The 3rd through 5th graders are starting a three week Lenten rotation.  Each week they will explore a Holy Week event, enjoy a craft and a game and hear a call.   This Sunday they will hear about the Triumphal Entry and learn that we are called to praise God.  When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the Pharisees demanded that He stop the crowd from shouting His praise.  Jesus told them that if they stopped, the stones would praise Him.  May we join in the praise!

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 Wednesday at 10:00  in Room H.  This week we will be working on crafts.

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 Greatest of All

• Scripture:  Mark 9:33-37; Luke  9:46-48
• Purpose:  To help children show God’s love by being kind and serving others.
• Verse:  “Serve one another in love.”  Galatians 5:13

K & 1st - Jesus and Zacchaeus

• Scripture:  Luke 19:1-10
• Purpose: Children will learn that Jesus forgave Zacchaeus.

2nd – 5th  A Call to Praise

• Scripture:  Matthew 21:1-11; Luke 19:28-41
• Purpose:  To learn that we are called to praise God just as the people did when Jesus entered Jerusalem.

 “Where there is no vision, the people perish”  Proverbs 29:18 KJV

 Next Saturday our consistory and ministry area leaders will be on retreat in the youth house.  I write today to ask you to pray for us, speak with us and work with us, as we seek to develop our vision and plans for the next three to five years.  In 2004 we gathered in three successive summits as a church and much of the vision we are living into has come from that time and the kingdom footprints that we began to walk in then.  We continue in that direction and keep moving forward in the ways we established in that process.

 As we are preparing for next Saturday, Karen Gomba has been encouraging me to add a piece to our planning that has not been present before. That piece is our vision statement of what kind of church we are looking to become as we move into the future that God is calling us to.

 We know our mission: To Know Christ and to Make Him Known.

 We know our values:  Radical Love-Radical Justice-Radical Welcome-Radical Gospel.

 What is our vision for the church we are looking to become?  Here is a start of a vision statement that I hope begins to capture many of the things that I have heard around Hopewell through the past decade.  It is a both/and vision that encompasses all that God has for us, rather than limiting us to either/or as we may see it. The vision has not been articulated in this way, but I present it to you to see if it rings true and captures where we have been and where we are going.

 Vision 167

 We seek to be a 167 church.  From the one hour of worship on Sunday comes the vision for every follower of Christ to live the next 167 hours of our week dedicated to the Glory of God.  We will be a growing community of faith built upon worship and the word, life transforming small groups, deep caring, and missional living. We are blessed to be a blessing being a movement seeing lives, churches, communities and the ends of the earth transformed by the truth that our life’s  purpose is to love God, love others and enjoy them forever.  Amen.

 My wife will take a pen to the English structure.  Consistory will take a pen to some of the wording, but I want your heart to take a look at the vision.  Does it capture well the essence of who we are called to be and what we are called to do?  I put it out to you before the consistory retreat, so you can feed back whether it fills the slot we are looking for.  If you have the time and desire to respond, hit reply and let me know.  Thanks, Taylor

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

 “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.