Worship Connection for November 7, 2021

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.

• Upcoming Worship Plans!

• Children’s Sunday School will resume on November 7, at 9:50AM.
  

  If you are not vaccinated, our Church Board asks that you please wear a mask in the building. Given the current prevalence of Covid-19 infection in our area, I personally request that we all wear masks when we are in groups indoors. Thank you for your cooperation and care.

• Our next Church Board meeting will be held at 12:15 following our worship service on November 7. 

• We will be hosting a CROP Hunger Walk starting at our church on November 13 at 1:00PM. CROP raises funds to help provide food for the hungry both locally and around the world. We will be joined by other churches in our community as we walk together to make a difference! Online registration is available at https://events.crophungerwalk.org/2021/event/weyerscaveva.

  CROP Hunger Walks are community-based walk events held in cities and towns across the United States, raising funds to support the global mission of Church World Service, a faith-based organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty displacement and disaster. Twenty-five percent of the funds raised will go to support our local food pantries.

• Backpack Pals are accepting donations of Pudding Cups and Ramen Noodles! Please leave any donations in the blue bin located in the Narthex.  Thank you! 

• We are hosting our annual Christmas Concerts with Jimmy Fortune at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall, on December 1^st and 2^nd at 7:00 PM. Tickets are available through the fair office.
  www.rockinghamcountyfair.com (540) 434-0005

• We are excited to share a fundraising opportunity to support the Church of the Brethren Haiti Medical Project. The Haiti Medical project is a ministry of the Church of the Brethren in Haiti, providing basic health care to their neighbors. The project began with Mobile Medical Clinics, and has now expanded to community development work, including building clean wells and latrines to help with sanitation.

  This year, a matching grant has been given to the Haiti Medical Project to help fund the building of latrines in Haiti. Additionally, we have secured another $5,000 matching grant from Karis, to help with this project. This means that the first $5,000 we raise, will send $20,000 to build latrines in Haiti! Funds beyond our first $5,000 will continue to be matched as available from the Haiti Medical Project grant.

  We hope to share the invitation to contribute beyond our congregation as well. Our music leadership has just completed production of an album of hymns and praise songs, entitled “While I Run This Race.” We will be distributing this album with an invitation to make donations to the Haiti Medical Project.

  Donations can be given to the church office, or placed in the designated donation box on Sunday morning. Checks can be written to “Pleasant Valley COB” with “Haiti” on the memo line.

It’s hard to give our full attention sometimes. Our minds wander and our
energy is elsewhere.

Come.

School. Work. Chores. Friends. Family. Responsibilities. We are busy
and often distracted people; yet, we have come today.

Come. Listen.

We have come today, ready to listen for the Holy Spirit.

Come. Listen. Remember.

The Holy Spirit will remind us that we belong to God.

Come. Listen. Remember. Build.

Because we belong to God, we will build our lives wisely on the solid rock
of Jesus’ teachings.

We belong to God! We will build our lives wisely on the solid rock of Jesus’
teachings!

written by Becky Ullom Naugle

1 John 4:7-16 NRSV

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Saviour of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

You Never Let Go

Verse 1
Even though I walk through the valley
Of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle
Of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back I know You are near

Pre-Chorus
And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear
Whom then shall I fear

Chorus
Oh no You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no You never let go
In ev’ry high and ev’ry low
Oh no You never let go
Lord You never let go of me

Verse 2
And I can see a light that is coming
For the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth

Chorus
Oh no You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no You never let go
In ev’ry high and ev’ry low
Oh no You never let go
Lord You never let go of me

Bridge
Yes I can see a light
That is coming for the heart that holds on
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
Still I will praise You
Still I will praise You

Chorus
Oh no You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no You never let go
In ev’ry high and ev’ry low
Oh no You never let go
Lord You never let go of me

CCLI #1699256

In Prayer Together

Loving Lord,
In the beginning, You created us out of your love.
You formed skies and seas,
Mountains and plains,
You leveled the steps
and froze glaciers at the poles.
As we admire the changes leaves and feel the chill of autumn air,
we pause in wonder at your creation
and the place that you have given us in it.
You have brought your word to us through tablets and prophets
And lived as your word among us in Jesus.
In you word you instructed us to bring the children to you
and you have called us your own children
adopted in love
and blessed to live life holy and full.
Help us, Lord, to be encouragers and caregivers for each other.
Remember that we are each stewards of your grace,
held in trust for those you will bring us together with so we can share.
Forgive us for the time when we have considered your blessing our own.
Remind us that your love and grace are our only final salvation
and the greatest richness of today.
We ask your blessing, O God, on each one who serves in your name.
May they be instruments of your healing and redemption.
May evidence of your work surround them
joy, compassion, growth, and wholeness.
Bring your comfort to those who hurt.
Bring healing to those who are ill.
Set all of our courses towards your promise of a kingdom of righteousness
where we will know you and your peace
forver and ever. Amen.

Prayer:
Generous God who builds and sustains all things, thank you for faithfully caring
for us and for revealing your presence in the world. With our feet planted on your
promises, our hearts thankful for your provision, and our hands open to your
possibilities, we offer these tithes and offerings to be used for your good purposes
in the ministries of our church and for the benefit of our neighbors near and far.
Please receive and use these gifts to create and recreate environments where all
people can find refuge, stability, and love in you. In the name of Jesus we pray,
Amen.

Go now, living into the teachings of Jesus as the bedrock of your life. Draft the love of God into the blueprints for your house by talking with others who have built wisely before. Ask for help when you need it and be ready to offer help to others when you can. Build wisely in Christ!

Becky Ullom Naugle, adapted