The spirit of generosity: Abounding Grace's legacy continues
“While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.”
The newest staff member in the Office of the Bishop is hitting the road during his first week on the job. Pastor James Dew, Interim Director of Evangelical Mission for the GCS, is traveling north to Phoenix to visit with Mission and Ministry congregations Faith/La Fe Lutheran Church in Phoenix, AZ as well as Emmanuel Sudanese Lutheran Fellowship & Iglesia Luterana Vida Nueva, both in Glendale, AZ. Pastor Dew comes bearing gifts, not from himself but from Abounding Grace Lutheran Church in Tucson.
As the congregation of Abounding Grace closed its doors to ministry on the corner of S Kolb and E Golf Links, it opened its doors with generosity to the whole church offering resources to congregations throughout the Grand Canyon Synod and the ELCA. In his mighty Subaru (pictured), Pastor James carries 145 Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnals, various sacristy items, and vestments, all heading to Faith/La Fe Lutheran Church, led by Pastor Jonathan Linman and Pastora Verónica Alvarez. The ELWs will serve the Faith/La Fe community as they grow, but the albs and stoles from Abounding Grace will make a U-turn thanks to Pastora Verónica, connecting the needed vestments to clergy in South & Central America.
We give thanks to the community of Abounding Grace Lutheran Church for their continued ministry through their generosity. May the very being of Abounding Grace continue through the Holy Spirit, that we as one Church offer praises unto God as communities throughout the hemisphere sing to the Lord a new song!