November Tidings 2017

Trinity Tidings

Roaring Spring, PA 16673 November 2017

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I would like to share with you one of my favorite scripture passages from Jeremiah 29:11:

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

This is a great verse – but I don’t think we can truly appreciate all of the joy that is expressed unless we think a little more about the context in which this verse is written. These words were given to the Jewish people when they were captives in Babylon. They were discouraged. They were wondering whether they ever would be free to worship god as they once did.

Think about it for a minute – if this verse said, “For I know the single thought that I once had toward you, says the Lord,” I would be happy with that. Wouldn’t you? To think that Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, actually thought even for a moment about me or you – isn’t this incredible? God thinks about me. God knows my heart. And to make things even better God’s thoughts toward us not only are past tense, but they are present and future tense as well: “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord.” God thinks about our best – God knows what is happening in our lives today – God promises us that He will think about us in the future. What does that do for your life today? I get chills just thinking about God knowing my past, God knowing my present situation, and how God already thinks about my future. We are truly blessed.

It is a blessing to realize that God knows what we are going through. He is thinking about you today, and His thoughts are of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. With all of the things that have been happening in our world (Hurricane’s, mass shooting, cancer, heart problems and so much more) we can be reassured that God is weeping right along with us. God hasn’t caused any of these things to happen. God weeps for families who have been affected in the mass shooting in Las Vegas. God is there in Puerto Rico and in parts of Florida to help people put their lives back together again. God cares for everything that is going on in our very lives today.

But God will be with us in the future. What a joy and blessing it is for us as Christians to realize that God loved us in the past, God loves us in the present moment, and God will be there in our future – giving us hope. With all the things that are happening in our world today it might be easy to lose hope. But I hope that you realize just how much God loves you. He loves you so much to promise a future that is filled with hope. Spend some time in the next few days to think about this: God is thinking about my past, God is here in the present, and God promises a future of hope for all who believe.

Blessings for the journey,

Rev Kevin

November Prayer

Gracious God, we thank You for all You have revealed to us in Christ and for the faith You have put into our hearts, but we thank You also that there is more to understand in our continuing journey of discovery. So we bring You the things we don’t understand, the statements of faith that don’t seem to make sense and the events of life that seem to contradicts what we have been taught of You. We bring You our certainty and our uncertainty, those areas where faith is sure and those where it teeters on the edge of collapse. Give us sufficient trust to acknowledge our questions openly and to offer them honestly to You in prayer.

Save us from taking refuge in ritual or dogma, but teach us rather to face the challenges that life brings and to work through our faith in the light of them, so that, having been tested, it may grow even stronger, and we are able to face all and to stand tall, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

OUR JOYS AND CONCERNS: Rev. Randy Willis (Pastor of Center Grove UMC in Clearfield – healing after a stroke), Donna Porter (tests), Alina Rusnak (4 week old baby girl diagnosed with cancer – friends of the Brown family), Christian Spielhagen, Steve Shover (Cancer treatment), Ken Baney, Judy Bower’s Birthday, Tonya and Curtis White wedding

BIKE-A-THON FOR ST. JUDE’S

Trinity Church has continued in the honored tradition that was started by Tot-Spot (as they began having a trike-a-thon in the Fellowship Hall) but we decided to change it to a Bike-a-thon and this year we have 21 bikers who rode 4 miles on the Rails to Trails and they collected over $525 (bringing our total giving over the 25+ years that we have been doing this to $34,000). Wow! Isn’t that a blessing? Amen!

We are looking for someone to coordinate our

“Live Nativity” this year.

Please contact Rev. Kevin.

Cove Community Chorus presents:

“The Magic of Christmas”

Saturday, November 11^th at 7:00pm

Sunday, November 12^th at 2:00pm

Spring Cove Middle School Auditorium

Tickets: $8

November Calendar

November 1 – 5 PM EPIC for children and youth of all ages

6 PM EPIC singing

6:15 PM EPIC dinner

7 PM Choir Practice

November 3 – Pastor’s Sabbath Rest

November 5 – DAY LIGHT SAVING TIME ENDS **Turn your clocks back

9:30 Worship/Communion

10:45 Sunday School Classes for people of all ages

November 6 – No “Half Truths” Study

November 7 – No “Half Truths” Study

November 8 - 5 PM EPIC for children and youth of all ages

6 PM EPIC singing

6:15 PM EPIC dinner

7 PM Choir Practice

November 9 – Pastor taking Mentor Training in Selinsgrove

November 10 – Pastor’s Sabbath Rest

November 11 – 6 PM The Youth will have a movie night and they will be

watching the Movie “A Case for Jesus”

November 12 – 9:30 Worship/Communion

10:45 Sunday School Classes for people of all ages

November 13 – 7 PM “Half Truths” Study at the Parsonage

November 14 – 10 AM “Half Truths” Study at the Parsonage

6 PM Men’s Fellowship Dinner

November 15 – 5 PM EPIC for children and youth of all ages

6:15 PM EPIC Thanksgiving Dinner (all parents are encouraged to join their

children for this Thanksgiving meal)

