Dear wvBc Family,

Please know, we are praying for God’s encouragement, His comfort, His challenge, His courage, His grace, His very presence for you and yours!

First some brief wvBc family updates:

• We’ve posted the latest Children’s Challenge on the website (Thank you Maria): https://www.wvbconline.org/at-home-projects

• We’ve posted updates from Cliff Neff about I-HELP on the website (Thanks Cliff): https://www.wvbconline.org/i-help

• The word from Tim McColley is still very good. He’s feeling much better and none of his kids have any symptoms to date. Other than Tim we haven’t heard of anyone else within West Valley testing positive for the virus. Some others from wvBc have been tested but results are not back yet. Please keep praying!

We would like to update you on a few things as we move forward in this new world. Yesterday the entire Elder team and wives recorded a video conference announcement that is now posted on our website (www.wvbconline.org/coronavirus). When you go to that page right under “Useful Information” towards the top there is a green link called “Elder Announcement”. Click on that link and you will be taken right to the video announcement. It only took us four attempts before we were ok with posting it…you can ask Dave Magelssen why .  It’s a 34 minute overview of some important topics that will help us to stay informed and connected.

As much as we tried to cover all there was to cover in that video we later learned that there are still many good questions that need to be answered. In a separate video conference meeting with all the Community Group leaders we realized we needed to expand our communication medium allowing for a more interactive experience with all of us together.

Today we have acquired the ability to do live webinars with up to five hundred people at one time. We are putting things together right now and are planning on our first live webinar for this Monday, March 30^th at 7:00pm. After a few trial runs tomorrow we will be sending out links and instructions to our entire church family. Please try to set aside Monday evening for our very first live church wide communication since we met last on Sunday March 15th.

To make sure we’re on the same page, we will NOT be corporately worshipping together tomorrow. We do hope and pray you consistently connect electronically with other believers through Community Groups, neighborhood groups, family, friends, etc.

Please remember, the day of the week we gather is NOT what’s important. What's important is that we worship God with a sincere heart all day, every day with our very lives. Consider what Paul said,

“Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” Colossians 2:16–17

“But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.” Galatians 4:9–11

The New Testament clearly supports that for true believers every day should be a “Sabbath Day.” In other words, we live everyday with the daily ambition of making that day a day of worship! “Whether then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31)  That does not take away the priority of setting aside a day of rest to focus on the worship of God. What we’re saying is that the day you do that does not have to be a Sunday. The day is ‘form’ the ‘function’ is worship which could and should happen any day, every day!

Consider the following passage and the implications on our lives today:

“And it happened that He was passing through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. “So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:23–28

So whether you electronically gather tomorrow or sometime in the middle of the week, gather to worship our amazing God!

Please watch the video mentioned above (www.wvbconline.org/coronavirus then click on “Elder Announcement”) and Lord willing we’ll see you on Monday night at our first live webinar.

Because He Lives,

wvBc Elders