Greetings to members and friends of Grace United Methodist Church!

It is a pleasure to be re-appointed as your pastor this July, 2007. I have enjoyed the four years with you which have now past. It has been good to meet and become friends with you and to participate in the many activities at Grace Church, especially those oriented to our children and youth.

Grace Church has a name -- Grace -- that is central to our Christian faith. Grace testifies to prevenient grace -- the loving care with which God surrounds us from the moment of our birth. It testifies to saving grace which enables us to be aware of our shortcomings and to seek a saving relationship with Christ as Lord and Savior. It testifies to sanctifying grace -- the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives enabling us to grow in wisdom and grace with Christ as our companion throughout our years.

Grace Church is a church set on a hill whose light can shine into the lives of all who participate in it, as well as those who simply drive by. God has put Grace Church here for many reasons, some that we know and some that remain to be discovered. I look forward to working with you this next year to celebrate what we know and discover what we don't. Then I will be retiring, so one of the things we will be focusing on this year is preparing for a new pastor on July 1, 2008.

Grace and peace be with you all!

"Pastor Jack"

A Biographical Note: Rev. Jackson H. Day

In our United Methodist system, pastors are appointed by the Bishop. Rev. Jackson H. Day was appointed to be our Pastor by Bishop Felton E. May in July 2003, and re-appointed each of the years following.

"Pastor Jack" grew up on the United Methodist mission field in China, Malaysia and Indonesia. He graduated from Woodstock High School in Mussoorie, India, Western Maryland (now McDaniel) College in Westminster, Maryland, and Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D. C. He began his ministry in 1964 when he was appointed to be student pastor of the Piney Plains Charge, three churches in the mountains west of Hancock, Maryland. In 1967 he went on active duty as a Chaplain in the U. S. Army, and spent one year as Chaplain for the 4th Infantry Division in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. In 2004 he made a return trip to Vietnam to bring closure to his wartime experience and meet what is now a country, not a war.

In 1971 he shifted his focus to health care and spent nearly 30 years in varied roles related to healthcare. He provided administrative support to the health component of the Head Start program, he directed a research project studying the costs and benefits of employer-sponsored family planning programs with the Tata Iron and Steel Company in Jamshedpur, India, and he designed proposals for operation of family health centers for dependents of the U. S. Army and Navy. He also served two years on the staff of a military hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and obtained a Masters degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. In 2000 he combined his healthcare and clergy backgrounds to become Program Director, Health and Wholeness, with the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society in Washington, D.C. Later that year he was also asked to serve for six months as interim co-pastor of St. James United Methodist Church in West Friendship, Maryland.

In addition to his responsibilities at Grace Church, Rev. Day is co-chair of the Baltimore-Washington Conference Subcommittee on Ministry to Persons with Mental Illness and their Families, is Second Vice President and Webmaster for the International Conference of War Veteran Ministers (founded in 1990 as the National Conference of Viet Nam Veteran Ministers), and provides continuing consulting assistance to the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society in the areas of Healthcare and Mental Illness.