NEWS & NOTES First Presbyterian Church, Bryan Ohio January 2015

NEWS & NOTES First Presbyterian Church, Bryan Ohio January 2015 The Mission of First Presbyterian Church: Vital Worship Dynamic Growth Faithful Service Deadline for the February 2015 Newsletter is Monday, January 19 Deadline for articles or information for News & Notes is to be turned into the office for the following month s publication by the nineteenth of each month. You are invited to email bryanpres@firstpresbryan.org or fax 419-636-8252 as well as submit in written form! Sunday Morning Worship Schedule 9:00 am Contemporary Service 10:00 am Sunday School 11:00 am Traditional Service See you in church!! Church Trip to Frankenmuth On Saturday, January 24, 2015 we are tentatively planning on hosting a trip to the Ice Carving Festival in Frankenmuth, Michigan. We hope to visit Bronner s Christmas Wonderland, Zehnders for a chicken dinner, shop on your own and wander through the area with the ice carvings. There will be a sign up sheet on the table outside the office or contact Don Shrider who is on the Fellowship Committee. We can accommodate a maximum of 15 people. The cost is $10.00 per person. You are on your own for all food costs and shopping that you do. We hope to leave by 10:00am and return by 9:00pm. Remember our church in your will

Session Summary from December 15, 2014 meeting: 1. Elected Dina Culler for Clerk of Session for 2015 2. Angie Schreder has retired as treasurer effective December 31, 2014. Session elected Steve Collins to serve as Treasurer for 2015. 3. Accepted Stewardship and Budget Committees proposed 2015 budget that reflects an approximate 10% cut across the board for all Committees. Committees will determine allocations accordingly and report back to Stewardship and Budget Committee. 4. Thanked Jack Hallock, Marilyn Scott and Mary Lou Nichols for their dedication and time served on Session. 5. Approved January 11, 2015 as the date for installation of Deacon s and Elders. 9:00am service will install Deacons, and 11:00am service will install Elders. 6. Approved April 11, 2015 wedding for Robert Yates and Christine Workman 7. Approved new members Todd and Jamie Moskowitz and will welcome them into membership on December 21, 2014 at 9:00 am service. 8. Approved pulpit as follows: April 19: Lora Manon, August 2: Gideon speaker, August 9: Chris Staup, October 4: Dorothy Ritchey Moore, December 6: Lora Manon, December 27: Chris Combs. 9. Appointed Yvette Zedaker and Bob Chrismer to serve as elders on Nominating Committee for 2015. THE ELDERS ARE AVAILABLE TO PRAY FOR YOU The elders of the church are taking seriously the call of scripture from James 5:14: Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. Beginning immediately: the active Elders of the church will be praying over prayer requests that are placed on the cross or in the offering plate. Previously, only the staff prayed over these but the Elders feel called to do this as well. Also, if you need prayer, spiritual strength or nurturing feel free to call any of the Elders listed below and they will pray with you! Rev. Barry Sweet... 419-636-1071 Lori Bird... 419-636-2014 Bob Chrismer... 419-682-1231 Steve Collins... 419-636-9873 Diana Moore Eschhofen... 419-636-9214 Pat Goshorn... 419-485-5007 Jim Hall... 419-636-3067 David Meuleman... 419-782-4811 Fred Nott... 419-636-6231 Don Shrider... 419-551-0882 Tom Sprow... 419-636-3962 Tom Tilton... 419-636-6602 Yvette Zedaker... 419-630-5038

From Me to You I January 2015 am a believer that God wants us to keep on moving forward. I don t think God wants us to stay where we are. He has bigger plans for us. God wants us to be growing, stretching, renewing, restoring, reaching and learning. It is easy for us to get comfortable and not want to keep moving forward yet when we get comfortable I wonder if we are less useable by Him and less malleable. Maybe less teachable? Ask yourself: 1. What have you wanted to do but felt you didn t have the time? 2. Where are you stagnant and stopped up emotionally or spiritually? 3. Where are you resistant to God s call upon your life? 4. How do you keep God at arms length to protect what is from what might be? What new steps can you take in 2015 that will deepen you, stretch you, challenge you nd help you to be more faithful or faithful to God in new ways? I look forward to hearing your stories of where God will take you in 2015! See you in worship! In anticipation, Barry Robert Mary Ann June Chris Joanne Tyson Hyla Judy Barry CHURCH STAFF SCHEDULES This is a reminder regarding times our staff will be in the church and available to you: Barry Sweet, Pastor: usually available most mornings in the office. Friday is his day off. Contact via phone, email or Facebook. Joanne Israel, Administrative Assistant: Monday through Friday 9:30-5:00 Mary Ann Peters, Financial Secretary: available on Monday and Thursday 8:00-2:00 or you can contact her via email or leave a phone message in the church office. Robert Smith, Custodian: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 6:30-2:30, Friday 6:30-10:30 (he is not here on Wednesdays). Chris Combs, Children and Family Ministries Coordinator: Monday 8:00-4:00, Wednesdays 2:30-7:30 and Thursday from home. Tyson Horton, Technology Coordinator: no church office hours contact via email or phone June Webster and Hyla Sharrock, Music Department No set office hours, contact via phone

