Younger Children’s Bulletin
Older Children’s Bulletin
This week the Church Board approved a proposal to resume in person worship services beginning June 7. We plan to initially meet in the pavilion. More details will be available in a letter to come later this week. Thank you for your prayers as we make preparations to be able to gather once again!
If you have any items that you wish to submit for the June Newsletter, please have them into the church office by May 19.
Please be in prayer for the health of our church and our neighbors, and especially those who are working to keep the rest of us healthy in so many ways.
We ask for prayer today for:
- Members and family of our congregation recovering from illness and surgery.
- Healing for those in our community and around us currently fighting the COVID-19 virus.
- Protection and strength for the medical and nursing staff in our community.
- Those who have lost jobs during the pandemic.
Prayers around the denomination and Shenandoah District
- Thank you for your prayers for Wayne Pence and his cancer treatments. He completed radiation therapy this week.
- Please pray for our denominational leadership, as we adapt to having had to cancel Annual Conference for the first time in over 200 years.
- Please pray for Camp Brethren Woods as they have announced that Summer Camp is cancelled for this year, and are adapting to provide other offerings.
- Please pray for pastors around our district. Several have experienced hospitalizations in the past month for various ailments.
We have a list of volunteers that are ready to help you by running errands (picking up groceries, medication, etc.). Please call the church office, your deacon, or our Administrative Assistant, Anne Bowman, at home to make arrangements.
The Church Board is inviting those who are able to make donations to our Community Needs Fund. If you are receiving a Government Stimulus Check that you do not really need, this is one way to get the funds to those who do need them. We have received a couple of inquiries for help at the church so far. We expect this to accelerate in the coming weeks.
The Stewards are working hard looking for ways to reduce expenses during this difficult financial season. If you are able, you can submit offerings through the church website, or by by mailing a check to the church. Please note that offerings submitted through the website do incur a small processing fee. (That fee is smaller for donations from a checking account (ACH) than it is for credit card processing.) When you give your online offering, you can elect to either donate the amount required to cover the fee, or have it deducted from your offering amount. Either way, the total amount is included in your tax-deductible giving. Thank you for your continued giving to the ministries of the church.
How Firm a Foundation
Prayer for Others during the Pandemic
Loving and healing God,
we turn to you in prayer,
confident that you are with us
and with all people in every moment.
We stand before you as people of hope,
trusting in your care and protection.
May we be encouraged by the faithfulness of your love
and soothed of our anxieties.
Generous God,
fill us with compassion and concern for others, young and old,
that we may look after one another in these challenging days.
Bring healing to those who are sick with the virus
and be with their families.
May those who have died rest in your eternal embrace.
Comfort their family and friends.
Strengthen and protect all medical professionals
caring for the sick
and all who work in our medical facilities.
Give wisdom to leaders and decision-makers
that they may make the right choices for the well-being of people.
We pray in gratitude for all those in our country
who will continue to work in the days ahead
in so many fields of life for the sake of us all.
Bless them and keep them safe.
O God of creation and life,
we place ourselves in your protection.
May the mantle of your peace
enfold us this day and tomorrow.
~ from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kildare & Leighlin, Ireland. Adapted.
I Will Rise
There’s a peace I’ve come to know
though my heart and flesh may fail.
There’s an anchor for my soul:
I can say “It is well.”
Jesus has overcome
and the grave is overwhelmed.
The victory is won.
He is risen from the dead.
And I will rise when He calls my name.
No more sorrow, no more pain.
I will rise on eagles’ wings.
Before my God, fall on my knees
and rise.
I will rise.
There’s a day that’s drawing near,
when this darkness breaks to light.
And the shadows disappear.
And my faith shall be my eyes.
Jesus has overcome.
and the grave is overwhelmed.
The victory is won.
He is risen from the dead.
And I will rise when He calls my name.
No more sorrow, no more pain.
I will rise on eagles’ wings.
Before my God, fall on my knees
and rise.
I will rise
And I hear the voice of many angels sing,
“Worthy is the Lamb.”
And I hear the cries of every longing heart,
“Worthy is the Lamb.”
Repeat
“Worthy is the Lamb.”
“Worthy is the Lamb.“
And I will rise
I will rise
And I will rise
I will rise
I will Rise
Psalm 16
Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, ‘You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.’
As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble,
in whom is all my delight.
Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows;
their drink-offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names upon my lips.
The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.
I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
For you do not give me up to Sheol,
or let your faithful one see the Pit.
You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.
Thank you to Eddie Meyerhoeffer, Barry Ritchie, and Ed Huffman for building and setting up our Mini Free Pantry! Thank you also to all of you who have brought in food items to share!
Next week we will be distributing fliers and other communications in our neighborhood to let everyone know that if they are in need of food, we have canned goods available. This is not a substitute for our local food pantries (www.veronafoodpantry.org/ and www.mybethanyumc.org/food-pantry/), but is intended to help out anyone who finds themselves without and unable to reach the food pantry immediately.
We also hope that this way of sharing will encourage our community to be looking for other ways to share and care for each other. May God bless our sharing, and provide for all who are in need.
Revelation 21:1-4
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”
Dear God,
On this day I ask You to grant this request?
May I know who I am and what I am,
Every moment of every day.
May I be a catalyst for light and love,
And bring inspiration to those whose eyes I meet.
May I have the strength to stand tall in the face of conflict,
And the courage to speak my voice, even when I’m scared.
May I have the humility to follow my heart,
And the passion to live my soul’s desires.
May I seek to know the highest truth
And dismiss the gravitational pull of my lower self.
May I embrace and love the totality of myself?
My darkness as well as my light.
May I be brave enough to hear my heart?
To let it soften so that I may gracefully
Choose faith over fear.
Today is my day to surrender anything that stands
Between the sacredness of my humanity and my divinity.
May I be drenched in my Holiness
And engulfed by Your love.
May all else melt away.
And so it is.
– Debbie Ford
https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/morning-and-new-beginnings-prayers
If God Built A City
If God were to construct a city…
Would some be left homeless?
If God were to cultivate a city…
Would some eat feasts while others ate none?
If God were to shape a city…
Would it hide darkness and force the poor into forgotten corners?
If God were to craft a city…
What would it include?
Gardens, where any and all could both contribute and eat.
(And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:8-9)
Houses, where all would know safety and warmth.
(‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?’ John 14:1-2)
Schools, where all could learn, not just about how to add numbers, but also how to create holy beauty and build just righteousness.
(But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:33-34)
If God were to build a city, in the middle would be a river of life flowing from the throne of God. It would water trees of life which would produce fruit and vegetation for the nourishment and healing of the nations. It would have no temple, for God would be its temple. The people would see his face, and darkness would vanish, and they would enjoy his glory forever. (Revelation 22:1-5)
Come We That Love The Lord
Come, we that love the Lord,
and let our joys be known;
join in a song with sweet accord,
join in a song with sweet accord,
and thus surround the throne,
and thus surround the throne.
Let those refuse to sing
who never knew our God;
but children of the heav’nly King,
but children of the heav’nly King,
may speak their joys abroad,
may speak their joys abroad.
The hill of Zion yields
a thousand sacred sweets
before we reach the heav’nly fields,
before we reach the heav’nly fields,
or walk the golden streets,
or walk the golden streets.
Refrain
We’re marching to Zion,
beautiful, beautiful Zion;
We’re marching upward to Zion;
the beautiful city of God.
Come We That Love The Lord
Peace Within
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you
May you be confident knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
– St. Therèse of Lisieux and St. Theresa of Avila
https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/morning-and-new-beginnings-prayers
