Rosangela and Joćo Batista

In just one week, we will welcome our dear Brazilian brother and sister in Christ, Joćo Batista and Rosangela from Natal! Joćo is the administrative director of Bethel School in Felipe Camarćo, which we support annually, and he is also pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Natal. Rosangela is Bethel's director. Plans are coming together for a wonderful time during their stay from April 15 through April 28!

Please plan on joining us for worship on Sunday, April 17, when Joćo will deliver our sermon. During the Sunday School hour on April 24, all the classes will combine for a special gathering for all ages, so that we can all hear from both Joćo and Rosangela about the children, families, teachers, staff, school, and church we have prayed for and supported since 2001!

A full list of opportunities to engage in with our Brazilian friends will appear next week in Windows, but right now we are seeking hosts for a few evening meals. Would you enjoy the opportunity to invite Joćo Batista and Rosangela into your home for a meal or out to dinner with your family or a few friends? One of the translators helping during their visit will accompany them to facilitate fun and meaningful conversation. Their schedule is open for dinner April 16 and 25. We are also looking for people who would be interested in taking Joćo fishing while he is here. One date that has been floated for that is Saturday, April 16, but that's only a suggestion. To make a dinner or fishing date, or to find out more, please contact John Vann at 423-360-1153 or Karen Vann at 423-968-7802.

What a wonderful opportunity this will be to deepen this precious connection with these people who have been such an important part of our lives for more than 15 years!

Please join us April 13 for our Wednesday evening fellowship and learning programs. Our Adult Learning segment, which begins at 6:20 p.m., has not yet been confirmed but should be as enlightening as always! It will follow the fellowship dinner, which begins at 5:30. Student Small Groups and Wednesday Night Kids will meet as usual at 6:00. We look forward to seeing you!

Beginning this Sunday, April 10, "A Captured Moment," a selection of photographs by our own Dyan Buck, will be on display at FPC for your enjoyment. Save the date for the gallery reception on Sunday, April 17, from noon to 2:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome! More details will be announced next week.

The Men's Breakfast and Bible Study has returned to meeting on the second Saturday of each month. The next meeting will be at 8:00 a.m., this Saturday, April 9, in the chapel. All men of the church are welcome!

Can you believe it? It's time to mark the dates for Vacation Bible School on your calendar! First Presbyterian will hold VBS for ages 4 years through sixth grade on the mornings of July 11-13 (Monday through Wednesday) from 9:00 to 11:30. Children, volunteers, and staff always have such a wonderful and illuminating time that we urge you to plan now to register your young friends when the time comes!

Among the work they did on the high school mission trip to Orlando, Florida, FPC youth cleaned and stocked shelves at the Community Food and Outreach Center. The center is a low-income food bank where local residents can shop in a storelike setting. Students spent four days, from March 27 to April 3, doing inner city mission work around Orlando. They also found time for fun at the beach and a visit to Universal Studios!

Thanks to everyone who saves their cancelled stamps and adds them to the box near the Fellowship Hall! Remember to leave a border of at least a quarter of an inch around the stamp. We have heard from Alliance Stamp Ministry, where we send the stamps that you contribute. They wrote:

"Thank you very much for the stamps you sent to the Stamp Ministry. The income from their sale goes to support preparation, publication, and distribution of a Spanish language curriculum for Sunday Schools. More than 50 lesson series have been published and are being used in churches of 40 different denominations in Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, Spain, and even the USA.

In 2014 we sent $41,000 to the Sunday School project, and in 2015 we sent $45,639. This brings us to a grand total of $900,000 since the inception of the Stamp Ministry in 1972. TO GOD BE THE GLORY for allowing us to reach this milestone. Thank you so much for your support of this vital ministry."

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 this month and will hold a training event soon. 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 Robin North at robinnorth3@gmail.com, Dave Welch at dwelch@fpcbristol.org, or the church office at 423-764-7176. Sign-up forms will also be available at the church.

Weather forecasters tell us there's a slight chance that the forsythia and weeping cherries and redbuds and dogwoods will be sheathed in snow before the weekend, but we predict grass, and lots of it. We can't do much about the weather, but we can control the church lawn. Will you help us?

We welcome men and women, adults and teens, to our mowing team. You can make a family project of it: younger children can move fallen branches and detritus to the curb, and a parent or elder sibling can mow.

The captain of our mowing team, Randy Cook, will be happy to train you on our Scag Tiger Cat. We hope you will sign up for regular duty, but if you can help for even a single morning or afternoon, please email Randy at npolecook@aol.com or call his cell at 423-956-1541. Thank you!

Sunday's music participants: Sanctuary Choir (11:00); 8:30 Worship Team (8:30).

	John Ness Beck

     

Sunday's music: Among the most popular paraphrases of Psalm 23 is that made by Henry W. Baker (1821-1877) in 1868, "The King of Love My Shepherd Is." Baker was an English clergyman who served as editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern, probably the most influential English language hymnal ever. His text gives a New Testament flavor to the psalm, particularly in the words "Thy rod and staff my comfort still; thy cross before to guide me." In The English Hymnal of 1906, his words were paired with the Irish folk melody ST. COLUMBA, named after the saint from Ireland who introduced Christianity to Scotland by way of the island of Iona. This has become the accepted melody for these words. The Sanctuary Choir anthem is an arrangement of this hymn and tune by American composer John Ness Beck (1930-1987), who seems to have been particularly inspired by the words from the second verse, "Where streams of living water flow, my ransomed soul he leadeth ..."

Program of Note: The King University Symphonic Choir, under the direction of Dr. Pat Flannagan and accompanied by Vicki Fey, will present their spring program Friday, April 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the King Memorial Chapel. As the university has been celebrating Shakespeare in various ways this year, the concert will include four of a set of seven pieces by the late British jazz pianist and composer George Shearing, who used songs and sonnets of Shakespeare as his texts.

Final Arts Series: To close our 2015-16 Arts Series, pianist and organist Carl Angelo will present a program on both instruments Sunday, May 1, at 3:00 p.m. in our sanctuary. Thank you to our donors for your support this year! When we reschedule the program by Cheryl Parrish, you will receive tickets for that event.

 

Becky Busler

Jude Chambers

Jane Crewey

Dorothy Dollar

Mark Dollar

Fred Frazier

DeeDee Galliher

Bill Goforth

Ron Grubbs

Will Hankins

Gene Haskins

Sharon Hatcher

Vivian Hill

Nancy King

Alice Moore

David Moore

Nancy Preston

Mary Rice

Brenda Rogers

Virginia Rutherford

Faye VanNostrand

We gratefully acknowledge Terry and Larry Kirksey's recent gift in memory of Bill McRee, made to the Memorial Fund.

8:30 a.m.       Worship, Fellowship Hall

9:00 a.m.       Cherub Choir, Room 209

9:45 a.m.       Sunday School

11:00 a.m.     Worship, Sanctuary

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

5:30 p.m.       Finance Committee, Room 123

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

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

7:00 p.m.       Building & Grounds Committee, Room 117

7:00 p.m.       Christian Education Committee, Room 124

7:00 p.m.       Worship Committee, Room 123

9:00 a.m.       Staff Meeting, Room 123

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

6:00 p.m.       Venture Crew 3, Cub Scout Room

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

9:30 a.m.       Lorri Looney's DVD Bible Study, Coffee Klatch Classroom

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

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

5:15 p.m.       Baby & Toddler Care, Rooms 34 & 35

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

6:00 p.m.       Wednesday Night Kids

6:00 p.m.       Student Small Groups

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

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

7:30 p.m.       8:30 Worship Team Rehearsal, Fellowship Hall

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