It’s great to be home! I have been serving as the interim pastor of Chattanooga Valley PC for the past eight months. What a wonderful church. In addition to preaching, I also assisted the Session and the Search Committee. Their Elders are good and able men, and the Search Committee did an outstanding job. 

Now, their new pastor has arrived, and his name is Dennis Louis. His wife’s name is Theresa (pronounced “THEresa”), and they have three children. Please take a moment, right now, to stop and pray for them and the people of CVPC. They moved here from Pensacola, Florida, and moving from a place you love and where you’ve been loved is always difficult. Settling into a new home has many challenges, while coming to know the people of a new congregation takes time. Also, adjusting to a new pastor who probably doesn’t do things the same way they’ve always been done calls for patience on the part of the people. So, please pray for them, as well.    

I’ll be participating in Pastor Louis’ installation service the last Sunday of March. At the end of April, I’ll be preaching Saturday evening and twice on Sunday at Wayside PC on Signal Mountain during their Missions Conference. Their pastor is Brian Cosby, Hank Schum’s grandson and the son of Gary and Dianne Cosby. I’ve never spoken before at a Missions Conference, and I’m attempting to put together a series of three sermons from the books of Acts. Therefore, I’m reading and rereading this wonderful story of the early church’s mission, as well as, reading through several commentaries. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will graciously lead and enable me to find the three passages that will be (should be) my focus. 

But, as I said at the beginning, it’s great to be home. Sunday, I was able to sit with my wife and be led by our pastors and minister of music in the worship of our Lord. I pray you will never take for granted the many ways in which the Lord has blessed us.  

Saturday, February 29, was my granddaughter Lilly’s birthday. Lilly is the daughter of Ruth and Gary Isaacs. Her parents threw a big party for her at their home church, Concord Baptist, and she was surrounded by twenty or so other little girls around her age. Sunday, we celebrated Lilly’s birthday, as well as, that of Ezra (Harris), whose birthday is February 28. Ezra turned 14. Lilly is either 2 or 8. I teased her repeatedly by insisting she was now 2, but she lovingly replied each time, “No, Papa, I’m 8!”. 

Again, it’s great to be home. I’ve missed not getting to see you week after week. I love you all dearly and always feel loved by you. I look back 32 years to the beginning of CPC and give praise to the Lord for what He has done. Additionally, I’ve been closely associated with a few of you since 1983, and that’s amazing to think about. Where did those 37 years go? How good it is to know that all these years are but a drop in the bucket compared to the endless years we will live together with our Lord upon a newly created earth free of sin’s contamination. And, how wonderful it will be to rejoin all those we dearly love who are already with our Lord. 

~ Pastor Caines