by Myra Moreland | Nov 23, 2018 | Blog / Voices
Dear Friends, This is a time to be thankful, to count our blessings. Please let me share with you what a blessing it is for me to serve at Royal Oak First. I am so grateful to be part of such a vibrant congregation. Thanksgiving is filled with so many things: turkey...
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by Myra Moreland | Oct 12, 2018 | Blog / Voices
Dear Friends, As I write this letter, the temperature outside is rapidly dropping. Yesterday it was in the 80s (in October), and by tomorrow night the forecast says we will be in the 30s. At the same time, Hurricane Michael is cutting a path of devastation from the...
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by Myra Moreland | Aug 17, 2018 | Blog / Voices
Dear Friends, If you have been at the church any night this week, you have witnessed firsthand around 50 of our children on the “Rolling River Rampage” of Vacation Bible Camp. Laughter and songs echoed through our halls each night. “With Jesus in my heart, the spirit...
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by Myra Moreland | Jun 8, 2018 | Blog / Voices
Dear Friends, What a glorious week here at Royal Oak First! The weather is beautiful; the birds are chirping and the construction crews are humming. Life is good. We are on an adventure here at our church, an adventure of new surroundings, new people visiting, new...
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by Myra Moreland | Apr 27, 2018 | Blog / Voices
Dear Friends, I don’t know about you, but everything in life just gets easier when the sun is shining. When we look around and see the first flowers of spring, this idea of new life and new beginnings starts to sink in. Spring is the promise of summer days ahead, and...
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by Myra Moreland | Mar 9, 2018 | Myra - Advent Thoughts
Dear Friends, This week a group from our church staff went on a field trip. We went to watch and learn from a United Methodist church in Kansas City, Missouri. Like Royal Oak First, Good Shepherd in Kansas City is a fast-growing church. It was great to meet their...
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by Myra Moreland | Dec 21, 2017 | Myra - Advent Thoughts
I am in LA on business and found an unexpected California Christmas. At the breakfast bar at my hotel, I was waiting for my organic carrot-ginger juice and cappuccino (when in Rome) when a man walked in dressed in full firefighting gear. He was grabbing a cup of...
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by Myra Moreland | Dec 15, 2017 | Myra - Advent Thoughts
I began this Advent Blog two weeks ago, with a paper chain filled with Bible verses and small tasks, and with the theme “Simply Christmas”. And now I ask myself…,”so how’s that workin for ya?” Simply Christmas; a more simple Christmas….??? As I type this, I can see...
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by Myra Moreland | Dec 14, 2017 | Myra - Advent Thoughts
On Wednesday I woke up at what my brother-in-law calls “0 dark thirty” for a business trip to Seattle. I had plugged my computer in to make sure I had a good charge for the five hour flight, a great time for writing blogs and sermons. I tossed the charging cords into...
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by Myra Moreland | Dec 13, 2017 | Myra - Advent Thoughts
Remember the “moon on the breast of the new fallen snow” from Monday night? A couple of hours into the snowfall my dogs start going crazy and my daughter told me to look out of the windrow. Prancing down the middle of the street in the “lustre of midday” was a...
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by Myra Moreland | Dec 12, 2017 | Myra - Advent Thoughts
Remember this Christmas line? “The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow, Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.” It is of course from The Night Before Christmas and it captures the scene here in Michigan last night. It was our first real snow fall and when...
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by Myra Moreland | Dec 11, 2017 | Myra - Advent Thoughts
Luke 2:8 “And there were shepherds watching their flocks by night.” Who were the shepherds and why would they be the first on earth to hear the news about Jesus? We know that the job of shepherd was not a one of status, but I tend to forget that many of the great...
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