The next story in our churchwide study series, EPIC: Through the Bible with Jesus, is "The Girl No One Wanted." Please join us this Sunday, March 1, as we consider the story of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel found in Genesis 29-30 and retold in the children's book we are using in our study, The Jesus Storybook Bible. Sermon texts throughout this series are taken from the same source.

ACTS of Prayer: Giving Thanks 

On Wednesday, March 4, Dave Welch will take up the third part in his series of adult learning programs on prayer. He is leading us in a review of Biblical models of the prayer forms adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication (ACTS), while we reflect on our own prayer pilgrimages. Wednesday's focus will be on prayers of thanksgiving.

Please join us at 5:30 for dinner in the Fellowship Hall and stay for the adult learning program at 6:20. Student Small Groups and Wednesday Night Kids will meet as usual at 6:00.

Parents: Please keep your children with you or within sight until they are called to their groups at 6:00. We want to keep our children safe and adults unworried!

Stamps Work for Missions

There is an easy way to help provide Sunday School materials for Latin American churches: just bring your canceled stamps to FPC! Presbyterian Women are working with the Alliance Stamp Ministry in Fort Myers, Florida, to turn used stamps into money for mission work. This group accepts all stamps, and by so doing were able to raise $36,000 last year, enough to equip students in nearly 40 denominations in 19 countries.

Women's Retreat Begins Tomorrow

Take heart! Our annual Heart to Heart women's retreat begins tomorrow, Friday, February 27, and runs through Sunday, March 1, at Blowing Rock Conference Center. Our speaker this year is Lindsay Fooshee, Christian thinker, blogger, and mom, and her theme is joy. We can't wait to see you there!

Student Retreat at Doe River Gorge

All middle school and high school students are invited for a weekend of fun at Doe River Gorge March 6-8! We will meet at the church at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, March 6, and head to Doe River Gorge in Hampton, TN. While there, we will enjoy worship, fellowship, and adventures. We will arrive home before noon on Sunday.

If you register before this Sunday, March 1, your total cost for the retreat will be $80. After this Sunday, your cost will be $100. All participants must have a notarized FPC medical release form and a Doe River Gorge release form, which can be found on the Student Fellowship Activities page of the FPC website here, along with the list of things to pack. Register today by sending your money and form to Katie Arnold or the church office.

Snacks for Fairmount Students 

We are collecting cookies for our young friends at Fairmount Elementary School. The Neighborhood Initiatives Steering Committee is asking us to fill the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway with boxes of vanilla wafers. The committee will take them to Fairmount, where teachers will divide them into portions for the youngsters whose parents cannot afford to send snacks to school with them. Let's make sure all students get a midafternoon energy boost!

Some books simply do not fit into the confines of a brief review. This volume is one of those. Rare Bird: A Memoir of Loss and Love is, as its subtitle indicates, a memoir of loss, of raw, searing loss, but it is also a story of recovery, love, and a new understanding of God's providence.

Tim and Anna Donaldson were your typical, comfortable, middle class parents, blessed with two children, Jack and Margaret. They lived in a suburban bedroom town not far from Washington, D.C. Active in their church and community life, they represented the American dream to which so many of us of the middle class aspire. Their children would grow up to marry, enjoy happy lives, and pursue interesting and important professions. Then in 2011 came that great rainstorm, which surpassed anything remembered by older residents. Streets and yards were filled with running water, and the neighborhood creek became a raging torrent. Naturally, the children set out to investigate, but twelve-year-old Jack failed to return. Concern quickly became panic, and Anna roused the whole neighborhood in a desperate hunt for the boy. The authorities were notified, and a systematic search was organized. Long minutes soon became hours without any sign of Jack, and it was not until the next day that his body was discovered wedged into a drainpipe.

And this becomes the story that is told in the pages of this book. Now you may respond that tragic accidents like this befall American families every day, and of course there will be a difficult grieving process. But what makes this book so special, unique in its way, is the narrative that Anna wrote of the grieving process, a process which she and Tim were determined to face as committed Christians. The result is a vivid narrative that is intense: you, the reader, are with that couple all the way. The book is divided into sections that detail the various emotional stages through which they passed. "Storm," the first, details the loss of Jack and immediate events through the funeral; "Impossible" chronicles a black time of despair, fearing that grief could never be overcome; further stages after several months chronicle new and deeper searches for meaning in God's providence, a willingness to accept the loss and to move on. "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" brings recognition that life can and must go forward, and "Nothing Is Impossible" reaches a resolution where tragedy is accepted, but not forgotten, and there is healing and confirmation that God's loving providence does prevail.

The above is an inadequate summary of the message to be found in this excellent book. What matters is not just a reprise of the grieving; it is how it impacted the very core of their lives, how they dealt with the world, how they felt about God. And who should read this book? If you have had an unexpected tragedy to strike in your immediate family, you will be very understanding of Anna's story. If you have not known such a calamity, this book will give you insights that will enable you to be a better friend and comforter to those who have had such a loss. Rare Bird is a book that you do not readily forget; it's the type of work you find yourself mulling over again and again after reading it. Try it and see.

Sunday's music participants: Sanctuary Choir; Lauren Castor, flute.

