Joys and Concerns

This week we ask prayers for Sue Mitchell. Her stem cell procedure did not work and she is awaiting further discussion on treatment. Also, please pray for travel mercies for Les Jackson as he heads to Florida for a much needed vacation! Tina Smith is working in Haiti; please continue to pray for her and her team as they minister to the people they meet there. Also continue to pray for those in our Sunday bulletin’s prayer corner.

Worship Information

Beekman Road – This coming Sunday Pastor Holbrook will discuss the “New Growth” of our closet! His message will be based on Isaiah 43:16-21. Wednesday evening we will gather for soup supper, fellowship and worship. This year worship will take on a more expressive, creative format, each week being unique. This will be an opportunity to explore worship though the arts: music, dance, visual art and drama. These services will be an example of the style of worship we are considering for once-a-month Saturday evenings. Please join us, all are welcome. Soup Supper will begin at 6:00, and worship will follow at 7:15 for approximately 30 minutes.

Gathering begins at 8:45 AM with Glory Bound leading worship. Sunday school for The Gathering: Children in PreK-5 start in worship with their families; youth in grades 6-12 start in the Youth House. Foundations begins at 10:30 AM with the Hopewell Chorale leading worship.  Sunday school for Foundations:  Children in grades Pre-K-5 start in worship with their families; youth in grades 6-12 start in the Youth House.

 HRC Journey – Journey is at Tymor Park every Sunday at 10:00 AM.  Worship is led by Lynn and Wayne Morrison.  Sunday school is available for children in Pre-K through 5th grade. Odyssey is the 2^nd & 4^th Sundays of every month.

Common Ground – The Common Ground service meets at Arlington Reformed Church’s parsonage at 129 Ray Blvd., Poughkeepsie NY beginning at 4:00 PM.

Upcoming Events

March 16 – Sing-A-Long at the Avalon at 10 AM

March 18 & 25 – Children at the Table

March 20 – Pancake Breakfast 7:30 – 11:00 AM

March 20 - Christian Passover Seder beginning at 5:30 PM

Thank you to David Bushey’s ChristCare groups for providing the meal last Wednesday evening!

The Spring issue of Hopewell Happenings is at the kiosk! Pick up a copy next time you are at the church. In this issue I ask you to think about this: How has God blessed your life through HRC? Please take a few minutes to think about this and drop me a few lines answering this question (b.chisholm@hrcrca.org)!  We will share the answers in the next newsletter.

Don’t forget to check out our website, HopewellReformedChurch.org.  

And that is all the buzz there is this week!

Your sister in Christ,

Birgit

How true Jesus words are, we should not worry about tomorrow.  But it is hard to take one day at a time.  Jesus helps us put tomorrow in perspective in the verses before this advice.  He reminds us that since God cares for the birds of the air, He cares even more for us.  Then He tells us to seek first the kingdom of God.  If our focus is on the things of God and we remember that God cares for us, we will worry less about tomorrow.

Announcements:

4th & 5th Grade Game Night – 4th and 5th graders are invited to a Game Night on FRIDAY, March 19th from 6:30-8:00 in the Youth House.  Please bring a friend and a snack to share!  Please email S.Silvern@hrcrca.org, if you are able to come.

VBS Planning Meeting – If you’d like to help prepare for VBS, please join us this THURSDAY at 10:00  in the Community Room.  This week we will be working on decorations.

Children at the Table – Classes for children who desire to share in communion and have expressed faith in Jesus Christ will be held on March 18^th and March 25th at 4:30.  Please contact me at S.Silvern@hrcrca.org or call 227-1965, if you have any questions or if your child would like to participate.

VBS – Save the week of August 16th – 20th for SonQuest Rainforest VBS! Registration starts May 1st.

Here’s the Scoop for Sunday:

Pre-K – The Loving Father

• Scripture:  Luke 15:11-24
• Purpose:  To help children show God’s love and forgiveness to their families.
• Verse:  “Forgive each other.” Colossians 3:13

K & 1st - Jesus and Bartimaeus

• Scripture:  Matthew 20:29-34, Mark 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-43
• Purpose: Children will learn that Jesus healed a blind man.

2nd & 3rd  – “You are Special” by Max Lucado and Activities (8:45)

2nd & 3rd  – Making it Connect (10:30)

• Scripture: The Gospels
• Purpose:  To learn that God has a plan. Long ago He sent His Son so that we can become part of His story.
• desires our friendship and He wants us to listen to Him.
• Verse:  “God is love.”  I John 4:16

4th & 5th – The Parable of the Lost Son

• Scripture: Matthew 12:11-24
• Purpose:  To learn that God’s love is unconditional and extraordinary.
• Verse:  “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38,39

 “O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.”  (Psalm 98:1)

 Chalk it up to the latest evidence of God’s providence; we are hiring Wesley Joseph to be our organist and choir director.  God has done marvelous things!  About a year ago Lorraine Nelson Wolf left as organist and choir director for new areas of ministry.  We discovered an organist in our own back yard who was a young, talented, easy going musician. Through the past year, Wesley Joseph  has filled in many times at the organ bench.  Sherri and Edwina would often say: “it would be so nice if Wesley was available.”   The problem was that Wesley was headed to law school in Virginia.  After Christmas, Sherri wrote Wesley a note thanking him for helping out so well through the Christmas season.  She added: “if you ever quit law school, let us know. We would love to hire you.”  Wesley wrote her back and said that he was not continuing in law school and Sherri dropped her jaw. 

