NEOS – A NEW CLASS

Hello everyone,

Greg and Maria who will lead the NEOS Class

For those of you who do not know me, let me introduce myself and my husband Greg. 
We have been married for 20+ years.  We have both been divorced.  We have 5 children
between us:  Dustin, 32; Kelly, 30; Amanda, 28; Chris, 25; and David, 24.  Dustin
and his wife, Kendra, are expecting their first child, our first grandchild, in
November.  I have been a serious follower of Jesus Christ for 38+ years.  Greg about
the same.  I am a full-time wife and mother.  I care for Chris who has Duchenne
Muscular Dystrophy and has been confined to a wheelchair since he was in the 4th
grade.  Greg is a Financial Advisor and works with Ameriprise Financial Services. 
Ok, now that we have that out of the way:)

Under the direction of the Christian Ed Commission and Pastor Steve we are starting
a new class which we are calling Neos (which means "new" in Greek).  Our vision is
to start with basic questions and answers about where we are in our walk with God. 
How to begin to walk with God.  What does it mean to say I am a Christian or I
rededicated my life to God?  Now what?  The Bible has much to say about these
questions and many, many more..

We are very excited to start this journey with you.  I know it is a sacrifice to get
up earlier on Sunday to arrive for Sunday School at 9:30AM but I promise you it will
not be time wasted.  Those of you with children will be doing a wonderful thing for
them as well.  We have classes for them also.  I pray we will all be able to learn
and grow together as we grow and strengthen our relationships with Jesus and one
another!

Please feel free to forward this email any others that I might not be aware of who
would also be interested.  We will be praying that we will see you Sunday, April 15
at 9:30AM in the room below the Sanctuary across from the Children's Sunday School
room.

Hope to see you,  Maria and Greg

AGNES AND IRENE – A CALL TO SERVE

This has been a horrendous past several weeks, weather-wise.  First was the surprise of a 5.5 earthquake at the front end of the last week of August–and the winds, rain, and destructiveness of Hurricane Irene at the end.  And now massive flooding following several days of torrential rains. The Flood of 2011 is beginning to eclipse the attention on the ten year anniversary of September 11th, 2001.  Friday morning, on my way to Roanoke VA to say the “last rites” over my 1996 Saturn which had died on the second day of my vacation, I crossed the Susquehanna on the Turnpike at Harrisburg.  The day before I had needed to be near Hummelstown and had seen the now totally inundated Hoss’ Restaurant next to Route 39.  The watery destruction was an awesome and saddening sight in both locations.  The 15 inches of rain in three days on top of all the rain with Irene had turned our part of Pennsylvania into a disaster zone.  This slide show will give you a little indication of what I saw.

Hurricane Agnes in 1972 was my first encounter with a “flood of the century.”  It was the summer before my senior year in college.  Dianne were going to be married at the end of August.  I was working at as a Wearever salesman in Middletown when Agnes hit and wiped out a monumental first week of sales.  Once the flood hit, the Red Cross opened a shelter at John Harris High School and put my dad in charge of it.  I worked as a driver for the Red Cross, primarily transporting doctors who were making house calls to the elderly in the flood zone. Again, the destruction was of almost biblical proportions.

But so was the caring, the compassion, the “pulling together” for the good of the community.  During Agnes there could be no “business as usual” for the flood’s destruction was too pervasive and too wide spread.  So instead of simply lamenting what was lost or being consumed with tomorrow, people lived in moment and did whatever it was that God and their compassionate hearts bid them to do.

We have been fortunate that nothing terribly serious has occurred in Landisville–but not far away brothers and sisters in Christ and many of God’s other children are going to need a helping hand.  This week I will be contacting some of them to see what help they may need. We will be putting together a work team and next Saturday with shovels, strong backs, and more we will head out to help.  Will you join us?  You can sign up Sunday and Monday.

If you cannot help next week, you can help our student ministry at the church as we set up for a showing of Soul-Surfer for the community Saturday night.

SAFE PLACES REQUIRE TRANSPARENCY

One of the blogs I read is called SOUL CITY BLOG. It is a congregation that takes seriously the idea of being a safe place for people in need. This blog post reminded me of an important dynamic to maintaining our core value that all people matter to God. – Steve

Asking for Help!

