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May 2013 "First
Pres. Press"
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May Calendar |
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| Pastor's Page | Among Our People | Connecting | Kids Live B.I.G. |
| Youth News | Session Update | Missional | Misc |
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Reflect and Celebrate At both services, we will reflect back and celebrate how God has been working in our midst through our recent studies of The Story and Committed to Christ.
Come and remember together as we hear stories of how people have been impacted; be encouraged to keep practicing these holy habits and growing as disciples of Christ. |
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Where has God shown up? Dear Friends, Each Sunday during the joys and concerns portion of worship, we have an amazing opportunity to lift God high and give God honor and glory. Whether we share joys or concerns, it is our opportunity to profess that God is at the same time both sovereign and intimately involved in our lives. We tend to be comfortable sharing the circumstances that life hands us. That doesn’t mean they are easy- dealing with illness, death, etc. are not easy things. But they are “safer” than sharing where God is molding and shaping us. In the PC(USA) Book of Order, we have some wonderful words that describe the theology, the purpose, and the blessing of worship. It says in one section:
In the last several weeks, it has been such a blessing to hear people share how God has been moving in their lives. We have heard testimony of at least two people who have made a commitment to Christ (“naming and calling upon God”), people who are seeing and perceiving God at work in their lives (“remembering and proclaiming God’s acts of self-revelation in word and deed”), and people who are learning to commit or recommit their lives to the lordship of God (“committing their lives to God’s reign in the world”). This kind of sharing is so good and important that we are expanding the newsletter this month to include some of the testimonies people have offered. As we praise God for these examples of his grace and mercy, we also pray that all of us will be watching expectantly for God to “show up” in our lives. What we will ultimately learn is that God doesn’t “show up” at all, because God is always here, always working in our midst. It’s our responsibility to open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our minds and hearts to respond.
In Christ,
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How Has
God Been Working in Your Life Lately?
From Emily Preisendanz: To be completely honest, I have always been a believer, but my faith was never really something that I thought about often. I would go through the motions of going to church, so I was physically there, but not mentally. When I was in Nicaragua, God was breaking my heart down in order for me to find Him. The first time I felt Jesus around me when I was there was when I went to the community’s Sunday church service as the Pastor was telling us that God had sent us here for a reason; that service brought me to tears. Throughout the rest of the week my God-sightings kept getting stronger and made more sense. I started to find my faith that week and my interest in learning grew tremendously. One of the best parts about my God-sightings and strong desire to learn more while I was in Nicaragua was that it did not stop when I returned home. I now have a group of friends from the trip that share my interest and my experiences of Nicaragua who I can talk to, especially one of my best friends who went on the trip with me who had similar God-sightings as I did while on the trip. Together, we are in the beginning stages of starting a Bible study and are there for each other when we have questions, are struggling, or have joys and God-sightings to share. On Easter Sunday, I was able to travel to Leesburg, VA, where my brother lives. My parents also met us there for the weekend. I was really excited to attend the church he had been raving about, and never has God spoken to me more clearly than at that service. At the end, the pastor asked us to step out of our comfort zone and come to the front if we were ready to commit ourselves to Christ. He wanted to pray for us, and for the journey we were about to begin. As he was praying and told those who were making the bold decision to step forward, my heart began to pound out of my chest and I had a feeling that was truly indescribable. With my mom in hand, tears in my eyes, and Jesus inside of me, I made the decision to step forward and commit to Jesus Christ as my Savior. It was a moment that I will never forget and the start of an amazing journey as well as building my relationship with God. From Courtney Seery: a God-sighting from the Dominican
Republic Love, your church student, Courtney Seery From Tammy Lippman From Lisa Seery From James Hogancamp (Hogie)
What's New Among Our People?
