Presbyterian Women Presbytery of New Hope March 2018

Transcription

1 Presbyterian Women Presbytery of New Hope March 2018 Greetings from your Moderator: Coming off the high of our recent Spiritual Retreat at Camp Albemarle, I am reminded of all that is good about enjoying fellowship with friends. We encouraged one another in ways that brought some of us to tears and that took all of us into a closer communion with God. Still the Bogue Sound retreat with its mini-birthday celebration wasn t all noisemakers, balloons and cake. It reminded us of how small our circle was. For the few, the retreat was good news; for the many, it was lost opportunity. And that realization calls me to remind you that Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery of New Hope can be no better than YOU help to make it. And, here, I don t just mean PWP leaders, but you, you woman in the pew. We need your help as much as you need ours. Big PWCs and Little PWCs. City churches and country churches. Coastal churches and Triangle churches. Former WOC-ers and UPW-ers. All of us are needed. As we ramp up to mark 30 years of Presbyterian Women s existence, please pray about and dwell upon what it is our organization should be. What do you want it to be? Are you willing to help make it that? Please rededicate yourself to support Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery of New hope through attendance (we ll see you April 14 at the Spring Gathering at First Presbyterian Church in Rocky Mount), financial donations, assumption of leadership roles, hosting (won t you volunteer to stage a fall gathering?) and organization (the PWPCT needs YOU to help us with programming thrusts) and prayer. God wants us to be our best selves. And if we put aside the fault-finding and criticizing, we will be. Each of us has a role to play. And, you need not don your superwoman cape to take on that assignment. As Paul Scherer has written, You aren t likely to be sent out under the will of God to do startling, impossible things. You are likely to be sent out to do the quiet, unspectacular things that matter, precisely where you are and with what you have. My sister in Christ, YOU are needed. Millicent Brown Fauntleroy, PWP Moderator

2 ANNUAL SPRING GATHERING PRESBYTERIAN WOMEN of NEW HOPE PRESBYTERY APRIL 14, 2018 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ROCKY MOUNT COME CELEBRATE OUR 30 TH BIRTHDAY Registration 9:30 a.m.; program begins at 10:00 a.m. Keynote Speaker: Susan Jackson-Dowd, Executive Director PW-PCUSA, Louisville, KY Meet and reminisce with Past PWP Moderators Brunch at 11:30 a.m. Skit by Brenda Brown and Carole Koi Installation of New Leaders by Barbara Campbell-Davis Scholarship Recipients Party Time cake and ice cream Mission Project: CWS Buckets for disaster assistance. Items you may bring to fill the buckets are on the next page. (Knowing how generous PW can be, you may be tempted to add additional supplies or bigger sizes for the cleaning supplies, but please go strictly by the list and include exactly what has been requested. The kits will be checked, but lets make it easier for those who have that task. Thank you so much! Tear off and mail bottom portion with your check for the brunch. Yes! We want to join the celebration! Name and Mailing Address Church Brunch Yes/No $8.00* Send completed form to: Peggy Griffin 6213 Golden Pond Rd. Elm City, NC Phone: *Please make check payable to PW-FPC Registration deadline: April 6, 2018

3 These two agencies are doing wonderful work every day, and they need help from the giving and generous women of New Hope Presbytery. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is one of many church agencies that work closely with CWS. Every year, thousands of U.S. local congregations and other groups, individuals and families volunteer to assemble CWS Kits for distribution locally and globally. I am sure that you and your churches have put together many kits over the years, and with hurricane season right around the corner, now is the time to replenish kits. Emergency cleanup buckets equip people after a flood, tornado or other disaster, and that is our mission focus for the Spring Gathering on April 14. We want to put together 15 buckets. We began this task during our Spiritual Retreat at Camp Albemarle. We have the buckets and some of the supplies, but we still have a lot to collect, and we need your help. There are specific items and sizes that must be used. Listed below are the supplies needed to complete the 15 buckets. There is also a $3.00 processing fee per kit, so if you would prefer to bring cash donations to cover that expense, that will also be appreciated. If you have any questions, please call me at or me at godard5890@embarqmail.com. If you know which item and the amount that your church will be providing, please let me know by the week prior to the Gathering. I will send out the list of what I have to the area moderators, which may avoid everyone bringing the same thing. We can do this, ladies!! God bless. Sharon Godard Together in Service Supplies per bucket Total number needed for 15 buckets 4 scouring pads 53 6 small sponges 78 1 large sponge 15 1 scrub brush reusable cleaning towels (e.g. Easy Wipes) 216 One 50 oz. or two 25 oz. bottle(s) of liquid laundry 15 of the 50-ounce or 30 of the 25-ounce detergent One oz. bottle of liquid disinfectant dish soap 15 One oz. bottle household cleaner mixable with 15 water (no spray bottles) One package of clothespins 14 Clothesline two 50-ft. or one 100-ft ft sections or ft sections 1 pair work gloves (cotton with leather palm or all 14 leather) 24 heavy duty or contractor type gallon trash 336 (3 of the 8 count boxes works well) bags on a roll and removed from the carton One 6-9 oz. bottle of non-aerosol insect repellent 14

