...news and tidbits from the church office
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Would you be willing to give of your time in service to the church? Volunteers for the church office are needed for April 15th and 18th. If you would be willing, please come by and sign up by the Flowers Calendar or call the church office and speak with Lori. (posted March 24, 2005)
This is such a wonderful time of year. The joy and happiness that fills the air with Easter egg hunts and bunnies and how beautiful the outdoors is. Spring is a favorite of mine with everything turning so green and filled with life. Who could not love this season. But the part of Easter that fills my heart to overflowing is the thought of all my savior has done for me. He has saved me from my sins and given me a rock to stand on, Him. He has blessed me with not only eternal life with Him, but a precious life here on earth with Him also. He has given me hope for a new day and a future. He has promised He will walk with me every day of my life. As I said, who could not love this season!! Miss Pat, Director of Lynn Flowers Presbyterian Preschool (posted March 24, 2005)
Su Casa de Esperanza would like to thank First Presbyterian Church of McAllen, Texas for their generous donation for the 1st Sunday Offering in March. Sincerely, Grace Caballero (posted March 24, 2005)
The annual church picnic will be held Sunday April 3rd from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the COOK 480 RANCH in Edinburg. Barbeque will be served. Tours of the exotic game animal preserve will be available. Join us in a sing-along and games for children of all ages. Tickets are $3.00 per person. To make your reservations call Lori at the church. (posted March 24, 2005)
Join us as we journey through Biblical times in search of the social and spiritual roles of women. We will compare the rituals of hospitality then and now. Our retreat will be on April 22-23 at El Instituto in Weslaco. Cost is $25. Watch for further info coming out soon! (posted March 24, 2005)
We are in need of an individual to stuff the children’s worship bags. This is a pretty simple task and only takes about 30 minutes a week. If you’re willing to help with this ministry please contact Rebecca for a short and simple training. (posted March 24, 2005)
Easter Sunday is Grocery Cart Sunday. Please bring your food items to church on April 27. During our morning worship the youth of our church will receive your non perishable items that will support the work of the Rio Grande Valley Food Bank. (posted March 24, 2005)
On behalf of our church family at First Presbyterian Church we express our Christian sympathy to the family of Gilberto and Maria Medina on the recent loss of Gilberto's nephew, Flavio Medina in Puerto Rico. Gilberto has gone to Puerto Rico to be with the family. Flavio is survived by his wife and their five year old child. Please keep the Medina family in your prayers. (posted March 24, 2005)
March 24th - Maundy Thursday Service @ 7:00 p.m. March 25th - Good Friday Service @ 12 noon March 27th - Easter Sunday Sunrise Service @ 7:00 a.m. Breakfast @ 8:00 a.m. (sponsored by the Youth) Worship Service @ 10:30 a.m. (posted March 24, 2005)
The annual Easter Egg Hunt was a smashing success!! Thanks so much to all of you who brought in eggs. The Jr. High Youth group did a super job of hiding the eggs and assisting the little ones in finding them. This event has a long tradition in our church and it is enjoyed by young and old alike. Muchas Gracias to Donald Bentsen and his daughter, Kathy Garfield for offering your home and for all the great goodies and hospitality! (posted March 24, 2005)
Come on people now Smile on your brother Everybody get together Try to love one another right now. The Youngbloods Weren’t the 60’s great?! People wearing love beads and flashing peace signs. Viet Nam woke people up to the ravages of war and caused all of us to look around and ask ourselves if we shouldn’t be more loving to each other. A new generation looked at peace and love as if it had just been invented and recognized the importance of putting it in the forefront of our culture. There were bumper stickers and posters touting “Make love not war.” Yet, peace and love have been around as long as the earliest writings of the Bible. From the Old Testament to the New, God assures us of his everlasting love and the Hebrew word for peace, Shalom, is used 250 times throughout the Bible. In Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” That section on loving your neighbor has been a recurring mantra in my head lately. If you saw my article last time you know that I’m doing some soul searching as to whether we, as a church, are fulfilling what we’re called to do. The verses in Matthew are referred to as “The Great Commandment,” so loving our neighbor is up at the top of the chart. Sounds simple enough but how does God want us to do that? And does the verse mean we’re supposed to love people in our church that we don’t know? And what about strangers that come in? It’s not as simple as it sounds. We’re mere mortals and even though we’ve been singing and crusading for peace and love for all these many years, we haven’t gotten it figured out yet. That’s where God comes in. Communication is the key. We have to stay in touch to know the plan. There’s no disgrace in not being able to do it on our own, even the Billy Grahams of the world need support from the top. by Rebecca Villarreal, DCE (posted March 24, 2005)
