Ellensburg From the Pastor s Desk Pres Press M O N T H L Y N E W S L E T T E R F R O M E L L E N S B U R G P R E S B Y T E R I A N C H U R C H Volume 9 Issue 5 May, 2018 I m often in the wonderful position of being very proud of my congregation and I find myself in that position again. Back in cold February we gathered together for a meal we called Soup for Syria. Many people contributed to it being an evening of good food and good information. First and foremost, the goal of the dinner was to raise awareness of the greatest humanitarian crisis of this decade: the many ugly faces and consequences of the civil war in Syria. Once again, this past month, pictures of children killed by chlorine gas outside Damascus have reminded us that this horror continues. While the main goal was information, we also took the opportunity to ask you to consider giving an over and above gift to help with groups who are working with the many helpless and innocent people who have been caught up in this war and become refugees. While most of the giving came in that night, some gifts have trickled in over the past two months. So, it s taken us a while to tally what was given. And this is where I need to thank you: the total was $7500! That s amazing! For the past several years we have been giving funds from our regular budget and the Foundation to two Christian groups doing relief work in The need is still enormous and the refugees are still streaming out of Syria. Syria, or with refugees in the surrounding countries: World Vision and the Outreach Foundation. We plan to split this amount between these two groups. The need is still enormous and the refugees are still streaming out of Syria. Your generous giving will be greatly appreciated and well used. Let me echo the Apostle Paul when he tells the Christians in Corinth: You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. - II Corinthians 9:11 - - - - - - - One final, unrelated topic. This fall I m leading a tour to Greece to visit Biblical sites. To help prepare for that trip I ve found a new video series by Ray Vander Laan. Ray has done a series called, That the World May Know where he presents Biblical concepts and insights in the historic locations when they happened. I ll bet many of you have seen some of the ones he has done in Israel. This latest series has five lessons all from Biblical locations in Greece (all places we ll be going). Even if you re not going on this trip you would enjoy and learn from them. So, I m going to be showing them and leading a short discussion for five Wednesday nights, starting May 9, at 7pm in the Chapel. Again, this is not just for people on the trip (though, you might get a little jealous watching them). Please come and Inside this issue: Session Members and Deacons 2 Youth News 3 Mother-Daughter Banquet /Prayer Chain 4 ECO Offering/ MAG 5 Children s Ministries / Quilters News 6 Calendar 7 Sunday Worship Schedule 9:00am Contemporary Service 11:00am Traditional Service Pastor: Rev. Al Sandalow Children s Ministries Director: Cheryl Smith Youth Director: Chris Hagan
Help needed in the church office Our church secretary is going to be on vacation May 7-11 and we need some one, or more, to be in the office. General receptionist duties are typical: answering the phone, greeting anyone who comes in the office, sometimes using the copier, and the dreaded chore of doing up the bulletin and printing it. There will be help available for that. Can you help? Please sign up below and turn it in to the office, or call the church office by May 3 and let the secretary know of your availability. Monday, May 7 Wednesday, May 9 (The day the bulletin is done up) Tuesday, May 8 Thursday, May 10 (The day the bulletin is printed) Friday, May 11 (The day the bulletin is assembled) NAME PHONE Remember that office hours are 8am through 3pm with an hour lunch, Monday through Thursday, Current Session Members & Ministry Responsibilities/Deacons ELDERS Judi Anderson Children s Ed* Roger Glaser Nominating* Gregg Hall Properties* John Harbaugh Worship and Music Dan Hiersche Worship and Music Rick Holmstrom Properties Camille Hutchison -Cong Life/Sm Grps Mary Kraft Missions John MacRae Stewardship/Personnel Alice McMechan Missions* Chuck Norelius Shepherding Lyle Smith Youth Wayne Smith Small Grps Ginny Sorenson Worship and Music* Judy Wright Congregational Life* Marilyn Charlton Clara Davis Julile Hiersche Clay McMechan Gordon Pross Janett Walker DEACONS Julie Cutts Susan Hanson Shirley Hood Steve Noyes Mary Seth Fritz Wichterman The office of deacon as set forth in Scripture is one of sympathy, witness, and service after the example of Jesus Christ. It is the duty of deacons, first of all, to minister to those who are in need, to the sick, to the friendless, and to any who may be in distress both within and beyond the community of faith. Page 2 E LLENSBURG
