Raafat Girgis
A Message From Pastor Raafat
Dear Brothers & Sisters,
My journey with these two wonderful, gracious, and supportive congregations has been amazing and a blessing for me before it has been for them. We went through a lot together and we have done a lot together, but what was most significant and unique about our story is simply that it was different in every good sense. It was much more than a story of a pastor and congregation. It was an international, multicultural/cross cultural and intercultural journey of faith. We made a covenant from the beginning that our journey together would be a journey of unconditional love and respect, willingness to drink from a strange will, letting go and letting God, and embracing conflict, focusing on what is eternal and what really matters in the process of solving any differences. We both have grown a lot in our faith, spirituality, gratitude and commitment to our churches, world communities and to our denomination. As I shared with both sessions and both congregations yesterday, I will forever be indebted to your gracious understanding, and generosity and that your story will be shared and told with my new field of ministry as an Incubator leader (Presbytery Staff) with the Presbytery of Denver in Colorado.
I trust the Lord, who sent me here three years ago, will bring the one who will water the seeds we planted together, and even do a much better job caring for these two gracious and loving congregations. Just as it is hard for a congregation to lose its pastor, it is equally difficult if not more for a minister to leave his congregations; first because of this bond of love that was built through the years with both the people and the space, but it is also going to be difficult for me as I start new journey, and step into new and unfamiliarly territories. However, I hope we will all trust God who is always on the move to guide us in this move. As I said yesterday, “the Lord is (our) light and our salvation, whom shall we fear?” I intend to use the plural subject instead of the singular in Psalms 27:1, as I strongly believe this is mutually our expectation as a pastor and congregations. I also would like to use Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 1:4-9, as words of my gratitude and prayer to God for NRG & Pisgah:
“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, 5 for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— 6 just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you— 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 8 He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Raafat