For many of you, you are reading this just before Tapestry has its initial worship service. For many, it is right afterward. Either way, we at Tapestry and you at Parker UMC should be celebrating the day of August 30 as the formal beginnings of worship of our new church plant. Praise be to God!

For everyone involved in this new church plant, Tapestry UMC is considered a “child” of PUMC’s “parent.” This parent-child relationship is a funny metaphor but one that really seems appropriate.

As I write this, my daughter Rachel is home visiting for the weekend. She lives out in the Washington DC area and doesn’t get home often so when she does we enjoy the time together. Sometimes Jen and I will go out to visit her as well. Either way, it is always good to get together and reconnect as a family. The same is true for PUMC and Tapestry. I hope that you all understand that you are always welcome to come and pay us a visit. We love seeing friendly faces and the encouragement you bring.

I am reminded also of the time I went away to college. I couldn’t wait to go and in the first semester I think I only called my mother 3 times! (Sorry, Mom.) Some of you may feel like we kind of suddenly disappeared too. Similarly, some of you are getting ready to send your own kids off to college. Be prepared that you may not hear from them very often. Except when they call needing money. (FYI, it is my hope and plan that Tapestry doesn’t ever have to call home for money. Of course, care packages never hurt!)  I will try to do better at keeping you all informed about how things are going, at least better than I did for my mom.

And just like when college kids bring home their dirty laundry for mom to do, we are blessed and grateful that Parker UMC wants to support us by helping with those tricky administrative tasks that the team here is so good at. If you haven’t checked out the Tapestry website, www.tapestryumc.org, you should take a look at the results of Jason Anderson’s incredible talents. To have that kind of support is invaluable.

The thread that runs through all of this is that we are family and as in our United Methodist tradition we are connected in a way that cannot be easily broken. Tapestry is planning to “come home” to take part in the Feed My Starving Children event coming up at PUMC and we will keep you informed about events that we plan. Please know that you are welcome to join us as we look for new ways to serve the Parker and Lone Tree communities.

God bless you all!

Pat