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Welcome!
Radically Open to God
The SMC Mission is to
Love God, Love Others, and
Serve
the World.
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Join Us for Worship
SUNDAY
8 am
Holy Eucharist
10:15 am
Choral Eucharist
6 pm
Contemporary Eucharist
Healing Service
7 am
Holy Eucharist
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Your Vestry Members
Treasurer
Craig Maughan
Secretary
Todd Pittenger
Andrew Cole
Kathy Cox
Betsy Culpepper
Stephanie Higgins
Edye McNickle
Mike Robertson
Jan Tillman
Meggen Wilson
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Contact Us
Associate Minister
of Pastoral Care
Ashleigh Gonzalez
Submissions for the E-Messenger should be emailed to the Church Administrator by Tuesday at 5 pm for that week's edition. The E-Messenger is distributed every Thursday except during summer months.
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REFLECTIONS FROM FR. RICK
Independence Day
The Fourth of July may be America's favorite holiday. As Americans, we celebrate our freedom with parades, outdoor grilling, watermelon, apple pie, friends, family, fireworks, and the "The Star-Spangled Banner," "God Bless America," and anything by John Philip Souza fills the air. It's a day when we pause and give thanks for the privilege of our independence that many in our world have yet to experience.
Likewise, as Christians, each Sunday we gather to celebrate the reality of God's gift of salvation and our freedom granted to us in Christ. The Gospel of John teaches that Jesus said, "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Though we gather locally, we celebrate with our brothers and sisters throughout the world our unity in Christ and our liberty from sin, freedom from hopelessness and despair, and ultimately, freedom from death. This is God's gift offered in his son Jesus Christ to the whole world -- our independence declared from a nail-scarred wooden cross and an empty tomb.
Just as we have laws that govern us as Americans to help maintain and secure our freedom, as Christians, love is the primary law given to us by Jesus to govern our lives. For Jesus, love included our enemies as well as our fellow citizens; it embraced the poor as well as the wealthy, and the forgotten as well as the privileged. God's presence and action are to be understood primarily in terms of love. There are no outsiders to God's love, and this includes nations as well as individuals. God loves the U.S., and God loves every other people in the world.
For all our freedoms, we can say, "Thanks be to God."
Happy Independence Day.
In Christ's Love,
Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, we welcome and accept you, and we trust God to take you where God wants you in God's timing. We want to be a safe place for you to experience God's grace, love, and presence with us. Welcome home, Beloved.
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Parish Office Closed
The Parish Office will be closed Monday, July 3rd and Tuesday, July 4th.
The office will reopen at 9 am on Wednesday, July 5th.
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NOTE: There will be no church school this Sunday, July 2nd. The nursery will still be available.
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Church Finances -- The First Half of 2017
While ministry is expanding and growing, and we are in line with all our ministry expenses, currently we are behind $60,000 in total pledged giving for 2017: 14% of our generous 2017 pledgers have yet to make their gift to St. Michael's and 50% of our faithful pledgers are behind in their pledge.
Although this is typical for us because of the variation in seasonal giving patterns, it strains our operational funds especially during the financially critical summer months. In order to maintain the enthusiasm God has generated at St. Michael's and avoid a bank loan to meet our financial obligations, we are requesting your help in erasing this deficit by becoming more current with your giving.
Thank you for your help. If you have questions or need assistance on where you stand in relation to your pledge, you may contact Joan in our finance office at 407-843-8448 or email her at:
[email protected]
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Youth News
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Youth Ministry Director Mike Beam (center) and Volunteer Mission Leader Allen Arthur (right) are pictured recently with the youth in Jamaica.
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Jamaican Mission Trip Changes Lives
"THANK YOU for your prayers and support of our high school mission trip to Jamaica. As much as we thought we would impact the lives of those we served, we came away feeling it was our lives that were influenced the most." -- Mike Beam
My Son Servants Experience in Mandeville, Jamaica
By Ian Ravndal
My trip to Jamaica with Son Servants was an incredibly awesome and life-changing experience. I enjoyed everything we did and was grateful to meet such lovely people from Jamaica and beyond.
My favorite outreach activity was visiting the Manchester infirmary, a home for people that need help or can't take care of themselves. Most of the residents spend a lot of time in bed and were lonely. We came in to the infirmary with candy (always a treat!) and most importantly, the Word of God. Talking about their favorite verses from the Bible was fun and you could see an immediate boost in their moods -- the smiles on their faces were priceless.
I was able to contribute to a playground that was being built for young kids who go to a local church school. Those kids were so adorable! They liked giving us nicknames and talking to us through the windows of the school.
Every morning before heading to breakfast and to our work sites, we had the opportunity to have time to ourselves to talk to Christ. The evening programs were joyful and fun. We had these programs at a place called "The Rock." We played games, sang songs, listened to testimonies and had the chance to get to know the staff and fellow travelers a bit better. One of the best parts of the trip was going to YS Falls. This is a collection of waterfalls that were fun for exploring and swimming. The water was cool and super refreshing. My personal favorite was a little platform high above the water, with a rope swing, so you could swing out and just fall in the water.
This trip really gave me an opportunity to grow closer to Christ. We were given the tools to strengthen that relationship daily, both on the trip and once we returned home. I will remember my time in Jamaica fondly and use the tools I learned to further my relationship with Christ and to bring joy to those around me every day.
