To read this month's Reachout:  July 2010.pdf

    July 1, 2000 was my first day here working as Pastor for Good Hope Lutheran Church with a full day planned. I had a chauffer (David McMurray). We went to Levites’ breakfast and they had me pay dues and buy a lottery ticket. After that I had a funeral to officiate. Then it was home which was still in North Canton. Ten years! Can you believe it has been ten years?

     

    In that ten years we have done a lot of things! One thing that comes to mind is weekly communion. Just the other day someone came up to me and said I went to another church today and something was missing. I said what was that? They replied “communion”. We have gone from a private small healing service to anointing the first Sunday of the month with people trained and called to service by the Church to anoint. They are also available to anoint those who are sick. We have gone from one to three services so there are more opportunities so that you do not miss your weekly worship of God. We now have six people trained

to preach so we always have worship available for the people of this area. We have worship leaders to give opportunity for more people to serve and be a part of the service leading the liturgy. We have a new music group with the help of our choir director

    

    We continue to serve the local community. The 3C’s food pantry is one of the ways we serve. Good Hope as been part of 3C’s since conception as leaders and workers. I am a trained police Chaplain for Beaver township police department which is a service you have graciously allowed me time to do. We have established a community day camp where children from the community and the inner city can come and feel that they are a child of God. We have a community garden in conjunction with Evangelical Lutheran Church Ministries in Appalachia. We have a youth leader who serves our youth as well as the community and ministers to them.

 

    We have allowed the local community to establish an aftercare service for those children who would go home alone after school. It is so successful that we will have a before school care next year as well as the after care. We have allowed the 4H to use our facilities for their meetings and Hospice of the Valley to hold their grief support luncheons.

    

    We have reached out not just locally but globally  helping those in Mississippi to rebuild after Katrina, two mission trips to Mexico to help with medical relief and ministry to those in poverty. We even went to Nigeria, Africa to link with local hospitals to teach and run a medical clinic for the poorest of the poor. 

And many, many things you do as women groups and individuals that say people are important and they are children of God. What can I say? Good Hope, for the last ten years I have had the pleasure to watch as you have fed those in this world! Body and Soul!

 

                                                                                             Pastor Ralph