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6/27/2018 June 27th, 2018 A Lesson LivedWe are in the midst of Vacation Bible School, and we are having a great week so far! One of the great things about VBS is how the Bible stories are brought to life so that the kids can experience them in a new way. This week, I myself experienced one of our lessons - in fact I lived it. On Tuesday, we were discovering the story of Jesus' visit to Mary and Martha's home, and the Bible story lesson began with asking about what happens when we are about to have company arrive. The obvious answer, of course, is that we clean up. Even if we have only a few minutes notice (perhaps especially when this happens), we scramble to tidy things up as much as we can. After the question, the kids had to hurry to pick up the messy classroom floor and set a table. The point was to help the children see how trying to make things perfect for Jesus' visit led the hard-working Martha to lose sight of what really mattered - loving Jesus. As I was preparing the lesson, it became clear that our youngest boy was sick and would not be able to attend VBS. If we were going to be able to lead our parts that night, we were going to need a babysitter. We tried to find one to no avail until one of our youth was willing to give up her evening to help us out. With an hour to go before the babysitter arrived, that meant the mad scramble to pick up toys and neaten up was on. As I was living the night's lesson in this way, I couldn't help but to appreciate what really mattered in that situation - serving the kids of community in Jesus' name and knowing that my own sick child was being well cared for. God sometimes has a sense of humor in the way we wind up living the lessons we try to share with others. The lesson I lived, however, was more than just the distractions of trying to make things nice for a guest like Martha did. The lesson I lived was also how it truly takes a village - a village church - to raise and care for a child. It was the willing spirit of a teen and the kindness of another volunteer to cover one of my classes that made it possible for me to be a part of the village for so many other children. It takes all of us working together in ways both large and small to nurture the children God has brought our way. Thanks be to God for the village we have to help us and for the village we have the privilege to be for others! Blessings on the journey, Jim Helpless (Acts 3:1-11) Have you ever seen someone whose situation was so difficult that they seemed helpless? You wanted to help, but you didn't know how you could possibly make a difference. So you did the only thing you knew to do: "I will pray for you," you offered. There is certainly nothing wrong with this statement, but it is often just as much an expression of our feeling helpless to help as it is a gesture of caring. Peter and John, two of Jesus' disciples, faced a seemingly helpless situation on the way to the temple one day. They encountered a man who had been born lame begging for money to have enough to eat. The two wanted to help and knew of God's expectation that they would help, but they had no money. They were helpless to help, but Peter did something remarkable. I do not have money, he told the man, but what I do have I give to you. Peter then told the man get up in the name of Jesus, offered him his hand, and lifted him up. The man was healed and walking around on his own. When we feel helpless to help, it is often because we are more focused on what we cannot do or what we do not have to give than on what we can do and what we do have that we can give. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, our offering to help others is judged not by what we do not have but rather by what we do have that we can give. God does not expect us to do more to help others than we are capable of, but God does expect us to do what we can. We can always do something or give something, because we have an endless supply of love, grace, joy, peace, mercy, kindness, and comfort. We always have more of these to give because they do not come from us but rather from the infinite God who has poured them into us to begin with. May you give what you have to give to those around you this week! Summer Bible Reading PlanDay 15 -Joshua 6 - Strange Tactics Day 16 - Joshua 24 - Home at Last Day 17 - Judges 6 - Unlikely Leader Day 18 - Judges 16 - A Strong Man’s Flaws Day 19 - Ruth 1 - Tough Love Day 20 - 1 Samuel 3 - Transition Team Day 21 - Psalm 23 - A Shepherd’s Song This week's readings focus on how the people of God who had wandered the wilderness came to live in the promised land. Although God lived up to the promise made to Abraham long ago, the people continued to turn away and bad things would happen to them. Each time, God would hear their cry of suffering and send a judge to deliver them. Eventually God would anoint a king to lead the people and hopefully keep them on the right path. Living in CommunityThank you, Lee and Melissa, for creating such a great float for the parade! Thank you, Randy, for the trailer and for driving the float! Thanks to everyone who pitched in to make this float possible! Our float won $75 which is going towards our mission project! This Week at Port ChurchMonday - Friday: Vacation Bible School! Wednesday, June 27 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, June 28 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Sunday, July 1 9:30 am - Worship with VBS Celebration: "Clutter" 11:00 am - Sunday School Looking AheadPicnic and Hike - July 7 (rain date - July 14)
