 Hello, I'm Mike McKee, the Bishop of the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. I've been in ministry for 45 years, and I must admit that never has there been a more trying, difficult time to be in ministry than this season of my life. Never would I have expected that we would be shutting down or closing churches for public worship. Never in my mind did I think there would ever be such a thing as a pandemic like this one. Never in my mind did I think of the kinds of trouble that is causing people's families and people's economic life for business and for people and for health care workers especially. It is a time of challenge. One of the things for which I'm deeply grateful for, though, during this season of challenges are the clergy and the laity of the North Texas Conference. I don't know if I should use the word pride or not, but it's the word that I find myself using to talk about all of you. I'm proud of the witness that's happening in our local churches. I'm proud of the witness and the compassion that's happening in the communities in which our local churches are serving. I'm grateful for your passion that you have for ministry. And it reminds me, while we cannot change what has happened, we can still find ways to respond. Respond as followers of Christ, and you have done that so very well. I know every once in a while I read something and somebody will write, not a United Methodist, I might add, that God has sent the pandemic to teach us something. This pandemic is not God's doing, God's action, or even done to teach us anything. God's teaching of us has been made known most importantly in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. What the pandemic does, it forces us or invites us, I should say, into place that we did even deeper, draw from a deeper well of spiritual resources than we ever thought we had or would ever need. And so I am heartened by this verse, Paul's Letter to the Romans, one of my favorite lines in Scripture. We know that in everything, God is able to work for good with those who love God and are called according to God's purpose. So the pandemic was not sent, but how we respond is our evidence of how we choose to serve Christ and serve our neighbors. So thank you, thank you for the online worship, thank you for your compassion and acts of mercy, and yes, even thank you for your acts of advocacy. And there shall come a time in which we will gather again, face to face. I'm reminded in all my years of ministry that I thought 9-11 and the aftermath of the ministry with a lot of people who worked at the airport were doing those challenging time in my ministry. This is more than eclipse that. But again, as I said earlier, I invite you along with me to draw from the deep reservoir of spiritual resources available to us. God bless you and God bless your ministry. Amen.