Hope Happenings
There are always new adventures going on in the life of our congregation, so keep checking this page for updates on news items. Here's the latest from the April/May 2010 Newsletter:
June/July 2010
Welcome Table Returns this June!
In what is becoming something of a growing tradition, Hope will be hosting another round of summer “Welcome Table Wednesdays” this June—on June 9, 16, 23, and 30—open to all. Welcome Table is a two-part evening event. Come at 5:30pm with friends and family and a dish to share for a weekly potluck dinner—outside on the front lawn and porch of the church if the weather permits, and indoors if not. And then from 6:15-7:00pm, stick around for intergenerational (that is, something for everybody) hands-on experiments in living the faith. Curious? Come and see—and eat with us! Been to a Welcome Table Wednesday before? Then come and bring a friend this year, and watch as the table grows and the community of Jesus expands.
2010
Hoodlebug Parade and Float
Hope is once again putting together a float for the Homer City Hoodlebug Festival on the afternoon Sunday, July 11. This year’s theme for the Festival and Parade is a coal-mining theme, “Hoodlebug Moves 16 Tons,” so we will be making a display to invite our whole community to “Dig Deep Into God’s Love.” Come and lend a hand as we put our float together on two dates this summer: Sat., June 26, at 10:00am, and Sat., July 10, also at 10:00am. Plan on meeting at Hope on both occasions, and if weather doesn’t cooperate, we will move to the Sinks’ garage from there. You can also be a part of this project by walking with our float and being a part of the parade itself on July 11—if you’re interested, see Pastor Steve!
Hope
Family Quilt—Starting This Summer
Thanks to some skilled volunteers from WELCA, Hope is going to be creating a Church-Family-Quilt to decorate our church building and celebrate being a community of faith together. For the first several weeks in June, you can pick up a plain white fabric square in the narthex for your household, which will be your household’s quilt square. Decorate it any way you want, with whatever tools you want—paint, marker, embroidering, etc.—to represent your household, and then in August, we will ask everyone in the congregation to bring their squares back to be assembled and quilted together as a living, never-finished, always-growing picture of our church family. Each quilt square has a border of a half-inch drawn on it—stay inside those lines so that your whole design can be preserved in tact when the quilt is assembled. You and your household have all summer long to decide what you want to do with your square, so be creative. And then, keep your eyes open this fall to see this visual representation of the people and families of Hope!
Vacation
Bible School—July 18-22, 2010 at Hero Headquarters
Kids from preschool through sixth grade are invited to come this year’s joint Vacation Bible School in partnership between Hope and Homer City United Presbyterian Church. This year, we are spending our week (Sunday, July 18-Thursday, July 22) at “Hero Headquarters,” in training to be used by God as we hear stories about how God has done unexpected and amazing things through ordinary people in the Bible. VBS will run from 6:00-8:30pm every night, with a kick-off cookout supper on Sunday, July 18 at 5:00pm to get things started. All are welcome to VBS, and friends are invited, too! If you have questions about this year’s VBS adventure, see Pastor Steve!
Celebrating Confirmation at Hope
Hope celebrated the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost this year as Michaela Shaw affirmed her baptism and was confirmed. Michaela shared her final project—a modern day parable about God’s love in a story about a father who sacrifices his son to save someone in need of a second chance—in worship on Sunday, May 23, and then our congregation was invited to celebrate Michaela’s Confirmation and Mandy McElheny’s First Communion (from back in the fall) at a congregational lunch. At the lunch, Hope members were also asked to help “customize” Michaela’s Spark Study Bible by underlining important Bible verses. And we also witnessed the unveiling of a new piece of artwork that will become a new Hope (and New Life) confirmation tradition—a canvas with handprints of our confirmands and their confirmation verses. Each year as members of our church family are confirmed, their handprints will be added to the mural, as we watch our youth grow up in Christ together. See the pictures here of Michaela’s confirmation!
Recognizing Graduates
May 30 was the day Hope celebrated with our high school graduates, and this year, we have two to celebrate with. James Rizer graduates from Blairsville-Saltsburg High School, and Amber Metalla graduates from Homer-Center. In addition to our recognition of graduates during worship and gifts on behalf of the congregation to support them in the next chapters of their lives, the community celebrated with graduates at the Homer City Ministerium Baccalaureate Service on the evening of May 30, with Hope member and current vicar at Luther Chapel Lutheran Church, Tedd Cogar, giving the address this year. Congratulations to Amber and to James!
End-of-Year Sunday School Singers
On May 16, children from our Sunday School shared two songs with the congregation as we thanked our Sunday School teachers and other Christian Education leaders. During the Children’s Sermon, they sang “The Butterfly Song” and reminded us to be thankful that God made us just the way we are, and at the end of the song, they sang us a blessing in the song, “As You Go on Your Way.” Pictured here are the kids with their own created motions singing the prayer that Christ would be “within you to give you peace.” Special thanks go to Denise Shaw and Denise Liggett, who were steadfast as teachers this year, Donna Reed who served as Sunday School Superintendent, Marge Folckemer and Brianne Thomas who led music and other openings over the course of the year, and Renee Busi, whose ministry of encouragement for our teachers made them each feel valued! What a blessing that God raised up these people to make the story of Jesus real for our kids this year in Sunday School—and what a blessing that God raised up these children to bless us back!
Looking
Ahead…Hope Yard Sale (August) and Festival of Talents (September)
Mark your calendars now and get prepared for two upcoming events at Hope later this year. On Saturday, Aug. 14, we will once again have a church yard sale to benefit ministries beyond our doors, so we will soon be asking for your donated items to make this event a success. And then on September 25, we will host our fourth annual Festival of Talents, and we invite Hope members to be thinking of talents and abilities they can share—whether performed, visual, or in the form of handicrafts that could be sold to benefit this year’s cause (see more in the next issue of the newsletter!). Be thinking, too, about how you can be using your dollar-in-the-envelope to spread the Kingdom of God with others in this year!
