 Hello, I'm Mike McKee, the Bishop of the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Sunday, December 2nd begins our preparation for the birth of the Christ child. The season of Advent begins this Sunday. Advent like its cousin, Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. And since Advent comes at wintertime, fire is a fitting sign to help us celebrate Advent. If God is to become really incarnate for us, then fire will have to be present in our prayer. Our worship and devotion will have to stoke the kind of fire in our souls that can truly change our hearts. My hopes and my prayers for all of you, is that you may experience this Advent season to be a time of renewal and reformation of your own lives. Instead of hurrying toward Christmas and the celebration of the birth of the Christ child, what would it be like to rekindle what it must have been like for people to have waited for hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of years for God to reveal who God truly is in the birth of the Messiah. Worship and the fire of worship is really dependent on you. What will you bring to that experience? How will you sing? How will you pray? But more importantly, how will you reflect upon what God has already done in your life and is continuing to do in your life? I pray that you will be open to the movement and the fire of the Spirit as you prepare for the birth of the Christ child. So the conference is preparing some materials to help you in your celebration of the Advent season. And I invite you to go to our website, NTCUMC.org. You'll find devotions from late in clergy across the conference. May you have a blessed Advent season.