Midweek Newsletter: Wednesday, February 7th, 2024.
NARTHEX
NEWS
WEEKLY
EDITION
February
7th, 2024
FROM
THE NEWS DESK
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
~ Communal Lunch This Sunday!
~ Celebrations
~ BYOB/”Happy Meal”
~ Events Coming Up
~ Printed Devotional?
~ PPM Update
~ Weekly Devotional & Prayer Room
Live & Learn: Live
& Learn will resume Saturday the 10th, meeting at 11:30 in the
church library, lunch included.
Liturgist: for February is Margi McConnaha.
Elder: for February is Debbie Crouse.
Live for Life Sunday is this
Sunday. Please see the following for a list of items you may bring and leave in
the box in the lobby. You may also write a check to the church, with the
notation in the memo line that it is for “Live for Life”. Thank you for your
generosity!
·
New pillows
Communal Lunch This Sunday! This Sunday, February 11th, is the first quarterly communal lunch of the year. The church will provide the main dish. Please bring sides and desserts (and yourself!!) Kick off the week of Valentine’s Day with some fellowship with your FPC family after the morning worship service.
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!
BYOB/ "Happy Meal”: This Friday, February 9th, is BYOB, or as Gretel calls it “Happy Meal”. Bring your lunch and meet in the church library at 11:30 for food and fellowship with friends.
Events Coming Up:
Feb. 14
(Valentine’s Day) is also Ash Wednesday!
Shrove Pancake Dinner @ CCC, 5:30pm – Pancake Flippers Needed! Please contact Gretel in the office with your interest and willingness!
Ash Wednesday Service @CCC, 7pm
Lent Soup
Supper & Service Series:
Feb. 21: St.
Joseph Catholic Church,
Dinner @6,
Service @7
Feb. 28: Trinity
Lutheran Church,
March 6:
First Presbyterian Church!
Please sign up to bring a soup for the supper! Dinner @6, Service @7
March 13:
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church,
Printed Devotional?
Would you
like a printed copy of the Lenten Devotional by PCUSA? Please sign up on the bulletin
board sign-up sheet or let Gretel know in the office.
PPM Update:
PPM will
be hosting the Reuse Heart & Sole Shoe Collection again this year, Feb.
1-20. There is a collection bag in the lobby and a box next to it. Please leave
your shoes in the box. (Lori needs to count each individual pair of shoes at
the end of the collection period.) If you are bringing in a large number of
shoes, you may bring them all in one bag and leave that bag near the
shoe-reception area. Thank you for contributing and helping meet this need in
the community.
The poster
of the event is included below. An excerpt is quoted here for your reference:
“All types
of shoes will be collected. Please tie laced shoes together.”
Weekly Devotional: Treasures
This week
I had the opportunity to celebrate a life. Pastor Je and I (Gretel) both went
to the Celebration of Life for Anna Karen Butler. “Karen”, as she first
introduced herself to me, or “Mama K”, as her family knew her, was not a part
of the FPC family for very long. She moved to the area approximately two years
ago and went home to be with Jesus on January 5th of this year. In
between those dates, she became very sick and was often unable to attend
services, but we kept up a correspondence with her. By divine orchestration, we
learned of the memorial service the morning of the event directly from one of
her sons and were both able to rearrange our schedules to be there. It was a
privilege to be there.
One of her
sons shared the following comment in the service: “For someone so small of
stature, she was a big woman.” Big in faith, big in joy, big in strength,
courage, perseverance. Being independent was important to her, but so too was
her faith. She also was not one to stay still for long. One example of this is
the library at the complex in which she lived, now named after her honor of the
work she did to bring it into existence. Over the short time she lived there,
she initiated the idea, gathered the books, and brought the library to life. Another
fascinating tidbit: jumpstarted by a gift her family gave her, she began
recording the story of her life. It was largely that resource from which her
family drew to lead the memorial service on February 5th. Stories
abounded of the affect her character and personality had on her family,
friends, and community, but there was one thing in particular that stood out to
me.
One of her
sons shared the story of when Karen asked the question, “What’s my legacy?” He
said it took her a year to come up with
the answer, but when he asked her what she had discovered, she was ready. “My
children,” she said. “My legacy is my children.” I happen to be a cry-er, so I
was clutching tissues before the service even began, but the tears definitely
fell then. At the end of her autobiography, Anna Karen Butler reflected on her
life and concluded that of all she had accomplished and experienced, she was
most proud of her five children. Seeing in person the love and admiration they
clearly feel for their mother, I believe her confidence was well placed. I
would also like to say: “Thank you. Karen, you shared yourself with me, and I
am blessed for it. Mama K’s family, you shared your mother with me, and I am
blessed for it.”
Jesus
Himself said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do
not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also.” (Mt.6:19-21) “Mama K” stored up treasures in heaven. Her legacy is a
treasure (five of them). Karen herself was a treasure. When Karen passed away
on January 5th, 2024, she went home to be with Jesus in Heaven. But
I’ll tell you what . . . her heart was there first.
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.
(Included
in the following prayer are verses from the hymn “Mansion Over the Hilltop” by
Bill & Gloria Gaither.)
Dear Heavenly Father, When You created
us, You put inside each one of us a treasure box and You called it a heart. It
is up to us what we put in it. I have been honored time and again to see the
impact on the world from those who choose to store treasures of heavenly value
in their treasure box. Will I choose things of heavenly or earthly value? The
most costly “treasure” here on earth (gold) is but pavement in Heaven.
I’m
satisfied with just a cottage below, a little silver and a little gold;
But in
that city where the ransomed will shine, I want a gold one that’s silver-lined.
I’ve got a
mansion just over the hilltop, in that bright land where we’ll never grow old;
And
someday yonder we will never more wander, but walk the streets that are purest
gold.
Tho’ often
tempted, tormented and tested and, like the prophet, my pillow a stone,
And tho’ I
find here no permanent dwelling, I know He’ll give me a mansion my own.
Don’t
think me poor or deserted or lonely, I’m not discouraged, I’m heaven bound;
I’m just a
pilgrim in search of a city, I want a mansion, a harp and a crown.
I’ve got a
mansion just over the hilltop, In that bright land where we’ll never grow old;
And
someday yonder we will never more wander, But walk the streets that are purest
gold.
Amen!
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