There will be  a called Session meeting to receive new members this Sunday, March 15, at 10:20 a.m. in the chapel. All who desire to join First Presbyterian Church are welcome.

There will be a called meeting of the congregation next Sunday, March 22, at 10:25 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall.  The purpose of this meeting is to consider changes in the terms of call for the Pastor/Head of Staff. All members of First Presbyterian Church are urged to attend.

Suspensions for Spring Break 

To accommodate the many among us who will be affected by the Bristol, Tennessee, city schools' spring break next week, we will not have our fellowship dinner or evening programs Wednesday, March 18. Afternoon voice and handbell rehearsals for children and youth also will not be held, but the Sanctuary Choir and Praise team will rehearse at their usual times. The Jubilate Youth Choir will not rehearse on the Sundays of March 15 and 22 but will rehearse at 5:15 p.m. on March 29. The Men's Breakfast planned for this Saturday, March 14, has been suspended as well.

Easter comes on April 5 this year, and as part of our Lenten preparation, we are ordering lilies to brighten our worship spaces on that glad morning. To order lilies in honor or memory of someone, fill out a form and return it to the church office with payment by Monday, March 23. Lilies are $15 per plant, and order forms can be found in the Sunday bulletin, on the kiosk, and in the office. To aid correct acknowledgment, please print names exactly as you wish to see them in the Easter bulletin. Lilies will be placed in the sanctuary and Fellowship Hall after the Good Friday worship service.

Family Promise of Bristol Comes to FPC 

Our next rotation with Family Promise of Bristol is scheduled for the evening of Sunday, March 22, through the morning of Sunday, March 29.  There are currently two families in the program.

Here is a reminder of our volunteering needs:

Food

If you can help with breakfast or dinner, or if you want more information about either, email Scottie Bales at scottie@rtherapeutics.com.

Breakfast items and supplies should be brought to the church and left in the little kitchen by Sunday, March 22.

Dinner should be brought in hot and ready each evening at 5:30. This is usually done by a family or a team.

Dinner Hosts

Dinner hosts come to the church by 5:30 to welcome our guests, eat with them, and stay until the evening hosts arrive at 8:30. Some people find it easy to fix dinner and stay to host. If you're interested in being a dinner host, email Nancy Allerton at nja0510@gmail.com.

Overnight Hosts

Overnight hosts arrive at the church by 8:30 p.m., spend the night, and help with continental breakfast the next morning. Guests leave the church around 7:00 a.m., except on Saturday, when they leave a little later. For more information or to volunteer as an overnight host, contact Dan Gross at dan.c.gross@gmail.com or Scottie at  Scottie@rtherapeutics.com.

Laundry

On the morning of Sunday, March 29, there will be piles and piles of sheets, towels, and comforters that must be washed with bleach and returned to the Family Promise Closet. Again, your contact is Scottie.

Thank you so much for your love and hospitality to these families! If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to email, text or call Scottie at 423-360-5357. 

Sharing Christ Volunteers and Food Needed 

FPC's next opportunity to serve the community through the Sharing Christ Ministry is scheduled for Saturday, March 28. We are looking for volunteers to provide food and to perform an assortment of tasks. We need folks to pack sack lunches, to prepare dinner ahead of time, to serve dinner, and to clean up. Feel free to volunteer in more than one area!

Sharing Christ fed 139 people in late February, and we usually plan for 150. We have plenty of peanut butter and jam, and we are six frozen casseroles to the good. What we need now is sandwich bread, snack cakes, and paper bags for 75 lunches. We also need chicken casseroles, slaw, green beans, and dinner rolls. We will provide the recipes, and Tammy Connolly will post numbers on Facebook.

For more information, please contact Tammyat 423-968-3831 or lconn4691@btes.tv.

If you can take a meal to someone just home from the hospital; send a card or make a phone call to someone in a special care facility, or comfort someone in distress, FPC wants you for Care Shepherds, our congregational care ministry. The goal of this ministry is to show Christian love to members of our church family who are in need.

We begin a new Care Shepherds schedule in April and will hold a training event sometime that month. Come with your talents and build confidence as you serve! There are as many ways to do so as there are opportunities. Volunteers serve one month at a time on a team that coordinates the needs of the congregation for that month.

For more information or to volunteer, please contact Sue Faucette at suerforeo@hotmail.com or 423-652-1947 or Gordon Turnbull at gturnbull@fpcbristol.org or 423-764-7176.

Be an April Fool: Spring onto the Turf 

We have sprung ahead and landed only a couple of weeks away from the start of mowing season. We've chosen  April 1 this year, but we're not fooling when we say we need more volunteers! Several of our veteran mowers are unable to continue their service, so we are looking for new recruits. If you have never ventured out on a Scag Tiger Cat before, you are in for a treat!

Our mowing days are generally Wednesdays through Saturdays. Mowing takes three or four hours, and each volunteer's turn comes up every five or six weeks, depending on the number of volunteers we have.

