Blog
Members on Mission: Emily White
I have been terrified of needles my entire life. However, I’m actively trying to conquer my fear and I got brave enough to try donating blood at a blood drive in December. It was nowhere near as awful as I anticipated (I have a great imagination) and I actually really enjoyed my experience for a number of reasons. There is something incredibly special about knowing that the blood you are giving is going to help someone who really needs it because they are potentially undergoing a surgery, transplant, dealing with a chronic illnesses, blood disorders or cancer. As you are donating, it is a wonderful opportunity to say a prayer of thanksgiving for good health. It is also a special time to ask God to bless the blood you are donating as an offering and pray for God’s healing for the person who will be receiving it.
My Mom has worked at Retreat Doctor’s Hospital for over 30 years. When she told me about the blood drive there on Wednesday March 4th before our Wednesday night activities at church I was excited because I realized what a great opportunity this was for us as a church to participate in. We have been focusing on loving our neighbor. What better way to demonstrate our love of neighbor as Christians than to give them our blood, something that Christ did for us on the cross? So please consider participating in the blood drive at Retreat Hospital. I’ve signed up to be there at 1:15 so maybe I’ll see you there!
Rend Your Heart: A Blessing for Ash Wednesday
To receive this blessing,
all you have to do
is let your heart break.
Let it crack open.
Let it fall apart
so that you can see
its secret chambers,
the hidden spaces
where you have hesitated
to go.
Your entire life
is here, inscribed whole
upon your heart’s walls:
every path taken
or left behind,
every face you turned toward
or turned away,
every word spoken in love
or in rage,
every line of your life
you would prefer to leave
in shadow,
every story that shimmers
with treasures known
and those you have yet
to find.
It could take you days
to wander these rooms.
Forty, at least.
And so let this be
a season for wandering,
for trusting the breaking,
for tracing the rupture
that will return you
to the One who waits,
who watches,
who works within
the rending
to make your heart
whole.
—Jan Richardson
Ash Wednesday: Information for Parents
Hello Parents!
We will kick off Lent with Ash Wednesday Worship in the Sanctuary. Parents are welcome to attend with their children (children in the service must be accompanied by an adult).
This service will be quiet and dark, so if you would like to take younger children (up to 5th grade) to the nursery, you can drop them off in the following locations:
From 5:45-6:00PM, parent drop off is in the Preschool Worship Arts classroom (on the Main Level) with Jerusha, Dianna, and Kara.
If you arrive after 6PM, please drop your child off in the nursery, on the 1st Floor of the Williams Building.
From 6:00-7:00PM, there will be child-friendly worship for children in the Nursery. Through action and symbol, the children will be invited to receive the Sign of the Cross in ashes on their foreheads.
We look forward to seeing you for this meaningful service!
Building & Grounds Update: February 2020
Thank you, Jay and Team!
There’s been a lot of activity over the past couple of weeks to make physical improvements around the church. You’ve heard about the installation of LED light bulbs throughout the TBC buildings. Did you know that being the recipient of a Dominion Energy grant that paid for that work including adding the dimmers on some of those lights, started when Jay Hartman was at an electrical supplier shop? A buddy at that shop introduced him to Michael Parrish of ELS Electrical. That God-made meeting and the follow-up after led us to this gracious gift. Thanks to Jay for his efforts in seeing this project to its completion!
As the LED lights project was underway, several more changes were completed:
- The Williams Building God-Sized Vision work – new pedestal sinks, heat-controlled faucets, and new mirrors were installed in the 2nd floor bathrooms,
- Painting the interior of the Grove Avenue office entrance door,
- Replacing and repainting the keyless-entry door now used as a Grove Avenue Piano entrance,
- Replacing the awning (donated years ago by the Strongs and the Spains) that was over the office Grove Avenue entrance by adding a new awning over both Grove Avenue entrance doors, and
- Securing the kitchen stove (on tile installed last year) so that it would no longer slowly slide away from the kitchen wall.
- Painting the baptistry with an epoxy paint to hopefully eliminate some peeling paint.
- Re-securing a couple of faucets for the Williams Building 1st floor bathrooms.
The Building & Grounds Committee is grateful for Jay Hartman and Vincent Sallie’s ongoing commitment to maintaining our church facilities! Our committee members will continue to keep you aware of planned and completed activities. In March we hope to implement a new email address for you to use to contact us with your suggestions and comments. Look for new information about using that email address in the near future.
Epiphany 2020: Supplemental Article
Our Epiphany Season Theme, “Belonging to One Another” fits into a larger narrative on what it means to be “Neighbor”. Jesus calls us to love God and love neighbor as ourselves. The tone we set in our community of faith helps us to live in community with neighbor. We encourage you to take some time in the week(s) ahead to reflect upon Jeff Chu’s article, entitled “What Happens When We Share a Meal?”.
