Good People of Chatham Community Church,

Happy Memorial Day weekend! As a military kid myself, I want to say thanks to those who have served--and thanks to the families. We hope and pray that everyone has a great and restorative weekend.

A number of things brewing at CCC this week. Grab a cup of coffee and let's chat:

• With the governor's move to "Phase 2 Lite" this week, we're getting a number of great questions about whether we're re-opening soon.
  
  A couple of weeks ago we mapped out our tentative plan (available here): as gathering size increases to beyond 10 (we were expecting 50 would be the next limit they'd impose) we'll return to live streaming and start by inviting a different small group to join us live on Sunday morning for a few weeks. 
  
  If the gathering size continues to increase, we'll open it up to a limited number of people that we can safely socially distance (maybe 30 at Chatham Mills) and we'll have people RSVP so we can track and trace in the event of someone getting sick.
  
  It would only be many weeks afterwards (with a return to unlimited approved gatherings) that we would re-open more broadly for in-person worship.  
  
  That's still our basic plan. Over the past week and a half we've had two people with COVID-scares in our congregation. We're in no rush to get together--if someone died because we met two weeks too early it would be not only tragic but utterly foolish. 
  
  If you'd like more info or got any questions, just hit reply and we'll gladly answer.
   
• We've been asking our church to get behind essential personnel over the past seven weeks or so...and y'all have responded in overwhelmingly wonderful ways!
  
  We're closing out this initiative this week and wanted to say loudly and clearly: thank you. Y'all have responded to this initiative in classic Chatham Community Church fashion.  
  
  At the very bottom of this email is the full list of all that's been accomplished by your giving. Take a look at what we've done together!  
  
  A special thank you to Karen Foust who organized and managed dozens and dozens of deliveries to her house over the past several weeks and worked with a great team of people to make sure they were delivered. 
   
• Our next work to engage our community for good: 19 Hours of Prayer for COVID-19 on May 30th. Prayer is a unique work that only Christians can do to love our neighbors the way that God calls us to--if we don't do this, no one else can. 
  
  So we're calling our church community to stand in the gap on behalf of our local, state, national and global community by signing up to pray for 19 minutes of our 19 hours of prayer. 
  
  There are two different ways you can participate. You can join our continuous 19-Hour Zoom call for your 19 minutes where you'll be hosted by a member of the prayer team who will give some guides and suggestions for how you might pray. Or you can decide instead to go on a prayer walk for your 19 minutes to pray for your neighbors or local businesses or our local government. Just write "PW" next to your name and we'll send you some suggestions for how you might pray.
  
  This is happening in one week--next Saturday, May 30th. The unique way that Christians can love our neighbors is through prayer. Sign up and join us by clicking here. 
  
  One more note: at each time slot there is space available for an almost unlimited number of people to pray (not just one, although it kind of looks like that). Pick a time that works for you and click on it and the form will open up and add your name into that slot. 
   
• We had a great start to our "Into the Unknown" series last Sunday. Join us again tomorrow as we equip all of us to step into the uncertainty of summer 2020 with greater confidence as we trust in the Lord. Click here for the service.  Pause a second and see if anyone comes to mind that you could share that link with who's staring into uncertainty and feeling overwhelmed by it.
   
• Lastly, while a spreadsheet is seldom thrilling for me personally, I'm thrilled about this one: our 2020-2021 budget.  Our fiscal year runs July 1-June 30 so we'll be voting on the new budget on June 28th.
  
  What makes this year's budget special? We've worked hard as a leadership team to make sure that we're financially sound given all the economic uncertainty ahead. Our giving over the past 12 months was over $825,000--an almost 20% increase from the previous year. Our proposed budget for next year is $805,715. 
  
  Take a look, feel free to ask any questions, and those who have signed the Partner Agreement can vote on June 28th. 

As a church, we're heading into the unknown of the coming year with confidence and hope: with site work for our future building on the not-too-distant horizon (if you missed the video update from last week you can watch it here), record-setting strong giving, a fantastic staff team, and plenty of great ministry opportunities ahead, we are as well-positioned as we can possibly be to make a difference in our community in this season. 

Onward in the strength of the Lord!

Warmly,
Alex 
For the CCC Team

P.S. Here's the almost-final results of our initiative to support essential personnel:

Deliveries

• Completed
  • 11 boxes delivered to the following UNC Hospital Units
    • Carolina Air Care
    • Portable Radiology
    • Chaplains office
    • Medicine ICU
    • Respiratory Therapy
    • Pediatric ICU
    • Wound, Ostomy and Continence
    • Emergency Services
    • Chatham Hospital
  • • 1 box delivered to UNC Covid-19 research lab
  • 8 boxes delivered to congregate care facilities in Chatham County
    • Cambridge Hills
    • Carolina Meadows
    • Chatham Ridge Assisted Living
    • Coventry House of Siler City
    • Galloway Ridge at Fearrington
    • Laurels of Chatham
    • Siler City Center
    • Twin Rivers
  • 9 boxes delivered to health and medical services in Chatham County 
    • Carolyn Dialysis Pittsboro
    • Chatham County Emergency Communications - 911 Dispatch
    • Chatham County Detention Center
    • Chatham County Emergency Management
    • Chatham County Health Department
    • First Health EMS of Chatham County
    • Siler City Community Health Center
    • Vidas - free medical and dental services in Siler City
• Pending
  • 12 boxes packed and ready to go.  This is the second round of deliveries to the congregate care facilities in the list.  
    • UNC Hospice in Pittsboro
    • Avance Urgent Care
    • Pittsboro Urgent Care
    • Siler City Pharmacy
    • Cambridge Hills
    • Carolina Meadows
    • Chatham Ridge Assisted Living
    • Coventry House of Siler City
    • Galloway Ridge at Fearrington
    • Laurels of Chatham
    • Siler City Center
    • Twin Rivers
  • We anticipate 4 - 6 boxes next week based on what I still have and a few orders that have been placed on items in the wish list this week. Focus on UNC Hospital Units.

2. Helpers

• 12 folks helped unpack packages, inventory items and prepare boxes to go
• 13 folks helped deliver the boxes
• many, many people donated all the items below

3. Snacks and Drinks Donated