We are also looking for folks who can pick up tree branches early in the week and stack them on the curb on the Spruce Street side of the front yard. This is a good service activity for families with young children.

Even if you can help only once or twice during the season, we can use you! To volunteer to mow or to clear, please call Randy Cook at 423-956-1541 or email him at npolecook@aol.com. He will give individual lessons on operating the Tiger Cat to any volunteer who wants them.

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!

Lorri Looney's Heart to Heart DVD Bible Study group will take up a spring study, Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer, on March 25. This course will run until May 6. Workbooks will be available at the first session. They meet on Wednesday mornings at 9:30 in the church parlor. All women of the church are welcome to come and bring a friend!

Windsor Avenue Presbyterian Church will present Night of a Thousand Stories ... Give or Take a Few next Sunday, March 22. This free event will begin with dinner at 6:00 p.m., and members of the acclaimed Jonesborough Storytellers Guild will begin to spin tales at 7:00. The evening's bill boasts Mountain Man Bob Phillips, Madge Roher, Sherrl Miller, Mary Grace Walrath, and Judy Farlow.

WAPC will provide meat and drinks, and members of their congregation will provide covered dishes. If you plan to attend and wish to take a covered dish, please feel free to do so, but don't feel that you must.

Windsor Avenue Presbyterian Church is located at 1100 Windsor Avenue in Bristol. For more information, please call WAPC at 423-764-6653.

Today we present for your enjoyment and enlightenment two of America's most acclaimed writers of children's books: Madeleine L'Engle and Katherine Paterson. Who has not heard of (and read) Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time? Today it's a classic, but more than thirty editors rejected it before she could find a publisher willing to accept it. And Katherine Paterson's half dozen major novels for children and young adults have won an astonishing number of awards: two National Book Awards; two Newbery Medals; a Hans Christian Anderson Award; an Astrid Lindgren Award, the biggest prize internationally in children's literature; and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal from the American Library Association.

But what do we know of these two writers, about their personalities, their creative drives? During her lifetime, L'Engle was alternately criticized for being too religious in her stories and castigated for being a heretic. What were her real beliefs? How many of you know that Katherine Paterson was born in China, daughter of a Presbyterian missionary, and that she also served on the mission field in Japan? And did you know that she is a graduate of King University? For those of you with long memories, she honed her writing skills in the classrooms of Pat Winship and Inez Morton Wager.

Our two offerings today will give you a fuller and more rounded picture of these accomplished writers. Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L'Engle in Many Voices is a book of remembrances put together by Leonard S. Marcus, a well-known critic of children's books. He wrote to more than fifty friends and literary people, requesting them to contribute brief essays recounting the Madeleine L'Engle they remembered. The result is a variety of stories from different perspectives, but altogether they give a good characterization of this remarkable woman.

And Katherine Paterson tells us that when she became a grandmother, the small ones in her family wanted to hear over and over again her vivid accounts of growing up in China, later living in Japan, and meeting and marrying John Paterson. She's put them together for us in Katherine Paterson: Stories of My Life.

Both of these are delightful and insightful books, filled with family pictures that give you the feeling of intimacy with their lives. They are on the New Books Table in our church library, just waiting for you.

Sunday's music participants: Sanctuary Choir; Pat Flannagan, director; Alan Hunter, organist. The Feys will be returning from son Jordan's wedding in Nashville.

Dr. Melva Costen

Sunday's music: To quote Carl Daw in his notes on hymns in our hymnal, "Nothing in Hebrew Scripture resonated more deeply with the experience of African Americans in North America than Israel's slavery in Egypt." For this week's anthem, the Sanctuary Choir will sing the spiritual, "When Israel Was in Egypt's Land."  Its recurring refrain "Let my people go!" is both an echo of the words of Moses and the plea of the slave population. As with so many songs of this tradition, the original source of the text and tune is unknown, but it was transcribed from the singing of refugee slaves residing behind Union lines in the Civil War and appeared with 20 stanzas in an anti-slavery publication. Printed in December 1861, it is believed to be the first African American spiritual to have been published; its use and publication by the Fisk Jubilee Singers spread wide its knowledge and popularity. Like our EPIC story this week of the plagues and flight from Egypt, this song has multiple layers of meaning and interpretation. Melva Costen arranged the music for the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal, of which she was the committee chair.

Milligan College Choir and Orchestra: The Milligan College Concert Choir and Orchestra will participate in the 11:00 service here Sunday, March 22. At 3:00 p.m., the Concert Choir will perform a separate concert in the sanctuary. There will be no charge, but donations in any amount will be accepted at the door.

