Highland Herald. First Presbyterian Church Muskegon, Michigan. PALM SUNDAY March 29 th Worship 10:00 a.m. Brunch 11:00 a.m.

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1 First Presbyterian Church Muskegon, Michigan March 2015 Highland Herald Lenten Gathering Saturday, March 28 th 2:00 p.m. Please join us on Saturday, March 28 th at 2:00 p.m. for our Lenten Gathering. Please feel free to invite friends and family. Our speaker will be Rev. Kristin Rinehimer, an ordained Presbyterian minister who serves as a hospice chaplain. Her topic will be, Meet me up the road: a journey with God, others and self at the end of life. Scriptures will be from Exodus and Ruth. Hope to see you there for an enlightening afternoon! Contact Us 2577 Wickham Drive Muskegon, MI Phone (231) Fax (231) info@fpcmuskegon.org PALM SUNDAY March 29 th Worship 10:00 a.m. Brunch 11:00 a.m. MAUNDY THURSDAY April 2 nd Worship 7:00 p.m. GOOD FRIDAY April 3 rd 1:00 p.m. Combined Worship at McGraft Congregational Church EASTER SUNDAY April 5 th Worship 10:00 a.m.

2 I learned this week that April is National Volunteer Month, a way of recognizing the contributions made by people giving of their time and talents to better their communities. Those equipped to measure these things nationally (like the Bureau of Labor Statistics) have shown that somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 million volunteers can be documented every year, and the numbers are growing. Since 1989 it is estimated that volunteerism has increased 60%, and the number of hours given measure in the billions annually. Having grown up Presbyterian, I can truly say there has never been a time in my life when I have not witnessed people volunteering in and for the church, blessing others and being blessed in the process. Occasionally we recognize and thank church volunteers, but their efforts are often overlooked or taken for granted. Just writing this today, I paused for a moment see who comes to my mind when I think of volunteers that I have known in my life. What a flood of names and faces! I could not possibly number them all, but thinking of them this way brings a real joy. There is hesitation to single out an individual because so many are worthy, but today one person who prominently comes to my mind is Carol Burling. Her recent passing was a great loss for our church family and for so many others. It makes me smile through the sadness, however, to think of the thousands of hours she spent giving of her time, talents and love to countless people. Some of the recipients of her kind efforts knew Carol and were aware of her volunteerism; many others had no idea but were blessed nonetheless. As Presbyterians, a strong and vital part of our faith tradition is living in gratitude and generosity in light of the grace, mercy and love God has freely poured out on us. God s gift has already been given, we do not (and cannot) earn it. So what is left is to celebrate it and share it! In human history, sadly there have been many times when certain vocations have been elevated to positions of honor and others that have been looked down upon and seen less special or worthy. Thankfully, we inherit a godly tradition that lifts up all work as honorable and valued as a gift when we offer it to God. Brother Lawrence, a 17 th century monk, was an example of a common person who found joy and meaning in all tasks because he learned to do everything as an expression of his love for God. In The Practice of the Presence of God, it says of Brother Lawrence, Since he resolved to make the love of God the end of all his actions, he had found reasons to be well satisfied with his method. He was pleased when he could take up a straw from the ground for the love of God, seeking Him only, and nothing else, not even His gifts. The ways we show our love for God in our jobs - and in our volunteering - are many and varied. Much of the ministry of FPC members is done in programs and places outside the church, and we want to celebrate and recognize those contributions as gifts of loving service to God just as much as the volunteer work done in and for the church. Watch in the near future for opportunities to share the ways you volunteer in other organizations and learn how others have put their faith and gratitude into action, adding to the billions of hours of service that collectively make a huge impact on our nation and the world. Thank a volunteer! Be a volunteer! I am grateful to God for you and your willingness to contribute. Blessings, Pastor Jim

