Beginning this Sunday, April 26, we will take up "The Teeny, Weenie ... True King," the next story in our churchwide study series, EPIC: Through the Bible with Jesus. In Sunday School we will study and in worship we will hear this tale, both from 1 Samuel 16 and as retold in The Jesus Storybook Bible, of the shepherd boy chosen to be king.

But that's not all! Next Wednesday evening, our final program of the semester will be a Reader's Theater with Liz Dollar and her family. Inviting room participation, the program will engage us with a dramatic reading of the EPIC story, reflection, and play. Please join us April 29 for an inspiring 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!

Spring Cleaning This Saturday 

Our annual Spring Cleaning Day is set for this Saturday, April 25. It is not too late to volunteer to help provide household help and yard work for church members who request it. We also will take care of a few tasks here at the church. This is a great opportunity for families to serve together, and for people of all ages to join in service and fellowship.

As a special incentive, the Fellowship Committee is encouraging folks of all ages by providing those who attend with a breakfast. Starting at 8:15 a.m., we will serve in the Fellowship Hall an old-fashioned, Southern breakfast of biscuits, sausage, and gravy. We will have orange juice for the children and coffee for the adults. We anticipate starting work a little after 9:00 and finishing no later than noon.

If you are interested in receiving some help at your home, please let us know! If you would like to join a work team to offer this kind of support, we welcome your assistance! Just call the church at (423) 764-7176 or email gturnbull@fpcbristol.org to sign up for either.

Dessert Fundraiser for Family Promise of Bristol 

We are cordially invited to share in "Desserts Galore and More," the annual fundraiser for Family Promise of Bristol, this Monday, April 27, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Addilynn Memorial United Methodist Church, 3225 Avoca Road, Bristol, TN.

There is no charge for this event, but the organizers hope we will join in supporting the good work of Family Promise to help homeless families with children to become self-sufficient.

RSVP to Sandra Willis at nanadadaw@btes.tv or (423) 652-2442, or to Patsy Tauscher at patsytauscher@yahoo.com or (423) 612-3576, to indicate your intention to attend.

Brazil Mission Trip: Construction Paper! 

The third item we're collecting for our schoolchildren in the neighborhood of Felipe Camarão is packets of full-size sheets (in the neighborhood of 9" x 12") of construction paper. The packages themselves may contain any number of sheets. We have placed a special box for them next to the boxes for markers and toothpaste outside the Fellowship Hall.

We are aiming for 150 of each of the four items our mission team will take to the preschool and church in Natal, Brazil, on May 29. The last day on which we can accept donations will be Sunday, May 24, but you are very welcome to bring in any of the items on our list until then. Thank you for your support!

EPIC Small Group Forming

Are you interested in joining a small group at FPC?

A new group is forming and welcomes any interested individuals or families. Child care will be available for families with young children, and we hope to find a day and time that is convenient for as many people as possible. The group will meet once or twice per month.

The first meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 30, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Room 163 (Friendship Classroom).

For more information, contact Amber Warhurst at amber.warhurst@gmail.com.

Riders of the Wind 

Is it true that the mowing team is offering parasailing on the front lawn? Nice way to earn gas money to keep that Tiger Cat going! Whichever way the wind blows, we are confident that Jim White will stay the course when he takes the helm from Randy Cook next week.

The FPC mowing team welcomes volunteers at all seasons! To sign up, just call Randy at (423) 956-1541 or email him at npolecook@aol.com. He will give private lessons on the Scag Tiger Cat to any volunteer who wants them.

Two More Weeks of Vanilla Wafers 

We will continue to collect vanilla wafers for our young friends at Fairmount Elementary School for two more weeks, then break until fall. Please bring your donations to the Little Red House in the Fellowship Hallway. The Neighborhood Initiatives Steering 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. Thank you for giving these children a boost! 

Every year we look forward to honoring the achievements of all the new graduates among us. As graduation time approaches, we are planning a Sunday of celebration at both worship services on May 17, when we will recognize those among us who are completing degrees or certifications or graduating from high school, college, or other programs.

