TIDINGS CLIFTON FORGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH March 2014 544 Church St., Clifton Forge, VA 24422 540-862-5775 Email: cfpc@ntelos.net *********************************************************************************** EVENTS Every Sunday Morning Every Monday 9:30 Sunday School for all ages 6:30 pm Nettie Paul Room Walk Through the Bible 10:30 Coffee Fellowship Every Tuesday 11:00 Nursery Opens 7:00 pm Boy Scouts 11:00 Worship Every Wed. Morning 6:30 am Men s Prayer Breakfast @ Dairy Queen Deadline for April Tidings will be March 20, 2014 From the PASTOR LENT It s that time of year again in the Christian calendar where we talk about Lent. What is Lent? Where did it come from? What does it mean? These are all good questions and ones that perhaps we should ask now again. Lent is derived from the old Anglo-Saxon word Lencten, for spring. In the Christian year, Lent is the forty-day period of prayer and spiritual self-examination that prepares for the festival of the Resurrection, EASTER. Lent is thus identified with the passion or suffering of Christ, who died for our sins. Forty days is the reflective of the forty days Jesus fasted in the wilderness, tempted by Satan. Lent is not merely concerned with remembering the suffering of Christ, but is designed to prepare the Christian to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ. The object of such Lenten observance is participation, a reliving of the events of our historical atonement, the life, suffering, rejection, death, and triumph over death of Jesus Christ. Lent does not include the Sundays in Lent. These Lord s Days are themselves weekly celebrations of the Resurrection. Lent, therefore, is made up of forty week days and Saturdays. These forty days point to Jesus forty days of testing, immediately after his baptism by John the Baptizer. Lent is a time when Christians renew their baptism, deepen their conviction, and complete their conversion to Christ.
In liturgical churches this period of renewal may be marked by fasting as well as attendance at special worship services. Such special services include Ash Wednesday, services on Wednesdays throughout Lent, Holy Week services (from Palm Sunday to Easter), and especially the celebration of Holy Communion on Maundy Thursday and commemorative services on Good Friday. Communal worship is particularly appropriate since Lent is the worship of the church, the universal Body of Christ, and not simply a matter of individualistic piety, sentimentalism, or emotionalism. Lenten observance began very early, as both Irenaeus and Tertullian refer to it, but it was originally very brief, only gradually growing to forty days. At first, a fast of forty hours was observed, then a week. But by A.D. 325, the Council of Nicaea recognized forty days of Lent. These forty days included Sundays, but by the seven century Lent was extended to forty days, excluding Sundays, and Ash Wednesday was established. It is my hope that all of us will observe Lent this year and that we will participate in all our special worship services. I believe that if you do, you will find yourself drawn closer to God in Christ Jesus. You will be renewed in your faith and enlivened in your service to the one who gave His life for us. May God bless you this Lenten season. Grace & Peace, Pastor Paul ************************************************************************ SCOTT HILL Stella Campbell GOLDEN LIVING CENTER Charlotte Dillon VA. VETERANS CARE CENTER Charles Hall AT HOME Bob & Ginny McDowell Kathleen McMillion Leolyn Conner UPDATE FROM SNOOPER Snooper Sez. Special people keep our Church alive. We mice in the celler are Grateful. Snooper, The Church Mouse ************************************************************************************
The following people were called out for intercessory prayer in February 2014 Gene Tucker, Harry Bennett, Becky Jonas. Doodie Morris, Monte Curtis, Mrs. Campbell, Joe Wood, Harvey Stinespring. Steve and Peggy Ayers, Elwood & Shelby Bayne, Family of Becky Armstrong. Paul Terry, Amanda & Mike Bates. CFPC PRAYER CHAIN Sandi Smith...958-3044 Cindy Brokaw.960-1476 Martha Bryan.862-8474 Rene Clark..862-3395 Virginia Harlow..862-2492 Barbara James 862-5632 Sandra Porter..862-5346 Loretha Stinespring 862-4838 If you have need for prayer, please contact one of the members listed One Great Hour of Sharing - Will be taken up on April 20, 201```````````````````````14 (Easter). You can be a channel through which God satisfies the hungry, comforts the distressed, and brings hope to the poor and oppressed with your generous gift. ***************************************************************************************************** Dear Friends, My heartfelt thanks for all the beautiful cards and prayer. We know God hears our prayers and again thanks. I am home now and on the road to recovery. God Bless each of you. Frances W. Wolfe ********************************************************************************* I would like to thank everyone who made food and helped with the soup and sandwich luncheon. Everyone s hard work made this an enjoyable time of fellowship. May God Bless you all. Debbie Curtis Thanks everyone for donating the can tabs. They all go to the Ronald McDonald House in Roanoke. Blessings Barbara James. Ash Wednesday We will be having a Worship Service at 7:00 p.m. on March 5th for Ash Wednesday. Everyone please come and enjoy the service! ***************************************************************************************************** Gospel Music Jubilee THE CELEBRATION CHOIR Saturday, April 12, 2014, 7:00 PM @
LONE STAR ADVENT CHRISTIAN CHURCH, FAMILY LIFE CENTER, route 635, Nicelytown Rd., 5 miles east of Clifton Forge. Admission is FREE.
