Holy Week Worship Opportunities 

One Great Hour of Sharing This Sunday 

The offering on Easter morning, April 5, will go to One Great Hour of Sharing. Since 1949, Presbyterians have joined with millions of other Christians through One Great Hour of Sharing to share God's love with our neighbors in need around the world. Your generous gifts to this special offering help provide relief to those affected by natural disasters, provide food to the hungry, and assist in empowering the poor and oppressed.

Give God Glory in Song Sunday Night 

Wednesday Evening: God and the Mind 

On Wednesday, April 8, John Graham will present our Adult Learning program on "God and the Mind."  Please join us for what promises to be an interesting evening!

Come at 5:30 for dinner in the Fellowship Hall and stay for the adult 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!

FPC to Hire Part-Time Facilities Manager 

FPC is looking for a qualified person to serve as Church Facilities Manager. This new part-time position will oversee building and equipment maintenance. Applicants should have five years of experience with building systems and facilities management and be computer literate. We are looking for a high school graduate and prefer technical school training. Please note that this is a part-time position of approximately 20 hours per week. Applicants should send a cover letter with resume to First Presbyterian Church, 701 Florida Avenue, Bristol, TN 37620, by April 15.

Men's Breakfast Next Saturday 

FPC Youth Help with Bristol Half & Half 

FPC youth helping with the Bristol Half & Half next Saturday, April 11, should meet in the church parking lot at 8:00 that morning. For more information, contact Katie Arnold at karnold@fpcbristol.org.

We Invite Very Specific Support of Our Brazil Mission Trip 

Over the next few weeks, we will be collecting items to take on our upcoming Brazil mission trip, set for May 29 through June 7. We invite your support of this mission to strengthen our 14-year partnership with the Felipe Camarão Presbyterian Church and preschool.

In addition to your prayers, we ask for some practical and very specific help. Over the next few weeks, we will ask you to donate one particular item per week. We will begin with Washable Crayola Markers in either the eight- or the ten-pack. The markers must be Crayola to stand up to the Brazilian climate, and they must be washable. You see, this is a very specific request!

A special box to receive items for the Brazil mission trip will appear in the Fellowship Hallway on Sunday, April 12, near the Little Red House. It will move back and forth between the hallway and the narthex between services each Sunday in the collection process.

Please join us in this hands-on way of helping our senior high youth and their chaperones and advisors, who will take these items to the schoolchildren with whom they will be working.

Mowers, Awake!

See! The winter is past, although the rains are far from over and gone. Flowers and wild onions appear on the earth, the season of singing has come, and the purring of the Tiger Cat is heard in our land. Less poetically but more realistically, the FPC mowing season has officially teed off, yet here we are in the weeds, looking for volunteers.

Even if you can help only once or twice during the season, we want you! Our mowing days are generally Wednesdays through Saturdays. Mowing takes three or four hours, and each volunteer's turn comes up once every five or six weeks, depending on the number of volunteers we have. This year, a lone church member will mow all through April to start us off. How sad is that?

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.

To volunteer to mow or to clear, please call Randy Cook at 423-956-1541 or email him at npolecook@aol.com. He will be delighted to give private lessons on operating the Scag Tiger Cat to any volunteer who wants them.

The Blood Assurance bloodmobile will be in our front parking lot from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22. It will be our last opportunity to donate so conveniently at the church until August. Please turn out to save lives!

All A-Glow for the Egg Hunt 

FPC's Fusion group of fifth and sixth graders enjoyed a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt last Friday at the Osborne home. Everyone had fun!

Last One In ... 

Our younger children had fun hunting for Easter eggs last Saturday. After filling their baskets, they made resurrection eggs. It was a great morning!

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!

Music participants: Please see "Holy Week Worship Opportunities" at the beginning of this newsletter.

Sunday's music: The Sanctuary Choir will offer two anthems at the 11:00 service. The first, "An Easter Gloria!" with music by John Leavitt (b. 1956), sets the final stanza of an Easter hymn text by Paul Gerhardt (1606-1676) interspersed with the Latin phrase "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Glory to God in the highest). The text rejoices in the fact that through the cross of Jesus we are brought "to bliss untold." Gerhardt was a beloved pastor and hymn writer who spent the bulk of his career in Berlin. Leavitt's education and career have centered primarily in Kansas, where he is now professor of music and director of choirs at Mid-America Nazarene University in Olathe.

Howard Helvey

The second anthem, "Awake, Arise!" is a setting by Howard Helvey (b. 1968) of a text by Christopher Smart (1722-1771). Smart was a gifted poet who wrote primarily on religious subjects; he suffered mental challenges and spent some time in an asylum, although he continued to write during his confinement. This text is exuberant in its celebration of the gift given us through the sacrifice of Christ. The music matches this call to praise. The composer Helvey lives and works in Cincinnati as an organist, pianist, choral director, and composer.

Children's choirs: Parents, the program year is winding down! However, the Wednesday rehearsals will continue through May 6 (choir awards dinner night) and the Children's Bells and Savior's Singers will participate in worship Sunday, May 10! Attendance at these last few rehearsals is crucial. In addition to working on music for May 10, we are continuing to rehearse our musical. Parts will be assigned and scripts sent home by the date of the awards dinner. If you haven't yet received a copy of the rehearsal CD, please let us know.

Cherub Choir parents, there is no rehearsal Easter Sunday (Kids' Kirk will be offered at both services), so there are four rehearsals left after that on April 12, 19, and 26, and May 3. We still need parent helpers for April 12 and 19 and May 3.

In Our Prayers

Becky Busler

Jane Crewey

Dorothy Dollar

Fred Frazier

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.

Condolences

Our love and sympathy are with Louise Rutherford in the death of her brother-in-law, William E. (Bill) Rutherford, March 18 in Bristol.

Birthday Prayer Fellowship

April 5           Landon Brooks

April 6           Rett Stocstill

April 7           Anne Southerland

April 8           Ginny Sword

April 9           Alie Bassett, Savannah Burt

April 10         Mark Dollar

April 11         Libby Crutchfield, Virginia McRee

We recently received gifts to the Capital Campaign Fund/MEP from Tom and Leigh King,in memory of Ruth Musser; and from Jim and Bettie Hite, in honor of Louise Rutherford.

7:00 a.m.     Easter Sunrise Service, Courtyard

7:30 a.m.     Easter Breakfast, Fellowship Hallway

8:30 a.m.     Worship, Fellowship Hall

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

11:00 a.m.   Worship, Sanctuary

8:00 p.m.     Good Shepherd Youth Choir Open Rehearsal, Sanctuary

Monday, April 6

Church office closed for Easter holiday

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

Tuesday, April 7

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

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

1:30 p.m.     Staff Meeting, Room 123

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

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

Wednesday, April 8

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

4:30 p.m.     Finance Committee, Room 123

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, April 9

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

8:30 a.m.      Meals on Wheels, Fellowship Hall

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

Saturday, April 11

8:00 a.m.      Men's Breakfast & Men's Committee, Fellowship Hall