Midweek: Wednesday, March 29th, 2023.

 


Midweek 3-29-23


In This Issue:          

  •    Music Notes        
  •     Live and Learn
  •     Thank You for Caring!
  •      Reminders & Celebrations
  •      Gourmet Seekers!
  •      Movie Night!
  •      More Special Activties for Thursday & Friday (next week)
  •      Connections?
  •      “Dignity for Women” Missions Campaign   
  •       Feel like you’re going batty?                                                           
  •       Adult Sunday School & Nursery
  •       PM Update
  •      You Entered In! Vocabulary Quiz Consensus
  •       The Foundation for our Joy

 

“. . . that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.” Romans 1:12

Music Notes: Chancel Choir rehearsal this Thursday, 7pm, sanctuary.

Live and Learn on Saturdays: Live & Learn, Saturday April 1st, Luke Ch. 7 with Pastor Je. 11:30am lunch and study. No Bible Study April 8th.

Thank You for Caring on “Caring Sunday”! Thanks to your generosity on Caring Sunday, two boxes overflowing with goods were shared with The Caring Center this past Monday, March 27th. We will have Caring Sunday again on April 26th. If you want to plan ahead what you might share, please consult their website at https://thecaringcenter.net  or give them a call at (765)482-2020.

Reminders: Liturgist for March is Margi McConnaha. Kendra Whipkey is greeter and treat-bringer for this Sunday. Palm Sunday (and Communion) is this coming Sunday. Fellowship Lunch: pizza party! There will be plenty of pizza to go around, so come and fellowship with the FPC family and friends!  


“Congratulations to you! We celebrate with you! Know that we love you, and God loves you too!”  

Happy birthday to Nancy Morton, 3/29 and Arlene Quinn, 4/3!


Gourmet Seekers! Seeking some gourmet cuisine? Search no further! Well, that is not until this coming Friday! Friday, March 31st, at 11:30 am. Meet at church and head together to Thai Select in Whitestown.

Movie Night! There will be a movie shown in the church library on Wednesday, April 5th, at 5pm. It will be on the life of Jesus.

More Special Activities for Thursday & Friday (next week): Next week Thursday, April 6th, is Maundy Thursday. There will be a meal-style service in the fellowship hall at 6pm. There will be a Good Friday service, April 7th, at 7pm in the sanctuary.

Connections? Would you like to be a part of building connections here at FPC? As individuals, each person is an amazing example of God’s workmanship. Connect those individuals together, throw in some creativity, innovation, and imagination, and just think what incredible works of art God could create with such a group! 

The Connections group here at FPC is in need of new leadership. Under the leadership of Jennie Woods, it had a delightful start earlier this school year. We are now needing to know answers to two questions:  1) Would you like to be a part of Connections?  2) Would you like to help lead the group?
We are suggesting a co-leadership, so as to ease the load of any one person in taking charge of the group. We are also suggesting that this start out as a time to simply enjoy being together, getting to know one another over a meal once a month, for instance. Connections has been meeting on the second or third Tuesday of the month at 11am. If there is interest but a better time suits people, let us know. Come to Connections and find rest in a gathering of friendship and encouragement. Let’s build together!
Contact Gretel in the office with your interest and/or questions and/or comments: gretel@lebanonfpc.org or (765)482-5959.

“Dignity for Women” Missions Campaign: The spring missions’ campaign, "Dignity for Women", began March 12 with a kick-off of a fun fellowship meal and guest speaker. The “Dignity for Women” program will help keep young women in school. Please help with this very worthwhile cause. We are collecting cotton briefs for women in sizes small and medium to send to Malawi. These will be sent in connection with the Little Dresses for Africa ministry.

We will be collecting donations for through April 9th. You can put your donations in the blue box in the foyer; this box is by the closet to the left as you come into the church.  

Feel like you’re going batty? We can relate! Bats flying around in your belfry? We can relate! Feel like you’re chasing after something you can never quite catch? We can relate! Well, at least Neal and Pastor Je can! (Ask them, if you haven’t heard their story - it’s a good one!) Yes, we had a visitation. No, it wasn’t Batman. If it had been, we would have kindly asked him to remove all bats from our premises immediately and explain to them that they are not to return! In place of Batman, we are working with Ladybug Pest and Wildlife Control, and they are on the job! The latest winged visitor was gently escorted out on Monday morning. We will keep you posted about further flighty developments.

