THE WOODLANDS UMC
JULY 2021 EDITION
THESENIORPOINT PLANS FOR THE FUTURE Written by: Rob Renfroe
Dear Friends,
things will change.
As you know our church is in a time of transition. Our founding pastor is retiring after a lengthy, incredible ministry and in July we will have a new senior pastor. So,
I have written a piece that details some of the many reasons I am grateful for and indebted to Dr. Robb. I have served with him for twenty-seven years. I know him well and I am proud to call Edmund my friend, my mentor and my pastor. I hope you will read my article that will be printed in a commemorative magazine the church is producing in his honor. So, I’m grateful for the past. And I am excited about the future. Let me share just three reasons why with you. Mark Sorensen is a person of prayer. The Bible states “unless the Lord builds the house those that labor, labor in vain.” Mark knows that. He has recently been praying through our membership, lifting you up to the care and the guidance of God. He is arranging a time for all our pastors to meet weekly for prayer. Mark is a deeply, genuinely spiritual person with a heart for prayer. Mark cares about discipleship. The last command Jesus gave us was to “make disciples.” Mark takes that seriously. His goal is for all our members to be involved in some ministry which has discipleship as its primary focus and he is working with a team to provide powerful and creative ways for real discipleship to happen at The Woodlands UMC. Mark is committed to traditional worship. Of course, he loves contemporary worship. The Harvest has exploded under his leadership and that would not have happened if he didn’t appreciate new forms of worship. But repeatedly, I have heard him state how he values traditional worship – the hymns, the rituals, the organ and the orchestra and the choir. He possesses a genuine appreciation that different people worship in different ways and all these ways need to be valued parts of what we offer. We will miss Dr. Robb. No doubt about that. We will be grateful that God has brought Mark Sorensen to lead us into the future. I have no doubts about that.
YOUR STORY: OUR STORY
A Message from Lee Brewer, Pastor to Senior Adults Thirty years ago, I was pastoring a church in Eldorado, Texas. Among the many wonderful members was a man by the name of Billy Frank. He grew up in parched West Texas during the depression and told how they would have cornbread and fresh milk for breakfast, and the clabbered milk and cornbread for supper. They literally had nothing but the absolute necessities of life when he was growing up. He was a veteran who had served in the Marines during the Second World War. He was among the first wave to go ashore on Iwo Jima and was terribly wounded in his right leg almost immediately upon reaching the beach. By the rules of triage and the terrible numbers of wounded the medics were treating, his wound shouldn’t even have been treated and his story would have ended there. But one medic refused to pass him by and gave him enough treatment and transfusions to save him. Placed upon a hospital ship, they had to amputate his leg and he began the long journey back to Hawaii. However, on the second day of their voyage, the ship was torpedoed by the Japanese and quickly began to flood. By some miracle he was one of the few who survived. He had been placed on the top bunk which was the most miserable place to be because of the heat. However, he was able to swim out before the water rose too high. He said if he had been where he wanted to be, he never would have made it. He returned to his home in West Texas after a year of rehab in Hawaii and worked for the Post Office as well as being a rancher. He was always positive, smiling and totally engaged in the life of the church, community and those in need. He spent years as the scoutmaster, as a deacon in the church, and the poor and the widows in the community often found a basket of fresh vegetables from his garden on their porch. He spent any free time memorizing the Bible. He could quote the book of James word for word. He blessed my life in countless ways. When life becomes uncomfortable or discouraging, I think about Billy Frank and focus on how very blessed I am and the opportunities I have to help others. Billy Frank’s life was never easy. But he didn’t just memorize the book of James: he lived it out. I thank God for bringing this friend into my life. I believe that all of us can receive a blessing from hearing the stories of other people. So, I would love to hear a story from you about someone who has changed your life by how they lived for Christ. Write it down or come by the office and share it with me, and I will write it down to share with others. I’m calling it “Your Story: Our Story,” and I hope you will be a part and bless us all!