As we seek to continue to keep connected as a church family even while apart from one another, below you will find several ways to participate in worship, prayer, and service with others from HBIC. We invite you to join us in any of these various ways this week!
There's also some important "announcement-type" information in this week's e-mail, so be sure to scroll the whole way through!
We continue to pray that you will experience the riches of the Lord's presence during this time that we are not able to be present with one another!
-- HBIC Pastoral Staff
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ONLINE WORSHIP
Our pastoral staff are working together each week to record a worship service for our church family. The service will be available on the
HBIC YouTube Channel
on Sunday mornings by 9 am, as well as anytime thereafter.
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WORSHIP-AT-HOME RESOURCES
The
Worship-At-Home Resource Page
serves as a companion to the weekly worship video on the HBIC YouTube Channel and includes the song lyrics, the sermon scripture, plus some links for children. ...If you have more than one device and you'd like to see the lyrics to sing along, or have the sermon scripture handy to read along, you can have the video playing on one device while you follow along with the worship resource on the other!
May you experience the faithful presence of God
as you worship this week!
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Since we do not have a weekly worship service bulletin during this time, we are including a
Schedule for the Week in this weekly email.
The following will be taking place during the
week of May 31 to June 6:
- Sunday, 9 am - Online Worship (HBIC YouTube Channel)
- Sunday, 10:30 am - Youth Sunday School (Zoom)
- Sunday, 7 pm - Sr. High Youth Group (Zoom)
- Monday, 12 pm - National Day of Mourning & Lament (Sojourners on Facebook Live)
- Monday, 4 pm - Creation Kids (Zoom)
- Wednesday, 5:30 pm - Jr. High Youth Group (Zoom)
- Wednesday, 7 pm - Virtual Prayer Meeting (Zoom)
- Thursday, 4 pm - Creation Kids (Zoom)
- Thursday, 8:15 pm - Young Adult Thursday Book Study (Zoom)
- Friday, 7 pm - Zoom Connection (Zoom)
- Saturday, 4 pm - Creation Kids Family Fishing 1 (Cutmans' Pond)
- Saturday, 5:30 pm - Creation Kids Family Fishing 2 (Cutmans' Pond)
If you'd like to participate in any of these and
need a link, a meeting ID, or more information, contact:
Any of the pastors or the
church office for the other adult gatherings
We also invite you to join in praying for these various ministry
opportunities throughout the week and for those who may participate!
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NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING AND LAMENT
With more than 100,000 lives tragically lost in our country due to Covid-19 as of this week, faith leaders and communities of faith are being called to join together on
Monday, June 1 for a
National Day of Mourning and Lament. (See the call
here.)
We encourage you to join with other people of faith to honor those who have died, to remember those who suffer the most during this crisis, and to pray for healing for all.
Here's what
Sojourners
has said about the
National Day of Mourning and Lament
: "We will ask God to help heal our land in a moment of mourning as we honor those who have died, often without their loved ones around them. We come together both to weep and to rejoice for those lives that have been lost. We will mourn the loss of so many Americans, many known only to families and friends, coworkers and neighbors. By God’s grace, we will mourn with families who have not been able to memorialize, mourn, or properly bury those who died.
Our national lament will also honor hard truths that have been learned during this pandemic. Suffering has been unequal. Elders have been vulnerable and alone. Black and brown neighbors have borne disproportionately the brunt of sickness and death and the front lines labor of the fight against this disease. Native communities, our land’s original caretakers, have been particularly hard hit, as they have been so many times in the past. Asian Americans have been targeted by hateful words and actions. ...Our prayers for the healing of the nation must acknowledge the brokenness of our democracy and rededicate ourselves to repair the injustices this pandemic has revealed, even as we work for the healing of those who are afflicted with the virus."
Sojourners will be hosting an
Interfaith Service of Mourning and Lament on
June 1 from 12 noon to 1 pm. You're invited to join that online experience if you are able. If you're not able, we encourage you to privately set aside a time of mourning and lamenting and prayer on Monday at noon (or an alternate time on Monday that fits your schedule).
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COMMUNION SERVICE - JUNE 7
The pastoral staff will be leading a
Sunday Morning Communion Service on Zoom... In place of our pre-recorded worship service, we will gather together virtually next Sunday morning, for an online Communion Service,
June 7 from 9 to 10 am.
We hope you'll join us for this special service filled with scripture readings, prayer, songs of praise, a brief meditation, and a chance to share in communion together -- you'll need to plan ahead to provide the bread and juice for your household. (The link for the service is below, and we'll also be sending it again next weekend.)
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NEW "WORSHIP THROUGH SONG" VIDEO AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK
We realize that all of our church family may not be able to join us for the Communion Service on Zoom next Sunday, so we also wanted to provide a worship resource on our HBIC YouTube Channel for that day. We're delighted that Pastor Esteban and Priscilla will be blessing us with another video of worship music!