Adult Sunday School: Sunday School, going through the book Meeting Jesus at the Table, will continue for the next two weeks. It has been an enriching and enjoyable study. It’s never too late to learn from the Word of God! Come join the feast and the sweet fellowship.

Nursery: We have space for a nursery for ages infant to 3 yrs. but would love more volunteers to take care of the children during the 10:30 service. Please consider sharing your love, compassion, tenderness, and joy with these little ones. If you would like to help out, please notify Gretel in the office.

PPM Update: PPM is on Spring break for the rest of this week, but the teachers are still in and out prepping classrooms and spring cleaning. Need a surge of inspiration to get your own spring cleaning kicked into gear? You should hang out with these industrious folk: it’ll put a spring in your step!


You Entered In! Vocabulary Quiz Consensus. “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” (Psalm 100:4)  Last week I asked you to help me out and invited you to enter into a vocabulary discussion with me on a few terms. You entered in! And I am filled with thanksgiving. As a bonus feature, I heard from a few folks that the vocabulary bit was fun. So, good job, Presbyterians, for living up to your reputation! Perhaps there will be more vocabulary challenges to come. This week I shall share what was the consensus on the vocabulary quiz. The questions were:

The difference between a lobby, a narthex, a vestibule, and a foyer. To be specific, what do you call:
1) the area between the first set of doors (which are off the street) and the second set of doors (that are usually kept locked)?
2) what do you call the area inside the second set of doors, once you are inside the building?
3) what do you call the area that is inside the sanctuary doors between the stained glass windows (street side) and the start of the pews?
4) what do you call the area under the bell tower (where the door is that leads to the ramp)?
      The conclusion to the questions and the summation of the best way to refer to these areas: (Drum roll please . . .)
1.breezeway
2.vestibule
3.narthex
4.Belfry/Bell tower
You may of course refer to them however you wish! Keep in mind, though we encourage creativity and innovation, if you are more creative than the rest of us and we do not know what you are referring to, we may look at you with a glazed, confused expression on our face until you explain it to us. And you may have to go nice and slow until our brains catch  up with yours! Happy word- hunting!  (Any suggestions or requests for another vocabulary quiz? Email Gretel!)

The Foundation for our Joy

"Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai . . .  Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and tomorrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made." Esther 5:9,14

      The text says that Haman was joyful, that he had a glad heart. But his joy was not rooted in the right things, for how quickly he lost it! He received advice about what to do to recapture his joy, but it too was rooted in the wrong things.

     Haman’s joy was based on circumstance, but God asks that our joy be found in Him: "Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." (Psalm 32:11) Our Heavenly Father has told us the right way to find lasting and fulfilling joy: "The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory." (Psalm 64:10).

      Lord, forgive us when our happiness is based primarily on happenings. Forgive us when we let the burdens of this world bury our joy. Forgive us when we spend our energies complaining and grumbling instead of praising and thanking You. I pray that when we come to Your banquet we would come with merry hearts, but hearts merry in You. I pray that we would give counsel to others to be glad in You, to trust in You and find that their joy flows from that place of trust. I pray that when we need counsel from others that we would turn to those who will guide us from Your Word, not from the world.

     May we make a conscious effort each morning, and throughout each day, to rejoice. May we look for simple, small, concrete things to rejoice in, then use that position as a springboard to recognize the deeper, more profound reasons to rejoice. Then we will have laid a foundation for joy and begun to build upon it. Instead of constructing a monument to death, we will be creating a testimony to life. Each time we choose to find our joy in the Lord, we hammer another nail into a plank. Plank by plank, verse by verse, prayer by prayer, we choose joy, we choose God, and we build up. We look up, we build up, we grow up . . . up, up, up, extending our hands and our lives to the Lord. “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col.3:3 NKJV) Let us, therefore, find not only our life in Christ, but our joy!

 

Interested in joining the prayer chain? Contact Phyllis Duff at (765)482-1485/ raduff2@att.net.

Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that those of us gathered here to pray today would go forth this day joyful and with glad hearts. When something in our day confronts us and would tempt us to despair, would threaten to steal our joy, grant us grip strength to hold on and not let go! I praise You for Your Word. I thank You for Your attentive love. I thank You for Your joy which never runs out. Hallelujah! You are such a good God! Amen. 

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