The youth of our church visited Puentes de Cristo over the Christmas holidays. They observed a classroom of 9-10 year olds and were inspired to help them in some way. Gilberto and Maria said that many of the children don't have school supplies and would benefit from anything we could offer. The youth decided to collect the following items for the next few weeks. Please bring as many items as you can to the church, there will be boxes in the Narthex to receive your items. In early May, our Youth will package the items and see that they get to the children served by Puentes de Cristo. Each child will need: 5 spiral notebooks (70 pgs. each) A ruler Glue Pencils A pencil sharpener A package of colored pencils (posted March 24, 2005)
Spc. Barbara J. Stevens has retruned from duty (14 months) in Iraq. Thanks to God and all who prayed for her safe return! Greta M Mesta (posted March 24, 2005)
Our annual Easter Egg Hunt will be on Sunday, March 20, at 4:30 PM at the field west of the Bentsen home of 512 E. Houston. There is construction on McColl but you can enter from the frontage road; go north on McColl and west on Houston St. Bring a big basket! See you there! (posted March 11, 2005)
If you would like to serve as a liturgist during Worship Service on Sunday, please contact Michael Pullen at 630-2423. (posted March 11, 2005)
The annual church Picnic is scheduled for Sunday, April 3rd from 4-7 p.m. at the Cook 480 Ranch in Edinburg, TX Further details will follow soon. (posted March 11, 2005)
We want the members of the First Presbyterian Church of McAllen, to know how very much we appreciate your opening your church and it's facilities to us. The McAllen, Music Club is grateful for your generosity in allowing us to hold our scholarship benefit Bell Choir program in your Fellowship Center. And we thank you for the extra work that went into preparations to set up and take down chairs. Most sincerely Anne Glendennin, President McAllen Music Club (posted March 11, 2005)
Our annual Easter egg hunt is being planned and we would appreciated donations. We will need regular sized plastic eggs filled with wrapped candy. You can bring in 1-3 dozen eggs to the church office. Eggs will be collected until March 20th. Thanks so much for your efforts in making this a great time for our kiddos. (posted March 11, 2005)
Next Sunday Michael Pullen will be leading us in worship and preaching in our 10:30 service while our pastor is on vacation. Michael serves on our session and is involved as a leader in our ministry of worship. We are blessed to have him as an elder and spiritual leader in our congregation. Thank you Michael for the gifts of ministry you share so willingly. (posted March 11, 2005)
Hurry! Less than two weeks remain to purchase your Easter Lilies. The cost is $8.00 per plant and you can designate an honoree or a memorial with each one. See the attached insert to purchase your lily or come by the church office during the week to fill out a form. But hurry, the deadline to order lilies is March 17. The plants will be available to take home following the Easter worship service. (posted March 11, 2005)
As the deer pants for the water so my soul does long for you. You alone are my hearts desire and I long to worship you. Mysticism is a word that conjures up images of fortune- tellers, crystal balls, and voodoo. Yet, the dictionary defines mysticism as “Consciousness of God through deep meditation or contemplation.” There were eight of us that pondered the idea of mysticism at the Mo Ranch conference “A Matter of the Heart” with Graham Standish. Graham is a pastor at Calvin Presbyterian Church in Zelienople, Pennsylvania. He, like many of us, had stories of a time when God and the church and the whole Christianity thing didn’t seem relevant to him or his life. Relevance emerges with a balance of theology and spirituality. We, as Presbyterians, pride ourselves in valuing education and the training our pastors receive in our doctrine, but good theology comes out of experiencing God. Prayerful discernment of God’s will in our meetings, our planning, and our worship moves our focus from head to heart. If we believe that the God we worship is current and relevant to us, as older adults, as parents of school age kids, as teenagers, and as children then how does God reveal himself to us? We come to church believing that God is in our midst, even though, as Jesse preached on Sunday, many of us are doubters. We go along okay until someone claims that God caused this or that in their life to change. Then the questions begin and we’re not so sure. We feel more comfortable not talking about that kind of thing, but for what purpose does God call us into communion with him? Should being in the presence of God be no different than being in the presence of anyone else? As an analytical person, I like order and having a timeline for the events I plan. In the midst of all my organization I worry that I’m missing something. We have declining numbers in our church and in our children’s Sunday school class there are only 10 on our role. Next year that number drops to eight. According to Graham, all churches begin with a sense of spiritual vibrancy. Along the way they become more functional. The purpose moves from following the Creator’s direction to allowing the day to day operations of the church to direct your way. Have we lost our spiritual vibrancy? If God’s purpose is being fulfilled here then shouldn’t we have a lot more participants? We have many things here to be grateful for. We have great people, talent and energy abound, but maybe it’s time to check our spiritual barometer and ask, “Are we doing what God has called us to do?’ by Rebecca Villarreal, DCE (posted March 11, 2005)