NEW MEMBERS Todd and Jamie Moskowitz joined our church on December 21st at the 9am worship service. They are both already involved in the church as Todd plays drums in the Praise Band and Todd and Jamie teach at Carpenter s Workshop on Wednesday nights. Both Todd and Jamie attended the Great Banquet recently. Todd works at Sauder Manufacturing and Jamie is in school at Ivy Tech for Business Administration. They live live at 416 E. High St. with their 3 girls, Jayce Miller, Madison and Alissa Elston. Please make them feel welcome when you see them. Annual For January January 4 What Made the Wise Men Wise? We will celebrate the coming of the Wise Men on January 6 (Epiphany) we will be looking at what we can learn from them in this service. (Communion) January 11 Barry will begin a short four week series on the Hard Sayings of Jesus: words, thoughts, messages from Jesus that are hard to understand or live out in real life. Today s topic is Turning the Other Cheek! January 18 The Hard Sayings of Jesus: Who Comes First?. January 25 Barry is in the Dominican Republic on the church mission trip so Chris Combs will be preaching! This year our annual meeting will be held on Sunday, February 1. We will worship at one service at 10:00am (note earlier time) and hold our annual meeting at 11:00am. We will approve the Pastor s Terms of Call for 2015 and go over the annual report. If you are the head of a Session committee including Deacons or a group (ie. Youth Groups) or have financial information to report, you need to get a report written and to Joanne immediately. We need to get the reports assembled!!

From our Children and Families Coordinator: Our nursery needs to be restocked! Please consider giving a pack of diapers or wipes or any other item found on the list out by our children s ministry display in the Gathering area. Our nursery attendance has grown and we want it to have all the needs covered for our nursery workers and mothers. KREW Worship is our new worship for kids Kindergarten to 5 th grade that will start January. During first service, everyone will meet for our worship band but the kids K-5 will leave after the music to do their own worship and lesson. These kids tend to be too old for nursery or too young to get anything out of our pastors message so we will give them a place where they can grow in their faith and get to know the God of our universe. KREW Adoption In 2015, the kids of our church are going to be up for adoption. You can adopt a child as a prayer partner for the year. By doing this, you will be deciding to show the kids of our church God s love. You will be able to get to know them better, build a good relationship that they will remember, and help draw them closer to the church. Kids usually don t become a Christian because of one encounter with someone but by multiple encounters with multiple Christians who are willing to reach out to them to show God s love. So, adopt a kid in our church and give them gifts on their birthdays, holidays, or just because you were thinking of them. And of course pray for them throughout the whole year. Dear Church Family, The Deacons are asking for help in putting together Valentine boxes for our college students. We have approximately 16 this year. We would appreciate donations of prepackaged cookies, crackers, granola bars, candy, microwave popcorn, hot chocolate, ramen noodles, drink mixes, etc. I m sure they could also use gift certificates for fast-food restaurants and would like personal notes or Valentines. Anything we can do to show them that we are thinking of them would be greatly appreciated. Please bring your donations to the church by Sunday, January 25. Thank you for your help. If you have a college student please make sure the church office has his/her current address. Ask any of the deacons if you have questions.

We have a group of 12 going to the Dominican Republic in January. We hope to collect the following items to take with us to give to the people we minister to: Flip flops Medium sized toothpaste Floss Toothbrushes School supplies Reader glasses from the Dollar Store (inexpensive glasses) various strengths We also need full sized suitcases with wheels that we can leave in the DR. We need a total of 24 suitcases. If you can help us out with these things we can impact the lives of our patients in a positive way. Drop your items off in the church office anytime before January 11th. Thanks for helping us out. January 2015 First Presbyterian Church Mission We shall be collecting items for the Sanctuary Homeless Shelter in Bryan. We shall collecting items such as: household cleaning supplies toilet bowl cleaner dry laundry detergent dish soap, paper towels brooms feminine hygiene products deodorant dish soap bath towels pillows sheets blankets facebook If you are on Facebook please know the church has a Facebook page that we use to quickly update people on the things going on. If you have not liked us or friended us, please do so...so you can stay in the loop with any news about church members, staff or pastoral care situations