If you or a member of your family will be graduating from high school, college, or any other educational or training program this spring, please let us know by calling the church office at (423) 764-7176.

We need the following information by Monday, May 11, for our recognition efforts: graduate's name; current (not future) school or program; degree or certification earned; and field of study.

Thank you for your help!

Since autumn, our confirmation students have participated in weekly classes that have taught, informed, and challenged their ideas of faith. Watching them grow over the past school year and take ownership of their faith has been a joy and an inspiration! It will soon be time to share this joy with all our congregation.

In the combined service on Sunday, May 10, these young people will have the opportunity to proclaim their faith to our church family and become members of First Presbyterian Church. As we prepare for this special day, we ask friends and family to send in cards and letters of spiritual encouragement for our confirmands. The kind words you share will not only encourage them as they prepare to be confirmed but also be kept for years as a reminder of the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds them and that will continue to love, guide, and encourage them as they run the race.

The following are the Spring 2015 confirmands: Daniel Osborne, Dillon Pendley, Cameron Perry, Angelica Poteat, Rosa Poteat, and Madison Ratliff.

If you would like to participate, please deliver all cards and letters to Katie Arnold at the church by Monday, May 11. Katie is your contact for more information, at karnold@fpcbristol.org. Thank you for joining in the celebration of this important and exciting time in the lives of our students! 

Make It, Don't Brake It 

We were rained out over Race Weekend, so the seventh through twelfth graders in FPC's Student Fellowship will meet again this Sunday, April 26, for a racing challenge. We will gather at 6:00 p.m. at Wellness Yoga for two hours of crazy fun.

Make it, but don't touch those brakes! This is a race! Bring friends, wear your best race fan outfit, come hungry, and be ready to hit the downtown race track in your very own race car! If rain strikes again, we'll meet at the church.

Wellness Yoga is located across from the library in the former Inari Wine building at 39 Piedmont Avenue, Bristol, Virginia. For more information, contact Katie Arnold at karnold@fpcbristol.org. 

The final Student Fellowship gathering of the school year, on May 17, will be a dinner meeting in honor of its high school seniors. Student Ministries is now soliciting "Legacy Letters" to present to these seniors at that time. These will be letters written by family and friends to describe ways in which the senior has affected their life. Letters can share memories, stories, lessons learned, or significant moments. This is a wonderful opportunity to encourage seniors in their future plans and faith as well as to acknowledge the beautiful gifts God has given them.

The Student Ministry Seniors are Paul Blair, Alex Eleas, Briggs Evans, Abby Frick, Danae Kreiss, Austin McReynolds, Josh Pruner, Melody Wallen, and Stephen Welch.

Our hope is that each Legacy Letter will serve as a reminder to these young people of the loving community cheering them on as they begin a new journey after high school. If you would like to participate, please mail or deliver all cards and letters by Monday, May 11, to Katie Arnold at the church. 

If a poll were to be taken, surely most all of us would affirm that the Psalms were among our favorite sections of the Bible. They offer inspiration, wisdom, and a close sense of God's presence that makes them an important comfort whatever our mood or need requires, whether that is triumphant exaltation, a need for solace and understanding, or assurance that God is indeed present in his kingdom. And because they are so personal, they provide a sense that God is readily accessible, responsive to any need. Today we focus upon the Psalms, and we have three offerings to suggest for your reading pleasure and enlightenment.

The first is N.T. Wright's The Case for the Psalms. The former bishop of Durham in the Anglican Church and now Professor of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, Wright believes that today's Christians pay rather less attention to the Psalms, and he writes with a frank appeal that they be restored to their important place. "They are full of power and passion, horrendous misery and unrestrained jubilation, tender sensitivity and powerful hope. Anyone at all whose heart is open to new dimensions of human experience, anyone who loves good writing, anyone who wants a window into the bright lights and dark corners of the human soul" will find them refreshing and fulfilling.

