Midweek meal is moved to Thursday, April 2, at 5:15 p.m. followed by the Maundy Thursday
service at 6:00 p.m.Easter Sunday: April 5 at 7:00 a.m., Community Worship Service at Bridge Park
Holy Easter Worship: April 5 at 10:30 a.m.
Church Office Closed on Easter Monday
In observance of the Easter holiday, the church office will be closed on Easter Monday, April 6.
Midweek Meals
TOMORROW NIGHT, April 2 at 5:15 p.m.
Our midweek meal will be held tomorrow tonight,
Thursday, April 2 at 5:15 p.m. in the MFC.
The Maundy Thursday service will follow at 6:00 p.m.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Giving the Jesus Way
United Christian Ministries is in need of macaroni and cheese.
To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive. Thank you!
Mission Moment 4.1.26
Christine
Field Personnel in Africa/Middle East
Hope is tenacious. Stubborn. Hope shows up and says, this isn’t how the story ends. It says, there’s more to life than this. Hope says, we’re not giving up.
Hope shows up in my office over and over again when women and men, parents and children say, “I want to heal. I want to face the horrors I’ve experienced.” Though the pain is unbearable, I will not let them hold me captive. Hope says, “There can be joy again, even in the darkest valleys.”
Hope is defiant. It says, “I will not let fear win. I will study for a future that seems improbable, if not impossible. I will dance and sing and swim in the ocean and sit in the sun, even as homes and lives and villages are destroyed in the next town over.”
Hope celebrates a long-awaited visa approval, joyously shared with a community of faith, even though any future remains uncertain. Hope doesn’t wait until everything is sunshine and roses to arrive. In fact, I think hope grows strongest in the darkness. It’s the glimmer of light that makes people ask, how are you able to sing in the midst of such despair.
Hope is unconventional. It makes no logical sense. But hope is born out of an undeniable lived encounter with a living God who says, “Life always comes out of death, even when resurrection seems utterly impossible, when neither our human experience nor our imagination can figure out how anything good could ever come of this.”
When we give up, give in, say it’s too much to handle, I can’t carry it anymore, hope says, “We’ll carry you. We’re in this together.”
Hope is here now. It must be. It’s the most core theological conviction of our faith. Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Hope is the invitation for us to be resurrection people, to practice it, in the nitty gritty brokenness and injustice of this world.
To bear witness to a risen Christ, to the one who overcomes death and destruction and despair.
Teresa of Avila wrote, “Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours, yours are the eyes with which Christ looks compassion on this world.”
May we live like we believe it.
May we be the Easter people we claim to be.
May we live like we believe Christ is still risen.
Blessing of Hope
By Jan Richardson in The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief
So may we know
the hope
that is not just
for someday
but for this day—
here, now,
in this moment
that opens to us:
hope not made
of wishes
but of substance,
hope made of sinew
and muscle
and bone,
hope that has breath
and a beating heart,
hope that will not
keep quiet
and be polite,
hope that knows
how to holler
when it is called for,
hope that knows
how to sing
when there seems
little cause,
hope that raises us
from the dead—
not someday
but this day,
every day,
again and
again and
again.
Pray...Give...Go.
1st Explorers After-School Program Recap
This week at After School, we talked about Palm Sunday and springtime. On Monday we went on a nature walk in Sylva to see if we could spot any butterflies. We also made a butterfly craft using coffee filters, markers, and pipe cleaners. On Tuesday, Kaitlyn had chapel with us and talked about Palm Sunday. She also had us make a craft where we made palm branches out of paper. On Wednesday we had RAs, GAs, and Mission Friends. On Thursday we made a ladybug craft out of paper plates and markers. And on Friday we did an experiment with Lucky Charms cereal to see how many of each marshmallow shapes were in the box. Overall, it was a fun-filled week at First Explorers!
Mission Moment 3.25.26
Laura Foushee
Field Personnel in Kanazawa, Japan
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." –John 15:27
The words of Jesus in John 15:27 have always been moving to me. Among the last words to his disciples as he prepared for the cross were to pray for them and bless them with his peace that would be more than anything the world could give them. The disciples are blessed with a peace that would carry them forward through the coming dark and unknown days.
Some churches follow the tradition of “passing the peace” in their worship services. When we speak the words “the peace of Christ be with you” and then “and also with you,” we are passing on the peace that Christ bestowed on his dearest friends in his last days. It is not a light gesture to do so; it is a part of the ministry of the Church to be holy spaces where Christ’s peace is spoken into the lives of those who gather; a balm for all those who may be troubled or afraid.
Every Sunday as internationals from our city gather for worship, we end our services with a time to share prayer requests. Not a Sunday goes by that we do not pray for peace over someone—one who is new to our city and experiencing isolation; one who is living far away from a family member with serious medical issues; one who is struggling with how to make a life in Japan and discerning whether they need to leave difficult working conditions. Our gathering becomes a place to share and receive the peace of Christ with one another as a blessing to go back into the world.
The disciples were certainly still troubled and afraid in the days surrounding Jesus’ death, but the peace inevitably quieted their hearts for what would come next. Out of the peace came strength, courage and a renewed spirit for carrying on the mission of Jesus. So it is with us, and with those among whom we serve, who no doubt have days of trouble and fear. This peace of Christ that we share and bless among one another will inevitably calm our hearts, preparing us for what comes next.
May the peace of Christ be with you.
Pray...Give...Go.
Giving the Jesus Way
United Christian Ministries is in need of macaroni and cheese.
To donate items, please drop them off at UCM’s building at 191 Skyland Drive. Thank you!
Midweek Meals
TONIGHT, March 25 at 5:30 p.m.
Our winter midweek meals will continue tonight at 5:30 p.m.
in the MFC. We look forward to seeing you there!
1st Explorers After-School Program Recap
This week at First Explorers, we talked mainly about St. Patrick’s Day and what it means and who it’s about. We did not have after-school on Monday due to the storms that day. On Tuesday, Kaitlyn read us a story about St. Patrick and what he did for the people of Ireland and then made a cool craft. Wednesday we had our usual RAs, GAs, and Mission Friends. Thursday Generation Kids came, and they did a lesson for us and played several different games with us. And on Friday, Debbie led the kids in a leprechaun hunt where they tried to set a trap with a cardboard box. Unfortunately for the kids (and fortunately for the leprechauns!), none were caught. Overall, it was a fun week at First Explorers!