Thank You: We would like to thank the following people for help around the church lately: Tyson Horton, Yvette Zedaker, Chris Combs and Barry Sweet for overseeing the Youth Lock-In on December 5-6. The Senior High Youth Group for making and delivering Christmas goodies to our shut-ins. We would like to thank Angie Schreder for being the church treasurer. She has retired from this position. Thank you Angie for doing a great job! Steve Collins was elected by the Session to take on this position. Dina Culler was also elected as Clerk of Session for another year. Great job Dina and welcome Steve! Yvette Zedaker for taking the minutes for the Congregational Meeting on December 7. June Webster for writing the church program on December 14. All who participated in the Christmas program this year...on stage and backstage and before and after the production! Barry and Judy Sweet, Judy and Bill Shilling, the Moskowitz family, the Combs family, John and Susan Martin, David and Pam Lash, Nick and Emily Eschhofen for lighting the Advent Wreath this season. The choirs and June and Hyla for all their hard work this season. Sara Schaper and Diana Moore Eschhofen for singing a duet on December 21. Chris and Amber Combs for hosting the church staff Christmas party at their coffee shop in Antwerp, OH. Judy Sweet for hosting the Tuesday Bible Study group at her home on December 23rd. Diana Moore Eschhofen, Jason Eschhofen, Polly Krause and Cheryl Schlachter for providing the special music at the Christmas Eve worship service. Lora Manon for preaching for Barry after Christmas. Thank you very much, we appreciated the Christmas package of goodies delivered by the Senior High Youth Group. Merry Christmas to them from Art and Ann Spletzer. In Memoriam: Rev. Edward Auchard, former pastor of our church from 1975 1988 died on Friday, December 12. His funeral was held at the church on Monday, December 22. Please keep Elma and her family in your prayers A well balanced church The owner of a new puppy got a good laugh when the little dog, out for a walk, had an itch. The trouble was that the itchy spot was accessible only to a hind leg. So, while still walking, the puppy tried to scratch and tumbled over, rolling couple of times before coming to rest. In several places throughout Scripture, the apostle Paul writes about the church as the body of Christ, and of the importance of each member. Just as the dog needed each leg to stay balanced while walking, so the church needs all the different God-given gifts of its members: preachers and teachers, friendly visitors, generous givers, musicians and singers, wise parents and imaginative children, people to produce and distribute meals, newsletters, lesson materials, and on and on. When we start thinking that some part of Christ s body isn t necessary, we risk taking quite a tumble! A SPECIAL THANK YOU!

JANUARY BIRTHDAYS 1 Jerry Spangler 2 Jim Hall 3 Lach Ohman 3 Betty Robbins 8 Joanne Israel 10 Jamie Moskowitz 10 Tyson Horton 13 Bonnie Spurgeon 18 Bev Davies 20 Dee Andrews 20 Art Spletzer 22 Adam Collins 22 Lyndon Spiess 23 Dee Andrews 23 Heather Collins 25 Polly Krause 29 Ann Spletzer 31 Nick Eschhofen JANUARY ANNIVERSARIES 2 Charlie and Mary Lou Nichols Please put these events on your calendar so you can plan to attend! January 13 ---------------- Mission trip packing day January 16-18. 2015 --- Boy s Awakening January 23-31 ----------- Mission trip to the Dominican Republic February 1 ---------------- Annual Meeting (Worship @ 10am, Meeting @ 11am) February 18 -------------- Ash Wednesday (Dinner @ 6pm, Worship @ 7pm) March 15 ------------------ Josh and Bethany Reed Missionaries are here March12-15 --------------- Men s Great Banquet March 19-22 -------------- Women s Great Banquet March 15 ------------------ Josh & Bethany Reed here (Missionaries to South Asia) March 29 ------------------ Palm Sunday April 2 ---------------------- Maundy Thursday Worship here April 3 ---------------------- Good Friday Community Service April 5 ---------------------- Easter Worship and Easter Breakfast May 17 --------------------- Pulpit Exchange with Ric Beals (Hicksville Presbyterian) May 24 --------------------- Pentecost May 31 --------------------- Graduation Sunday (9am worship only) NEWS & NOTES is published 11 times a year by the First Presbyterian Church, 506 Oxford Drive, Bryan, OH 43506. Tele.# 419-636-4208. Fax # 419-636-8252. E-mail: bryanpres@firstpresbryan.org, Web site: www.firstpresbryan.org Staff: Rev. Barry Sweet, Pastor (barry506@firstpresbryan.org); Chris Combs, Children and Family Ministries Coordinator (familycc@firstpresbryan.org); June Webster, Director of Music and Arts; Hyla Sharrock, Organist; Joanne Israel, Office Administrator; Mary Ann Peters, Financial Secretary (finsec@firstpresbryan.org); Robert Smith, Custodian.

2015