7 PM Choir Practice

November 17 – Pastor’s Sabbath Rest

November 19 – 9:30 Worship/ Communion

10:45 Sunday School Classes for people of all ages

November 22 – NO EPIC

7 PM Thanksgiving Eve Worship/Communion

November 23 – 11 – 1 Thanksgiving Day Meal for the Community around us

November 26 – 9:30 Worship/Communion

10:45 Sunday School Classes for people of all ages

November 28 – 7 PM Administrative Council Meeting

November 29 - 5 PM EPIC for children and youth of all ages

6 PM EPIC singing

6:15 PM EPIC dinner

7 PM Choir Practice

THE CHOIR NEEDS YOU

We always have an enjoyable time together during our choir practices. We begin with prayer. We concentrate on the message that each piece of music that we wish to share with the congregation. We have laughs when our particular section may not always be on the right note. And we share our lives together with brothers and sisters in Christ. Doug spends a considerable amount of time picking out music. Nancy spends a lot of time practicing the music. But the biggest blessing is our because we have an opportunity to share the Love of God through the music that we sing. You don’t need to know how to read music. If you would like to join us – we would love to have you come and be a part of the choir. See you on Wednesdays at 7 PM in the Fellowship Hall.

FINANCIAL NEWS

Income: $28,745

Expense: $18,277

The year to date income is approximately 8% less than budgeted expenses.

Shares of Ministry and insurances have been paid through the month of October.

TRUSTEES NEWS

The Trustees of the Church have been hard at work. We will be replacing the carpeting in the Church Office soon. Duane Oaks painted all of the exterior doors and the railing that goes in to the Main Entrance to the Sanctuary and it looks great! At our last Ad Council Meeting we voted to start repairing the Stain Glass Windows. (The glass is held together with lead – and what happens during the seasons of the year – it is always expanding and contracting and over time the lead loses its elasticity). There are few windows that are in desperate need of repair. We voted to accept the bid from Reliable Glass in Cumberland, Maryland. They will be taking one window (or possibly 2 windows at a time) and board up the window and then when they are repaired he will come and install it and take another window back to be repaired. There are 19 windows of varying sizes in total. The project may take 2 years to complete and the cost to repair each window varies from $1,475 to $2,350. If you would like to donate the cost of one of the windows, if you would like to repair a window in someone’s honor or memory you can do that too, and if there is a group within the Church that would like to do a fun raiser (yes, it can be a lot of fun) please speak with Jason Dick or Rev. Kevin.

Children/Youth

Carissa has been working with the children and youth of the Church and they sponsored a Hay Ride and Corn Maze trip to JB Tree Farms where 25 people came out to participate. The youth of the Church planned a “Trunk or Treat” for Sunday, October 29^th. The Youth are selling candles again this year which helps to raise money for a Christian Concert (we are unsure whether we are going to go to Winter Jam because they are only held on Fridays in our area – so we may be looking for another concert to attend in the Winter). The Children and Youth are planning the following events in December (December 6 – Christmas Caroling at the Greystone, December 17 – Christmas Play during the morning worship, December 20 – Game night). If you would like further details please contact Carissa. We praise God for all the things that Carissa does for the youth of our Church – she is such a blessing for our Church!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS – Nicholas Will will be coming to Trinity Church on Sunday, December 10 and he will be sharing a concert with us at 2:30 PM. Please mark your calendars – start sharing the news with your family and neighbors. We will be planning to have some kind of fellowship time but that hasn’t been ironed out yet. What a blessing it will be to welcome Nicholas back to Trinity Church! Nicholas is an Associate Professor of Music at the Franciscan University of Steubenville and the Director of Music at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish.

ANGEL TREE MINISTRY – Trinity Church has started receiving calls concerning our Angel Tree Ministry and they will be receiving calls through November 17. We decided to ask the parents to give us 3 most important gifts that their child would like to receive this year. There are more and more Churches that are involved in providing Christmas Gifts to children in our area (1 church is providing bikes, 1 church is opening a toy shop, and the nurse at the Spring Cove Elementary School is working with organizations in our area who would like to sponsor a large family for Christmas). **Trinity Church also has called the Children’s Home in Mechanicsburg and Lisa Ebersole is coordinating this ministry as we have received the needs of 38 children at the home this year. Trinity Church also purchases a few gifts for the Shut-ins of the Church (so we can rejoice in all that we do for people of all ages not only here in our own back yard but also in other parts of the state as well). We are truly blessed!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS – Trinity Church will be filling Dragon Packs (which is a back pack that goes home with children in need at our school district). We will be filling bags on Wednesday, December 6^th at 2 PM.

United Methodist Home For Children

TUMC will be making Christmas a little brighter for the youth at the United Methodist Home for Children again this year. We received the names of 38 children living at the home in Mechanicsburg. A tree with the child’s wish has been placed on the table behind the sanctuary. If you decide to buy for a child, please write your name beside the child’s name on the list. You will have till December 4^th to shop and return the gift to the church office. Gifts should not be wrapped but returned in a gift bag with the tag from the tree. The gifts are scheduled to be delivered on Monday, December 11^th.

HELP IS ALWAYS WELCOME for our Thanksgiving Day Dinner that is served from

11-1. Valerie will be coordinating our Dinner again this year and there are many jobs to be done. I am sure that she will be asking for volunteers and assigning duties. If you would like to volunteer to help in any way please contact Valerie. We praise God for all the donations that we receive for our Thanksgiving Meal (we receive turkeys from the Paper Mill, Mashed Potatoes from Hoss’s and Sheetz usually supplies coffee and creamers). Valerie will be looking for people to come together to make pies and stuffing balls – more information will be forthcoming in upcoming bulletins.