As many of our young people gear down their summer enthusiasm to prepare for a return to school, I plan to return to the daze of school by attending my 30th High School reunion. I have seen but a very few of my class mates since I graduated Morse High School in 1976 and I have not attended any of the reunions prior to this one. After High School, I left San Diego to attend college in Thousand Oaks, CA. I never did return to San Diego for any extended period of time after leaving for college and in so, it seems, that my High School friendships went to the wayside as new friends were made. I have a feeling that as I “reunion” it will be like meeting people for the first time. It will be like a time of making new friends, who have whole new lives. But the new lives I hear about will have familiar faces and names. For even though there will be so much newness, there will be that common bond; we spent formative times in our lives together. Newness with a common bond is an interesting way to look at. As we continue to grow together in faith at Mount Zion, we do anticipate newness with new faces and new ways of looking at who we are. And yet, even in the midst of new spaces and new faces there is a common bond. This common bond is that which unites us into one body. This common bond is the faith to know and experience the love of God in Christ Jesus who unites all things to Himself. It is the love and redeeming of God, at work in each of us, which unites us with those we have yet come to know. New faces, new spaces and a love that is eternal will be shared by all who come to Mount Zion to give God thanks and praise. May we continue to pray that God may continue to bless us and keep us in His Grace. May we pray that our ministries continue to reflect Christ and His power to shape lives in new, healthy and Godly ways. May we pray for the parents of our youth for an extra measure of patience as August meanders in. And may we pray for our youth, our young people, our teachers and administrators as they return to excel in the 2006-07 school year. In Christ’s Love and service Pastor Dan at we may find confidence in faith, knowing that because we have already been elected, we can live lives of faith. This is the good news… You have been elected. God wants you. And God wants your neighbor too. I hope your neighbor knows this and if they don’t, you CAN share this good news with them.

In Christ’s Love and Service, Pastor Dan