You can listen to an audible recording (thank you Tori Tyndall and Ryan Corbitt) or read the article. We will use Jeff Chu’s honest reflection as a conversation starter around tables.
Sunday Worship – 1/5/20
Join us today for Epiphany Sunday. Our Scripture today is Matthew 2:1-12.
DEVOTION: The Journey from Christmas
Scripture Reading: If you put an end to oppression, to every gesture of contempt, and to every evil work; if you give food to the hungry and satisfy those who are in need, then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon. (Isaiah 58:10)
God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
Meditation: Among my fondest Christmas memories are the Christmas Eve services at Fredericksburg Baptist Church –the traditional hymns, the candles, the sense of family, big and small. It is a time of great joy when we allow ourselves to think about new beginnings and hope for a better world.
In many ways that is the essence of Christmas. It is a journey toward hope. But God’s call to each of us is to put hope into action. It would be a mistake to only see the joy and hope that the baby Jesus represents and not listen to the rest of the story, the story of God’s call to reconciliation for each of us and for those whose lives we touch every day. Our response to the journey after Christmas must be, “Here I am Lord, send me.”
Thus, as we celebrate this holy day, we must recognize that the journey to Christmas was to prepare us for the hard work of the journey from Christmas. The road is long and filled with trials but the Jesus we meet on Christmas Day travels with us, if we choose to let Him. And He transforms us on the journey.
These words from John Westerhoff, III say it well:
We have been called into a visionary community to risky, laughable lives of tomorrow’s people, to live in and for God’s dream, to witness to a world of peace and unity, freedom and equality, of justice and well being for all people. We are called to accept the cost and the joy of discipleship, to proclaim the word and deed of the good news of God’s dream come true. God promises us courage and strength in the struggle for peace and justice; God forgives us our failures and lifts us up to new possibilities; God is present in our trials and rejoicing and hopes from this day forward.
Prayer: Oh Lord, thank You for the joy of Christmas and Your gift of hope wrapped in swaddling clothes. Please travel with us on the journey ahead and continually remind us that if we are faithful to the trek, not only will we find friends along the way, not only will we find the beautiful and the true and the good and the lovely and the delicious tastes and sounds and smells and sights given to us by the Creator of the journey …but we will also catch a vision of what is at the end of the road. Amen.
(paraphrase from Ken Medema)
For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here.
DEVOTION: Christmas Brings Abundant Life in Christ
Scripture: Tears may flow in the night, but joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5b)
I have come that you might have life — life in all its fullness. (John 10:10)
Meditation: Michael was nearly dead when he came to the Christ House medical recovery facility for the homeless. Years of poor choices had all but destroyed his body, and he languished in bed for days. Gradually, with rest, proper nutrition and hydration, and the introduction of appropriate medications, his body began to respond. His vital signs improved, and he was finally able to take his meals in the dining room with the other patients. He began spending more time out of bed, helping with daily chores and getting to know the staff and other patients. A ready smile and laugh and a sense of humor began to be revealed. Michael was rising from near death in more than just a physical way. He completed the facility’s drug rehab program and was then able to move into Kairos, the long-term housing program of Christ House for former patients committed to recovery.
When Michael put on more strength-giving weight and muscle he could often be seen on weekends helping to strip and re-wax the floors, giving other patients haircuts, or giving a hand in any number of jobs that needed doing. He became a regular in the Christ House worship service, too, serving communion, reading scripture, or sharing from his heart when called upon. He seemed to have opened some previously-shut doors of his life to God, and God, in turn, seemed to be filling him with abundant life. The addiction to drugs was displaced by the much more powerful high of God’s abundant blessings.
When Michael heard that a group of Christ House staff persons and Kairos residents were going to the Christian community of prayer, scripture, and singing in Taize, France, he jumped at the opportunity. Taize draws thousands of persons, mostly young people, from all over the world at a time. Three times a day the bells of Taize ring out to summon the pilgrims to worship. During one evening worship time in Taize, Michael found himself standing before this group of several thousand pilgrim worshippers telling them how God had saved and was still working in his life to give him an abundance of blessings he never dreamed possible. Afterwards, scores of young people crowded around him to get to know him better and hear more about his changed life.
One of the saints of old has written that “we have not because we ask not.” Michael did ask. He was asking of God by opening his life to God’s seemingly impossible possibilities. And who could have imagined the abundant, mega-joyous results?
Prayer: Gracious God, on this Christmas Eve ripe with joy and promise as we await the celebration of Christ’s birth, let us not forget that You are the great Dreamer of joyful dreams, the supreme Lord of joyful imagination, and that with You, nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible. Amen.
For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here.