April 2007

FINLEY FOCUS

April 2007

Founded 1891 Picture by Karen Brown

From the Pastor’s Desk

It’s Friday afternoon, and I’m sitting in my office with my window open. Outside is the sound and feel of spring. Birds are chirping and children are playing. It’s the sound of new life, new creation. I believe God created spring to remind us of hope – hope in something new, hope in new beginnings, hope in new life.

Where does this hope come from? It comes from what happened on another spring day 2000 years ago in a garden when God did something new. On that Sunday morning, while the dew still sat on the garden plants and the sun started to rise above the horizon, Mary and the disciples discovered a world that was different than what it had been three days before, a world that had changed forever. On that spring day, they were given the gift of hope.

When Mary arrived at the empty tomb her thoughts were on the way it should have been. For her, the stone should still be covering the entrance to the tomb. Jesus should still be inside. Jesus should still be dead. When she discovered that things were not as they were supposed to be, her first reaction was panic and fear, and she ran off, and told Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” After the three of them returned to the tomb, the two disciples ran off back to their homes, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. For her, the past kept her from seeing the future. Her thoughts and emotions were not on what was possible, but on what was logical. Jesus was dead. The tomb was empty. Therefore, someone must have taken the body.

But then something startling happened. Jesus suddenly appeared, but Mary didn’t know it was Jesus, thinking it was a gardener. Jesus asked Mary, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” But, Mary answered the only way she could answer, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” It was then that Jesus looked her directly in the eyes and said softly to her, “Mary.”

With that one word of her name, Mary’s world had suddenly become new. Out of despair and grief came new hope, out of death came new life. Jesus, Mary, and a garden: new creation. Mary could now declare for the first time the new hope she had been given, and the new world in which she now lived. It was Mary who then became the first witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when she proclaimed to the disciples with five simple words, “I have seen the Lord!”

As the darkness of winter is made new by the sounds, sights, and smells of spring, so also are we made new by the event of that spring morning so long ago, that first day of the week, which we call Easter.

In a world that seems on the verge of chaos and confusion, where people suffer and die, where politicians set one group of people against another, and where injustice seems to prevail, we do not lose hope, for we know that this is a world that is passing away because God has done something new in human history. Our future is as bright as the sun shining this afternoon, and our hope is as joyful as the sounds of children playing.

As we move through the rest of Lent and into Holy Week let us be mindful and attentive to what this week means for us. Our journey must first walk to the cross, for there is no path to the resurrection except by the way of the cross for the forgiveness of sins. But, our eyes will be set firmly upon the day when Mary found the tomb empty, for that is the day when we too were given new hope; new hope of eternal life, a new hope in the promise of Jesus Christ himself, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet, have come to believe.”

May the grace and peace of the risen Lord be with you all.

Dan

Can You Find Them?

Can you find the names of 25 books of the Bible in this paragraph? This is a most remarkable puzzle. Someone found it in the seat pocket on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping himself occupied for hours. One man from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his john boat. Roy Clark studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Victs mentioned it in her column once. One woman judges the job to be so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help calm her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot and that's a fact. Some people will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. The truth is, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst. Something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have. Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation may help: books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. And punctuation or spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete. Remember, there are 25 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph.

April 5 – Maundy Thursday Service at 8:00 pm. We will celebrate communion

during this service.

April 6 – Good Friday Service at 8:00 pm.

April 8 – Easter Sunrise Service at 6:30 am with a pot-luck breakfast to follow for

those who would like to stay. We will provide the basics, please bring

something to share.

April 8 – Worship at 11:00 am.

Each year we can all help to decorate our church for Easter by ‘temporarily donating’ Easter lilies for our sanctuary. If you would like to purchase an Easter Lilly ($9.00) (which you take home Easter Sunday, April 8), please see or call Ann Colman at 943-1927 to place your order. Thank you.

Our April Pot-luck luncheon will be on Sunday, April 29^th after worship. Our theme will be: Help Us Recapture Some of Finley’s Lost History. If you have any pictures or news clippings about Finley or about some of our members, please bring them so we can reminisce together. We have lots of old pictures without names on them you may be able to help us identify! We will also have a Memory book to write some of our favorite Finley memories down before they are lost. Have you ever wondered who’s related to who? Well, we may get some of those answers before we’re through.

If you have an “Old Finley Favorite” recipe, please make it to share at lunch. Join us for this fun fellowship activity and help fill in some of Finley’s ‘lost’ history.

2006 Relay for Life

May 18-19 there will be a local RELAY FOR LIFE at Beverley Manor Middle School. This is an all night event where teams ‘race’ all night as a fund-raising event for the American Cancer Society. Start a team, join a team or make a donation! Dedicate a memorial luminaria to light the night with hope. Contact Yvonne Eisenberg (943-6423 or vonniesis@yahoo.com – subject line must contain: RFL) for info or visit the website at: www.acsevents.org/relay/augusta. Help win a victory over cancer!

Our prayer chain is being re-organized. If you would like to join this group to pray for needs of our church family as well as community friends and family, please notify Jacquelyn at 337-0935 (H) or 949-8187 (W) or smithjb@ntelos.net. Thanks to all who pray with us now – your time is greatly appreciated.

Our monthly Men’s Fellowship Breakfast will be served on Sunday, April 1, at 8:30 am. All men are encouraged to join us for food, fellowship and service.

CONGREGATIONAL CARE MINISTRY

CALL FOR MEMBERS!

