April 28, 2008

Our Dear Wellshire Church Family,

It is with gratitude and hope that I send you this letter. Yesterday, April 27, Hamblen Park Presbyterian Church in Spokane, Washington voted to call me as their Associate Pastor, and I have accepted the call. After nearly five years of rich ministry with youth, young adults, and all others at Wellshire, we are following God’s leading back to our home state.

Eric and I both will miss so much about Wellshire: your warm embrace of our family; your openness to trying new forms of learning and making music; your encouragement of our gifts and the sharing of yours. We will miss the staff, who has been our family away from family, quick to point to the hope of Jesus and laugh even in times of transition. The community of Wellshire Presbyterian Church is filled with deeply caring, diversely-gifted disciples of Jesus Christ, and it has been a privilege to serve here as a pastor.

Even as we are sad to leave Wellshire, we are hopeful about new areas for growth in this phase of our lives – my new position carries with it the responsibility of overseeing directors of various Christian Education ministries, and I will be developing new mission opportunities for the congregation. We are also thrilled that our children will live within two hours of both sets of grandparents, and we look forward to encouraging them to deepen those relationships which have been strictly long-distance since both boys were born.

My last Sunday at Wellshire will be June 15, immediately following the Youth Mission Trip to South Dakota. I will begin the position in Spokane on July 7. I trust, as we step out into the unknown, that the same Spirit who called us here five years ago will be with our family as we start a new venture and will be with you as you continue to participate in God’s work in Denver and beyond.

Yours in Christ,

The Rev. Betsey Moe

Associate Pastor for Youth and Young Adults