Dear Friends,
I hope you all are having a great beginning to your week. Worship on Sunday was once again...Christ honoring. I really appreciate all those who make worship happen and also I love watching God do His thing as we gather in His Name.
This past Saturday evening we had our annual Chili Cook-Off. A huge thank you to Jackie Barnett, Andrew Stowe, and Mike and Sarah Heller for organizing this wonderful evening. We also had music played by Bill Holzinger. Susan Holzinger was our pourer of the beverages and did a great job...as usual! We had 15 chefs bring their favorite recipe and over 80 people attend. Our 2nd place finisher was Noah Reny and first place...drum roll...was Harry Rozelle and Larry Yturralde (by the way, they came dressed as red peppers which gave them the advantage).
On Sunday, we installed and ordained our last year's class of elders as well as this years. Elders are our servant-leaders who are elected by the congregation in our annual meeting in January. Our Session is made up of 12 members who pray and make decisions in regards to our worship, ministries, missions, staffing, and overall ministerial care of our church. Our current Session is...Bill Harvey (our Clerk of Session), Debbie Von Behren, John Riser, Lisa Malcolm, Shary Patton, Rosanna Durruthy, Cheryl Lovell, Jamie Starr, Alex Cabrera, Marcia Lee, Chad Zalman, and Dr. Jennifer Vogler! Please keep them, our Corporate Board (Beth Angela-Welker, Michael Higgs, Marilyn Conroy, Cheri Evans-Schmidt, Harry Rozelle, Harold Lovell, Rhett Wadsworth, Cathie Banta, and David Finneran), staff, and all our volunteers in your prayers, as we all listen to God's calling.
Our response to the Ukrainian crisis! Last Tuesday, our Session voted to financially support Samaritan's Purse. Samaritan's Purse is doing some wonderful things in and around Ukraine. We will take a special love offering this Sunday in worship. You may also donate online through our APP, or just by calling the church. Please look at their website to see first-hand what they are doing...http://www.samaritanspurse.org/.
Have a blessed rest of the week and I look forward to seeing you all this Sunday.