Keeping Up With Our Chris Hagan Rock: Our small groups have begun a two-part series titled "Love God; Love Others." We spent this first lesson talking about loving others. Some junior high students may grasp the idea of loving others more easily than the idea of loving God, so we felt it was best to build a solid foundation on this topic before discussing our love for God. The two topics, of course, are inextricably linked, and both discussions are vital for healthy faith. We examined the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. The story's hero was "a despised Samaritan" who treats the man's wounds and spends his own money to provide lodging at a nearby inn. Jesus wants us to love everyone, not just the people who are easy to love or who are just like us. Love for others is demonstrated through our actions. Here are some questions you might want to ask your teenager as you talk about this lesson: Why do you think God wants us to love other people? Why does it matter to God? If you truly love your neighbors, what evidence will people see in your life? Why do you think God connects or links our love for other people and our love for ourselves? Thanks for allowing us to spend time with your teenager each week. It's a real joy! BASIC: Our high school group will be studying the book of Ecclesiastes. One of the most prevalent worldviews that our students face is the claim that life is essentially meaningless. This can lead to depression, anxiety, and other existential and psychological ills. We can find comfort knowing that these feelings are not unique to our time - the author of Ecclesiastes also faced this sense of meaninglessness and gave voice to his frustration and pain. We ll read through the book and see how relevant this book is for our time and how we find meaning and purpose for our lives by knowing and serving God while still acknowledging that pain we may encounter. Youth Sunday/Senior Recognition Sunday: Sunday, June 3, will be our Youth Sunday service. It s a time where our students, both high school and middle school students, will have the opportunity to lead our worship services! Additionally, between services on June 3, we ll recognize and celebrate our graduating seniors! We ll present them with Bibles and quilts and hear a little about their plans for after high school. We hope you ll join us for worship and celebrate with us between services! Orcas Island Encampment: Seven of our high school students (Jack Taylor, Katie Pruis, Meghan Wichterman, Kiadyn Whitney, Ella Hughes, Jacqueline Whorley, and Elizabeth Adams) will be participating in the Orcas Island Encampment this year. Together with mentor teams and adult leaders from First Presbyterian Church of Kennewick and Grace of Christ Presbyterian Church in Yakima we ll be mentoring 42 K-2 grade boys from the Tri-Cities and Yakima. After the week-long encampment, the boys will graduate to becoming Trailseekers, a weekly program in Yakima and Kennewick that helps the boys grow in their faith and in fellowship with their faith communities. The boys are selected if they fit any one of three criteria: 1) they come from low income families, 2) they come from non-traditional families (living with grandparents/ single parent), or 3) they have a family member in a gang or institutionalized. Please be praying for all our mission team, the boys, and our students especially that everyone would experience the love of God and grow in their relationship with him. Summer Camp: Our middle school youth group will be attending Adventure Camp at Tall Timber Ranch near Leavenworth this Summer from Sunday, July 1 to Friday, July 6. Go to www.talltimber.org to sign up! VOLUME 9 ISSUE 5 Page 3
Mother/Daughter Banquet Blessings of Spring Menu: Chicken Breast, Rice Pilaf, Salad and Roll Strawberry Shortcake Donation: Adults $7 Children $5 There will be a quilt raffle, buy your tickets Men, there is a sign-up sheet by the kitchen bulletin board to enlist your help serving and washing the dishes. Prayer Chain We are updating our Prayer Chain. Some of our pray-ers have moved or passed on and we want to keep this prayer chain a vital service to our church people and our Lord. The way it works is this: when you have a prayer you can call the office during the day or after 5pm, you may call Stephanie Mills at home. The prayer is then passed on and shortly we have a continuous chain of people praying for your concern. If you would like to be a part of this ministry, please sign this form below and bring it or mail it to the church office. Next month we will publish the new Prayer Chain list in the Presbyterian Press. We thank you for your willingness to be a prayer warrior. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - NAME PHONE I preferred to be called during (please check one) Those Crafty Women are already looking forward to this year s Ba- zaar. With that in mind, as you put Page 4 E LLENSBURG