Mountain Regional Hospice Dear Church Family, Our Home Health Assistants at Mountain Regional Hospice can use your help! As you go on vacation this year and return with all the sample size shampoos, conditioners, lotions and soap that you never seem to use, also disposable razors and zip lock sandwich bags, please think of our patients! Our Home Health Assistants and Volunteers provide these supplies for individual patients in facilities and in homes when needed. The facilities certainly provides shampoo, etc., however our Assistants like to pamper patients with wonderful smelling shampoo and creamy lotions. They are not permitted to use large bottles and the small ones are able to be bagged, labeled and put in patient drawers both in the facility and in homes. Our Volunteers from Life Skills will bag the products and place labels on the bags for our patient s use. If your Church would consider this I as the Volunteer Coordinator, would be happy to pick up any donations you might have now or later during the upcoming vacation season. Thank you so much for considering this project. Sincerely, Dawn Kimberlin, Volunteer Coordinator
Clothing Closet Hours: 9:00 12:00 am. Wednesday I case of emergency, please call The Church Office at 862-5775 Or Mr. McMillion at 862-3661 A great big THANK YOU goes to Our dedicated Workers: Kim Perry Kathie Helms Danti Edwards Mickey McMillion October, November, December People - 100 Pieces 1,011 Underwear - 54 Socks - 52 Shoes - 38 Coats - 30 Extras 130 dishes, pots & pans, hats, belts, toys & games 30 lbs. per bag. 10 bags went to Goodwill in Covington New things went out to Children: 30 underwear, 18 socks for Girls 16 briefs, 14 pairs of socks for boys. Total for year: People 404, Pieces of Clothes 3,813 ************************************************************************
Meals on Wheels Meals on wheels, (lunchtime) 11:30 12:00 Jesus said feed my sheep. Please consider this and contact the Church Office 540-862-5775 THANK YOU!! Loretha & Kevin Stinespring, Amanda Tomasek, Sandra Porter, Jenny Harlow and Gorden & Barbara James for volunteering your time to Meals on Wheels. Due to weather conditions, we did not have Meals on Wheels in January; however, meals on wheels will be delivered the week of February 24 th February 28 th. Clifton Forge Food Pantry Whether you said a prayer, gave food, clothing or household items, or monetary gifts, we at the Clifton Forge Food Pantry would like to say thank you. For the month of January we served 418 families and 1,315 individuals; without your help this wouldn t have been possible. We are still collecting food items here at the Church. We especially need Peanut Butter and can soups.
