August 24th, 2016

​Back to School!

What a great weekend we had here at Port Church getting ready for the new school year! Our youth spent a fun evening in the park playing flashlight tag and eating homemade ice cream on Saturday. On Sunday, our elementary students spent a couple of hours playing games and winning school supply prizes. The games included challenges like eating a doughnut hanging on a string and a relay race carrying a ping-pong ball on a plate. Sunday morning, we recognized our school teachers and staff with a specially made gift and a prayer of blessing. What a way to end summer break and get the new school year started! Please join together this week in praying for the safety, peace, and joy of all the teachers, staff, and students in the schools of our community!

Blessings on the journey, Jim

Responding to Louisiana Floods

The scenes coming out of Louisiana the past two weeks have been heart-breaking and terrifying. Flooding from torrential rain has impacted 40,000 homes and forced the rescue of 30,000 people, while several people have lost their lives. What can we do to help? Our United Methodist Committee on Relief is one of the best disaster relief agencies in the world and partners with local groups to deploy our church's resources where they are most needed. Where there is disaster, through UMCOR we are some of the first to respond and the last to leave when the recovery is complete. We can support our brothers and sisters in Louisiana by donating to UMCOR's US Disaster Relief online or by placing a check in the offering plate made out to the church and designated for "UMCOR Disaster Relief".

It Takes a Village...

Over the next few weeks, we are looking at the importance of community and how we are called to be there for one another.

Sunday's Sermon Snippet:
to Raise a Child! (1 Corinthians 3:5-11)
Our culture celebrates the hero who stands alone against all odds, the self-made person who succeeds entirely on their own, the one who is completely independent. We, of course, acknowledge that there are times when we need help - even the greatest heroes tend to have lesser sidekicks - but accepting help should be a last resort. Yet our Scriptures paint a different sort of picture - one that celebrates community and how we work together for the betterment of the whole. The apostle Paul had formed a new church in Corinth upon his first visit there and had taught them the basics of the faith. After he moved on to another city, he heard of problems in the church in Corinth and Apollos was sent to lead the church. This created division between those who felt loyalty to Paul and those who preferred Apollos. Paul wrote to settle the dispute using the analogy of a crop that is planted by one and watered by another or a building whose foundation is set by one and built upon by another. For the crop, it is God who gives the growth, while, for the building, the foundation is Jesus Christ. Paul's point is that the work of God is greater than any one individual. It is not about who is able to do it all themselves but about how God uses a group of folks each doing their own part to create something great. There are three things we can learn about working in community from these analogies: 1) Each person is called to particular task for the purposes of God. 2) No one person has to do it all, nor is it good if they do. This relieves the burden of having to do it all from our shoulders. 3) It is not about how great we are that brings fruit from our work but about how God uses our faithfulness. We may never see the fruit of our labor - we may even think it a failure, but God is the one who knows how it will be used and come to fruition. So we are not called to go at it alone trying to do everything on our own. We are called to instead be the community that works together do God's work of raising the children of our community in the faith.

Looking Ahead
We are called to work together in the everyday tasks such as raising our children up. But there are seasons in life where nothing seems to go right and we feel isolated from our community. We may not even feel like sharing our burdens with others, perhaps out of embarrassment, shame, or hopelessness. Come out this Sunday to hear a special testimony and join in the conversation about how "It Takes a Village... to Weather the Storm!" 

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Living in Community

Thank you, Jean, for the beautiful crosses you made to bless our school teachers!

Thank you, Lee, for organizing our Back-to-School Bash for our elementary students! Thank you to Melissa, Holly, Tara, Dinah, Kara, Angela, Hannah, Zach, Savannah, and Brenna for helping out!

Please keep our school kids and teachers in your prayers as they kick off the new year.

This Week at Port Church

​Wednesday, August 24
9:30 - 2:00 - Office Hours

​Thursday, August 25
9:30 - 12:00 - Office Hours
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​Sunday, August 28
9:30 am - Worship: "It Takes a Village... to Weather the Storm" 
11:00 am - Sunday School

Looking Ahead

Blessing of First Responders in worship on September 11
If you know a police officer, fire fighter, EMT, or other first responder,
invite them to join us so that we can say thank you for their service to our community!

Wednesday at the Port kicks off on September 14!

Chili Cookoff and Silent Auction for Youth Missions, October 15

Charge Conference, October 23​