May 6 Offering for ECO On Sunday, May 6, our church will have a special offering for our own ECO Relief Fund. This special offering will provide life changing funds as we share to bring people to Christ, help people change their lives and respond to disasters. This year our funds will go to World Vision for Syrian refugee relief, the Ellensburg Christian School for scholarships and CareNet. We are a congregation full of compassion and prepared to surrender our resources and our time for those crying out for help. Just as Christ sacrificed for us, we are willing to sacrifice for our sisters and brothers in need. Please pray about how you can financially contribute to this special offering. We invite you to make your donation in the enclosed envelope and join together as the body of Christ to tangibly share the love of God. MAG Meeting On March 17, six elders from our church traveled to Naches to attend a Mission Affinity Group (MAG) meeting. In attendance were three other churches: Roslyn Presbyterian Church, Peace of Christ of Naches and Grace of Christ of Yakima. The purpose of the meeting was to share what God is doing in our churches. We also want to provide a basis for congregations to encourage and hold one another accountable to be flourishing churches that make disciples of Jesus Christ. We shared the challenges of our church and our successes. We prayed for each other and our churches. While we all have different situations because of the size of our churches, we all share the desire to bring glory to God through the work or our churches to make disciples of Jesus Christ. This second MAG meeting was so positive, we decided to meet in six months rather than 12! We are looking forward to meeting on September 22 in Ellensburg, to continue strengthening our relationships and encouraging each other in Kingdom work in our communities. Prayer Concerns and Requests Prayers for our Military Remember our young men and women in the Military service and ROTC: Troy Smith, Bob Mykleby, Andy Stedman, Andrew McKenzie, Will McKenzie, Joe Thomas, Tony Miles, Drew Kastning, Erik Holmstrom, Jen Holmstrom, Dave Moser, Jason Lorraine, Brandon Taylor, Patrick Hampton, Andrew J. Potter, Mark Thacker, Brad Miller, Jack Barry, Colton Carson, Shane Bowers TO START A PRAYER REQUEST If you have a prayer request during the week, you may call the office from 8:00am to 3:00pm, 925-3149. For evening and weekend requests, call Stephanie Mills at 925-1961. VOLUME 9 ISSUE 5 Page 5
Children s Ministry by Cheryl Smith A couple of exciting things happening down the hall in the kid s area! Last week we received a cup of caterpillars in the mail for the kids to study. The cup comes with a special food inside that will be all the caterpillars will need to eat and grow and eventually climb to the top and create a chrysalis. We are learning it is just like God providing us with everything we need (Mathew 7:31-33). The next few weeks we will read Luke 12:24 and 2 Corinthians 5:17 and study our caterpillars and watch them transform into beautiful butterflies that we can release outside. The other exciting thing is spread out all over my office! We are gearing up for VBS and collecting supplies and decorations and I am working hard to make sure nothing is forgotten! Mark your calendars for July 9-13. Registration is up and running with a link on our website. I will have a list of needed items soon for those of you who can help with that and of course we can always use volunteers for the many positions that make it all come together. Our theme this year is Shipwrecked Rescued by Jesus. It is going to be packed full of fun, music, games and snacks for the kids to learn how Jesus recues us when we are lonely, when we worry, when we struggle, when we do wrong and when we are powerless. Blessings by Mary Kraft I was caught in the most amazing storm this past week as blessings rained down on the backpack program. I walked into church on Sunday, and watched several people dropping sacks of food into the backpack