St. Paul's Weekly E-News: Faith is Challenging, The Bishop is Coming, and more...

E-newsletter | January 30, 2019

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Wilkesboro, NC

336.667.4231 office@stpaulwilkesboro.org

Kedron's Corner - Faith is Challenging

Sometimes I wonder what to say. I wonder where you are what you need to hear on a particular week. I wonder what got you out of bed and to church that day. I know why I do it—because God is hope (that’s key for me) and because faith never fails to challenge me. The challenges our faith offers: to follow God more closely, act more Christ-like, love more extravagantly, give more generously and exhibit the fruits of the spirit are not rules I want to follow, they are a way of life. Every day I work on one more of them-- whether I want to or not! When the challenges of faith come, I hope they are an encouragement to you. Lean in to them and see how God works through you. You are a blessing and God loves you.

See you Sunday! – Kedron +

Vestry Update

Your vestry (leadership team) had a wonderful retreat last Saturday. We prayed, laughed, planned and set some priorities for the year. We look forward to our regular work of caring for finances, buildings and grounds and the clergy. We also decided to give energy to defining our mission, creating a culture of adult learning and fellowship. All Vestry meetings are open to the congregation; we welcome your questions any time.

New in 2019: Enhanced First Fruits Sundays–

1st Sunday of each month

Introducing some music at 8:30am worship

Name tags for everyone!

Coffee Hour –please sign up to host in the commons

Birthdays and Anniversaries acknowledged at both services

Cash offering continues to be split between Crisis Assistance and Step Ahead Ministries

FAMILY TO FAMILY GROCERY RELIEF MINISTRY

Volunteers are needed on Sunday, February 17th (time TBD) to load pallets of food onto a truck at Aldi, and unload the truck at St. Paul's. The more hands on deck, the better! We will have several hundred pounds of food to move before we can package bags on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, February 20th we will hold a Family to Family Grocery Ministry bag packing party, with special guest, Bishop José McLoughlin. There will be a Potluck dinner at 6pm and we will package grocery bags from 6:45pm-7:45pm.

On Saturday, February 23rd , we will host a Grocery Giveaway from 10:00am-12:00noon. Volunteers are needed to greet our neighbors, distribute bags, and make and serve coffee and baked goods. Contact Rachel for details or to save your spot as a volunteer. Sign up sheets are in the commons.

Musical Explorations Class

Introducing Musical Explorations class at St. Paul’s. The first class will be Monday, February 4, from 3:40 until 4:10. The cost is $45 for the eight week session, which will end March 25. Your second child is only $20. Musical concepts will include high/low, fast/slow, rhythm instrument sound discrimination, movement and beat. Older children will get a handout for home practice and reinforcement, with some beginning keyboard concepts included. Contact Laura Donovan with 421 Music Studios to register: 760-583-8076.

Seasons of the Spirit: Winter

Friday, February 22 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Valle Crucis Conference Center
$46 for full program and lunch; $91 to add lodging Thursday evening

Winter is a season of slowing down, resting, dormancy, and waiting. We are invited to an unhurried pace in the circle of life where we may find time for withdrawal and restoration of energy.

During our time together, we will explore the spiritual winter that we experience in life. Maybe you are in this season, a time of loss, or perhaps relishing the stillness and stretching your soul. Come along on a journey to map our seasons, explore the paths we have taken, and seek our commonality found in the image of God that dwells within us. We will explore this topic through scripture, story, discussion, song, art, prayer, guided meditation, reflection time and creative spirituality.

Facilitator Rebecca Husband-Maynard received her Master of Divinity from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. She is a Veriditas Certified Labyrinth Facilitator and received a Certificate in Spiritual Formation through Columbia Theological Seminary. Her husband, Mark, and she reside in Elkin, NC.

January 13th, 2019 Sermon : We are One

Rev. Kedron Nicholson

Upcoming Events

What if?

What if I want to bake communion bread?

What if I want to usher with a friend?

What if I feel called to visit my neighbors who cannot make it to church and take them communion?

What if I have always wanted to carry the cross in the processional?

What if...?

Join us in the Commons on Sunday, February 3rd for a ministry fair to learn about options for serving at St. Paul's and find the answer to your "what if?"

Tables with information and hosts will be set up between services and following the 10:30 service.

Friday, February 15th

9:30-12:30

Youth group outreach activity!

We will work with the youth at FBCNW to make PLARN (plastic yarn) which will be crocheted into mats for our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness.

Breakfast will be provided.

Meet at the fellowship hall at First Baptist Church in North Wilkesboro. Contact Rachel with questions. All youth ages 5th-12th grade are welcome and invited to bring a friend.

The Feed My Sheep teams need more members!

Feed My Sheep is made up of 11 teams that prepare a meal for a church family due to illness, death in family, new arrival, or hospitalization.