Seniors Lunch and Bing0 - July 8 Praise Dance Worship Service - July 15 Welcome Reception for New District Superintendent - July 15, 2-5 pm, Dayton UMC Back-to-School Bingo - August 12 Potato Drop to benefit local hunger ministries - September 15 225th Anniversary Celebration - September 29 6/18/2018 June 18th, 2018 Potatoes! One of my favorite parts of Vacation Bible School each summer is our mission project. Over the last few years, we have raised thousands of dollars to provide clean drinking water in Peru, buy livestock and offer education to struggling farmers, and eradicate malaria. It is truly incredible to see the excitement that pours out of our kids as they offer a few pennies or a few dollars and the generosity of our church and community members pledging hundreds and challenging others to match their generosity. This year, our mission project is to help feed the hungry in our community through a potato drop. "What is a potato drop?" you ask. Great question! A Potato Drop is a ministry of the Society of St. Andrew, a Virginia-based hunger organization. They deliver a truck-load (about 40,000-50,000 lbs) of potatoes that would otherwise go to waste to a church where volunteers bag them and ready them for distribution to food banks, soup kitchens, and other hunger ministries. For about three cents, a serving of healthy food is delivered to people in need. The East Rockingham Potato Drop will occur on Saturday, September 15th at Grottoes UMC. Several churches from the Grottoes, Port Republic, Elkton, and McGaheysville area are planning to participate, and the bagged potatoes will go to hunger-relief agencies in the Rockingham/Augusta County area. Each participating church will be contributing financially to offset the cost of dropping the potatoes in our community. Our goal at VBS is to raise at least $1,500 of the $2,500 needed to move forward with this project. Any amount raised in excess of the cost of the Potato Drop will go to support the continued mission of Society of St. Andrew in feeding the hungry. If you would like to help us reach (and hopefully exceed) this goal and feed a lot of people in our area, you can write a check to PRUMC designated for "VBS Mission" this Sunday or contact me. If you would like to make a pledge challenge to encourage the generosity of others, please let me know! Our senior high youth will also be hosting a car wash at Shreckhise during VBS on Wednesday, June 27, to help raise money for this cause. Come out, get your car cleaned, and feed those who are hungry all at the same time! Blessings on the journey, Jim Summer Bible Reading PlanThis summer, Port Church is having its reading club with prizes for all ages! This week's readings are: Day 8 - Genesis 41 - Behind the Scenes Day 9 - Exodus 3 - Time for Action Day 10 - Exodus 14 - Miracle at the Red Sea Day 11 - Exodus 20 - The Ten Commandments Day 12 - Exodus 32 - The Dream Dies Day 13 - Deuteronomy 34 - A New Leader Day 14 - Joshua 2 - New Spies, New Spirit This week's readings focus on how God took a single family - the family of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (renamed Israel) - and turned them into a people chosen for a special purpose. Although God worked miracles to deliver them from slavery in Egypt through Moses, the people grumbled, complained, and turned away. Having wandered in the wilderness without a home for a generation, God chose a new leader Joshua to lead them into the promised land. Although we may often falter in our faith and turn away, God continues to work in our lives and our world to fulfill God's will and bring us good things in other ways. Annual Conference UpdateThe Virginia Annual Conference met in Hampton this past weekend. Important decisions were made for our future ministry, and God was glorified in a mighty way in worship and service. Find out more in this summary from the conference. Living in CommunityThank you to Dinah and the RENEW Mission Team for leading worship on Sunday! Thank you to everyone on our team who made a difference in our community for Jesus Christ last week! Thank you to everyone who joined in prayer for the members of our team! Thank you, Ralph and Kelly, for representing our church at Annual Conference! Please be in prayer for our VBS leaders as we enter into this last week of preparations. This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, June 20 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, June 21 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Friday, June 22 7:00 pm - GVFD Parade Float Sunday, June 24 9:30 am - Worship with Healing: "Helpless" 11:00 am - Sunday School Looking AheadPicnic and Hike - July 7 (rain date - July 14)
Seniors Lunch and Bing0 - July 8 Praise Dance Worship Service - July 15 Welcome Reception for New District Superintendent - July 15, 2-5 pm, Dayton UMC Back-to-School Bingo - August 12 Potato Drop to benefit local hunger ministries - September 15 225th Anniversary Celebration - September 29 6/11/2018 June 11th, 2018 Upcoming Summer EventsWith summer break officially underway for our kids, we have sent out our youth mission team to RENEW, and we are finishing up preparations for our Vacation Bible School on June 25 - 29 (kicked off a little early with our parade float on June 22!). While RENEW and VBS are of course our major focus for the summer, we have a lot of great opportunities coming up over the next couple of months. On Saturday, July 7, join us for a picnic, time of fun (and possible wild berry picking) and a short hike in the woods. Rain date will be July 14. Let me know if you are interested. On July 8 following worship and coffee fellowship, we invite all of our seniors and retirees to stay for a soup and sandwich