The Messenger May 2016

Transcription

1 The Messenger May 2016 First Christian Church Disciples of Christ 442 Hummel Ave, Lemoyne, PA : M 8:00 am 3:00 pm W & F 8:00 am 2:00 pm Inside This Issue Pastor s Page & Events 2 Giving Basket & Board Update 3 Outreach & Summer Camp 4 Serving Schedule & Prayers 5 Finance, Mark Your Calendar & Fundraising 6 Calendar 7 Memorial Day 8 Senior Pastor: D. Marie Tribble Organist: Mary E. Snyder Administrative Assistant: Jessica E. Spicher Happy Mother s Day! May 8th, 10:15 AM There is a poem from Michelle Lowndes which goes like this: Mothers have a special way Of saying, 'I love you', A love that God has given them, A love that will hold true For Mothers sacrifice so much, Providing for the home, Creating there an atmosphere That reflects God's love alone Spring Cleaning May 14, 9 AM Noon You may have someone in your life that did not birth you, but in every way they are your Mother. We will be honoring Mothers, all Mothers, who sacrifice every day for their children. This special day will be dedicated to honoring our selfless Mothers! Please join us on Saturday to do some spring cleaning inside and outside of the Church. As they say, many hands make light work. If you can come, even for a short period, any help you can offer is appreciated. We will be doing some planting around the Church and cleaning inside the Church. The more help, the quicker and more productive we can be. Thank you in advance for your participation. You are appreciated. Special Pentecost Offerings (May 15 & 22) This year s Pentecost offering is themed A Second Wind. Each year, one half of the offering is designated to the Region or area which offering is taken, while the other half is used by Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation to support the recruitment, assessment, training and coaching of new church leaders. (excerpt from a letter from Gilberto Callazo, President of Hope Partnership) Happy Memorial Day! On May 29th, we will be honoring those who served in any branch of our armed services. Here s a little bit of history...on Memorial Day, the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to the half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day. The half-staff position remembers the more than one million men and women who gave their lives in service of their country. At noon, their memory is raised by the living, who resolve not to let their sacrifice be in vain, but to rise up in their stead and continue the fight for liberty and justice for all. We will be honoring these men and women who made sacrifices for our freedom during our service. Also, geraniums will be placed throughout the sanctuary and those who purchased them are welcome to take them home after. (more info on page 8)

2 Pastor s Page To the wonderful congregation of First Christian Church of Lemoyne, PA! From the depths of my heart, I publically thank you all for entrusting me to serve this congregation as your new Senior Pastor. With pastoring comes great privilege and an even greater amount of responsibility. For this reason, to the best of my ability I will continuously seek God s guidance and direction for all things pertaining to the nurturing and development of this church. From the time my family and I entered this congregation, we have felt nothing but an extreme amount of love and support. Over the last six months, I have had opportunities to get to know many of you personally. You have openly shared stories pertaining to your families, introduced me to the rich history and legacy of First Christian Church, and welcomed us into the Disciples of Christ family. In a very short amount of time we have already accomplished very significant things within our community. There is no doubt in my mind, God has strategically connected us together. I believe God has a great plan for the future of this great Church and I am committed to working to ensure God s plan comes into fruition. This plan is much larger than any one person! Embedded within the plans for the future of First Christian Church are specific roles and responsibilities for each of us. The success of our Church will be dependent upon our ability to work together as a team to carry out the mission of Christ in our Church, our community, and the world. This Pastor s Page/Events (cont) 2 mission will require time, commitment, effort, and more importantly the love of Christ as we work together in solidarity. Let's go and change the world! The bible says in Jeremiah 3:15 I will give you shepherd after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding Pastor D. Marie Board Meeting May 22 Mat Making Workshop after After, join us in the Fellowship Hall for a potluck lunch and a special board meeting. All are welcome to attend. After the board meeting, please stick around for mat making. There are jobs for everyone! We ask that you please bring a dish to share! Coming in June Smoresfest: June 11, July 9, August 11 & September 10 from 6-8 PM in the Church Parking lot, weather permitting. Otherwise, we will move the event into the Fellowship hall. Please bring a side dish to share. This is an outreach event so please invite your friends and people from your neighborhood. Last year we had the opportunity to meet many neighbors around the Church and Community. We even made friends with a turtle! Please plan to come, help and enjoy one another s company. Father s Day Service on Sunday, June 19th. Rain Gutter Regatta On June 26th here at the Church and sponsored by Cub Scout Pack 442 and the Girl Scouts, you are invited to this FREE event with a time of racing, fun and food! There will also be pool noodle racing. So please invite yourself, family, and/or friends to enjoy an afternoon of fun in the sun. If you would like, please bring a dish to share. The event begins at Noon.