donation box. Another congregation member handed me a much treasured box of protein bars. Stephanie called to tell me there were large boxes from Amazon from an anonymous donor. I was eating in a restaurant in Yakima and saw some folks from our congregation. They were on their way to Costco and wondered what we needed for our weekend food bags. Thursdays we meet to fill and deliver the sacks to the schools. Again, Quilters News by Dawn Helland Where do our quilts go? the hands of someone who needs that this quilt will remain with her I often share about the organizations Christmas that we make season, quilts our for: church Fos- the comfort and warmth that the children for a very long time. However, sometimes the family doesn t This quilt can bring through the life of is adopting eight families for Christmas through the local Christmas Basket program. ter Children We of share Kittitas all the Valley, food Sunshine House with tags in Ukraine opportunities and The to share I chose love the listing words food life items, of that gifts quilt or money I have heard donations stories for about the meat. some of that quilt. want those quilts. for a traditional Christmas dinner and gifts for all the family. Our giving tree is loaded What Bridge better in Seattle. way to We honor also Christ give to this holiday carefully, season because and sometimes reach out to the those our for quilts, whom complete he came to with die? labels, We people invite who you are to ill take or maybe the tags lost from the quilt Giving outlasts Tree the at life the of church. the recipient. I recently sat at a Celebration with that. For whatever reason, the All gifts ending of food up and at wrapped Goodwill. presents We are are okay everything in a home fire. Every due back to the church by Sunday, December 10. Please return money gifts to Stephanie in the spring we make quilts for our high of Life for my Aunt Mickey recipient no longer has a need for church school graduates office. and for various (Thayer) and as the family spoke, I that quilt. My hope is this, that if raffles in our valley that take place was able to gaze at a quilt that was you happen to be the one who spots On throughout Tuesday, the December year. 12 at 5:00 p.m., hanging we will on gather the wall, to assemble one that was our Christmas one of our Baskets quilts for (labeled our adopted with Tabitha s Peaceful Piecemakers ) for families. This is a great activity for family lovingly participation made by her as we daughter sort the Susan. food and pack the boxes. We invite you to But, join where us for do this those evening quilts of go sharing when and fellowship. This quilt had been covering sale somewhere, that you just say a the initial recipient no longer needs/wants/uses that quilt? I like Aunt Mickey s bed for the last few little prayer over that quilt and we years. I wanted to go up and bury to think that God continues to direct our lovingly made quilts into will let God take it from there. my face in that quilt to capture the Please join us for quilting every I will help assemble baskets on December smell that 12 was Mickey. I am sure Page 6 E LLENSBURG
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 1 2 3 4 5 6pm Mother/Daughter Banquet 6 Communion 7 8:30am Prayer for EPC 8 9 3pm Tabitha s Quilters 10 11 12 6:30pm B.A.S.I.C. 5:30pm Deacons 5:30pm Women s B. Sty 13 6:30pm B.A.S.I.C. 14 8:30am Prayer for EPC 5:30pm Women s B. Sty 6:30pm Session prayer 7:30pm Session 15 16 3pm Tabitha s Quilters 17 18 19 Noon Press Articles Due 20 21 8:30am Prayer for EPC 22 23 24 25 26 6:30pm B.A.S.I.C. 7pm Ministries Night 3pm Tabitha s Quilters 27 6:30pm B.A.S.I.C. 28 MEMORIAL DAY OFFICE CLOSED 29 30 3pm Tabitha s Quilters 31 Each Sunday 9:00am Worship (Nursery, Infants 4yrs) Sunday School after Children s Sermon (K- 5th) 11:00am Worship (Nursery, Infants 4yrs) VOLUME 9 ISSUE 5 Page 7
MON THLY NEW SLET TER F RO M ELLEN SBURG P RESBYTERIAN CHURCH 1307 East Third Ellensburg, WA 98926 Non Profit Organization US Postage PAID Ellensburg, WA Permit #123 Phone: 509 925-3149 E-mail: firstpresbyterian@elltel.net RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED We re on the web www.eburgpres.org Upcoming Events May 2, 6pm Mother/Daughter Banquet Ellensburg Pres Press Is published for our members and friends. To receive a free subscription, or for more information about our church, please call or stop by the office. Articles and suggestions are welcomed. Office Hours: Monday Thursday, 8 am 3 pm Friday, 8 am Noon Phone: 509-925-3149 Next newsletter deadline is noon, May 18, 2018 Check out our website at