This is done on a rotating basis and some of our teams could use more help. With the rotating system, the hope is that each team will only be called upon about 3-4 times per year. If you are not currently on a team and would be willing to join a team please contact Gwen Temple at 828-266-5530 or email her at gt1116@aol.com . We could really use your help!

Thank you!

Please check the Sunday Servants schedules on our website and make arrangements for coverage if you are not available.

Thank you!

ECW News and Announcements:

Please support the ECW Valentine's Day outreach project. We make goodie bags for to members and neighbors on our prayer list and member who are homebound.

We are asking for donations of candy, kleenex, notepads, pens, pencils, nail files and other toiletries. Please fill the box we have placed in the commons, over the next four weeks, with your donations. We will collect them and fill the goodie bags at our February 11, 2019 ECW meeting.

We appreciate your support, Episcopal Church Women

Please contact Gwen Temple at gt1116@aol.com with addresses for those on our Military Prayer List who are actively serving our country. ECW would like to send them a Valentine if the family would like for them to receive one.

Next Week's Calendar

Sunday, February 3rd: FIRST FRUITS

8:30am Holy Eucharist in Chapel

9:45am Adult Choir Practice

10:15am Nursery opens for children ages 0-4 (The nursery is located on lower level

of the Sanctuary)

10:30am Holy Eucharist in the Sanctuary

On First Fruits Sunday . Cash offering will be shared evenly between Crisis Assistance and Step Ahead Ministries to help our neighbors unless it is marked otherwise. Please be generous.

Tuesday, February 5:

7:00pm Al-Anon in library

Wednesday, February 6:

5:30pm Wednesday Evening Healing Service in Chapel

6:45pm Choir Practice

7:00pm Dick Underwood Book Club in Parish House

Thursday, February 7:

11:30am Crisis Assistance at Wilkesboro United Methodist Church

12:00noon Al-Anon meeting in library

St. Paul's Celebrations

Birthdays this week:

1– Kim Faw

2– Kellan Barton

3-Ricki Barger

3– Cynthia Palazzolo

4– Paula Jameson

5– Ramona Curtis

5– Van Morris

Anniversaries this week:

6– Larry and Lisa Cline

Prayer List

Please remember in your prayers: All those who are ill or unemployed. All those who are on our prayer list.

Illness

Rik Absher, Jim Andrews, Joe Barber, Pam Baugh, Dot Beamon, Wayne Boyd, Jacob Brown, Ken Canter, Billy Coles, Rancene Cook, LaMar Creasman, Ann Davis, Tim Day, Mike Duncan, Craig Freas, Ernestine Freas, Gail Gattis, Mike Graf, Ruth Gray, Edward C. Griffith III, Peggy Harris, Janet Hartzog, Larry Hendley, Margo Hurd, Steve Jackson, John Jacobson, Pat Jones, Joan Knox, Maggie McCann, Susan McManus, Ann McNeill, Doug Merritt, Donna Moore, Becky Mullins, Bertie Pardue, Bob Skees, Carolyn Stephens, Ryan Rigby, Elsanaa Thompson, Marie Waddell, Robin Walsh, Cole Younger

Armed Forces

Let us pray for the safety of all our troops , especially Rob Beauchaine, Matthew Cage, Alex Cline, Philip Cooney, Karl Duerk, , William Grant, Edward C. Griffith IV, Jacob B. Hall, Brandon Moore, Russ Necessary, Zach Necessary, John W. Pardue, Charlie & Lauren Pendry, Adam Pinkerton, Philip Southwell, Mark Stone, Patrick Szvetitz, Jackson Triplett, Levi Walker, Nathan Wyatt, and all others who serve in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout

the world.

Please send to the church office the addresses of troops with connections to office@stpaulwilkesboro.org , especially those abroad.

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany

Jeremiah 1:4-10

The word of the Lord came to me saying,

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But the Lord said to me,

"Do not say, 'I am only a boy';

for you shall go to all to whom I send you,

and you shall speak whatever I command you,

Do not be afraid of them,

for I am with you to deliver you,

says the Lord."

Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me,

"Now I have put my words in your mouth.

See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,

to pluck up and to pull down,

to destroy and to overthrow,

to build and to plant."

Psalm 71:1-6

1 In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; *

let me never be ashamed.

2 In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free; *

incline your ear to me and save me.

3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe; *

you are my crag and my stronghold.

4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked, *

from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.

5 For you are my hope, O Lord God, *

my confidence since I was young.

6 I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;

from my mother's womb you have been my strength; *

my praise shall be always of you.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Luke 4:21-30

In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah, and began to say, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, "Is not this Joseph's son?" He said to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!' And you will say, 'Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.'" And he said, "Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown. But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church | 336-667-4231 | office@stpaulwilkesboro.org | https://stpaulwilkesboro.org