Younger Children’s Activity Pages
Older Children’s Activity Pages
Good morning! This page is intended to both serve as a continuing worship option for those participating in our worship service from home, and to serve in place of print resources during our in-person worship. Following the worship service on Sunday, one or more video recordings from the service will be placed on this page, including the sermon. This may take several hours, due to the time needed to process the videos. We will email the congregation when the recordings have been posted. If you would like to be added to our congregational email list, please contact pvcob.alive@gmail.com.
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Indoor seating is available in the sanctuary with the live stream of the service on the screen.
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We are planning a Brethren Disaster Ministries trip to Dayton, Ohio for August 22 -28. If you are interested in participating, or would like more information, please contact Eddie Meyerhoeffer.
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“Wind and Word” Bible Study takes place at 7PM on Tuesday evenings in the Pavilion. This is a casual study of the book of Acts, and all are encouraged to come as they are available.
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There will be a Men’s Breakfast Saturday, August 14th at 8:30 am. Come join us for coffee, danishes, and fellowship!
- We will be having another family activity day on August 20th from 5:30-7:30pm.
- Thank you all for your submissions to our August Newsletter. The deadline for including items in the September Newsletter will be August 25.
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Congratulations to the Pleasant Valley Softball Team for winning the Championship!
- As a reminder, please note that the Rockingham County Fair is hosting a concert with Jimmy Fortune and the Isaacs at the Pepsi Grandstand August 15. Group discounts are available for purchases of 10 or more tickets. Please call the fair office for more information or obtain your individual tickets online at www.rockinghamcountyfair.com.
Coming to Pleasant Valley This Fall: Life Groups!
The best way to get connected at Pleasant Valley is by joining one of our Life Groups. Life Groups consist of 6-12 adults who meet weekly or bi-weekly throughout the year. Life Groups help us grow in our relationships with each other and in our faith. These groups knit the church together as group members build friendships, pray, and study the Bible together. The following acrostic further defines the purpose of Life Groups:
Lean on Jesus as we
Ignite faithful discipleship,
Fellowship in love, and
Encourage Christian growth.
Groups will begin meeting in September, and sign-ups will be available at church and online during the month of August. There will be Life Groups for everyone, and we encourage and challenge you to help us form new groups based on interests and preferences.
Click here to sign up or use the QR code to the left.
If you have any questions, please contact Pastor Rebecca.
Life Group Committee: Pastor Rebecca House, Sara Houff, Karissa Ruiz, and Carol Wilson
GET EXCITED!
Here In This Place
Verse 1
Here in this place, new light is streaming,
now is the darkness vanished away.
See, in this space, our fears and our dreamings,
brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in – the lost and forsaken,
gather us in – the blind and the lame.
Call to us now, and we shall awaken,
we shall arise at the sound of our name.
Verse 3
Here we will take the wine and the water,
here we will take the bread of new birth.
Here you shall call your sons and your daughters,
call us anew to be salt for the earth.
Give us to drink the wine of compassion,
give us to eat the bread that is you.
Nourish us well, and teach us to fashion
lives that are holy and hearts that are true
Verse 4
Not in the dark of buildings confining,
not in some heaven, light years away,
but here in this place, the new light is shining;
now is the Kingdom, now is the day.
Gather us in – and hold us forever,
gather us in – and make us your own.
Gather us in – all peoples together,
fire of love in our flesh and our bone.
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Here In This Place
Lord Jesus,
You are the reason for our gathering today.
Because of you, we have known forgiveness
Because of you, we have received redemption
Because of you, we know hope.
You are our life! You are our healing! You are our salvation!
And so we turn to you with all that we are.
We confess to you our weakness.
We are flighty in our commitments.
We lose track of what is important.
We are quick to anger and slow to forgive.
We need your Spirit to help us live in a new way.
And we are blessed because you have looked upon us with compassion and grace.
You have come to be our shepherd.
You have come to bind our wounds.
You have come to lead us in the ways that make for peace.
We ask today, that you would bring healing to those around us who are hurting.
Teach us how to settle disagreement in ways that bring reconciliation instead of war.
Teach us to share from the bounty that you provide, so that all are fed.
Bring your justice to life in our hearts and our world.
Nurture our Spirits to grow stronger in you;
So that we may become more confident and fearless in your promise,
So our witness will be a love greater than our own,
So we will be known as you children, sharing your blessing here on Earth. Amen.
The Love Feast doesn’t just happen. In June our deacons met together to discuss planning for today. We coordinated who would be available to set the table and prepare the food. We discussed how to arrange the space, since this is a little bit different format than we have ever participated in before. Follow-up conversations confirmed the details. This week we started to put everything together. A couple of our deacons made the bread. Fruit was prepared. This morning stations for feetwashing were put out. In the same way, the meal that Jesus ate with the disciples didn’t just happen. Jesus sent Peter and John ahead to make preparations for the meal. A room was already set aside. A table had been arranged. But there was a greater preparation that Jesus addressed when the disciples arrived for the meal. It was the preparation of the heart. As Jesus said, He had eagerly desired to have this meal with them. And we should contemplate exactly what it was that Jesus desired.
