 Hello, I'm Mike McKee, the Bishop of the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Today I want to share a message with you about Lent, that 40 days of preparation for the celebration of Easter. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, February the 13th, I will begin a series of spiritual disciplines and practices in order to prepare for the celebration of Easter on March the 31st. Each day during Lent I will read a chapter in the Gospel of Mark. And then after reading the Gospel of Mark over 16 days, I'll begin to read it again. And then I'll read it again for the third time as well. So each day when I read a chapter of the Gospel of Mark, I'll be asking myself some important questions. What is it that Mark is telling me about the nature of God and who God truly is? How is it that Mark is making the story of Jesus alive and relevant for our day and for me? And then I'll ask perhaps the most important question. What is it that the Gospel writer is challenging me to do in terms of my own discipleship or in another way of thinking about it? What does it really mean for me to follow Jesus? In addition to the reading of the Gospel of Mark, I'll pray each day for laypersons and clergy in the North Texas Conference. I'll pray for churches in the North Texas Conference and the concerns of the world. But one day a week, I will fast. I will simply not have lunch on that day and on that day I will pray. I'll pray for those persons in our own communities in the North Texas Conference, children and adults who simply do not have enough to eat. And I'll not only pray for them, I will set aside the money that I would have spent for lunch in addition to another gift that I will give for some ministry that is seeking to engage people who are in need of food and engage them with the bread of life that you and I can provide in partnership with our Christ. So I invite you to join me in these spiritual practices in this one during Lent. Choose your own. Find some way in which you can engage with people in your community. Most importantly, learn what it means to follow this Jesus so that you can celebrate this glorious resurrection on Sunday, March 31st. And I hope and pray that you have a blessed Lenten journey to the resurrection. May God bless you.