Worship Connection for October 24, 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!

  
  We will continue to meet for one service at 11:00AM through November 7, when our Junior High youth will be leading us in Worship. Children’s Sunday School will also 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.

• 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! 

• Our Shenandoah District Conference will be held on November 6 at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. This will be a very different conference than we had originally hoped for, due to adjustments because of the continuing Covid-19 Pandemic. Please be in prayer for a successful conference and for Pastor Daniel as he serves as Moderator for the conference.

• 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.

We gather because of what we have seen,

And what we hope to see.

We gather because of God’s goodness,

And because there is not enough good around us.

We gather because of the stories of Jesus love,

And because we too are in need of healing.

We gather because of rainbows,

Because of pumpkins,

Because of children,

Because of grain in the fields,

Because we were fed,

Because we know we need more;

More than loaves and fishes,
More than signs and wonders,
More than loud music and bright lights.

We gather because we have been gathered.

We have been gathered and loved and healed and sent,

To claim the harvest and to sow the seed.

We have seen its own produce

In our hearts

And in the hearts of others.

And so we gather.

We gather in thanksgiving.
We gather in celebration.

We gather in prayer.
We gather as sinners.

We gather in forgiveness.

We gather before our God!

Hebrews 2:5-13 NRSV

Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere,
‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
   or mortals, that you care for them?
You have made them for a little while lower than the angels;
   you have crowned them with glory and honour,
   subjecting all things under their feet.’
Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying,
‘I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,
   in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.’
And again,
‘I will put my trust in him.’
And again,
‘Here am I and the children whom God has given me.’

How Can I Keep From Singing

CCLI #1699256

O Lord our God, you are wise;
You know our thoughts before we reveal them.

O Lord our God, you are compassionate;
You know our joys and fears before we name them.

O Lord our God, you are just;
You offer us mercy while we cringe
expecting judgment and punishment.

O Lord our God, you welcome every one of us;
In spite of our weaknesses, our failures, our doubts,
you lift us into your presence.

We give thanks and praise to you,
O Lord our God.

Now, may God be your peace.
The one who is our beginning is also our destination.
God is our strength in the wilderness
and our steadfast security at home.
Without God, we are not.
With God, we have everything.
Go, trusting in God. Amen.