Midweek Newsletter: Wednesday, December 20, 2023.
NARTHEX
NEWS
WEEKLY
EDITION
December
20th, 2023
OF
FIRST
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
LEBANON,
INDIANA
128 E. Main St. ~ Lebanon, IN
46052~ (765)482-5959
https://www.lebanonfpc.org ~ office@lebanonfpc.org
In the midweek newsletter this week:
~ Reminders
~ The Jingle Bells Carpool Service (for Christmas
Eve!)
~ Celebrations
~ Kindling!
~ Toys Delivered
~ A New “Fruit Cake” Recipe
~ Help provide a ride?
~ PPM Update
~ Weekly Devotional & Prayer Room (+ a P.S.)
Reminders:
Live & Learn: There is
NO Live & Learn for the next three Saturdays.
There will be a bell choir practice on Saturday, Dec.23. The Presbyterian Ringers will meet at 11:30 on Saturday the 23rd in the sanctuary.
Gretel’s Day Off/Church Office Closed: Gretel will not be in the office on Thursday, Dec. 21st (but will be in the office on the 22nd.) The church office will also be closed the week of Christmas. Gretel will be back in the office on January 2nd.
Advent Candle Lighting!
Thank you to all our
volunteers. This week’s candle lighting will be done by the Piper family.
The Longest Night, A Service of Compassion & Peace, will be held Thursday, December 21st
at 7pm in the FPC sanctuary. There will also be a time during this service to
honor and remember the saints who have gone to be with the Lord over the last
two years.
Christmas
Eve Service is Evening Only- No morning worship service on Dec. 24th.
Christmas Eve Service: 7pm.
The Jingle Bells Carpool Service
(for Christmas Eve!): Would you like to come to the Christmas Eve
service but are not comfortable driving in the evening, or are unable to drive
in the evening? Or perhaps you plan on coming and could assist in bringing
others? The church would like to provide a carpool service to help people get
to the Christmas Eve service. If this is something that interests you, please
contact Gretel in the office ASAP! (765)482-5959 or gretel@lebanonfpc.org It might not
be a one-horse open sleigh, and it will likely be through the streets of
Lebanon rather than “o’er the fields”, but bells could be ringing and you just
might be “laughing all the way”!
So –
jingle those bells (by calling the office) and join the group (be it as driver
or passenger) who will be able to sing:
“Oh, what fun it is to fun to ride in a one-horse open sleigh!”
Celebrations: Happy celebrations to a really great crew. We love each one of you. We hope your year is exciting and new, and that you remember God loves you!
Happy
Anniversary to: Roy & Kathy Flanary, 12/30; Scott & Lisa Hutcheson,
12/30!
Happy Birthday to: Susan Kries, 12/31!
Kindling!
Are you kindling joy this Christmas? A church member would like to help you kindle some warmth in your fireplace! Janet Landon has some kindling she would like to share. She has quite a few logs, medium sized pieces of very dry wood, some of it Applewood. It needs a home, and this is the right time of year for a fire in the fireplace. Want to cozy up to a fire Christmas morning? Contact Janet Landon to arrange a pickup. Call or text: (765)891-9000.
Toys Delivered!
A New “Fruit Cake” Recipe:
Do you like fruit cake? It seems as though it is quite the holiday
tradition. (It also seems like it is as much of a tradition to not like it – or
to make jokes about it!) For the last four weeks, we have shared a recipe with
you each Sunday. I don’t have a new recipe for this Sunday, so I will share
this one instead!
A church member shared with me a “recipe” for fruit cake that is
different than maybe any other which you have seen. I happily share it with you.
(Credit for this “recipe” goes to “The Indianapolis
News” from a newspaper clipping snipped years ago.)
SCRIPTURE CAKE
4 ½ cups 1 Kings 422
1 cup Judges 5:25
2 cups Jeremiah 6:20
2 cups 1 Samuel 30:12
2 cups Nahum 3:12
2 cups Numbers 17:8
2 tbsp 1 Samuel 14:25
1 tsp Leviticus 2:13
6 Jeremiah 17:11
½ cup Judges 4:19
2 tsp Amos 4:5
2 tsp 2 Chronicles 9:9
Follow the mixing instructions of any basic fruitcake recipe. Bake in a
very slow oven (275 degrees) for three or four hours. Test with a toothpick or
cake tester before removing from oven.
Let me know if you try this! I’m so curious how it turns out!
Help provide a ride? A member of the FPC family has a need – can you help meet it? As you may
know from the prayer chain, Sharon Clem is in the hospital recovering from a
stroke. She has been in rather serious condition. Her daughter, Elizabeth, has
been quite attentive and at her mother’s side as much as possible. However,
Elizabeth does not drive and needs help getting to and from the hospital to
visit her mother. Can you help provide a ride? Please contact Pastor Je or
Gretel in the church office and they will try to set up a ride service. If you
are able, you may also contact Elizabeth directly. Thank you for your
generosity and kindness. (If you are not on the prayer chain and would like to
be, please see the section at the bottom of this email entitled “Prayer Room”
for more information about joining the prayer chain.”)
