Email to the Church Body

Posted on January 19th, 2005 by hanfaith.
Categories: General.

Dear brothers and sisters of COB,

We are writing this e-mail to say thank you. Thank you for allowing us to serve - thank you for supporting us. I cried as I shook the elders hand and drove home. This is very hard thing for us and we are very grieved. This was always been our home or sending church while my family was in P.N.G. There are people who watched me grow up here. Steve Nute baptized me in lower Wilson Pond. I started the grapevine bible study with the other teens here. It is very hard.

We had a meeting with the Elders to hear their side of events that had happened while we were away over Christmas and to remind them of a few passages that describe how the elders of a church should act and respond to conflict. They made it clear in that meeting that because we are leaders in this church we needed to support them. After the incident last Sunday it became clear to us that we could not. I met with the elders this past Tuesday to make this known and to once again remind them of these certain Bible passages. At the end of the meeting the Elders and I came to a mutual agreement that Hannah and I needed to step down from leadership. They wanted us to not only step down from leadership but membership as well. We feel like the events in the past few months and days have crippled our ministry. The events have divided people in youth group as well as built walls with certain people in this body. This was not a sudden decision, but one that has been building for the past few months as we observed the circumstances unfolding before us. Because of this we honored our agreement with the elders and submitted a letter of resignation Tuesday afternoon.

Our family will miss you guys and we hope to see you around town. At this point we have no intentions of moving. Thank you, once again, for this opportunity to serve your teens and we will miss the relationships that were formed and the love your teens showed our kids. In Christ, Philip, Hannah, Éva, and Seámus

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