Hey Emmaus, 

April was a great month in our community. For starters, we got to host our own Good Friday service this year and Scum of the Earth kind of showed us up in how many of them were able to make it out! It was cool to see two fellow churches come together to honor Christ in that way. After that of course we had Easter Sunday kicking it off with a breakfast together and half our worship team was someone’s mom, that’s pretty awesome! All in all, it was a great weekend together.  

Speaking of doing things together with Scum though, we have our Members Meeting on Wednesday, May 24th at 6pm. Dinner is provided so come ready with questions and appetites! The big-ticket item will be our decision around Scum and how God could be opening doors there. It’s a conversation you don’t want to miss. We will also be re-upping our Covenant Memberships together.  

Not only have we done a lot together lately, but God has been doing some great things in forming us too. We finished our series in the Gospel of Luke and got to share a bit on a Sunday our takeaways from the series. Bonita, who couldn’t make it that week text us, “The Book of Luke, I was awestruck by Jesus unwavering commitment to get to Jerusalem even though he knew what was waiting for him.” Amen! It was refreshing to take a closer look at Jesus’ life and see how His story has been changing ours. 

With formation in mind, we also want to let you know that we will be taking a break from our GC rhythms this summer (except for Potluck & Prayer) to do a Gospel Application Intensive. We should have our Pathways stories finished in June for a July and August Intensive. We haven’t finalized the specific resource yet, but we’re planning on making space to discuss how and when we’re formed by God outside of the Sunday gathering. What is our “Rule of Life” so to speak. More to come! 

As we also look to bring good to others as a community, we wanted to give you an update on our partners in Liberia, the Hillners. Below is from Joel: 

"Over the next few months we will be doing all the tasks that will get us from Cary, NC to Liberia, West Africa. Those tasks include going through our things and deciding what is worth storing and what we should sell (The nice thing about moving 12 times in ten years is that you don’t accumulate as many “treasures”). Please pray for us in this time, while coffee mugs aren’t inherently stressful, going through our things can lead to some stressful marriage moments (we like to call them “Intense Fellowship”). 

While we can often feel inadequate for the task God has given us; we serve a Kind and Generous Father who is more than adequate to supply our needs. I am happy to announce that we are now at 86% of our monthly support goal. God is so faithful to work, even when we feel like we fail daily. "

We’re excited to see the Hillners off to Liberia with your help! If you want to learn more about how your contributions bring good to others around the world, we encourage you to Subscribe to the Hillner newsletter here. As a church family we currently contribute $300 a month towards their mission, but you can also contribute individually here or give to our Missions fund here. 

It seems like there is a lot on the horizon for our little community here at Emmaus. Life seems to move on whether or not we are ready for it. I hope that the series we have started recently in James has been some peace to you as we face that fact of life together. Even when everything else seems to shift, our God is stable. His character is unchanging as much as his love for you is unending. We are praying as a leadership that God would be glorified in whatever we do. I think the more we put our focus there as a community, the less daunting the unknown becomes.

Love you guys!

Ben & the Elder Team