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On Wednesday this week, we celebrated the life of Emma Dubble. On Sunday, we talked about the virtue of faithfulness and that was Emma. I shared in the meditation of her faithful devotion to the Lord, the church, her family, and others. In my many visits to her over the last four years, she was always so gracious and concerned about me, my family, and the church family. It was only fitting that we talked of the fruit of faithfulness just a few days before celebrating the life of this dear saint.

Over the last two months, I have tried to become more engaged with our COM ministry. Aliza and are meeting every two weeks for sharing and prayer together. I am attending COM Board Meetings. I try to get down twice a week to see the kids and parents arriving in the morning. This week though a highlight for me was reading to our preschool children on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. I shared with them my daughters’ favorite book growing up. The kids were wonderful, they paid attention, and we took a picture together both days to remember “story time with Pastor Kevin.” Let me encourage you, if you can spare a few minutes on two days a week to read to our Wee Friends children, you will be blessed. They are so appreciative of others coming in for story time. Contact Aliza if you would like to read to the children in our preschool ministry.

Yesterday Ruth and I along with many others from our Oaks ministry took a tour of Lancaster County covered bridges and had lunch at the Brickerville Restaurant. My thanks to Connie Rutt for preparing such a great outing. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed the changing colors in addition to learning more about some of Lancaster County’s covered bridges.

Next week is a big week with election day on Tuesday followed by our Roots night on Wednesday. We will have our Zoom first Monday prayer time on Monday evening and we will be praying for the election. Let me encourage you as well to vote as it is our civic responsibility. Don’t forget that we will be engaging in a service project together on Wednesday evening so there will be no regular Roots program or Adult Bible study. Also, our BDM team is leaving on Sunday morning at 7:00 am. I will be there to pray over them one more time as we send them forth with our blessing to serve in NC next week.

Details are coming together for our Thanksgiving eve service. We are also planning Advent and are already working on the Christmas eve service. I finished the second Sunday of advent sermon this week. We will be having remembrance Sunday in three weeks after we wrap up our Believe series. November looks like a busy month, and Advent will be starting before the month ends. I hope you are excited for what God has for you in the last two months of 2026.

I am reading through the Bible in a year again this year using the NIV translation and I am on track to be done by the end of the year. I have also been praying for revival for Mechanic Grove Church of the Brethren, as well as for the other churches in our community. As I have gotten to know some of my fellow pastors over the last four years, I know they share my passion for renewal and revival in our Solanco community churches. Let me encourage you to join me in this effort over the last two months of 2026. Let us pray passionately and fervently for the kingdom work of our church and neighboring churches in our community. Psalm 85:4-7 says, “Restore us again, God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger through all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation.” May it be so for Mechanic Grove and every church in our community.

Let me close with this. As I was thinking about faithfulness much of this week and reminded of the faithfulness of many servants of the Lord like Emma Dubble at Mechanic Grove over the years, I was reminded again that faithfulness grows as we grow in maturity. One of our core values is intentional spiritual growth. That is, we seek to grow in our faith in the context of Christian community. We value intentionally growing in our faith to become more like Jesus. That’s what our Believe series has been about. 2 Peter 3:18 says, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen!”

Don’t forget to turn your clocks back one hour Saturday night and enjoy that extra hour of sleep. Have a great weekend, enjoy the weather and the changing seasons and come eager to grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord! Come as we learn more about the virtue of gentleness as we worship together our awesome God. It is Friday…but Sunday’s coming!

Pastor Kevin