The choir is also pleased to welcome the newest Chancel Choir member, Jane Kamper, who is adding her talents to our alto section. You may also notice a transformation to the playground in back of our building. After many years of struggling with and putting up with a surface that couldn’t hold up to the wear and tear that comes from busy 3- and 4-year-olds, it’s felt a solution has finally been found. A large steam shovel and other earth-moving equipment first got rid of an underlying concrete layer that made drainage a problem. With the base prepared, an artificial surface is being laid. The Nursery School children and staff are to be commended for their patience and for finding lots of excuses to take walks to get their fresh air. We expect that the new playground will be well worth waiting for and that it will bring many hours of fun and laughter to the Nursery School. One not-so-visible change that occurred this spring, but one that is just as important, is our new roof on the Education Building. It is hoped that this will put an end to the leaking problems that have occurred with increasing frequency over recent years. In addition to all of the spring news about the building, there is much going on in the lives of our congregation as well. Nearly all of our mission work travelers have returned safely and have and will be witnessing about where they saw God working in their trips. We continue to keep Hemant Tandi in our prayers as he devotes his time and gifts to the people in Orissa, India. Closer to home, within recent weeks, Bev Conklin, Gary Hunt and Janet Weber spent time in the hospital. Our sympathy is extended to Flo Powley on the death of her sister in Ohio and to the King/Canniff families on the death of Christine Canniff’s mother. We also want to remember some family concerns of which we are aware: Flo Powley’s daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer, and Jan Devine’s cousin and his family suffered the loss of one family member and the serious injury of two others in an automobile accident. Please continue to keep these families in your prayers. Joel Everett has once again been deployed to Afghanistan for nine months. Our thoughts and prayers are with Joel and with his family in Kentucky, as well as with his parents, Paul and Adele. The last month has been a difficult one for our country in many ways. We are grateful for people like Joel, who are dedicating their lives to keeping us safe, and for all of the responders to the tragedies that have occurred here in the U.S. We are in a season when there are many transitions taking place, and by now, I guess most have heard that I am looking toward transitioning into retirement. It has truly been a blessing for me to work in the office here at First Pres. Because there are advantages to being connected to the church in doing the job, anyone interested should talk to the pastors or me and read the announcement in this newsletter or the bulletin or look at the job description on our website. Janet To every thing there is a season, and a time to every
purpose under the heaven: |
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Connecting Thoughts for May They devoted themselves
to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the
Why do I share this? -- because it just reinforced for me why we place such importance on small groups. It is a place we can “practice” being the Acts 2 church and, hopefully, eventually have it become so ingrained in our everyday life that we too will become more like Christ as we share him with those in our midst. Although the Dominicans may not have material possessions, they had something much greater -- an eternal perspective that I desire, and I hope others in the FPC community also desire in their lives. Sharon Early, Connecting Ministries
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KICKING-OFF SUMMER EDITION “ZEROING IN ON FM13 ” Family Mission 2013 (FM13) was an AMAZING SUCCESS! I believe that Family Mission will continue to be one of THE MOST IMPORTANT FAMILY EXPERIENCES OF THE YEAR! Please make sure to block out space over Easter break 2014 and come along on FM14! This year, our team served in the
Samana Peninsula of the Dominican
Republic. We focused our attention in
three small villages. Our service
projects included: Leading Easter Church On Sunday, May 19 our team will be presenting our collective experience to the congregation. The team is excited to share with you how the Lord is continuing to bless them as a result of this trip. PRAISE THE LORD!
Time to Take A Closer Look at Summer is about to break through spring. The change of seasons brings with it new opportunities. ARE YOU PREPARED TO MAKE THIS SUMMER SPECIAL? Time off from school means you have more options for how you are able to spend your days. Many of you already have big plans for how you will fill your time. Have you considered that summer’s freedom awards you the perfect framework to invest in the Kingdom of God? PLUG INTO THIS SUMMER’S WORK CAMP OPPORTUNITY! This summer’s work camp is going to be the PERFECT fit for junior and senior high students to “get their serve on!” FREE UP YOUR SUMMER AND GET SERVING! From July 14-19 we will be “ roughing it” at Rock Mountain Bible Camp in Gibson, PA. If you are in 8th grade through 12th we want you to be tough with us! Days will be filled with serving kids, serving each other, and most importantly, serving Christ. If you like demolition, painting, digging, lifting, and working hard, you NEED to be there. If you enjoy ropes courses, swimming, zip-lines, and team building activities, you NEED to be there. If you want to grow in your relationship with Christ, you NEED to be there.
Contact Jeremy Finn
via e-mail or
call 743-4511.