3 A Note from Property Thank you to everyone who helped with the major water leak during the Property Council s absence. We are currently in the final stages of scheduling our ceiling repairs after our waterfall of February 25 th. We are thankful the stairway dried out and we can move forward without extra demolition. Thank you all for your support and understanding through the disorder. We will be scheduling a yard work clean-up day hopefully in the near future. A signup sheet will be on the Property bulletin board when the snow is gone. We will be scheduling a much needed pew cleaning when a few more people return from vacation. Thank you to Jim Cloutier and Henry Flores for helping oversee the Goodwill crew. We appreciate it! Thank you everyone for making an effort to turn lights off when leaving a room. The Property Council appreciates it! God s peace to all. Respectfully submitted, Cheryl Hartman/Clark Ganson, Co-Moderators Men's Breakfast will be Wednesday March 25 at 8:00 am at the Cherokee Restaurant. Our speaker will be Kirk Hallman who is the Director of Development for the Muskegon Museum of Art. As you may know, the Museum has officially separated from the School District and is now operating as a stand-alone entity after a hugely successful fund raising effort. Kirk has an interesting story to tell. Bring a story or joke to share and, as always, come early for the best seats. The Worship and Music Council has been doing some winter and spring cleaning. We have looked over all of the banners that we use during the calendar year. Some of them are outdated, worn and need to be retired. In consideration for everyone, we would like to show you which ones were chosen to be retired (see insert). If you would like to have one of these banners please let me know. Thank you. Teresa Christensen, Elder Worship & Music Council (Text Only) treecoffeebean@yahoo.com

4 Brown Bag Sunday April 26t h Did you know: 1 in 7 people in West Michigan are hungry? 23% of children in Muskegon County are hungry? Hunger has increased by 15-20% since the 2008 recession? We are collecting the following items on Sunday, April 26 for the MAP pantry: Small quantities of personal care items including: Toothpaste and toothbrushes Laundry detergent Hand soap Shampoo Bags of fresh oranges, apples and potatoes Cereal without sugar Tuna in water Whole wheat bread Low-fat yogurt Whole wheat bread Oatmeal Please bring any or all of those items to church on April 26. They will be delivered to the pantry on Monday, April 27. Thank you for your help! Blanket Sunday God, you wrap your love around us, Like a blanket, soft and warm. You give rest when we are weary, You protect us from the storm. May each person who finds shelter, In these blankets that we share Also feel the joy and comfort, Of your love s protecting care. WS, Carolyn Winfrey Gillette Many persons in our local community will feel God s love wrapped around them like a blanket soft and warm as nineteen lovely blankets of all sizes including baby blankets have been delivered to the Blanket Pantry at First Congregational Church UCC and Every Woman s Place. Church World Service will distribute blankets throughout our country and the world wherever there are persons in need following a traumatic event using our FPC Offering of $544. Many, many thanks to our congregation for your generous support of Blanket Sunday.

5 The mission box emphasis for April is Love in the Name of Christ. Please consider these items when shopping. Personal care products are especially needed - deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, hand lotion, tissues, feminine hygiene products, soap and shaving products. Food items requested are canned meats, canned vegetables, cereals, syrup, peanut butter, creamed soups, biscuit mix and powdered milk. Mission Box for April Consider WIC needs - sippy cups, toothbrushes for small children, small tubes of toothpaste, new layette items, and newborn and medium sized diapers. Please note all items must be new and unopened. Canned goods that have expired or are dented cannot be delivered. Many, many thanks to our generous contributors of food and personal care items. Cents-Ability Offering Sunday, April 5 th Our March Cents-Ability Offering of $ supports local hunger. The entire offering is divided among the following projects - the Feeding America Food Truck, the First Congregational Saturday Morning Breakfast, Supper House, and occasionally Meals on Wheels. The Cents-Ability offering will be received again on April 5 th. Bills as well as rolled coins are appreciated. When writing a check, please place it in an envelope with Cents-Ability Offering designated on the envelope. April Bread Sale Sunday, April 5 th The delicious breads and baked goods sold at our March BFW Bread Sale added $110 to our Covenant Church pledge to Bread for the World. With our next Bread Sale falling on Easter Sunday, you may have a special Easter bread or cookie recipe you would like to make. All baked goods and breads are welcome for every sale. We appreciate our bakers and purchasers who make this hunger advocacy possible. Please leave your baked items in the Chapel. You may price them or we will price them for you. Our next Bread Sale will be held on Sunday, April 5 th. New Dates & Times We have new times and dates to work the Feeding America Food Trucks this year. Due to the increase in people attending the Saturday Morning Breakfasts at First Congregational Church, they no longer wish to work the trucks on Saturday mornings. Samuel Lutheran Church will take over working Saturday mornings. We will work the trucks on Wednesday afternoons at 4:00 p.m. on June 10 th and July 8 th at First Congregational Church. Please mark your calendars to help on those dates.