Happy Birthday March 2014 1-Jeffery Persinger, 2-Justin Morris, 4- Isaac Vest, 5- Hattie Mae Davis, 6-Charlie Bartocci, 9-Eric Bartocci, Paul Brokaw, Patrick Burns, 10-Mary Carol Persinger, 11-Debbie Mays, 12- Kathy Perry, 13- Michelle Helimintoller Via, 14-Jason Hemintoller,16-Rachel Daria Persinger, 17-Ethan Davis, Damon Reynolds, 18-Kevin Stinespring, 24-Stephanie Goodbar. Happy Birthday to Reba Griffith 100 years-old I realized that March will be 100 th for Reba Griffith and that Anne Griffith will be in her mid eighties this year. So if any of you would like to congratulate them some how, please let me know. I ll box the cards, notes or whatever and make sure they all get to Reba and Anne. Remember how surprised and appreciative they were with the memories we sent for her 95 th Birthday? So please let me have your comments as soon as possible. Thank you, Barbara James ************************************************************************************ Happy Anniversary March 2014 3-9 Kevin & Neva Persinger ***************************************************************
Nursery Volunteers March 2014 2-Brenda Bartocci 9-Chris Fisher 16-Virginia Harlow 23-Melissa Fisher 30-Brenda Bartocci Volunteers Needed Looking for volunteers for the nursery on Sunday morning during Church. Please see Brenda Bartocci. Brenda has the schedule and would welcome sigh ups for as little as once or twice every six months to more as you would like. Greeters March 2014 TO BE DETERMINED
March 2014 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 Communion Youth Groups 5:30 6:30 9 3 B.S. 6:30 10 4 Cluster Luncheon 12:30 11 5 MPB 6:30 am Choir Canceled Ash Wed. Service 7:00 12 6 EAMA 9:00 7 8 13 14 15 Youth Groups 5:30-6:30 16 B.S. 6:30 17 Women Circle Youth Room 2:00 Men of Mission 8:00 am MPB 6:30 am Clothing Closet 9:00-12:00 Choir 7:00 18 19 20 21 22 Youth Groups 5:30 6:30 B.S. 6:30 MPB 6:30 am Choir 7:00 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Youth Groups 5:30 6:30 30 B.S. 6:30 31 MPB 6:30 am Clothing Closet 9:00-12:00 Youth Groups 5:30 6:30 B.S. 6:30
Kroger Cares At the January Session Meeting, I was designated to request entrance to the Kroger Cares Program and to spearhead its implementation. This is a continuous program offered to any tax exempt organization to raise monies at no expense to them. Specifically, Kroger offers to tabulate all of the monies each enrollee makes over time as a complete tabulation of the group and then send 5% of that total to the organization for their use. This will be used by the Session as needed for individual mission projects as required. This is no insignificant amount and requires no charge to us. For example, if just 25 families would agree and spend $100/month at Kroger, we would net $125/month in donations. (We have over 50 families who do most of their grocery shopping there as it is the only grocery in town), so we could easily double that amount (and few of us spend less than $100/month). To keep track of expenditures by those involved, they require us to make purchases on a very special Kroger Gift Card to be used like a debit card. I will be responsible to get everyone one of these cards (do not attempt to buy one yourself as it will not work). I will buy these in bulk at a cost of $5 each and will sell them to anyone interested (they require that you keep a minimum of $5 on the card to keep it active). Please contact me or our secretary, Barbara Tucker, to give me an idea on how many to order. When going thru the line for the first time, tell the checker you want to add money to your card before they start to charge the items and then give them credit card, debit card or cash for that amount to be charged into your Kroger gift card then let them ring up your items and pay for them with your Kroger gift card. (Myself, I will transfer $100 from my credit card first time so there is no problem (its still cash in your Kroger card for later). If you buy gas at a Kroger station, include enough for that, too, as you won t be able to do this at the gas station. One last thought: I know people who are not members of our church who are willing to give to missions, such as disaster relief, especially if it costs nothing I ve lined up 3. Gordon James
YOUTH GROUP SCHEDULE JUNIOR YOUTH GROUP Sunday @ 5:30 6:30 p.m. Grades k-5 Junior Youth Group will meet @ regular time. Last Sunday in the month we will have Pizza and Movie!! YOUTH GROUP Sunday @ 5:30 6:30 Grades 6-12 Youth will meet @ regular time. for fun and fellowship!! Clifton Forge Presbyterian Church 544 Church Street Clifton Forge VA. 24422 TIDINGS TO: March