The
Worship Through Song video will go live on the
HBIC YouTube Channel on
Sunday, June 7, beginning at 7 pm, and we'll be sending out an accompanying lyric sheet with next week's
Journeying Together email.
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CREATION KIDS FAMILY FISHING
Bob and Kathy Cutman are making their pond available for Creation Kids' families (and it's now open to others from our church who are interested) to enjoy some fishing!
Four different one-hour time slots are being offered, two on
Saturday, June 6 and two on
Sunday, June 7, (
4:00 to 5:00 pm and
5:30 to 6:30 pm on both evenings; note the times have changed since last week's announcement). The limit will be 5 households for each time slot. Sign up
here to reserve one of the slots for you/your family.
Bait will be supplied. Bring your own fishing poles if you have them (Cutman's do have some). Wear boots or shoes that can get dirty, it might be muddy. You're also welcome to bring your own drinks and snacks. Directions to the pond will be provided. Contact
Pastor Patty if you have any questions.
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OUR DAILY BREAD BOOKLETS
The next issue of Our Daily Bread (June/July/August) is behind in production, due to the coronavirus and their reduced staff. In a recent phone conversation with Our Daily Bread, we were told that we can expect to receive this quarter's devotional booklet in July, with their apologies for the delay.
Until the booklets arrive at the church, here are two options:
- The daily devotionals which are included in the booklets can be accessed online at Our Daily Bread's website. (At the top left side of their webpage, you can click on "Today's Devotional - Read Now.")
- You can scroll to the bottom of their website and click on "Sign Up for Emails" to get the daily devotional each day in your email inbox.
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FOOD PANTRY FOLLOW-UP
Our Food Pantry volunteers, under the coordination of Nancy Benson, Nancy Busch, and Nancy Patrick, did a wonderful job, once again, of loving folks in our community by providing needed food resources and various household necessities for 82 families this past week!
Many, many hours of labor go into every Food Pantry distribution day, from shopping for the food and other items (which has been extra challenging with the shortages of items at both the Central PA Food Bank and at stores), to taping together boxes, to packing the boxes, to loading the boxes into people's cars (or carts for the walkers), to keeping the records.
Continue to pray for our Food Pantry volunteers and for all those who are helped, both those who come regularly and those who have recently received food and supplies for the first time. ...One person who was helped last week by our Food Pantry shared in a thank you note the difficulty that Covid-19 has created:
"I am so so so grateful for all u do. I THANK all of u that work to help the community in need. I went from working 40 to 50 hrs a week to barely 20. Paying bills and trying to put food on the table has become a big challenge... But because of u i have meals. Thanks a million."
Contact
Pastor Carmen if you'd like more information about our Food Pantry ministry or if you'd like to help with keeping an eye out in the stores for needed items.
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MY COINS COUNT GIVING UPDATE
With thanks to the congregation for your generous giving toward My Coins Count, our children's ministry was able to forward $1107.77 to Mennonite Central Committee's PA Relief Sale this past week. (Prior to our suspension of in-person services in March, we had collected $182.16.) Thanks so much for your generous support!
These monies will be used by MCC to help provide water, food, and education in various places around the world, which is especially crucial during this coronavirus worldwide pandemic. Here's a glimpse into some of the work that our My Coins Count donation will help to provide:
"MCC Is Prepared" Video
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PRAYING TOGETHER
On Wednesday evenings, we are hosting a
Virtual Prayer Meeting each week, an opportunity to connect together for prayer. We'll connect by using Zoom at
7 pm.
You're able to use a computer, tablet, or phone to join our
Virtual Prayer Meeting with video; or call in by phone, (929) 205-6099 (meeting ID:
433-644-241) to get the audio-feed. ...You'll need Zoom installed on your device ahead of time in order to connect - if you need some guidance for this, contact
office@harrisburgbic.org
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TIME TO CHAT!
We've
adjusted our
Zoom Connection schedule to every other week for both Mondays and Fridays, alternating weeks.
This week's Zoom Connection gathering will be held on
Friday, June 5, 7:00 pm.
If you'd like to see others from HBIC and have some time to sit and chat with one another, no planned agenda for the gathering, we hope you'll join us!
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GALLERY OF SABBATH CREATIONS
Have you checked out our website gallery lately? More creations are added each week!
Click
here
to see what some of our people, younger and older, have been up to!
And if you have creations to submit, send them along to
Pastor Brie
!
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AVAILABLE FOR ORDERING
If you'd like a DVD copy of any of the online worship services, or a CD copy of any of the sermons, click the button below to order (no cost). Please designate whether you'd like these mailed to you or if you'd like to arrange a time to pick them up.
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To contact the church office by phone, call 717-561-2170.
Let us know if you'd like to
SUBSCRIBE
to HBIC emails!
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