3 Board Update/Outreach/Events (Cont) One of the many outreach projects First Christian Church has become involved in is providing books to members of the community for free! This began as a Girl Scout Silver Award project. This is a world wide initiative to make reading material available for everyone. I m sure you all have seen our beautiful Church library outside in front of our building. This library is well used by community kids and their families. In fact, every week we are adding 10 to 15 books for children and teens to swap or borrow books. However, our library is in need of specific types of books which include Christian and faith based books for children (however, we will take any children s books). Additionally, we are looking to collect teen bibles for availability in our Little Free Library. Books should be in good condition. Please bring them to Church any Sunday and place in the giving basket. This will be our Giving Basket Campaign for the 2nd quarter of To learn more about our Little Free Library go to: Graduation Party for Pastor Delores As you know Pastor D. Marie is graduating from not 1 but 2 master s programs. She will graduate on May 7th from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology receiving a Master s of Divinity. Then on May 14th she will graduate from Lancaster Theological Seminary with a Master s of Arts in Religion. She did this all while working her full time job, taking care of her family, marry the love of her life and pastoring our wonderful Church. We want to take time to congratulate her on these significant milestones and throw her a party honoring these achievements. On Sunday, May 15th after we will be having this party in the fellowship hall. If you are willing, please bring a food item to share and we will honor her achievements together. Congratulations to Pastor D. Marie Tribble! Update on Ministry Planning Team Meeting As always we have a lot going on! For such a small church, we do our best to share the love of Christ with all! Here are some initiatives we discussed and are implementing: The first Sunday of each month the first song of each service be a HYMN sing! (thank you Mary!) The last Sunday of each month will include a Praise and portion in our service. May 8th is Mother s Day and we will celebrate it in our traditional style, except with PINK carnations. Pink carnations carry the greatest significance, beginning with the belief that they first appeared on earth from the Virgin Mary's tears making them the symbol of a mother's undying love. May 29th we will have a MEMORIAL DAY service! Look for more details in the newsletter. Smore s Fest is BACK! Ken Onstott has fixed the grill and it is ready to be used. We will be holding this event on the second Saturday in June, July, August and September. We will need donations to include chocolate, graham crackers, hamburgers, hotdogs, condiments and other related items. Please contact the Church office or Diana O. if you have questions on donations. On June 19th, we will celebrate Father s Day during as we have traditionally done in the past. We will begin planning Vacation Bible School, which will be held July 20, 21 and 22 with a closing ceremony on July 24. Add this date to your calendar now! Everyone will need to help in some way! Romans 12:1 says, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God this is your true and proper worship. 3