Jesus desired to have time with them, to be able to share with them. Jesus desired to be able to sit, and pass food together, and to be able to enjoy being together. But he also wanted an opportunity to try to make certain they understood. He was a servant of love. He was making sacrifices in love. And these sacrifices would not be in vain. And in all these things he was seeking to prepare them for the days to come. So I invite you today, to reflect on what has come before today. I invite you to pause in Jesus’ love, knowing that he has desired to have this meal with you, so you will be blessed, so you will receive his loving service, so you too will share in the bread and the cup. It doesn’t just happen. Jesus has prepared it for us. Let us pause and give thanks for the greatness of Jesus love.
Bread of Life
Verse 1
feeds the hunger of my heart,
may the thanks that you have spoken
bless each loaf I break apart.
Verse 2
speak my gratitude for grace,
lest the treasure I am holding
disappear before my face.
Verse 3
Lord, I welcome you to table;
grace my supper ever new.
With your feast of love enable
every guest to live for you.
CCLI #1699256
Jesus was eager to share the Passover meal with his disciples. After seclusion and separation over the past year, we too, have longed to celebrate together. We are eager for this opportunity to gather, to feast together, to BE together. Today, we celebrate all these things while we also celebrate the gathering of Jesus with his disciples. Being together in Christ is a sacred time. When we get together, we have the opportunity to share the excitement of what we have experienced and the frustration and struggles around missed opportunities. We can take the time to recognize when we have known the presence of God and where we have encountered Jesus in our lives and the lives of others. We can talk about the past and share our hopes for the future. So, as we eat and catch up, some things we can talk about together are:
What have you seen Jesus doing in this past year?
What has inspired you?
What have you struggled with?
What do you hope for in the year to come?
Ever-present God, we are glad to welcome you to our conversations this morning. It is good to remember where we have been and that you have been with us along the way. It is good to be together, to celebrate, and to share our hope in you. Bless this time of eating and speaking, this time of forming and strengthening bonds that are created through your love for us, as shown through Jesus Christ. It is in his name we pray, Amen.
Hebrews 10:19-25 NRSV
Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
John 13:3-15 NRSV
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Verse 1
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father.*
There is no shadow of turning with thee.
You change not, your compassions, they fail not.
As you have been you forever will be.
Refrain
Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed your hand has provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Verse 2
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,
join with all nature in manifold witness
to your great faithfulness, mercy, and love.
Refrain
Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed your hand has provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
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Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Matthew 26:26-29 NRSV
While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’ Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.’
Almighty God,
You formed the very earth and everything in it and declared it good. But when you broke the bread and gave it to the disciples, you made it more than good. You made it sacred. When you poured the cup, you gave yourself, in order to save us. We receive them today in humility. We know we cannot earn these gifts, and we are grateful for the grace that declares us worthy in love.
In that same Spirit of generosity, we pray that your sharing would continue through us. May the power of your love overflow in our hearts, to share and spread, until who hunger and thirst for justice and holiness are satisfied.
In Jesus’ love, Amen.
Lord, as you have given, may we receive,
for the renewal of our souls,
the renewal of your love,
the coming of your new way in the earth.
May we never take it for granted,
but receive it new each day,
as fresh nourishment for our spirits,
as life that none can take from us,
as your salvation poured out for us.
In Jesus, our Lord, we pray. Amen.
When the disciples came to the Upper Room,
They did not know completely
what Jesus was doing.
When Jesus rose from the table,
and put on the servants garments
They did not comprehend.
But Jesus was speaking clearly that night
In word and deed
In love and compassion
In Spirit and Power
Jesus washed the disciples feet,
He told Peter clearly
“If I do not wash your feet,
You will have no part of me”
And Peter,
Wholehearted Peter,
Was immediately all in.
“Wash all of me, Lord.
Don’t miss a part!”
Jesus had to have chuckled.
“This is enough!”
And he went to each
Basin and towel in hand.
And then, when they were clean
He stood and took the bread
He broke and handed it
To each in love.
He poured the cup,
The blood of his covenant
Forgiveness of sin
Poured out for many.
He passed it ‘round the table,
Speaking the promise,
“We will drink this again
In my Father’s House.”
And Jesus left the table,
And went out to pray
Taking his disciples with him.
They would run
But he would lead them back.
We will love
As Christ Loves Us.
Blessed Be the Ties that Bind
Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.
CCLI #1699256
Blessed Be the Ties that Bind
Go in God’s Peace. Amen.
