Monday March 23, 2020

Dear SBFN Family,

I will try to keep these messages concise, simply going point by point without much commentary. I do want to encourage you to continue to pray and to be in God’s Word. Also, please be sure to call on one another and your neighbors to see how they are doing. Most of you should have directories we distributed a few months ago. Let’s continue to care for one another, even if we can’t be together.

Here are several things, in no particular order:

Indiana has now instituted a travel ban for all non-essential travel effective Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. You can go to https://www.in.gov/coronavirus/ to find out more information.
Because of the shut down, I will be at the church building tomorrow from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. or so. You can stop by between those hours if you need to retrieve anything. After that, we are closing the church building; you will not have access to the church building, as we will NOT be able to travel there any more. The shut down, according to Indiana Governor, will continue at least until April 6th.
Good News Day Care, our church’s day care, has now closed effective today, as new health directives made it untenable to keep open. This is very sad for us. Please pray for the Director, Melissa Waterbury, the teachers now without work, and the parents needing to find child care.
I have scheduled a meeting with the Finance Team for next Tuesday. We wanted 2 weeks of data to help us as we make decisions. We are doing our best to be good stewards and do what we can for those under our care.
Inasmuch as you are able, please continue to honor God with your tithes and offerings and support SBFN as we try to weather this storm. Your Church Board and Finance Team has been very prudent over the last many years, and we have a financial cushion to help us get through this. We are also looking at many different areas to cut expenses to help make ends meet. However, we still depend solely upon your faithful generosity to the Lord to meet our obligations–even as they adjust in the days to come.
We will continue to update the website with Daily Devotionals, Sermons, and COVID-19 Updates. Please direct everyone who may be interested to our website: www.sbfnaz.org
Our Prayer Chain is still fully operational. Please let us know if you have special prayer requests that need immediate prayer.
We will try to continue to keep up with e-mail. Please reach out to me or one of the pastors if you have questions. You can also e-mail me directly if you have questions at andy.lauer@southbendfirst.org Please remember I am only one person when it comes to emails, phone calls, and texts. I love you all, but I may not be able to return messages immediately. There’s also the possibility that things can get lost in cyberspace. Please don’t take it personally if I don’t get back to you. Instead, just reach out again. We’ll all get through this together.
At the end of this e-mail will be security update from Chuck Lambert, a retired veteran of the Army and Law Enforcement as well as private security. He is our current head of security at SBFN. He will be updating us on security concerns as they relate to you. They will not be exhaustive, but we felt it was important to help keep you and your loved ones aware of some of the ways those intent on perpetrating evil will try to take advantage of the innocent and needy.
I will send out updates as needed. I do not want to overwhelm you with updates. Monday-Wednesday-Friday will be a likely pattern unless urgency necessitates something different.

Thank you so much for your love and patience. I’m so happy and proud to be your pastor.

No fear in Christ,
Pastor Andy