4 Outreach Ministries Reaching out...partnering with others.to serve our community Girl Scout Corner! Activities and events we have done in the past month:...participated in the Powder Puff Pinewood Derby,...made a lot of Easter candy as a fundraiser,...donated 634 boxes of cookies to Bethesda Mission and 78 boxes to soldiers overseas that are serving as part of the International Forces,...We learned about Earth Day. As part of the Earth Day celebration each Girl Scout family was encouraged to spend one hour without electricity at home. This included no cell phones, no TV, no radio, etc. Scouts were encouraged to spend time interacting with their family without distractions. Many girls said it was fun, and they would do it again! Money in Your Pocket/Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program In April, we concluded our tax preparation sessions which was held 3 times a week with numerous volunteers from the Church and Community. It was another successful year where we were able to assist low income and the elderly with having their taxes completed without cost. We will be gathering data from the United Way to learn how we were able to directly help these men, women and families. This is a great volunteer opportunity and we ask that you consider helping with this next year! There are classes you would complete. For more information you can contact the Church Office or contact the United Way of Central PA. Thank you to the volunteers who made this another successful year! Summer Camp Opportunities: THE HARTMAN CENTER is the Outdoor Ministry facility owned by Penn Central Conference of the United Church of Christ since Programming includes retreats, conferences, workshops, dinner meetings, summer camps, and other events. The camp is located in the Seven Mountains area of central Pennsylvania. The Hartman Center is comprised of 192 acres of open and wooded areas, with easy access to nearby streams, hiking trails, and state parks. It is located on Old US Highway 322, 10 miles north of Lewistown (70 miles from the Conference Center in Harrisburg) and about 20 miles southeast of State College. Camps are offered in 1 week intervals and includes 6 sessions throughout the summer. If you are interested, please visit their website at The camps cost anywhere between $225- $395 for a week. There are a variety of camps that suit people of all ages. Camp Laurelview Laurelview Christian Camp was opened in 1964, following the sale of Camp Indian Springs, the site, in Middlecreek Township of Somerset County. It was an active farm of about 85 acres. The old farmhouse (still in use) with the porch entirely screened in is still on the property. Immediately upon purchase, a master plan was completed and the work of transforming the farm into a workable camp site began. The master plan called for six dormitory type cabins, to be built on a pathway in back of the barn. The winter of l963 was especially severe, with deep snow laying on the ground until Palm Sunday of l964. Since 1964 Camp Laurelview has offered a safe place for kids to spend a week with God, peers and qualified staff. It is a Disciples of Christ Camp that offers summer programs for kids that range from 1st grade to 12th grade. One week of camp runs approximately $290/week or $145 for mini camp. There are scholarship opportunities and you can find more information regarding camps on the welcome table. Both are great opportunities for your kids to spend some time making new friends, learning about the Lord and having a great time with new adventures. 4

5 Scheduling/Prayers/Outreach (cont.) May Serving Schedule May 1 Elder: Diana Onstott Diaconate: Lynne Weber & Glenn & Lois Haagen Communion: Diana Onstott Greeter: Jean Trout & Dottie Michels May 8 Elder: Rev. Ed Arbogast Diaconate: Ken Holler, Glenn Haagen & Ken Onstott Communion: Glenn & Lois Haagen Greeters: Glenn & Lois Haagen May 15 Elder: Lois Miller Diaconate: Joyce Arbogast, Lynne Weber & Lois Haagen Communion: Diana Onstott & Lynne Weber Greeters: Dottie Michels May 22 Elder: Diana Onstott Diaconate: Kelly Manning, Linda Runkle & Glenn Haagen Communion: Diana Onstott & Lynne Weber Greeter: Dottie Michels May 29 Elder: Linda Runkle Diaconate: Jane Welsh & Glenn & Lois Haagen Communion: Glenn & Lois Haagen Greeter: Dottie Michels & Linda Runkle Thank you for your faithful service! Prayer Requests Lois Miller Anna (B. Nutter) Bob & Ellen (D. Anderson) Patty Shreffler (M. Snyder) Lawrence (M. Pauling) Baby William (L. Miller) Deb Catterton Dick Shatzer (L. Miller) William (Hen) Miller (L. Miller) Twany Thomas (M. Snyder) Katie (J. Kain) Adam Goudy (R. Goudy) Dave Prediger & Family Prediger Family Kieth Putnam (B. Eldridge) all Military men & women serving our country Scott Boltz Goudy/Frey Family Mary Snyder (A. Lee) Pastor D. Marie Students with finals this week (C. Flewelling) Eleanor Ripple (D. Onsott) Betty (D. Michel s sister) Free Computer West Shore Prosperity Center The Church will be open on Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:00 PM, by appointment only, for individuals who do not have access to computers, internet, or to job search, create a resume, check , enroll in state or health insurance benefits, etc. We will be utilizing 4 laptops and a printer given to us through the United Way and will have a volunteer each Tuesday evening to help those individuals who could use this FREE service. To make an appointment, please call the Church office at