6 Mission Thank You Notes From MISSION FOR AREA PEOPLE: "Thank you so much for your generous gift for our MEDICAL SUPPORT FUND." From COMMUNITY encompass: "Thank you for joining us in this momentum of restoration in core City Muskegon. Your gift towards Bethany Housing, Sacred Suds and the After School Center is more than a financial gift. Your gift is a proclamation of HOPE that swells alongside ours, encouraging the movement of revitalization onward and upward! Your church is an awesome example of a church engaging its community in positive and creative ways! Thanks for your partnership!" --Sarah Rinsema-Sybenga BREAD FOR THE WORLD: "Thank you for your gift of $ Your generosity and your involvement as a member of Bread for the World are very encouraging." (This contribution was raised through the first Sunday of the month Bread Sales as part of our Covenant relationship with Bread For the World.) What difference does one gift make anyway? How one offering counts again and again. PRESBYTERIAN DISASTER ASSISTANCE Several Presbyterian Churches in the northeastern part of our country have been forced to close because of extensive damage to their buildings. The unusual heavy snow and extreme cold have caused serious structural damage. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has asked for financial assistance to help with their repairs. FPC Mission Council has designated $ to help with this effort. Individual contributions may be made online by contacting Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. winter-storms-spell-catastrophe-newengland/ Each year, One Great Hour of Sharing gives us the opportunity to support disaster relief, hunger initiatives, and self-development of people. Even if you ve given to this Offering in the past, you may have wondered: Does my individual gift make much difference? The problems OGHS seeks to address are daunting. Millions displaced by disaster or political upheaval. Whole communities without enough food to eat. Entire generations without access to education and opportunity. In Galatians 6, Paul writes, So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all (v. 10). Through God and the work OGHS supports, meeting even these vast challenges is possible. When you give to OGHS, it s about more than what you put in the collection envelope. Your gift is added to the gift of the person in the pew beside you, and the congregation across town. It is multiplied by the volunteers helping God s children around the world, as they turn a handful of dollars into a tableful of meals, a single check into gallons of clean water. And your gift is amplified by those who are ultimately helped. When their stomachs are full, their schools are open, and they have a safe place to sleep, they are free to turn their attention to more than survival: to raise a healthy family, to finish school, to serve others, to grow with God. In each good act weeks, months, and years from now your gift is making a difference. So, if you have given before, but always wondered if it mattered: know that it does. If you have never given because you didn t think you could make an impact: know that you can. ~ Tricia McReynolds, PC(USA)

7 Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong Alfred A. Knopf, 2014 Theology Matters Spring, 2015 Reading Mondays 7:00-8:30 p.m. March 23 through June 15, 2015 About The Author: (Edited from various sources) Karen Armstrong is the author of numerous books on religious affairs, including A History of God, The Battle for God, Through the Narrow Gate, Holy War, Islam, and Buddha. Her work has been translated into forty-five languages. She is also the author of three television documentaries and took part in Bill Moyers s television series Genesis. She speaks about her progression from a disillusioned and damaged young nun into, in her words, a "freelance monotheist." In 2008 she was awarded the TED prize and began working with TED on the Charter for Compassion, created online and crafted by leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The Charter was launched globally in About the book (From a New York Times book review by James Fallows: The entire review can be found at Just after finishing Karen Armstrong s new book, I happened to hear a discussion on television about the latest outbreak of violence in the Middle East. We have to hope that this disagreement stays on the political level, rather than becoming a religious dispute, one of the experts said. Political differences can be resolved. Religious ones cannot. Fields of Blood can be thought of as a long, wide-ranging and overall quite effective rebuttal to the outlook expressed in that comment. In the West, the idea that religion is inherently violent is now taken for granted and seems self-evident, Armstrong says on the book s first page. It follows that the main hope for peace is to keep faith and statecraft separate. Armstrong, a onetime Roman Catholic nun and the author of several influential works on religion including A History of God, argues that this is an incorrect diagnosis leading to a flawed prescription. The page-by-page detail of the book is much of the reason to read it, but if you reduced its complexities and tangles to their essence, they would amount to these three points: First, through most of human history, people have chosen to intertwine religion with all their other activities, including, notably, how they are governed. This was not because ambitious churchmen had mixed up two essentially distinct activities, she says, but because people wanted to endow everything they did with significance. Second, this involvement with politics means that religions have often been tied up with violence: Crusaders, conquistadors, jihadists and many more. But a point Armstrong cares about so much that she makes it dozens of times the violence almost always originates with the state and spills over to religion, rather than vice versa. This, she says, is because any governing body, democratic or tyrannical, peace-loving or expansionist, was obliged to maintain at its heart an institution committed to treachery and violence, and because violence and coercion... lay at the heart of social existence. The earliest states required force to maintain systems of agricultural production; mature ones found that the threat of violence by police within their borders, by armies between them was, sadly, the best way to keep the peace. Third, citizens thus face the duty of confronting and trying to control violence carried out in their name by the state, without blaming religion for it or imagining that the solution lies in a cleaner separation of church and state. This extends to understanding the roots of violence or terrorism directed against them: As an inspiration for terrorism... nationalism has been far more productive than religion. (Emphasis Sam s) And religions face the dilemma of whether to accept the protection of a state, and the threat of violence that necessarily entails, or to live in hermetic isolation. The book may be found locally at Barnes and Noble and The Bookman in Grand Haven. It is also available online at Amazon.com, Some quotes from the book can be found at

