Weekly Letter from Ron & Mary Kernohan

October 09, 2026

GREETINGS TO ALL!

We approach Thanksgiving Day, various social media sites are abuzz with pictures of fall colours and gentle exhortations to be grateful for all sorts of things. The hymn “Thank You, God, for My Redeemer” gives thanks for some surprising things. As you read through the verses, keep this in mind: God knows the value of storms, thorns, valleys, and crises…we sometimes forget that. Although I do hope your days are balmy, blessed, and beautiful, they can also be blustery, bewildering, and baleful! As you enjoy this newsletter, may you find reasons to both rejoice and give thanks. Blessings on you all!

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WEEKLY and UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

FITNESS WITH FRIENDS continues to meet each Monday from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. except for statutory holidays, such as this coming Thanksgiving Monday, when we will take a break and meet again on October 19.

Pickleball is on Thursdays at 9:00 am in the church gym as usual. All ages welcome.

DISCOVERY CLASS is at 9:30 am on Sundays in the church gym as usual. Come for a wonderful hymnsing, orchestra led, and a lesson from Scripture!

WOMEN TOGETHER is Wednesday October 21 at 10.00 am. All ages welcome. Babysitting provided.   

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PRAYER REQUESTS‍ ‍

• Pray for Rose Martins who is recovering from a fall.

• Pray for Ron Maxwell who is recovering at home. 

• Pray for Judy Cooper and family at the loss of her brother Dwight.

• Pray for Muriel Fleck who is recovering from an injury.

• Pray for Bob and Sheila who are at home but facing a lot of medical challenges. We rejoice that Bob is back from the hospital, but people continue to uphold him in your prayers.

• Pray for: the bereaving, the suddenly single, the shut-ins, the caregivers, the convalescing, and those facing or passing through great challenges.

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Meditation

The classic Thanksgiving hymns—giving thanks for the bounty of the harvest, the freedoms of our land, salvation, and the warmth of a church family—are certainly to be cherished and sung. Yet, as we enter this season, there are songs that dig even deeper into the human heart. John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” is chief among them.

The film Amazing Grace features a powerful scene where Albert Finney, portraying Newton, reminds a young William Wilberforce that for a sinner as great as Newton declared he was, he needed an equally great Saviour. One of the most critical stanzas of that hymn reminds us:

“Through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come; ’tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”

This is not merely “saving grace”—this is the grace of endurance. It is the grace of grit and grinding, of persistence, pressing on, and being transformed from glory to glory.

Newton did not leave us with only one song. Last Sunday, we had the privilege of singing another classic tied to his legacy, “Great God of Wonders.” It poses one undeniable, overarching question: “Who is a pardoning God like Thee? Or who has grace so rich and free?”

This coming Thanksgiving Sunday, and in all the Sundays to follow, may we sing those glorious hymns with renewed depth—always remembering the deep pits of perdition and the blazing fires of tribulation out of which those hymn writers emerged, and their praise were born.

Oh, yes! I give thanks today for God’s gifts of grace, the exceeding joy of sins forgiven, and a new heart to celebrate a life made new. Happy Thanksgiving!

Blessings on you all.

…by Paul Miller, 

Ron Kernohan, pastor of Seniors