6 Mark Your Calendar: Finances/Mark Your Calendar/Fundraising Flower Sign Up 5/30: Church Office Closed Happy Memorial Day 6/5: Ministry Planning Team Meeting after 6/12: Finance Meeting after 6/26: Elder Meeting after 7/3: Ministry Planning Team Meeting after Help us make the Church even more beautiful by signing up to donate flowers for Sunday mornings. The cost of flowers remains $ They are provided by Royer s. Please contact the Church office to reserve the date of your choice or simply sign your name on the flower chart in the back of the Sanctuary. Days are available for May. Grocery Store Card Please remember to support your Church by getting grocery store cards. Karns, Giant and Weis cards help us meet our Church budget by providing small, but steady fundraiser income. You may place orders in the offering plate or give to Diana Onstott any Sunday morning. The Church receives $50.00 every time we purchase $1, worth of cards. Remember to give generously and purchase an extra $25.00 gift card for the Church to use for those in need. We receive requests weekly! Thank you to all that came out to participate in our annual spaghetti dinner. It was a success and we were able to collect approximately $600 in fundraising profits. Thank you to Diana, the Girl Scouts and numerous volunteers who spent countless hours ensuring it was a success. Your hard work does not go unnoticed. If you are on Facebook, please like our Facebook Page: First Christian Church, Lemoyne!!! We have a lot of exciting activities coming up this summer with the need for volunteers. We are hoping to run a vacation bible school in July, several s moresfests and other outreach opportunities. It is our time to step up and reach out into our local community and welcome all of our neighbors into our Church and fulfill the great commission. But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Matthew 24:36 (NRSV) Income and Expenses Month of March Congregational Offerings Received $2, Fundraisers $1, Misc $ Lenten Lunch $ Easter Offering $ Total $4, Bills Received and Paid $7, Trust Funds Received Bowman/Haggerty $3, Lily Lind $ Evelyn Coakley $ Total $4,

7 May SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT Congregational Meeting Ministry Planning Team Meeting 2 8 AM 3 PM: Church Office Hours 3 Cub Scouts (GS RM & Snoopy RM) GS Troop Meetings (Snoopy RM, FH & GS RM) 6 7 Pastor D. Marie graduates from VUU 8 Mother s Day AM 3 PM: Church Office Hours Jessica working from home Office closed 4 GS Troop Meetings (Snoopy RM, FH & GS RM) 9 AM Noon: Spring Cleaning inside & Outside Pastor D. Marie graduates from LTS 15 Pentecost AM: Finance Meeting, Special Pentecost Offering Grad Party for Pastor D. Marie after 8 AM 3 PM: Church Office Hours Cub Scouts (GS RM & Snoopy RM) 4 GS Troop Meetings (Snoopy RM, FH & GS RM) , Special Pentecost Offering Board Meeting Mat Making Workshop 8 AM 3 PM: Church Office Hours Church Office Hours 4 GS Troop Meetings (Snoopy RM, FH & GS RM) Jessica Out of the Office 29 Take Geraniums Home 30 Memorial Day Church Office Closed 31 Cub Scouts (GS RM & Snoopy RM) May Birthdays: Mary Pauling: 7th Scott Leiser: 11th Joyce Arbogast: 28th May Anniversaries: Leon & Sally Smith: 5th Pete & Jessica Spicher: 18th 7

8 First Christian Church Disciples of Christ 442 Hummel Ave, Lemoyne, PA PH: May 2016 Sunday, May 29, Memorial Day Service On Sunday, May 29th we will be honoring our service men and women who have sacrificed their lives to save and protect ours. In an attempt to honor these men and women, we know that members of our congregation have either directly served or have family members or friends who have. So, we are asking that you bring in pictures of these men and women to be posted on our bulletin board so we may honor their service. If you prefer to not post the original, we are able to make copies of the pictures. It would require you to bring in these pictures prior to the 29th so that the Church Office can make pictures and return them. There will be a folder on the welcome table for you to place these pictures. Please attach a note on the picture if you prefer a copy to be made. Regardless, all originals will be returned. It is all a matter of preference. If you have any question, please contact the Church Office at Thank you to ALL of our service members! 8