Covenant Update

Dear Covenant Family:

Yesterday we had a great service at Covenant Church, with 27 folks present at the service.  Attached is the bulletin from yesterday’s service, please note the beautiful poem included by Tina titled Happy New Year Poem.  Note that we were concerned that we might have a low attendance for our Christmas Eve service, as we thought families might prefer to be together at someone’s home instead of church.  Instead, our families chose to gather at church for our program, and we had 51 people in attendance at our service, which seemed to be more than we have had in a long time on Christmas Eve!  Thank you to all who attended that service! 

Also, the church has completed the Rose Morgan and Tina Pinkoson Scholarship program in conjunction with the Alachua County School System.  This coming academic year beginning in September 2025, Covenant Church will support two college students chosen by Rose and Tina to each receive a $5,000 scholarship for one year to the university they choose to attend as they plan to study music.  Then, the next academic year, they will each choose two more college students to receive similar awards for that one year in college.  This program was made possible by a $10,000 gift supported by Covenant Church to honor these two women for their great leadership of the Covenant music program for so many years, plus an additional $11,000 raised by contributions made by Covenant Church members and friends.  Please remember to congratulate Rose and Tina for their wonderful long-time leadership of our music program!

Pastor Don led the prayer list for Covenant Church members, asking for prayers for both Mack and Carolyn Vlacos as Mack continues to have serious breathing issues, and also for both Paul and Victoria McArthur who are both suffering from respiratory issues.  Michelle Miller had a praise for her friend Ellen who had successful surgery last week and is recovering nicely, and for two other friends looking for jobs.  Craig Alexander asked for continued prayers for his mother and family as his mother continues to have serious health issues, requiring insulin and breast cancers treatments.  We also had two unspoken prayer requests made.

Pastor Don’s sermon was on the topic of making New Year’s resolutions.  He started by saying there are some things in our past that we need to drop if we hope to move forward.  He used the first two scripture references below to support his comments, and then concluded the sermon with the third scripture below.

Philippians 3:13-14 – Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 43:18 – Do not call to mind the former things, or consider things of the past.

Lamentations 3:22-23 – The Lord’s acts of mercy indeed do not end, for His compassions do not fail.  ²³ They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.

If you would like to listen to this sermon from Pastor Don, all recorded sermons can be accessed at https://gainesvillecovenantchurch.org/ and then choose Sermons on the home page, and then choose today’s message.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year and a very blessed 2025!

Ron