Sunday's music: Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) was a Scottish clergyman and author who wrote a number of hymn texts. Three of these, including this week's anthem text, are in our current hymnal. Bonar wrote "Here, O My Lord, I See You Face to Face" in 1855 at the request of his elder brother, John James Bonar, for use at the St. Andrew's Free Church of Greenock, Scotland, where John James was pastor. The original was ten stanzas long; most modern hymnals select four or five for inclusion. The text celebrates that as we gather at the communion table we are seeing, touching, and tasting the unseen Grace of Christ and experiencing in a small way "that glad feast above, giving sweet foretaste of the festal joy, the Lamb's great bridal feast of bliss and love." William M. Schoenfeld (b. 1949), educated in California and Texas, composed the setting of the four stanzas sung by the Sanctuary Choir. His anthem has a simple, hymnlike melody that lets the text speak clearly, adding an obbligato flute part to give richness to the expression.

Milligan Chorus and Orchestra here: Save the date! The Milligan College Concert Choir and Orchestra will participate in the 11:00 worship service here on Sunday, March 22. At 3:00 p.m., the Concert Choir will perform a separate concert at the church. More details to come!

Lenten Organ Meditations: Central Presbyterian Church in Bristol, VA, presents the second in its series of Lenten Organ Meditations at noon on Wednesday, March 4, featuring Jane LaPella, retired organist at Munsey Memorial UMC in Johnson City. There is no admission charge for these 30-minute programs, but donations to the music program are gratefully accepted.

Damayanthi M.A. Niles

Montreat bio: Damayanthi M.A. Niles, Adult Bible leader, is currently Professor of Constructive Theology at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO. Previously she served as Research Associate (Associate Director) for the Christianity in Asia Project, Centre for Advanced Religious Studies, Faculty of Divinity, Cambridge University. Born in Sri Lanka, she received a B.A. from St. Olaf College with majors in religion and psychology, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She was ordained into the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the PC (USA) in Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery, St. Louis. Dr. Niles is a published author and has served on a number of General Assembly Committees, primarily those on ecumenical and interfaith relations.

In Our Prayers

Becky Busler

Jane Crewey

Dorothy Dollar

Fred Frazier

Ann Galliher

DeeDee Galliher

Dorothy Giesler

Juanita Goforth

Ron Grubbs

Will Hankins

Mary Nell Harris

Sharon Hatcher

Hawley Heglar

Carolyn King

Nancy King

Sue Olsen

Nancy Preston

Mary Rice

Brenda Rogers

Virginia Rutherford

Katy Sikorski

Faye VanNostrand

An extensive list of prayer concerns, "Pray for One Another," is available for pickup at the church each week.

Birthday Prayer Fellowship

March 1        Christian Bolick, Jack Hyder, Linda Ratcliff

March 3        Darlene Pollard

March 4        Weston Foster, Brandi Smith

March 7        Abby Welch

We recently received gifts to the Capital Campaign Fund/MEP in memory of the following individuals:

The Reverend Jeanette Baggs (sister of Al Thomas): by Eddie & Peggy Hill

Mack Calcote: by Susan Caldwell

Presley Taggart Downs (sister of Kaye Crutchfield): by Eddie & Peggy Hill

Laura Francis: by Eddie & Peggy Hill

Evelyn Goad (sister of Graham Barr): by Eddie & Peggy Hill

Louis Grubbs (brother of Ron Grubbs): by Eddie & Peggy Hill

Judy Icenhour (sister of Jim Arnold): by Eddie & Peggy Hill

Opal Johnson: by Eddie & Peggy Hill, by Michael & Melinda Lewis, by Jane Nickels, by the Sullivan County Principals Association

Gwen Necessary (mother of Nancy Butterworth): by Eddie & Peggy Hill

Sunday, March 1

8:30 a.m.     Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:00 a.m.     Cherub Choir, Room 209

9:45 a.m.     Sunday School, Education Wing

11:00 a.m.   Worship, Sanctuary

5:15 p.m.     Jubilate Youth Choir, Music Wing

6:00 p.m.     Student Fellowship, Youth Wing

Monday, March 2

5:30 p.m.     Sanctuary Handbells, Handbell Room

7:00 p.m.     Deacons Meeting, Room 123

Tuesday, March 3

9:00 a.m.     Staff Meeting, Room 123

10:00 a.m.   Morning Prayer Group, Conference Room

1:00 p.m.     Jackie Burt's Bible Study, Burt Home

7:00 p.m.     Boy Scout Troop 3, Scout Wing

7:00 p.m.     Betsy Turnbull's Inductive Bible Study, Room 123

Wednesday, March 4

9:30 a.m.     Lorri Looney's DVD Bible Study, Parlor

10:00 a.m.   Elizabeth Patrick's Women's Bible Study, New Mothers' Room

4:15 p.m.     Children's Handbells, Room 212

4:45 p.m.     Youth Handbells, Room 212

4:45 p.m.     Savior's Singers Children's Choir, Room 209

5:15 p.m.     Baby & Toddler Care, Rooms 34-37

5:30 p.m.     Fellowship Dinner, Fellowship Hall

6:00 p.m.     Wednesday Night Kids, Rooms 11 &31

6:00 p.m.     Student Small Groups, Youth Wing

6:20 p.m.     Adult Learning, Fellowship Hall

7:15 p.m.     Sanctuary Choir, Room 202

7:30 p.m.     Praise Team, Fellowship Hall

Thursday, March 5

7:00 a.m.      Men's Bible Study, Parlor

12:00 p.m.   Noon Bible Study, Room 117

6:00 p.m.     EPIC Small Group, Friendship Class

7:30 p.m.     Troop 3 Committee, Room 163

Friday, March 6

6:00 p.m.     Winter Student Retreat, Meet at FPC