 Wesley has met with our choir, with our consistory and with our search team, consisting of Edwina Pratt, Sherri Hondorp and me. We have offered him the position of organist/choir director for our Foundations service.  He has accepted.  We are very confident of his musical ability and are looking forward to his development as a choral conductor.  Edwina has agreed to work with him in whatever ways are needed.  Wesley is currently looking to pursue his Masters Degree in Education and land a job teaching English in the area.  Our hope and our prayer is that this is a relationship that will continue for many, many years. 

 Wesley is a man of outstanding character, a committed Christian; he is a member of Fishkill Baptist.  He graduated from John Jay High School and Wheaton College.  He is easy to work with and has a deep appreciation for music and worship.  He will formally begin on the Sunday after Easter when we will have a service to welcome him, but he will continue playing as our substitute organist through Lent and Easter. 

 So often we see the providence of God looking in the rear view mirror.  This is another case of that. Some of our frustration and discouragement in the process was a way of biding time for a better solution to be found.  We are so grateful to many: Edwina Pratt, who has directed the choir for this year and held things together in so many ways; Sherri Hondorp, for her guidance of our worship ministry; Eunyoung Park, who played for us at the start of this program year; the chancel choir who faithfully continues in its ministry.  My hope is that we start Wesley off on the right foot and see many new choir members join in.  We are especially encouraging high school kids who love to sing to join the choir.   Come sing a new song to the Lord.  Welcome Wes, God has done marvelous things.

TWO:  I go to the corner gas station for milk (we are having breakfast for dinner).  A young lady is frantically looking for help and asks if I have a gas can.  I ask her to wait a minute as I run home, ask Jill to take over dinner, fill the tank with gas and invite here to climb in.  She told me she had quit her job that day and was moving to South Carolina.  She had grown up in the area but was sick and tired of how mean everyone was.  Why anyone would want to live in such a miserable place was beyond her understanding.  She said when she ran out of gas, everyone just blew their horns and she had to push her car off the road and into a parking lot by herself!  Then, when she got to the gas station, no one was willing to help.  Then she said something that concerned me, “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me!”  Thirty minutes later I was eating my pancakes talking to my kids about what just happened.  Kyle is quiet until he turns to me and asks, “Did you do this because it is part of your job?”  I didn’t know how to answer until Jill spoke up, “No, Kyle, we do this because it is part of our hearts.”  Then I entered into a 15 minute boring sermon on radical love as my kids rolled their eyes.

THREE:  I had an extra half hour for t.v. the other 363 days of the past year.

I wonder what would happen if everyone in Dutchess County who said they loved Jesus (Reformed, Catholic, Baptist, Non-denomination, etc.) gave up one half hour t.v. show a week to radically love their neighbor?  I wonder if people would be moving into Dutchess Country because of how nice everyone is?

Until Next Time —Mark

Joys and Concerns

This week we ask prayers for all those in our community that worked and are still working to bring back everyone’s electricity!  This is surely an exhaustive job and we appreciate you all! This week we also remember Heather Maillet and her children, Kerrin, Annaliese and Sam who are dealing with the aftermath of a dog attack.  Also, please keep the Mast family in your prayers, as they are battling a stomach bug. Also continue to pray for those in our Sunday bulletin’s prayer corner.

Worship Information

Beekman Road – This coming Sunday Pastor Holbrook will discuss the “Natural Rhythms” of our mess in the closet! His message will be based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-15. Wednesday evening  we will gather for soup supper, fellowship and worship. This year worship will take on a more expressive, creative format, each week being unique. This will be an opportunity to explore worship though the arts: music, dance, visual art and drama. These services will be an example of the style of worship we are considering for once-a-month Saturday evenings. Please join us, all are welcome. Soup Supper will begin at 6:00, and worship will follow at 7:15 for approximately 30 minutes.

Gathering begins at 8:45 AM with Glory Bound leading worship. Sunday school for The Gathering: Children in PreK-5 start in worship with their families; youth in grades 6-12 start in the Youth House. Foundations begins at 10:30 AM with the Chancel Choir leading worship.  Sunday school for Foundations:  Children in grades Pre-K-5 start in worship with their families; youth in grades 6-12 start in the Youth House.

HRC Journey – Journey is at Tymor Park every Sunday at 10:00 AM.  Worship is led by Lynn and Wayne Morrison.  Sunday school is available for children in Pre-K through 5th grade. Odyssey is the 2^nd & 4^th Sundays of every month.

Common Ground – The Common Ground service meets at Arlington Reformed Church’s parsonage at 129 Ray Blvd., Poughkeepsie NY beginning at 4:00 PM.

Upcoming Events

March 18 & 25 – Children at the Table

March 20 – Pancake Breakfast 7:30 – 11:00 AM

March 20 -  Christian Passover Seder beginning at 5:30 PM.

Thank you to Jan Bushey and Lucia Eckhardt’s ChristCare groups for providing the meal last Wednesday evening!

We hope to have the Spring issue of Hopewell Happenings at the kiosk this Sunday!

Don’t forget to check out our website, HopewellReformedChurch.org.  

And that is all the buzz there is this week!

Your sister in Christ,

Birgit