The Confirmation Retreat is an awesome opportunity to discover more about your relationship with Jesus Christ, why First Presbyterian Church exists and why being involved and committed to a church is so important. Plans are being made for this year:
Brochure/registration and medical form are available on the table in back of the sanctuary, in the Church office or on-line at our website. |
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SESSION UPDATE Our April meeting focused on hearing from committees and ministry teams with regard to what they’ve been doing and what their future plans are:
Janet Frederick Mission Center in Bainbridge Update For committees and teams it is the end of May. Council will be meeting in the Masonville church beginning in June. Committee on Ministry will begin meeting at the First Presbyterian Church of Bainbridge. Each committee and team will be deciding when and where they will meet. For the staff it will be a while longer than May, unless a sudden sale of the Mission Center takes place. Permanent files and some equipment will be moving to a room in the half-basement level at Binghamton United Presbyterian Church. The Resource Center will be moving to a currently undecided location. The Stated Clerk and Administrative Assistant will work largely by phone and internet. The presbytery is committed to keeping personal communication availability at a high level – not just e-mail and a website, but a real person to talk to over the phone or available to meet in person. Sometime between now and June 29, staff offsite test runs will be held for the new phone connections and home/mobile offices. Our Treasurer, Recording Clerk and the Bookkeeper (who is shared by several presbyteries) already do their work out of their homes and on-site at presbytery gatherings. A goodbye picnic is planned for the Mission Center building at 12 Whitney Way for our regular stated Presbytery Assembly on Saturday June 29. (Please note the change in date from June 22 to 29.) From the office of the Presbytery |
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This past month we bid good-bye to Zach Ziemba, one of our work site supervisors who has been with Faith Partners for the past year. He has been integral in working with the mission teams at work sites, both in supervising the work and making sure the teams have the materials to do the work. Although we were sad to see Zach leave (he is moving south where he had his first experience with flood recovery work), we are fortunate to be able to replace him with Steve Kamper. You may have seen Steve in the fall filling in for Lou Pasquale or with his wife, Jane, and their children at services on Sunday mornings. Recently he went on the mission trip to Kenya with the FPC team, where he started experiencing what it means to be a missional church. Steve did not have much time to learn from Zach, but it has been a good transition with many opportunities for learning by “fire” since we recently had all four hospitality sites filled at the same time! So thank you, Steve, for coming on board and helping restore our community while sharing God’s love with those who are still recovering from the flood. A Note of Thanks
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There is a fight that has been looming 
With
the onset of spring, a transformation is making
its presence known in many places. Larry Hoey reports that one of
those instances is
in our Chancel Choir rehearsal room. Thanks to
the tireless efforts of Ede Sornberger and Lou Pasquale, the old
wallpaper was totally
removed and the walls restored and painted. Now
our choir room sports a very warm, inviting look with a fresh coat
of paint and new wood
molding. New curtains will soon adorn the rehearsal
space windows. The Chancel Choir is most grateful to Ede and Lou
for creating this
beautiful fresh space in which to hold weekly rehearsals.Thank
you, Ede and Lou! 
I believe one of
the most amazing experiences with our family mission
trip to the DR was seeing the Acts 2 church come alive in a community.
From
an American standpoint, this community was lacking
in so much: food, running water, jobs; those are just the basics
for surviving,
not to mention all the other ‘needs’ we Americans
have come to believe are necessary for life. Yet, as you can see
from the picture on the left, true joy was something we witnessed
on a daily basis while we were with them. They freely gave of
themselves, welcomed us into their homes and shared meals with
us even though we knew this would come at a cost. I was embarrassed
to reflect on times when I have been unwilling to share something,
and yet we witnessed kids who regularly do not have three meals
a day make sure that everyone had at least some portion of the
food being offered.
We also witnessed true caring for one another
in their community. The photo on the right was
taken when we took a number of the kids down to the beach. This
young boy made sure
his niece was able to come with us and watched
out for her the entire time we were down there, even though that
meant he wasn’t
able to participate in some of the games in the ocean. How many
of us would be willing to sacrifice some ‘fun’ that
we don’t regularly have an opportunity for in order to care
for someone else in our midst?
FM13 was FPC’s first family-centered
mission opportunity. The aim of Family
Mission is to provide families with an
opportunity to serve TOGETHER in
foreign culture.
A lot of work
is being done to prepare to be a “building-less” presbytery.
Like the second coming, we know it is happening, but the question
is when?
Faith
Partners’ Personnel Change
Grell Scholarship Money Available
.In
the interest of privacy, please contact
the 
ore September so give us
a try and come for good fellowship and
food. Please bring your own table service
and a dish to pass..jpg)
Think
Graduation
Nursery
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| 29 Grant Ave., Endicott, NY 13760 | (607) 748-1544 |
last updated 05/01
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