4 GET ALL EXCITED - RAFFLE PWP Spring Gathering What a beautiful blanket! It was specifically designed for The Synod of the Mid-Atlantic by the son of Patricia Clark (former Synod Moderator). The money raised will go to the scholarship fund. ou must be at the PWP Spring Gathering, Saturday, April 14, 2018 in Rocky Mount to win. The cost will be one ticket for $3 or three tickets for $5. PWP 2018 Calendar *2018 Birthday Offering PWP Spring Gathering First Presbyterian Rocky Mount April 14, 2018 PW Synod Summer Gathering Massanetta, VA June 8-10, 2018 PW Churchwide Gathering Register on line: Louisville, KY August 2-5, 2018 The 2018 Birthday Offering of Presbyterian Women celebrates our history of mission giving and has funded nearly 100 major mission projects that continue to make a difference in the lives of women and children. This year s recipients are Cottage Village in Oregon for low-income residents; Village of Grace Center for Physical and Spiritual Health, Honduras; and The Dwelling Place (provides physical, emotional and spiritual needs of women and their children following their escape from a violent partner), Minneapolis, MN. We ask that you give as you have been blessed generously and as led by the Holy Spirit. Your gifts make a difference!

5 Mission stories/pictures wanted! The ladies of New Hope Presbytery are a very busy group, as I have read from the Together in Service reports that I have received so far! Please continue to send me those reports because there are a lot of you that I have not heard from yet. Since the deadline is not until March 31, you still have plenty of time. I know that your circles have been doing a variety of different mission projects in your community and beyond. I want to share these with all of New Hope, and I need your help to do so by creating a mission scrapbook. Please two of your favorite projects and tell us about it how it got started, who it helps, etc and please attach pictures of the ladies working or of the finished product or event. Once you complete your page(s), then bring them to the Spring Gathering to be held at Rocky Mount 1 st on Saturday, April 14. If you will, please use standard-size paper, so that all of the pages can be put together in a binder. Once the scrapbook is completed, it will be taken and shared in Louisville at the Churchwide Gathering! You are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to so many, and we want to know about it. God s grace and peace be with you. Sharon Godard, Together in Service Locating PW Resources On PW s website: www,presbyterianwomen.org On Horizons website: access too!!) On YouTube: On Facebook: Search for Presbyterian Women in the PC(USA) On Twitter: Sign up, then search for PWPCUSA, and follow PWP on Facebook: Search for Presbyterian Women in the Presbytery of New Hope PWP on New Hope Presbytery website: Click on PW tab in upper right corner. the PWP moderator: pwmoderator@bellsouth.net Are you going to the PW Churchwide Gathering in Louisville, KY this August? Several of us from our Presbytery and Synod are, and we want to know if you ll be there. We have made bookmarks to pass out to friends we haven t met yet. I have been to almost every one since 1988 at Purdue and I can t wait! Direct your questions to Carole Koi at jandckoi@gmail.com or

6 When you think of Presbyterian Women do you think of a group of women your grandmother or mother s age? Do you think of women who are sweet, nurturing and maybe put on wonderful church dinners? OR, do you think of dynamic women who form a caring diverse community that seeks to support the Presbyterian Church USA, but also to make a change in this world? Do you realize how many grants and scholarships have been given because of your donations to the Thank Offering and Birthday Offering? I know Presbyterian Women in my church have donated hundreds (probably thousands) of diapers, pajamas, paper products to the Coastal Women Shelter in our town or how about women who sew pillowcase dresses and place them in the boxes of the Shoebox Ministry how many buckets will we fill for PDA, etc. etc. etc. There is nothing we can t do as an organization, but we do need leaders and volunteers to make sure our attention is directed in the right place! We need YOU! We need YOU to join our Coordinating Team. We need YOU to attend our Spring or Fall Gatherings. We need YOU to attend the annual Spiritual Retreat (or tell us why you won t). We need YOU to tell us what you would like to see or learn about. We need YOU to bring the enthusiasm that keeps the Presbyterian Women community alive and youthful. Come inspire us and be energized by our already great cloud of witnesses. There are several openings on the Coordinating Team for please call Martha Strayhorn, Search Moderator, or strayhornmartha79@gmail.com if you would be interested in joining us. To the PWP Spiritual Retreat planning committee (Roxann Porter, Sharon Godard, Linda Barnes, Amelia Godwin and Carole Koi) for a wonderful weekend at Camp Albemarle. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you guided us through the weekend. How do we do this? through Encouragement (led by Brenda Brown and Janice Smith); Prayer (led by Carole Koi); Teach (led by Roxann Porter) and Service (led by Sharon Godard). Linda Barnes and Amelia Godwin saw to it that we were nourished very well including Linda s famous coconut cake on Friday evening to celebrate Presbyterian Women s 30th! The weather couldn t dampen our enthusiasm, and though we were few in number, we came away knowing that the spirit of God was surely in this place!

7 LENT by Ann Weems ( Kneeling in Jerusalem ) Lent is time to take the time to let the power of our faith story take hold of us; A time to let the events get up and walk around in us; A time to intensify our living unto Christ; A time to hover over the thoughts of our hearts; A time to place our feet in the streets of Jerusalem or to walk along the sea and listen to his word; A time to touch his robe and feel the healing surge through us; A time to ponder and a time to wonder Lent is a time to allow a fresh new taste of God! Presbyterian Women Purpose Forgiven and freed by God in Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we commit ourselves to nurture our faith through prayer and Bible study, to support the mission of the church worldwide, to work for justice and peace, and to build an inclusive, caring community of women that strengthens the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and witnesses to the promise of God's kingdom.