lunch and a few games of bingo complete with fun prizes! Please let me know if you are interested so we can get a head count for lunch. On July 15, we welcome a praise dance team that one of our children participates in to lead our worship with a program entitled "The Prodigal." On Sunday, August 12, we will host a Back-to-School Bingo for kids of all ages. Prizes will include school supplies to help kids and their families prepare for the new school year! Hope to see you for these wonderful programs! Blessings on the journey, Jim Sunday's Sermon SnippetSiblings - despite the blessing they are - can be hard to get along with, and indeed sibling rivalries are as old as time. The Bible is full of such rivalries. The relationship between Mary and Martha is no exception. Jesus comes to their home to visit. Mary sits at Jesus' feet listening and enjoying the visit. Martha works hard in the kitchen to offer the best hospitality she can. Martha, however, sees her sister doing nothing to help, and it burns within her until it spills out. "Jesus, tell my sister to help me!" Jesus points out Martha's many distractions and praises Mary for having chosen the better part - the one thing needed. The typical reading of this story invites us to choose who we identify with: Martha, the overly busy, hard-working one who is always distracted, or Mary, the seemingly lazy sister who finally gets her moment in the spotlight just for doing nothing but sitting at Jesus' feet. This reading, however, does not do justice to either sister. Martha's shortcoming in this incident is not her work ethic but how it distracts her. Mary is not lazy but rather one who connects emotionally. For a contrast, we find that, when their brother Lazarus dies and Jesus arrives seemingly too late to help, it is Martha who goes to meet Jesus and be with him. Mary, overwhelmed by her grief, stays home until summoned by Jesus. These sisters have different personalities and thus have different gifts to offer Jesus. Martha is a hard worker, and her work is her gift. Mary is the more relational of the two, and her gift is the time spent listening to Jesus. The one thing that Martha lost sight of was her relationship with Jesus. She forgot that the hospitality she was working to provide was a gift she wanted to give Jesus. She was distracted by all the details and finally by the fact that her sister did not help her in giving this gift. She did not realize that the gift of hospitality was her own gift to give - not Mary's. Mary was giving her gift of attention to Jesus. How often do we lose sight of the one thing needed - our relationship with Jesus - because we grow distracted by how others are or are not serving Jesus? How often do we forget that we each have a different gift to give Jesus because God has given each of us different skills, personalities, and indeed spiritual gifts? How often do we let the fact that others are giving Jesus a different gift than we are diminish our own gift? It should not be so! We do not need to worry about how much time or money others give, how much faith others have, how they believe, or how they live out their faith. These things do not make our own gifts any less to Jesus, unless we let those things distract us from offering our own gifts with our whole hearts. Offer your gift to Jesus, and do not lose sight of the one thing that matters most - a relationship with Jesus and your relationship with your brothers and sisters through him! Summer Bible Reading PlanThis summer, Port Church is having its reading club with prizes for all ages! See the attached reading plan for more details. This week's readings are: Day 1 - Genesis 1 -A Book of Beginnings Day 2 - Genesis 2 - One Shining Moment Day 3 - Genesis 3 - The Fall Day 4 - Genesis 7 - Under Water Day 5 - Genesis 8 - The Rainbow Day 6 - Genesis 27 - Jacob Gets the Blessing Day 7 - Genesis 37 - Family Battles This week's readings focus on the beginnings of the world and how God chose a special family to become the ancestors of God's chosen people. Though God made the world and called it good, people repeatedly made bad decisions that threatened that goodness. All the while, God worked on a plan to bring redemption through a chosen people, sometimes despite their own failings. Living in Community Please be in prayer for our RENEW Mission Team this week: Addison, Harley, Baylor, Laurel, Brenna, Daisy, Aliyah, Julia, Hannah, Rayanna, Rachel, April, Meg, and Dinah! Thanks to Tom and Dorcy for arranging our Kids Fishing Trip! It was a great time of fellowship and fun. Thanks to all the kids who came and the adults who helped out! This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, June 13 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, June 14 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Sunday, June 17 Father's Day 9:30 am - Worship: RENEW Mission Team 11:00 am - Sunday School Looking AheadVBS Float in Parade - June 22