Last week's newsletter gave information on the orchestra and its conductor, Dr. Kellie Brown. This week we feature the choir and its conductor, Noah DeLong. The Milligan College Concert Choir is an auditioned ensemble that performs extensively on campus and throughout Northeast Tennessee and whose members represent a variety of majors from throughout the student body. The choir has sung at the invitation of the President at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. The choir travels frequently throughout the United States, including a tour this month through Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. The choir has also toured throughout England, with special performances in Coventry Cathedral and in the Civic Centre of the City of Birmingham. In addition, the choir has been invited to sing at the North American Christian Convention, the Conference on World Evangelism-National Missionary Convention, and at the Tennessee State Convention of the American Choral Directors' Association, in addition to frequent collaborations with the Johnson City Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony of the Mountains.

Noah DeLong

Director Noah DeLong is a versatile musician who has found success as a conductor, tenor soloist, collaborative pianist, and church musician. He joined the music faculty of Milligan College in 2011, where he conducts two ensembles (the Concert Choir and Heritage, a select a cappella ensemble) in addition to teaching voice, conducting, and music technology. Mr. DeLong earned a BA in music and mathematics from Taylor University and an MM in choral conducting and vocal performance from Ball State University. He is presently completing the DMA program in choral conducting and pedagogy at the University of Iowa, where he studied with Dr. Timothy Stalter. Previously, Mr. DeLong has served as the Assistant Choral Director at Earlham College, as an adjunct professor of music history at Taylor University, and as Music Director at Westminster Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Muncie, Indiana.

Lenten Organ Meditations: Central Presbyterian Church in Bristol, Virginia, presents its 2015 Lenten Organ Meditations at noon each Wednesday through April 1. The organist for March 18 is Eric Hick, Director of Music and organist at First Baptist Church in Bristol, Virginia.

Montreat bio: Glory and Andy Cumbow, Senior High Bible Study leaders, won't be strangers to our kids from First Presbyterian Church; they served as chaperones in our Montreat house one year. Glory graduated from King University in 2013. She holds a BA in Biblical Studies and Theatre and minored in youth ministry. She currently serves as youth director at Bethel United Methodist Church in Stockbridge, Georgia, while she attends Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, pursuing a Master of Divinity and Master of Arts in Practical Theology with a concentration in worship. She is seeking ordination and stands as an inquirer in Abingdon Presbytery.

Andy, happy to serve as Glory's assistant, graduated from King College in 2011 with a BA in Music and Music Education. He was one of our Sanctuary Choir scholarship students for part of his tenure at King. He served for three years as a K-12 music educator for Bristol, Tennessee, City Schools before moving to Georgia with Glory. He is currently the Director of Music Ministries at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Snellville, Georgia, and is pursuing a Master of Music in Choral Conducting with emphasis in church music from Mercer University in Macon; he expects to graduate in the spring of 2016. 

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.

Congratulations

We rejoice with Wendy and Randall Olson in the birth of their second grandson, Logan Allen Olson, on February 12 to their son, Brandon, and his wife, Charla, of Morristown.

Birthday Prayer Fellowship

March 15     Blakesley Bassett, Michael Bryant

March 16     Kevin Crutchfield, Tony Raccioppo

March 17     Taylor Connolly, Jordan Scott

March 18     Evan North, Brenda Rogers

March 19     Tammy Connolly, Isabel Gross, Angelica Poteat

March 20     Hawley Heglar, Lilly Osborne

March 21     Brianna Kite

We recently received gifts in memory of the following individuals:

The Reverend Jeanette Baggs (sister of Al Thomas): by George Huber & Frances Emerson, to the Music Projects Fund; by John & Karen Vann, to the Memorial Fund

Allen & Lois Browning (uncle & aunt of John Dabbs): by John & Karen Vann, to the Memorial Fund

Evelyn Barr Goad (sister of Graham Barr): by John & Karen Vann, to the Memorial Fund

Louis Grubbs (brother of Ron Grubbs): by John & Karen Vann, to the Memorial Fund

Judy Icenhour (sister of Jim Arnold): by John & Karen Vann, to the Memorial Fund

Opal Johnson: by Presbyterian Women, and by John & Karen Vann , all to the Capital Campaign Fund/MEP

Richard King: by John & Karen Vann, to the Building & Grounds Fund

Ruth Musser: by John & Karen Vann, to the Memorial Fund

Gwen Necessary (mother of Nancy Butterworth): by Mr. & Mrs. Fred Frazier, to the Capital Campaign Fund/MEP; by John & Karen Vann, to the Memorial Fund

Ruby Poteat (mother of Jerry Poteat): by John & Karen Vann, to the Memorial Fund

Chester Sikorski (father of Chet Sikorski & uncle of Roger Sikorski): by John & Karen Vann, to the Memorial Fund

Sunday, March 15

8:30 a.m.     Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:00 a.m.     Cherub Choir, Room 209

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

10:20 a.m.   Called Session Meeting to Receive New Members, Chapel

11:00 a.m.   Worship, Sanctuary

Monday, March 16

4:45 p.m.     Administrative Committee, Room 117

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

Tuesday, March 17

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 18

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

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

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

Thursday, March 19

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

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