Each month on the first Sunday you’re encouraged to take home a re-usable yellow grocery bag, put some non-perishable items in it, and bring it back the next week, or soon thereafter. In April, our donations go to the Mt. Vernon Presbyterian Church Food Pantry. All non-perishable items are welcome, but you’re encouraged to bring canned meats/beans/proteins in April.
We are excited to welcome the Rev Jennifer Snook as our new Director of Children’s Ministries. Jennifer began serving with us March1 and brings incredible gifts for ministry to Grace. She and her husband Geoff served as co-pastors at Trinity Presbyterian in Wichita for 11 years. In the time since then, she’s been focusing on writing and being a mom. She and Geoff have three sons, Sam (6th grade), Isaac (3rd grade), and Will (Kindergarten).
We’ll have a formal time of greeting Jennifer on Palm Sunday, March 29, between services in the coffee bar area. Stop by and introduce yourself.
On March 2, we completed our congregational series on Forgiveness. Approximately 90 of you participated in study groups on this topic. This was a great showing of participation. Your Christian Discipleship Team hopes that this was a helpful and thought provoking study for you. We’d like to hear from you about what you thought. Be on the look-out for an electronic survey regarding the study.
Around the world, many people lack access to food, clean water, sanitation, education, and opportunity. Each gift to One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) serves to help change the lives of those who are in these challenging situations. Received during our Palm Sunday offering, OGHS makes a difference in the world through three impactful programs:
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) receives 32% of funds raised to provide help after the devastation of natural or human-caused disasters.
Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) receives 36% of funds raised to alleviate hunger and its systemic causes.
Self-Development of People (SDOP) receives 32% of funds raised for development and education to alleviate poverty, oppression, and injustice.
One Great Hour of Sharing is an offering that makes the love of Christ real for those who are suffering and for those who serve them. Please consider what you can contribute to make a difference in our world.
Children’s Ministry
By Jennifer Snook, Director of Children’s Ministries
Sometimes in the late evening after we have put our three tornadoes to bed, I take a few minutes…okay, several minutes, and scroll through my Facebook newsfeed.
Being the youngest of six children, I have a number of people to keep in the loop. After sending a few messages, I usually scroll through my home page. Last week I noticed a photo that gave me pause to stop and stare. It was a snapshot of seven women all of whom were from my home church in the small Kansas town where I grew up. I recognized each face, and though I had not seen any of them in well over twenty years, I could name them all.
A rush of thoughts and memories swept over me as God took that moment to remind me of one particular lady in the photo who challenged me to memorize John 3:16. Then there was the woman sitting next to her in the photo who sang the books of the Bible every week, and to this day I know the song. To the right of those two was another woman who never stopped calling and checking on me during my middle school years when I wanted to sleep in on Sundays instead of going to worship.
Each one played a significant role in my walk of faith and seeing them all together in one photo was almost too much for me to compute. I am thrilled to serve at Grace, and my hope is to give you an opportunity to be that snapshot in someone else’s life that causes them to stop and recall the ways in which you helped them understand their own relationship with a God who loves them and will not be without them.
“Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” ~Matthew 6:20-21.