Vacation Bible School - June 25-29 Picnic and Hike - July 7 (rain date - July 14) Seniors Lunch and Bing0 - July 8 Praise Dance Worship Service - July 15 Welcome Reception for New District Superintendent - July 15, 2-5 pm, Dayton UMC Back-to-School Bingo - August 12 Potato Drop to benefit local hunger ministries - September 15 225th Anniversary Celebration - September 29 6/4/2018 June 04th, 2018 Rooted Together In April and May, we spent our time in worship exploring what makes a disciple a disciple - that is, what are the roots of a follower of Jesus. We talked about the need to grow our roots deeper so that we can stand tall where the storm waters come our way. Little could we have known then what literal storms we would face by the end of May and first of June. With the recent rains, we have seen damage all around. We have been fortunate here in Port Republic that the flood waters have not risen more than they have with all the rain that has fallen around us. Yet even with the rivers staying mostly in their banks, we have seen cresting that flooded around the trunks of some of the trees along the bank. I was at our church park last Thursday, and, as I visited with someone else who had come to see the waters, I heard a sudden noise across the river. A small tree whose roots no longer had enough soil to cling to plopped down into the river still standing upright. It was not long before it started to teeter and eventually fell over and began a journey down the river. Even one of our larger trees along the bank in the park could not withstand the current and was swept away this weekend (Thanks to Dinah for the picture!) We never know when the storms of life may come our way, and even with deep roots, sometimes they are too much to withstand. It makes me remember the summer a few years ago when the straight-line winds of the derecho plowed through the Valley. The next morning, I checked our garden. The tomatoes, despite having cages and stakes to support them, had been pummeled to the ground. The surprising thing was that our kale - the first row of the garden to be hit by the winds - stood upright with no sign of any damage except at the end of the row where plants grew farther away from the others. I had planted the kale perhaps a little more closely than usual, and the leaves had grown tangled together so that they supported each other in the high winds. The storms of life will hit us, often unexpectedly. When our own roots begin to fail us, it is good to have one another when the storms come. We are stronger together. As the Teacher wrote in Ecclesiastes, "two are better than one." May we live our lives giving one another strength and support as we face the storms together! Blessings on the journey, Jim Sunday's Sermon SnippetKeeping Count (Luke 15) We talked a couple of months ago about how God does not want us to keep count of the wrongs someone does to us or the number of times we forgive them. Yet some numbers are extremely important in the Bible. In fact, Jesus told three stories about folks who kept count of what they had and what happened when they lost something. The first is about a shepherd who had 100 sheep and noticed one missing. This is a miracle that the shepherd noticed 1 out of 100 missing. To do that, he truly had to keep count of what mattered to him - his sheep. What do we keep count of? The number of likes on our social media posts, the stock market, how much stuff we have? Why do we not keep a count of the things that truly matter? Our friends and family, people in need, the days God has given us, our blessings. When I say keep count, I don't mean to try to accumulate or hoard more or to know the number so we can compete with others. Keeping count means to keep track of the things that matter so we don't lose them. So what happens when we notice we have lost a friend, wasted a God-given day, or overlooked helping those in need? We do something to find it. Like the shepherd heading out, a woman who lost one of her ten coins searches and cleans her home until she finds the missing coin. Sometimes we let the shame and sense of failure of losing something keep us from looking for it. We let a friend go instead of going after them, for instance. Keeping count means to go find that which we lose track of. Our shame also makes us embarrassed to admit we have lost things. Yet the shepherd and woman rejoice with their neighbors when they find what they are missing. Instead of worrying about what the neighbors might think about them losing things in the first place, these two people invite them to celebrate. There was a father with two sons, and he lost one to greed and selfishness. What did he do? He went out to look for his son's return. Perhaps the neighbors talked about him and his fruitless search. But when his son returned, he threw a grand party to celebrate. Keeping count means celebrating what is found more than lamenting what is lost. Keep count of what matters in life, find that which is lost, and celebrate those you find! Living in CommunityThank you to everyone who was ready to make our Praise in the Park happen and adjusted plans due to the weather! Thank you, Sue, for coordinating our potluck and graduate recognition! Thank you, Jean and Joe, for the wonderful gifts you created for our graduates! Thanks, Linda, the Praise Team, and the Tech Team, for blessing us with awesome music this past Sunday! Thanks to Becky for leading Children's Church when our plans changed! Congratulations to our high school gradutes: Tristan, Rachel, and Rayanna! And to our college/university graduates: Becca, Emilie, Chandler, Tomi, Guy, and Joshua! This Week at Port ChurchWednesday, June 6 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Thursday, June 7 9:00 - 11:45 am - Office Hours Saturday, June 9 8:00 am - Kids Fishing Trip Meet at the church! Sunday, June 10 9:30 am - Worship with Communion: "One Thing" 11:00 am - Sunday School 2:00 - 5:00 pm - Farewell Reception for District Superintendent Rev. Tommy Herndon at Dayton UMC Looking AheadVBS Float in Parade - June 22
Vacation Bible School - June 25-29 Welcome Reception for New District Superintendent - July 15, 2-5 pm, Dayton UMC Back-to-School Bingo - August 12 Potato Drop to benefit local hunger ministries - September 15 225th Anniversary Celebration - September 29 |
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