PPM Update: Merry Christmas! It seems like yesterday we were
just starting the new semester and now we are wrapping it up. We have
definitely been busy here at PPM this month. We started with our Christmas
program with both a Friday and Sunday performance which were both
packed with Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles, friends and Parents. The children
were very entertaining. We also sang at the courthouse on Saturday the 2nd
for Christmas on the Square.
Reading books about Santa, Candy canes, reindeer,
The Grinch and of course the reason for Christmas: the Birth of Christ. My
favorite part of the season is being able to share this story with our
children at PPM. For some of these children it is the first time they
have heard of this amazing gift.
The fellowship hall was packed full of fun!
We are wrapping up this week before Christmas with the Polar Express
and a visit from Santa himself!
I am excited to see what the new year brings for
our program, and continue to feel very blessed to be a part of
PPM. The Staff wishes all of you a Very Merry Christmas and A Happy 2024.
Lori Rowe
Weekly Devotional: Gift Exchange
The Christmas tree is decorated
with favorite ornaments and lit with glistening white lights. Stockings are
hung by the fireplace which warms the room with a gentle fire. Hot cider is
simmering on the stove in the next room, filling the air with festive scents of
cinnamon and spice. The curtains are drawn – I don’t even know what the weather
is like outside, and it doesn’t matter. All I need is right there in that room.
I sit with a dear friend.
They hand me a special gift I was not expecting. “But I don’t have anything
ready for you!” I protest.
They smile shyly. “It’s ok.
My gift is watching you receive and use this one.” At first I just hold it,
admiring the expert wrapping. “Aren’t you going to open it?” my friend asks. I
chuckle and tear into it, while they look on eagerly, and then I sit back with
it in my hands. My first response is an emotional one. My eyes water and I
spill a tear or two down my cheek. Then my brain kicks into gear and doubt
creeps in.
“Is this
really for me?” I ask. “Are you sure you didn’t put the wrong gift tag on this?”
I turn it over, examining it. “This isn’t actually meant for someone else?”
This friend knows me like no
one else, and when they picked out this gift for me, they thought specifically
of me. They put time and effort into choosing something extra special just for
me. If I doubt it and second guess it, how does that make them feel? How do I feel
when I do that?
Our Heavenly Father has
gifted each one of us with something special. A talent, a skill, a calling. He
wrapped it in love, care, compassion, and grace. Did we re-wrap it in fear and
doubt? Have we even opened the gift He gave? Have we asked God the questions: “Are you sure
this is for me? You didn’t mean it for someone else? You didn’t make a mistake?”
Oh sister, brother, friend, God knows you. He loves you. He delights in you. But He doesn’t stop there. He wants to use you. He has gifted you with something only you can do. If you rewrapped that gift, tear off the fear and doubt and expose the grace and love of Your Heavenly Father. Like the friend in “the gift exchange”, this Friend, who knows us better than anyone else and cares deeply for us, eagerly looks on and says, “My gift is watching you receive and use this one.”
Prayer Room:
Prayer is
important to the body of First Presbyterian Church. Are you interested in joining the prayer chain? Would you like to learn more about the role of
prayer in our lives? Please contact Phyllis Duff, Prayer Coordinator, at
(765)482-1485/ raduff2@att.net.
Dear
Heavenly Father,
You
are gracious and abounding in mercy. Great is Your Faithfulness! Your joy gives
us strength, Your peace is beyond our understanding, and Your ways are far
above our ways. “Joy to the World!” Your angels proclaimed. Thank You for the
opportunity we have to share that joy with the world.
If
You have given us gifts and we hold them in waiting, forgive us. Replace our
fear and doubt with faith and hope. Help us move beyond proclaiming our love to
You with our words to showing You our love with our actions. In the Light of
Your Son and in recognition of Your gift to the world in Him, we praise You. Amen.
P.S. I wanted to share a couple
extras with you:
1) There is peppermint hot chocolate in the office! On
a candy cane theme tray, with napkins, cups, stirring sticks, and extra candy
canes. (Try stirring your hot chocolate with a candy cane!) Help yourself!
2) There is a wonderful article about Christmas written
by the managing editor of Presbyterians Today. It is entitled “God Doesn’t Care
What Color Your Candles Are”. I am attaching a link here so you can click on
it, read through it, and perhaps be as ministered by it as I was. https://www.presbyterianmission.org/today/2023/12/08/god-doesnt-care-what-color-your-candles-are
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
We wish you a Merry Christmas,
And a happy new year!
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