Mid-Week Visitor
Presbyterian Visitor
April 4, 2024
Thank you to everyone who provided food and helped with Soup on Saturday last month. This outreach program would not be possible without your help.
Also Thank You to everyone who helped provide treats and snacks for the Life Skills class Spring Party. The students and teachers of the class greatly appreciate it.
On Easter Sunday the sanctuary was beautifully adorned with colorful tulips, hyacinths, and other colorful spring flowers in memory of our loved ones that have entered their heavenly home.
The children enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt on the church lawn during Sunday School. Thank you everyone for the donations of candy to fill the eggs.
The second of the Women’s Association’s Pre-Tasting Dinners will be held on Thursday, April 11th at 6:00 p.m. in Fellowship Hall. This dinner will feature Vegetables and Desserts. Please remember to bring your recipe, along with your dish for everyone to sample. Hostesses will be Jane Lueking and Kayla Hendrix with devotions given by Phyllis Holt. This year’s Tasting Luncheon will take place on Friday, June 28th.
The Women’s Association will be hosting the Legion Dinner on Friday, April 12th at the American Legion. Please see the signup sheet on the narthex podium or Deb Cullison if you would like to help with this.
Full Life Development’s plant sales will be kicking off on April 13th with Potting Day. Everyone is invited to come out to Bradfield’s Landscaping at 9:00 a.m. on the 13th to start potting the plants. Orders will then be taken for these beautiful plants. The plants will be ready for pickup on Mother’s Day weekend.
Beginning this month, the Session has decided to return to the practice of passing the Communion elements, instead of being self-serve. Self-serve elements will still be available for those who may not feel comfortable with the passing of the elements. These elements may be found on the table in the back of the sanctuary.
The Rotary has once again started meeting for their meetings in the Fellowship Hall on Tuesdays. The Women’s Association will be serving luncheons to the Rotarians on the 4th Tuesdays of the month. The Women will be serving this month’s luncheon on April 23rd, with Jane Lueking as this month’s chairperson. Volunteers are needed to help provide the food and to work. Please see the signup sheet on the narthex podium.
The Trustees will be meeting on Monday, April 8th at 6:00 p.m. in the Seekers Room.
The Session will be meeting on Thursday, April 25th at 5:30 p.m. in the Seekers Room.
Please remember to let the church office know if you use the copier to make copies. Recently we have been having a larger than normal number of copies made. Our contract allows for a certain number of copies a month, after that we have to pay a fee for each copy over that. If you wish to make personal copies the cost is $0.10 for per page.
Are you missing a coat? We have two coats that have been left hanging in the coat room for several weeks.
Aspire -Just for Women will be taking place on Sunday, May 5th at the Methodist Church, doors open at 4:30 p.m. Come out and enjoy an evening of laughter, learning, stories, and music.
Pastor’s Message
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience!”
This is what I keep hearing about seeing the solar eclipse from within the path of totality on April 8 this year. It’s such a big deal that tens (maybe even hundreds) of thousands of people are expected to travel to our area of southern Indiana to witness it. Schools throughout the path of totality are closed for the day, making it feel like a holiday (though the closures likely have more to do with the confluence of the time of the eclipse with when schools let our for the day).
Ancient cultures, who did not have the benefit of astronomical science to predict such events, offer viewed solar eclipses as signs of doom, evidence that the gods were battling, or of divine displeasure with the current earthly government.
Other mythologies viewed solar eclipses as signs of unity between the sun and moon, and an especially
auspicious time to get married.
Despite our modern understanding of eclipses, they remain awe-inspiring events. Perhaps they are especially notable because they don’t happen all the time. If they did, we might view them less as a novelty, and more as an inconvenience.
The environmentalist Paul Hawken wrote,
Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years.
No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be
ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch
television.
Would that we could live our whole lives in the state of awe and wonder we anticipate at this “once-in-a-lifetime” event. The book of Lamentation (3:22-23) says,
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning.
Even within the constancy of God’s love, every day is a new, once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the wonder of God for that day. To give thanks for the everyday miracle of God’s creation always being made new around us.
In this Easter season, what everyday wonders might you pay attention to, and give thanks for?
In gratitude and wonder,
Pastor Hana
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~