DREAM ACRES Official Newsletter of the First Presbyterian Church Omro 1 Lenten schedule Dream Acres LENTEN, HOLY WEEK AND EASTER WORSHIP SCHEDULE “At the Cross” A series of monologues will be presented Wednesday evenings – February 25, March 4, March 11, March 18, and March 25 – during Lent at a service of prayer and meditation, immediately following a light supper at 6 p.m. provided by the Church Life Committee. Please contact the office if you can furnish a simple dessert (to serve approximately 25-35) for one of Wednesday meals Maundy Thursday, April 2, at 7 p.m. – We will share the Lord’s Supper during our traditional Tennebrae service of readings and hymns. Good Friday, April 3 Worship at 6:30 p.m. Resurrection / Easter Sunday, April 5 Pastor Travis J. Shafer Worship/Sunday School: 9:00 am Contact us at: [email protected]In case of emergency: call the office at 920-685-2610 Check our website at: omropres.com Or the Presbytery at:
Transcript
DREAM ACRESOfficial Newsletter of the First Presbyterian Church Omro March 2015
1 Lenten schedule2 OGHS3 Living garden4 Session5 News and notes6 March calendar
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LENTEN, HOLY WEEKAND EASTER WORSHIP SCHEDULE
“At the Cross”A series of monologues will be presented Wednesday evenings – February 25, March 4, March 11, March 18, and March 25 – during Lent at a service of prayer and meditation, immediately following a light supper at 6 p.m. provided by the Church Life Committee.
Please contact the office if you can furnish a simple dessert (to serve approximately 25-35) for one of Wednesday meals
Maundy Thursday, April 2, at 7 p.m. – We will share the Lord’s Supper during our traditional Tennebrae service of readings and hymns.
Good Friday, April 3Worship at 6:30 p.m.
Resurrection / Easter Sunday, April 5Breakfast at 7:45 a.m.
Worship and Celebration of the Lord’s Supper at 9:00 a.m.
WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES ONE GIFT MAKE ANYWAY?(How one offering counts, again and again - A PC(USA) Special Offerings blog by Tricia McReynolds)
Each year, One Great Hour of Sharing gives us the opportunity to support disaster relief, hunger initiatives, and self-development of people. Even if you’ve given to this Offering in the past, you may have wondered: Does my individual gift make much difference?
The problems OGHS seeks to address are daunting. Millions displaced by disaster or political upheaval. Whole communities without enough food to eat. Entire generations without access to education and opportunity. In Galatians 6, Paul writes, “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all” (v. 10). Through God and the work OGHS supports, meeting even these vast challenges is possible.
When you give to OGHS, it’s about more than what you put in the collection envelope. Your gift is added to the gift of the person in the pew beside you, and the congregation across town. It is multiplied by the volunteers helping God’s children around the world, as they turn a handful of dollars into a tableful of meals, a single check into gallons of clean water. And your gift is amplified by those who are ultimately helped. When their stomachs are full, their schools are open, and they have a safe place to sleep, they are free to turn their attention to more than survival: to raise a healthy family, to finish school, to serve others, to grow with God. In each good act—weeks, months, and years from now—your gift is making a difference.
So, if you have given before, but always wondered if it mattered: know that it does. If you have never given because you didn’t think you could make an impact: know that you can.
THANK YOU …Greetings from the Winnebago Presbytery Finance Commission. I am writing to thank Omro First
Presbyterian for meeting its 2014 Unified Mission Pledge as well as paying its 2014 Per Capita.The total of the per capita income and mission support is what makes up our Presbytery budget. This
enables the Presbytery to pay its staff of which, like your budget, staff salaries are the largest part of its budget.
This financial support enables us to pay the rent for our office, its utilities, office equipment and supplies, as well as making it possible for Presbytery’s staff and volunteers to service the needs of its 33 member churches. A few examples of things that the presbytery spends money on are CCLI and CCVI licenses so that our congregations can use music in their bulletins, use video clips in worship, etc; support for United Church Camps and camp scholarships for campers; and support of the annual Synod School, to name just a few.
In brief, the Presbytery’s income comes from churches such as yours and the Presbytery’s work supports your congregation, your pastor, and mission causes in your area. I and the finance commission appreciate and thank your congregation for its past and continued financial support.
Gratefully,
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Lew Smith, Elder member of the Presbytery Finance CommissionFebruary 6, 2015
Living Garden” Order Form - 2015
The Deacons invite you to order a flowering spring plant for the “Living Garden” Easter Sunday. Please complete the order form and return it with cash or check payable to 1st Presbyterian Church by Sunday, March 15th. (Since multiple sizes are available for some plants, please circle the size you wish.) We are ordering the plants from Stein’s Garden Center, so if you would like to preview the various plants, feel free to stop in at
Stein’s. The plants will be labeled with your name and you are welcome to take them with you following the Easter service. We want everyone to enjoy the beauty of an indoor garden along with the promise of new life through Jesus Christ.______________________________________________________________
Type of Plant Price How Many Amount DueMums 6” $11 _______ __________ Azalea 6” $25 _______ __________ Daffodil 6” or 4” $9 / $5 _______ __________ African Violets 4” $4 _______ __________ Cyclamen 6” or 4” $14 / $7 _______ __________ Kalanchoe 6” or 4” $11 / $5 _______ __________ Tulips 6” or 4” $9 / $5 _______ __________ Gerbera Daisy 6” or 4” $11 / $7 _______ __________
My cash/check for $_________ is attached.