Walter Brueggemann, recently retired Old Testament professor at Columbia Theological Seminary in Georgia, addresses two specific issues he believes will make them better understood and read more passionately. His Praying the Psalms calls for us to take a more open attitude to their imaginative verse forms and to recognize their Jewishness of character and how it contributes to our Christian theology. His brief book (not a hundred pages) displays how this can be done, and he highlights the often expressed cry for vengeance as one example.

The third book is Eugene H. Peterson's The Message: Psalms, a contemporary translation of those ancient words published in a single volume. Here you'll find the familiar verses given a modern and fresh understanding, sometimes surprisingly so. This will force you to go back to the traditional versions, compare the differences, and in the process consider anew just what is the message of a particular Psalm. Here for example is Peterson's version of the opening verses of Psalm 23:

Yahweh, my shepherd! I don't need a thing.

You have bedded me down in lush meadows, you find me quiet pools to drink from.

True to your word, you let me catch my breath and send me in the right direction.

Even when the way goes through Death Valley,

I'm not afraid when you walk at my side.

Your trusty shepherd's crook makes me feel secure.

Sunday's music participants: King University Symphonic Choir, under the direction of Pat Flannagan.

Sunday's music: The King University Symphonic Choir will offer two anthems and a benediction as part of our 11:00 worship service. For the prelude, the choir will sing "O Praise the Lord!" by Gerald Near (b. 1943). Near received his education from the University of Michigan, served for a number of years as the musician at St. Matthew's Cathedral (Episcopal) of Dallas, Texas, and resides in New Mexico. This exuberant work has a text, by Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877), based on Psalms 148 and 150. Baker is best known as the author of the text of another hymn we will sing Sunday, "The King of Love My Shepherd Is," based on Psalm 23.

For the offertory, the choir will sing "Create in Me," with text from Psalm 51:10-12 and a musical setting by Terre Johnson. Johnson has had a wide-ranging career as a choral director, and since 2005 has been music director of Vestavia Hills Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama. In response to the benediction, the choir will sing "The Lord Bless You and Keep You," the beloved text from Numbers 6:24-26 in a setting by Robert Carwithen (b. 1933). Carwithen's career was spent primarily at Westminster Choir College, where he taught for more than 45 years.

Programs of note: This Friday, April 24, the King University Symphonic Choir and Collegium Musicum will present their spring concert in King's Memorial Chapel at 7:30 p.m. The Paramount Chamber Players have a weekend of concerts. They will perform this Friday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, Kingsport; Saturday, April 25, at 7:30 p.m. at the Paramount; and Sunday, April 26, at 3:00 p.m. at Sinking Spring Presbyterian Church.

In Our Prayers

Tony Adams

Becky Busler

Jane Crewey

Dorothy Dollar

Fred Frazier

DeeDee Galliher

Dorothy Giesler

Ron Grubbs

Will Hankins

Mary Nell Harris

Sharon Hatcher

Hawley Heglar

Vivian Hill

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

April 26     Jake Regan

April 27     Lee Galliher, Annie Osborne

April 28     Zora Gross, Cora Lee Raccioppo, Bob Rhea

April 29     Han Ong

April 30     Barron Harkleroad, Aiden Kite

May 1        Debbie Garritson, Jane Keeter, Maxwell Mumpower

May 2        Martin Dotterweich

We recently received gifts in memory of the following individuals:

Charlie Nickels: by Jane Nickels & Sharon Nickels Ratliff, to the Minister's Discretionary Fund

Jim Nickels: by Jane Nickels & Sharon Nickels Ratliff, to the Minister's Discretionary Fund

Sunday, April 26

8:30 a.m.     Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:00 a.m.     Cherub Choir

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

11:00 a.m.   Worship, Sanctuary

6:00 p.m.     Student Fellowship, Wellness Yoga (Rain Location: FPC)

Monday, April 27

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

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

Tuesday, April 28

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

6:00 p.m.     Venture Crew 3, Room 123

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

Wednesday, April 29

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, April 30

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

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

6:30 p.m.     EPIC Small Group, Friendship Classroom