Midweek: Wednesday, March 16th, 2022
Midweek 3/16/22
IN THIS ISSUE:
• Music notes
• Meet and Greet Welcome Party & Congregational Meeting
• Easter Flower Orders
• A Vision From a Land Across the Sea
“. . . that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Romans 1:11
DATES TO REMEMBER: No Bells or Choir Rehearsal Thursday, March 17th. Choir Rehearsal Sunday, March 20th: 9:45am, anthem: Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.
Come meet the pastor candidate Pastor Je Lee and his family: wife, Hannah, and son, Samuel: at the church, Saturday March 19: 1-3 pm. There is also a Congregational Meeting after the service Sunday, March 20.
Would you like to provide special music during Lent or for Easter? Lenten music should be reflective and inspire devotion and endurance and music for Easter should be joyous and filled with praise! We hope you will add your talent to the many ways in worship that we reflect on the sacrifice of Christ and celebrate his resurrection. Contact Lisa Hutcheson, Worship Coordinator, at lisahutcheson@yahoo.com if you have questions.
Can you lend a hand? Have you already? The “Together in Fellowship and Mission” banner the Leadership Team at FPC is creating literally will not be complete without your hand! If you have not stopped by their table before or after service on Sunday, please do so. If you are unable to do this, please contact Neal or Debbie Crouse to make other arrangements: (224) 622-6383.
To observe the traditional Lenten practice of “foot washing” or “alms for the poor” in a more Covid friendly way, if you are able please bring one or more of the following non-perishable items between now and April 14th (to be donated to the Caring Center): peanut butter or alternative nut butter, rice, noodles, oatmeal, cereal, crackers, applesauce, feminine hygiene products, diapers (all sizes), flour and gluten free flour, sugar, toilet paper, paper towels.
Easter Flower Orders are now being collected. Order forms are available at the church. The completed form with payment can be placed in the envelope in Gretel’s box outside the offices. Orders collected until March 23rd. Flowers will be $15: lilies, daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths. Checks made out to the church, please specify “Easter Flowers” in the memo line. Cash is fine but please make it exact. Thank you for the orders that have already come in.
There is only one missionary honored with a global holiday – St. Patrick, missionary to Ireland. He was born in A.D.373 in what is now known as Scotland. His father was a deacon, his grandfather a priest. When he was 16, he was kidnapped by pirates and taken to Ireland as a slave. It was there that he gave his life to the Lord. Though he eventually escaped and returned home, he did not remain home permanently. Prompted by the Lord in a dream, Patrick returned to Ireland to share the Gospel. As he traveled the countryside sharing God’s message, many came to listen, but not all welcomed him. Druids opposed him and sought his death, but God is more powerful than our strongest enemies. Patrick became one of the most fruitful evangelists of all time, planting around 200 churches and baptizing 100,000 converts. In the eighth century, an unknown poet wrote a prayer asking God to be his vision, his wisdom, and his best thought by day or by night. In 1905, Mary Elizabeth Byrne, a scholar in Ireland, translated this poem into English. Another scholar, Eleanor Hull in England, crafted that poem into verse with rhyme and meter. It was eventually set to the music of an Irish folk song that can be traced back to an area where Patrick shared the Gospel with local druids. It is one of the oldest and most beloved hymns. Any guesses what it is? “Be Thou My Vision”.
I recently read a description of a man who was a traveler, a wayfaring stranger, one might say. However, though he knocked at a door belonging to strangers, he did not feel estranged. It was said that he had about him “the air of a traveler who knocks at a strange door, and, when it opens, finds himself at home.” Though he was unknown to them, he felt perfectly at ease. Was this due to the hospitality of those behind the door? Perhaps, though the focus of the description here is on the man himself, not those who welcomed him. How can we, as Christians, as pilgrims in this world, as “wayfaring strangers”, carry with us an air of a traveler who knocks at a strange door and, no matter who is on the other side, finds himself at home? As Christians we have a blessing unlike any that can be found in this world; we have an address that is not of this world. We have a home here, but a better home Beyond. More than this, we have a home here and now in the Very One who prepares our Home Beyond. Jesus tells us: “Abide in me as I abide in you. . . . I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5) How can we be people who find ourselves at home amongst strangers? Perhaps if we keep at the forefront of our minds, on the tip of our tongues, and at the core of our heart the truth that we find our home in Jesus. It is in Jesus where we abide. Our home is more than a place, our home is a person. Jesus is our Savior and our Vine . . . and our Address. May you go forward as wayfaring strangers and, knocking at any door, find yourself at home because of the Home you carry in your heart.
Interested in joining the prayer chain? Contact Phyllis Duff at (765)482-1485/ raduff2@att.net.
Dear Heavenly Father,
“Be thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; naught be all else to me, save that thou art; Thou my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light. Be thou my Wisdom, and thou my true Word; I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord; Thou my great Father, and I thy true son, Thou in my dwelling, and I with thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise; Thou mine inheritance, now and always; Thou and thou only, first in my heart, High King of heaven, my treasure thou art. High King of heaven, my victory won, may I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun! Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.”
May our acts of faith and our worship be to our growth and Your glory. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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