Church of the Big Wood Family,

By now most of you have heard about our state’s plan (https://rebound.idaho.gov/stages-of-reopening/) for the staged relaxing of Idaho’s stay home order. One of the things that the plan includes is the possibility for churches to begin meeting in stage 1, which begins on May 1. While we would love to begin to gather and look forward to doing so soon, our leadership believes a cautious approach to reopening to be wise, for the following reasons: because of how hard the county was hit with the virus; the demographic of our congregation; and the unknowns about how the state’s reopening will affect the valley’s infection rate. These things, along with the fact that reopening our church (even with proper social distancing) would create one of the largest public gatherings in the valley, has caused us out of deep love for our members and community, to delay reopening.