Jamaica -- A Transformative Experience
By Andrew Owens
Our recent mission trip to Jamaica was truly amazing and transformative for me and my life as a Christian. I got to truly be the hands and feet of God through helping others who are seriously in need of seeing God's grace and love through our work that we did there. I got to see how God impacted the lives of people all around the world and just how blessed those people truly felt, showing me how universal and amazing God's love for us really is.
Over the weekend we were able to do some amazing things such as sand and paint the inside of a rather large house for a local minister and experience a truly amazing spirit-led Jamaican style worship service on Sunday. We visited the Manchester Infirmary, talking to people in seemingly awful situations and seeing how blessed they really believe they are in spite of what outwardly seems like an awful situation.
My work group went to build a playground for a local Christian "early learning" school which would save the school from being shut down as the kids previously did not have a place to play outdoors. We built a large wall, mixed concrete the Jamaican way, built the swings and playhouse and almost had the playground finished.
I went to SGO (Summer's Greatest Outreach) at a school to interact with the kids, reading them Bible verses and stories. They were a lot of fun to play with and talk to, instructing them through Christ-centered crafts and going to a school assembly, where they put on a performance for us, their guests. I realized how much God has blessed me, living without much struggle and with an amazing group of family and friends to support me, making me truly thankful to God and deepening my relationship with Him through the work I did in Jamaica.
Overall, the experience was truly transformative for my life both as a person and a believer.
I met amazing people from other churches in America who came to serve God the same way I did in addition to the people whose lives I hopefully impacted.
To get more information on our events, check out our Facebook page at either "St. Michael's EYC" or "St. Michael's Young Adults" or on Twitter at @StMichaelsYYA.
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NOTE: No Church School on 7/2/17
The nursery will still be open.
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Fr. Rick blesses the bears made during VBS for the Howard Phillips Center for Children and Families.
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Another Successful VBS at St. Michael's
Last week we hosted 107 children and 50 volunteers at VBS! We had an amazing week. We cannot thank everyone enough who put their time, talents, treasures and prayers into making this week so successful. We could not have done it without each and every one of our volunteers.
Our AMAZING decorations are now at St. Luke's Cathedral then will make their way to Church of the Ascension. We are excited to extend the life of these decorations that Brigit Pope, Roger Trubey, Peggy Trubey and all that volunteered on our decorating team spent so many hours to create.
Thank you!
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VBS Volunteers and Kids 2017
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Lego Club came for Friday Fun day.
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Preschoolers huddle up for prayer.
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To see all the great pictures from the week please go to our VBS Facebook page.
Summer Church School Parent Sign-Up
Our summer Preschool program needs someone to serve on 7/16 & 7/23.
Please
click here
to be directed to the sign up genius link. This program depends on our parent participation so sign up today!
Every Wednesday in July, Children's Ministry and Preschool will offer a storytime and activity from 10 - 11 am in Quigley Hall. Our first guest reader will be Mr. Andrew! We hope to see you there!
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MUSIC DEPARTMENT LITE!
JULY
SOMETHING NEW THIS YEAR! We thought we would see if any of the crew would like to do a solo, duet, or trio during July, so we at least have something happening during the Offertory. All Sundays are covered! The only one without a solo will be on July 23rd, the Sunday that both Andrew, Ella and choir members are out of town, singing in St. Augustine.
VBS PRAISE TEAM -ANOTHER AMAZING JOB WELL DONE!
A BIG thank you to Azure Bosko, Heather & Heidi Gentile, and Maggie & Nolan Renfroe for giving of their time and energy as the 2017 VBS PRAISE TEAM! This is the crew that stands on stage with me, helps lead the singing and teach any new songs during the VBS week. They also showed up an hour earlier than everyone else to learn the songs and sing through the others we were using for that day. GREAT JOB, EVERYONE!!
Soli Deo Gloria -- To God be the Glory!
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PRAYERS
Adam, Andy,
Ann R., Arel, Audrey, Barbara, Bill, Britt, Burke, Cathy, Curtis, David, Dinorah, Elbert, Elizabeth, Gary, Helen, Jacob, Jane, Jeanne, Jenny, Joann, Judy, Julie, Leigh, Lisa, Mary, Marci, Marcy, Martin, Naomi, Roger, +Russell, Scott, Tommy, Walter
BIRTHDAYS
Kaley Yates, Kristi Gafford, Mark Johnson,
Stephen Olivier, Tine Gay, Chad Hutyra, Mary Simms, Jackson Brownlee, Randy Fiebrandt, Kate Wollam,
Doug Blackmore, Trudi Bissinger , James Ferraro,
David Evans, Jr., Amy London-Taurielllo, Melanie Ferraro, Kobe Eichelberger, Kailey Scott, Allison Turnbull, Abby Ann Telan, Wendy Rex, Mary Katherine Morris, Mary Motzel
ANNIVERSARIES
Brendon & Jeannette Smith, Jon & Niki Nash, Kenneth & Cheryl James, Emery & Jenny Galbraith, Jan & Millie Everitt
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Reminder:
Prayer list names will rotate off after a three month period unless we are made aware that an individual needs to remain on the list.
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