Midweek Newsletter: Wednesday, February 21, 2024.

 


NARTHEX NEWS ~ February 21, 2024

 

In this newsletter this week:

Reminders & Celebrations

Beautiful Furniture in Church Library!

One Great Hour of Sharing

Lenten Devotionals & Lenten Soup Supper & Service

“Surely the Presence of the Lord”

Gourmet Seekers & Prayer Reminders

A Cross for the Lenten Season

PPM Update

 

Reminders:

Live & Learn: Live & Learn will meet Saturday, 11:30am in the church library, lunch included.

This Sunday is Second Sunday of Lent

Presbyterian Ringers Rehearse: Thursday @ 6:30pm!

Caring Sunday is this Sunday: Below is a list of items The Caring Center needs. Please leave items in labeled box in lobby. Monetary donations: please make out to “First Presbyterian Church” with “The Caring Center in the memo line. If you wish to donate furniture, clothing, or household appliances, please use this link to their donations page to learn more: : Donations - The Caring Center

Food items:

Apple juice & apple sauce
Canned fruit & mixed vegetables
Cereal & Macaroni & cheese
Peanut butter & Crackers
Spaghetti sauce & noodles
Canned tuna or chicken

 

Celebrations: Happy, Happy birthday to you! To who? To you!
Happy birthday: Leanna Woody, 2/23; Teresa Brannon, 2/29.
 Happy anniversary: Lisa & Dan Erwin, 2/28!


Beautiful Furniture in Church Library! Huge thank you goes out to Margi McConnaha and Lisa Hutcheson (and anyone else who helped out that we are missing!) for their fabulous job on the library project! The library now has lovely new furniture. Sofas, side tables, and chairs in the sitting area and new chairs at the conference table. While being comfortable and attractive, they give a whole new look to the entire library space. To top it all off, they stayed on budget! Yay for you! We love it and we love you!

 

One Great Hour of Sharing: During the season of Lent, through Easter Sunday, we collect the PCUSA special offerings, “One Great Hour of Sharing.” These are distributed to three PCUSA organizations: Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (32%), Presbyterian Hunger Program (36%), and Self-Development of People (32%) to ease the pain of disasters, to fight hunger and poverty around the globe. There will be envelopes and flyers for this special offering on the table by the bulletins in the sanctuary this Sunday.

Lenten Devotionals: The church is going through the 2024 Lenten Devotional by PCUSA, “Local Pilgrim”. It is being distributed weekly by email and postal mail. If you would like to receive a copy and are not, please contact the church office (765-482-5959) to request a copy and specify your preference: email or printed copy.

An audio devotional is being emailed on a daily basis during the season of Lent. Pastor Je is recording a daily message from the devotional, “These Days”. If you are not receiving this and would like to, please contact the church office.

Lenten Soup Supper & Service Series: The Second Lenten Service is this Wednesday at Trinity Lutheran, 2625 Elm Swamp Rd. Soup supper is at 6pm, service is at 7pm. The next supper and service will be at FPC! Thank you for the sign-ups on the Soup Sign-Up Sheet on the hallway bulletin board. If you would like to contribute a soup, there’s still time to add your name or contact Gretel in the office with your information.

“Surely the Presence of the Lord”: The church is singing the chorus for “Surely the Presence of the Lord is Here” as the Call to Worship during the season of Lent. A link to the song is provided here for your reference and pleasure: https://youtu.be/ttEgZLg-2-Y?si=SLUfpWOogn_BwoHx

Gourmet Seekers: Gourmet Seekers will head out for another delicious meal together this Friday, Feb. 23rd, at Olive Garden: 10206 N. Michigan Rd., Carmel, IN. Meet at the church at 11:30am or at the restaurant at noon.

Prayer Reminders: Thank you for keeping your church family in prayer, as well as the local community and the nation. If you wish to know a more detailed update on the prayer needs of the church, or wish to join the prayer chain, please contact our Prayer Coordinator, Phyllis Duff, at: (765)482-1485/ raduff2@att.net.


A Cross for the Lenten Season: In the rear of the sanctuary, there is a cross designated for the Lenten season, symbolizing the act of “surrendering” any hindrances that obstruct our daily communion with God. Labels and pens are for anyone to inscribe their personal obstacles to either daily or general connection with God, affixing them to the cross (these may be covered with another label for discretion if you need to). On Easter, these will be removed from the cross and disposed of, serving as a symbolic gesture of embarking on a fresh start and fostering a stronger bond with God.

PPM Update: What a nice change in the weather, we have been able to go outside and run a few days this week. We all need that sometimes in the cold winter months. The opportunity to run, and laugh with friends. How are you doing during the long days of winter - are you getting out and enjoying friends or cuddling up and staying inside? I myself like to do both!

We have started registration and already have classes that are full. What a blessing for PPM.

PPM is hosting a family engagement Friday the 23rd. We have 140 children and parents signed up to attend. We are very excited for this opportunity and fellowship. 

Thank you for all you do and your prayers,

Lori 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

101: Thou Shalt Doubt (Sunday, June 12th, 2022)

Image
OT Lesson: Judges 6:33-40 (CEB) Some time later, all the Midianites, Amalekites, and other easterners joined together, came over, and set up camp in the Jezreel Valley. Then the Lord’s spirit came over Gideon, and he sounded the horn and summoned the Abiezrites to follow him. He sent messengers into all of Manasseh, and they were also summoned to follow him. Then he sent messengers into Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali too, and they marched up to meet them. But then Gideon said to God, “To see if you really intend to rescue Israel through me as you have declared, I’m now putting a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece but all the ground is dry, then I’ll know that you are going to rescue Israel through me, as you have declared.” And that is what happened. When he got up early the next morning and squeezed the fleece, he wrung out enough dew from the fleece to fill a bowl with water. Then Gideon said to God, “Don’t be angry with me, but let me speak j...
Read more

Walk with Me

Image
OT Lesson: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 (CEB) When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am El Shaddai. Walk with Me and be trustworthy. I will make a covenant between Us and I will give you many, many descendants.” Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, “But Me, My covenant is with you; you will be the ancestor of many nations. And because I have made you the ancestor of many nations, your name will no longer be Abram but Abraham. I will make you very fertile. I will produce nations from you, and kings will come from you. I will set up My covenant with you and your descendants after you in every generation as an enduring covenant. I will be your God and your descendants’ God after you. God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, you will no longer call her Sarai. Her name will now be Sarah. I will bless her and even give you a son from her. I will bless her so that she will become nations, and kings of peoples will come from her.” NT Lesson: Roman...
Read more

God Doesn't Care

Image
OT Lesson: Isaiah 25:6-9 (CEB) On this mountain, the Lord of heavenly forces will prepare for all peoples a rich feast, a feast of choice wines, of select foods rich in flavour, of choice wines well refined. He will swallow up on this mountain the veil that is veiling all peoples, the shroud enshrouding all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The Lord God will wipe tears from every face; He will remove His people’s disgrace from off the whole earth, for the Lord has spoken. They will say on that day, “Look! This is our God, for whom we have waited— and He has saved us! This is the Lord, for whom we have waited; let’s be glad and rejoice in His salvation!” NT Lesson: Mark 16:1-8 (NRSV) When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another,  ...
Read more