The youth of our church visited Puentes de Cristo over the Christmas holidays. They observed a classroom of 9-10 year olds and were inspired to help them in some way. Gilberto and Maria said that many of the children don't have school supplies and would benefit from anything we could offer. The youth decided to collect the following items for the next few weeks. Please bring as many items as you can to the church, there will be boxes in the Narthex to receive your items. In early May, our Youth will package the items and see that they get to the children served by Puentes de Cristo. Each child will need:5 spiral notebooks (70 pgs. each),a ruler, glue, pencils, a pencil sharpener, a package of colored pencils. (posted March 11, 2005)
Ssgt. Marisol Mesta has returned from duty in Iraq to home base in Nevada. Thanks to God and all who prayed for her safe return! Greta M. Mesta (posted March 11, 2005)
This week the children here at the preschool will all have their annual St. Jude Children's Hospital Trike-A-Thon. The children get pledges and ride around a track to raise money for St. Jude. It is so much fun for all the children to ride, ride, ride but also because they learn about safety. But the best part of all is the joy that it brings the kids to know that they are helping sick children to get better. They just glow when we talk to them about how they are helping other children to get better. You know, we are never too young to know that we can do something that may be just fun and simple to us and yet it can really help someone else. Maybe if we learn it early in life, it will become a part of who we are to help others. May we never stop learning. Miss Pat Director of Lynn Flowers Preschool (posted March 2, 2005)
We express and send our prayers to Carol and Clifton Collins on the recent death of Kathi Collins in Ozark, Missouri. Kathi was Carol and Clifton's daughter-in-law. Service was held for Kathi on Wednesday, February 23rd in Ozark, Missouri. Please pray for and keep the Collins family in your prayer. (posted March 2, 2005)
A Called Congregational Meeting will be held immediately following worship on Sunday, March 6, 2005 for the purpose of electing a Trustee. (posted March 2, 2005)
February 27th - 3rd Sunday in Lent March 6th - 4th Sunday in Lent March 13th - 5th Sunday in Lent March 20th - Palm Sunday March 24th - Maundy Thursday Service @ 7:00 p.m. March 25th - Good Friday Service @ 12 noon March 27th - Easter Sunday Sunrise Service @ 7:00 a.m. Breakfast @ 8:00 a.m. (sponsored by the Youth) Worship Service @ 10:30 a.m. (posted March 2, 2005)
Most of you know that my dad had open-heart surgery in January. He had gone in for his physical and was sent to the hospital in an ambulance. As you can imagine we were all in shock. My family is spread out among different cities and we burned up the phone lines for 2 days until he was out of surgery. I appreciate all the prayers and kind words from you, the church, and do believe that prayer is powerful. As with most traumatic events in our lives, there was a lesson to be learned. The lesson was it’s okay to let your family and friends take care of you. For many of us, my dad included, that is a foreign concept. We’re taught to be independent. The more you can do for yourself the stronger you are. Depending on the generosity of others suggests weakness. Yet the lesson that God has set forth for us through his Son and his Word is not “only the strong survive” but “lean on me”. God’s grace covers us even when we’re not strong enough to manage ourselves. Our ability to accept God’s help is more than a matter of our strength or lack there of. It’s a matter of human pride. “Our pride impedes the vulnerability required to accept grace,” (Bonnie Hopper King). When we let others care for us it not only benefits he/she who receives the care but the caregiver as well. Those are lessons I’m preaching to myself because it’s not my nature to let others do for me, but it’s God’s plan to help us all. I expect to pass through this world but once, any good thing, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now, let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. Ettiene De Grellet by Rebecca Villarreal, DCE (posted March 2, 2005)
Our church will host a Concert of Bell Choirs on Sunday February 27, 2005 at 3:00 p.m. Choirs performing include our own Lynn Flowers Handbells: C. Douglas, Dir., Calvary Baptist Heart's Song: N. Lenz, Dir., and 1st Presbyterian Mission Bells of Hope: P. Hudsonpillar, Dir. This concert is presented by the McAllen Music Club. Donations will be accepted for their annual MUSIC SCHOLARSHIP FUNDRAISER. (posted March 2, 2005)
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