My kids regularly ask for my help. From getting dressed to building Legos to cutting waffles. They need my assistance on a regular basis. It’s not like when they were both infants—they couldn’t say the words, “Will you help me?” They are 5 and 2 now, so their independence has increased. But now I feel like I hear that sentence all the time. They long for my involvement in their activities and look for me to help.

Most of the time, I joyfully want to jump in on whatever they are doing and offer my aid, but I was having one of those days: I was tired and lacking in the patience department. I felt depleted and all I wanted to do was get the kids bathed and in bed as quick as possible. Jarrett had been out of town, we were without a nanny, and we were trying to pastor our young church and parent our young kids. I could see the finish line for the night until Elijah and Gigi needed more help. I responded abruptly and sharply and my 5 year old said, “Why don’t you want to help us?”

My heart sank with his question. He saw my impatience. He saw my frustration and perhaps more importantly, he felt it. I quickly apologized and explained that even mommies get tired and impatient.

My kids are not afraid to ask for help. In fact, they need help every day. They communicate their needs regularly, but in that moment, I didn’t want them to be needy.

That moment acutely reminded me that I was more like them then I realized.

I also needed help—I just wasn’t asking for it.

I had gotten too familiar again with one of my old false selves that never wants to appear needy. I have broken tendencies towards being a perfectionist: never appear in need, drive and achieve, rely on yourself, and always be strong. Over the years I have been grateful to do an excessive amount of internal self-work and personal assessment that I know that not asking for help is sudden death for my personality type.

I know that asking for help actually allows others to enter into my world, to experience my fears and remind me of truth.

It reminds me that I AM very needy. That I need help. That I have questions without answers. That I’m tender and scared some days and in desperate need of help.

Oh how I wish I would have never learned that art of closing myself up and painting on a self-protective smile. Oh how I long to be more like my kids that need help from their parents every day—because I am just like them.

I need the help and protection and care of my Heavenly Father every day. So today, instead of solving problems and charging through my task list, I’m going to begin by getting comfortable with being needy and asking for HELP.

Maybe you can do the same. What’s one way you can ask for HELP from your Heavenly Father today?

–Written by Jeanne Stevens. Jeanne is one of the pastors of Soul City Church.

Share The Love:

We showed this video in January as a part of our opening sermon series.  Last night we used it at BURN as we began to share what it means to be a leader in a new series Pastor Steve is preaching called STEP UP 4 GOD.  This is a good reminder to all of us during our Lenten journey to become more authentic disciples.

JOIN OUR BIBLICAL JOY ON-LINE BIBLE STUDY

Our on-line Bible study Biblical Joy is beginning a study of Ephesians and Proverbs.  The group has three short lessons weekly on Ephesians and two lessons on the Proverbs. This group has been operating almost a year now. 12 different people have formally been part of the group led by our Lead Pastor, Dr Steve. This would be a great time to join.  Check out these links and see if you’d like to be a part.

EPHESIANS AND PROVERBS

ABOUT BIBLICAL JOY

TYPICAL LESSON

 

SERVE SOMEBODY

From Steve: Karen Spears Zacharias writes blog I read regularly. On Veteran’s Day she posted an article entitled, “Serve Someday.” Here’s part of what she said:

Today at the Wall I was moved to tears many times but the moment when I almost lost it was when three teen girls, about 14 or 15, came up to an old Vietnam veteran. They handed him a letter that they had written. A class project, I suspect.

“We just wanted to tell you that we recognize your service and we want to thank you for that, sir,” the blond girl said.

“Yes,” added the dark-haired, shorter girl. “We really do appreciate all you have done. Thank you, sir.”

The old man, leaning on a cane, fought back tears as he accepted that letter from those girls. When he hobbled off, they turned to each other and began crying. As they turned to leave I read the back of their shirts: Serving those who’ve served.

Exactly.

It is not enough to set aside a day a year to say thank you to a veteran, an active duty personnel or a military family. We need to find ways to serve these people throughout the year.

Whether that’s through the work you do with the homeless, or through the friendships you build at bible study, or through Rotary, or if you’re a teacher teaching the next generation to care about the forgotten one, Bob Dylan had it right — You need to serve somebody.