justin Dudney (Life Groups Pastor)