The Congregational Care Ministry is looking for members! We are currently working on the visitation list, care & prayer cards, and the flow of communication of joys and concerns of the congregation. If you are interested in joining this ministry, please contact Donna Swink 337-3610 or Lance Allen 943-9797.

Presbyterian Women will meet Tuesday, April 3 at 7:00 pm. All women are welcome and encouraged to attend and participate. If anyone needs a ride to attend, please contact Julia Crist 540 476-0339.

We are collecting tissues and sanitizing lotion for both Stuarts Draft High and Middle Schools. We are also collecting three ring binders with the zipper around them for the Middle School. Drop off your supplies to the front of the church in the plastic tubs during the month of March. Donations will also be accepted. Donations may be given to any member of Presbyterian Women.

A Note from Tom Hay, General Presbyter

“I guess this will end up in your next newsletter article.”

    Since I began writing these regular reflections six years ago I have heard that comment at least twice a month. Fact is that I love when people show me their churches or talk to me about something important – or more likely quirky – about their congregation.
   Who do people think I am – a Smithsonian reporter of odd and fascinating stories? Well maybe I am. I am mesmerized by the churches and people in this Presbytery. Everywhere I go there seems to be something wonderful about the way the Gospel is lived-out in the valleys and ridges of our Virginia and West Virginia counties.
   Like earlier this month when I stood in the pipe chamber for the massive new tracker organ at the Lexington Church (Va). Everything was new and glimmering with an engineer’s beauty. Massive pipes as big around as a man's waist and tiny pipes so thin you could hardly turn one into a drinking straw, were lined up in Stonewallian formation.
   The organ installer was at the console and he played a short fugue until our fillings rattled as all around us the pipes voiced in perfection.
   I was seeing the behind-the-scenes life of this church's worship.
   Every church has elements of its life that are ordinarily unseen. The making of a church budget can be as unappetizing as the butchering of a hog. Session meetings can be teeth-rattling without the need of organ music. There are unused Sunday School rooms that stay locked to avoid being reminders of a brighter day in the past and balconies that become storage for the scenery of faded pageants and lives long gone. Mistakes are made, struggles carried out, people bruised and healed.
   What’s interesting to me about the pipe chamber in Lexington is that instead of keeping this normally hidden alcove locked and inaccessible – they have turned it into a passageway for the choir. Every Sunday morning, while the organist pulls a prelude from the pipes, the members of the choir will pass through this chamber as they enter the sanctuary.
   The behind-the-scenes becomes (at least for the musicians) a transparent part of their experience and their ministry.
   If I have learned anything from these years of telling silly stories about our churches, it is the power of letting things be transparent. In the healthiest of congregations, budget conversations are faithfully recorded, Sunday School struggles spill over into daily conversations, hope abounds because the light of the Gospel is displayed everywhere.
   There is power in this Gospel to bring life when we trust the Gospel to heal. Openness about our work, faithful annual meetings, joyful reporting of our victories and our failures is one way the Gospel comes to bear in our churches.
   So watch out, my next visit to your church just might end up as a newsletter article.

Youth News

Middle School Youth Group: Meetings will be at the Nelson’s house Sunday nights at 7:00 pm.

High School Youth Group: Fellowship & Devotion at the Coble’s 7:00-9:00.

	Nursery Schedule	Visitation Schedule
April 1	Jeff & Julia Crist; Mary Hadley	Esther Winton & Beverley Ellis
April 8	Dawn & Jay Christian; Denise Brady	John Gibson & Gloyd May
April 15	Greg & Amy Allen; Carolyn Palmer	David Wenner & Don Markle
April 22	Darlene Bowles, Jill Matthews & Kathy Boswell	Darlene Bowles
April 29	Karen & Ron Bing-Wo; Esther Winton	Janet Robinette & Doris Willey

Gloyd May (CH)	Ben Meijer
Janet/Gene Robinette	Jonathan Smith
David Cohron	Liz Bowles

All Easter egg hunters gather here at Finley at noon on Saturday, April 7 for a picnic and egg hunt! Please bring a dozen filled plastic Easter eggs per child, Easter baskets to collect eggs in, and a picnic lunch to eat on the lawn. Family and friends welcome!

Birthdays and Anniversaries in

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Yvonne Simmons’ Birthday

Paul Willey’s Birthday

David & Sue Brubaker’s Anniversary

Scott Nelson’s Birthday

Jan Wenner’s and Mike Steele’s Birthday

Amanda Alexander’s Birthday

Kerby Hatter’s and Jane Schumin’s Birthday

Andy & Jan Wenner’s Anniversary

Lisa Seaman’s Birthday

Gina Henderson’s Birthday

Shannon & Brandy Wimer’s Anniversary

Zachary Fink’s Birthday

April 2007

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Passion/Palm Sunday

Men’s Breakfast 8:30am

4¢-a-Meal

Presbyterian Women

7:00 pm

Chancel Choir practice 7:30

Maundy Thursday service with communion @ 8pm

No bell practice

Good Friday service @ 8pm

Easter egg hunt and picnic lunch at noon on the lawn.

Easter Sunrise service @ 630am

Worship @ 11am

One Great Hour of Sharing offering

Easter

Session

7 pm

Chancel Choir practice 7:30

Pray for the Nations

Chancel Choir practice 7:30

Earth Day

Chancel Choir practice 7:30

Focus article deadline

Covered dish lunch after worship