8 On Saturday, March 28 th 5-7 p.m. all youth will set up for the Palm Sunday Brunch. Dinner will be provided, so please let Teresa know if you are planning to attend. On Sunday, March 29 th the congregation is invited to attend the Palm Sunday Brunch. This is a youth-sponsored event to raise funds to offset the cost of their trip to Chicago in May. Brunch begins at 11 a.m. Please come for fun and fellowship! The youth will meet on Sundays, April 12 th May 3 rd at 11:15 a.m. to plan for the Mother s Day worship service. Parents: please attend the first meeting on April 12 th with your child(ren). On Saturday May 9 th the youth will meet in the sanctuary from 8 a.m. -12:00 p.m. for a Mother s Day worship service rehearsal. Youth will meet on Sunday, May 10 th at 9:00 a.m. in the library in preparation of the worship service. The Bounce Lake Michigan Presbytery Youth Event Saturday, April 18, 2015 Westminster Church in Portage and Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park Sky Zone waivers are REQUIRED for each person. Leaving FPC at 11:00 a.m. Please see Teresa for more details. The 28-Minute Group All adults are invited to the church library for the 28-Minute Group at 11:32 a.m. on Sundays, April 12 th through May 3 rd for a discussion about the morning s worship scriptures and sermon. Youth Day Trip Saturday, May 16 th 6 a.m. 10 p.m. $35 per person See Teresa to sign up.

9 There will be no Prayer Shawl Ministry meeting in April. The next meeting will be May 4 th at 2:30 p.m. APRIL BIRTHDAYS 04/01 Joan Scofield 04/02 Kathy Dickinson 04/03 Bev Spiwak 04/05 Amber Young 04/06 Nancy Simon 04/06 Larry Ayers 04/10 Mark Schumaker 04/11 Lois Waalkes 04/13 Mike Foster 04/13 Luke Seward 04/14 Melissa Boughton 04/16 Rodger Kroes 04/17 Mary Ann Page 04/18 Kirk Wahamaki 04/19 Jolene Cloutier 04/20 Judy Jazdzyk 04/20 Sally Morrell 04/22 Andrew Hussey 04/23 Inge Boelkins 04/23 Isabelle Reynolds 04/28 Marty Waalkes 04/28 Ray Genter Dear Church Family, Thank you for all of the cards, calls, prayers and encouraging words during my recovery from surgery. Clark and Pat Ganson Summer camp registration is going on for Camp Greenwood - Don't miss out on the fun! There are several options this year including some new ones like "Music in the Woods" for ages 9-16 and Just for Me for ages 4-6 with an adult. Available discounts include registering BEFORE April 1 to save $25, bringing a friend to camp, and family discounts. Check out the camp web site for all the session and registration information at APRIL ANNIVERSARIES 04/03 Henry & Barb Flores 04/04 Bob & Inge Boelkins 04/07 Richard & Edythe Wierda 04/11 Bob & Yvonne Friel 04/17 Dave & Vella Caruso 04/27 D & Sally Morrell Mark your calendars! Vacation Bible School June 21 st June 25 th 5 8 p.m.

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12 First Presbyterian Church 2577 Wickham Drive Muskegon, Michigan Return Service Requested