In Loving Memory of ____________________________________
Given by _____________________________________________
-OR-
In Loving Honor of _____________________________________
Given by _____________________________________________
(Please write or print all names clearly, exactly as you want them to appear in the memorial bulletin.)
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SESSION NEWS (February 16, 2015, meeting) Authorized obtaining a credit card, primarily so that online purchases can be charged directly
to the church and not to Rev. Shafer’s or Cindy’s credit cards. They will be the only authorized persons on the card. Anyone ordering online for the church should contact Cindy so she can place the order.
Approved Rev. Shafer’s request for study leave March 20-28. He will be sitting in on classes at Liberty University Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Session will lead worship, Sunday, March 22nd. Approved the development of a campaign to purchase an “automated external defibrillator”
(“AED”) for the church
MISSION WORK DAY at the Oshkosh Habitat ReStore, Saturday, March 7th from 10-3. They will put us to work building store displays and putting together a display board of Habitat homes built in the Oshkosh area. All high-school age and above are welcome and encouraged to join in this outreach project.
IMPROVING OUR ON-LINE PRESENCE …Thanks to Eve Funnell for posting to our Facebook page … her photos are really making a difference in our visibility. Watch for her roaming around, taking pictures with her phone or camera. If you do not want to be in any photo shared on FB or the website, please let her know or remove yourself from the picture. For security reasons, no names will be attached to the photos … and photos of children will not be shared without parental authorization.
KWIK TRIP FUNDRAISERStop in the office during the week to purchase your Kwik Trip cards, or get them from Cindy Sunday mornings. We still have a good supply of cards – in denominations of $25 and $50 – that were purchased with last year’s 10% discount. So, you still have the opportunity to “make a 10% donation” with each card you purchase.
A TIME TO TURN (An excerpt from the Companion to the Book of Common Worship (Geneva Press, 2003, 109-110)
The Lenten journey from the ashes of death to resurrected life begins on the first day of Lent, Ash Wednesday, which signifies a time to turn around, to change directions, to repent. This first day of Lent reminds us that unless we are willing to die to our old selves, we cannot be raised to new life with Christ. The first step of this journey calls us to acknowledge and confront our mortality, individually and corporately. In many traditions, this is symbolized through the imposition of ashes — placing a cross on one’s forehead. During the imposition of ashes the words: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19) are repeated again and again. We are to remember that we are but temporary creatures, always on the edge of death. On Ash Wednesday, we begin our Lenten trek through the desert toward Easter.
Ashes on the forehead is a sign of our humanity and a reminder of our mortality. Lent is not a matter of being good, and wearing ashes is not to show off one’s faith. The ashes are a reminder to us and our communities of our finite creatureliness. The ashes we wear on our Lenten journey
symbolize the dust and broken debris of our lives as well as the reality that eventually each of us will die.
Trusting in the “accomplished fact” of Christ’s resurrection, however, we listen for the Word of God in the time-honored stories of the church’s Lenten journey. We follow Jesus into the wilderness, resist temptation, fast, and proceed “on the way” to Jerusalem and the cross. Our Lenten journey is one of metanoia (“turning around”), of changing directions from self-serving toward the self-giving way of the cross.
PRAYER CHAIN (last names are not shown due to privacy concerns on the web)Let us keep the following members and friends in prayer:FOR HEALING: Marie S., Ray S., Dan P., Wayne and Bernice S., Ken W., Richard M., Carlos K., Helen K.FOR STRENGTH AND SAFETY: Members of the military and their families; victims and survivors of floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters; Christians throughout the world who are being persecuted because of their faith.AT CARE/ASSISTED LIVING CENTERS: Marge H., Joan M., Dorothea S.
If you would like to include a prayer request for the weekly bulletin, please call it to the office by Wednesday noon. Let us access God through the power of prayer each week. Names will remain on the list for two weeks, unless we are notified otherwise.
If you would like to place someone’s name on the prayer chain, you may call the church at 685-2610 or Rozanne Werzinske at 685-6074.
When you call the prayer chain, we will assume that it is okay to print the name in the bulletin and will do so unless you say otherwise.
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REMEMBER TO BRING DONATIONS TO THE FOOD PANTRY ON THE 3RD SUNDAY OF EACH MONTH.
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Fall and Winter Office Hours:Monday-Wednesday: 10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Thursday: noon to 5 p.m.Friday: 10 a.m. to noon
There may be occasions when hours will vary due to appointments or meetings; so if you plan to visit the office, please call first to be sure
someone’s here.
Rev. Shafer is usually in the office Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons.
