Just a couple of reminders about events going on this week at GPC.

Due to the inclement weather predicted this weekend, we’ve canceled the Men’s Breakfast on Saturday morning and have rescheduled Saturday’s workday.

The men will still be gathering on Friday morning from 6-7 am to pray for one another and the needs of GPC.

And if you’d like to take a look at what’s planned for Sunday, here’s the bulletin.

All Services — morning and evening — at GPC are canceled for Sunday, January 31. Enjoy the snow and play as well as the opportunity to enjoy community with others and communion with Jesus Christ as the one who took our scarlet sins and made them white as snow.

Well, it looks as if the question is not whether we’ll have snow, but whether we’ll have 5 or 12 inches of it. Wow. At any rate, weather shows us that life is subject to disruption and that we’re not as in control of our circumstances as we’d like. Plans are already changing for the weekend, and as things continue to develop, please check back here or our facebook fan page for the latest news.

Regarding Sunday worship and Sunday School, we will have any changes posted on this page, on the church office answering machine, and local t.v. stations.

The first change of scheduled events this weekend is that Rooted in Grace has been rescheduled for February 19-20. Please sign up in the foyer or let Pastor Randy know if you’re interested.

Enjoy the winter weather.

HT: The Big Picture

I spent two weeks in Haiti in 1985 doing work in the south coastal town of Les Cayes. While there the government collapsed, and then-dictator, “Baby Doc” Duvalier fled the country. Reading and seeing the images of the collapse, not merely of buildings but government infrastructure and even society, is heart breaking for me. Please continue to pray for relief, strength, order to reign in such horrific and chaotic conditions. But also, please consider financially contributing to an organization on the ground providing relief efforts. You may have your own, and there are many ways and places to give.

Here are a few for you to consider:

1. Our denomination’s relief ministry under the umbrella of Mission to North America is the MNA Disaster Response Ministry. You can read about efforts and make a donation to the ministry here.
2. Samaritan’s Purse, an international relief organization led by Franklin Graham is reporting on efforts and receiving donations here.
3. And Compassion is receiving donations and providing information on child sponsorship here.

L’Union Fait La Force (strength through unity, Haitian motto)

“…I think this Grand Miracle [the Incarnation] is … the chapter on which the whole plot turns; that is why I believe that God really has dived down into the bottom of creation, and has come up bringing the whole redeemed nature on His shoulders. The miracles that have already happened are, of course, as Scripture so often says, the first fruits of that cosmic summer which is presently coming on. Christ has risen, and so we shall rise. St. Peter for a few seconds walks on the water and the day will come when there will be a remade universe, infinitely obedient to the will of glorified and obedient men, when we can do all things…To be sure, it feels wintry enough still: but often in the very early spring it feels like that. Two thousand years are only a day or two by this scale. A man really ought to say, “The Resurrection happened two thousand years ago” in the same spirit in which he says, “I saw a crocus yesterday.” Because we know what is coming behind the crocus. The spring comes slowly down this way; but the great thing is that the corner has been turned. There is, of course, this difference that in the natural spring the crocus cannot choose whether it will respond or not. We can. We have the power either of withstanding the spring, and sinking back into the cosmic winter, or of going on into those “high mid-summer pomps” in which our Leader, the Son of Man, already dwells, and to which he is calling us. It remains with us to follow or not, to die in this winter, or to go on into that spring and that summer.”
C.S. Lewis

December 26 is St. Stephen’s Day — the traditional feast day in honor of St. Stephen who was stoned by the mob in the presence and with the approval (so Luke notes) of Paul. You can read about it in Acts 7. In honor of Stephen, here’s a poem by C.S. Lewis.

“Stephen to Lazarus”
But was I the first martyr, who
Gave up no more than life, while you,
Already free among the dead,
Your rags stripped off, your fetters shed,
Surrendered what all other men
Irrevocably keep, and when
Your battered ship at anchor lay
Seemingly safe in the dark bay
No ripple stirs, obediently
Put out a second time to sea
Well knowing that your death (in vain
Died once) must all be died again?

Also, remember our Sunday-after Christmas Brunch in the Fellowship Hall at 9:30 am. Bring something to share!

Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honour to this Day,
That sees December turned to May.

If we may ask the reason, say
The why and wherefore all things here
Seem like the Spring-time of the year?

Why does chilling Winter’s morn
Smile like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like to a Mead new-shorn,

Thus, on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
‘Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and luster, public mirth,
To Heaven and the under-Earth.

We see Him come and know him ours,
Who, with His sunshine and His showers
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.

The darling of the world is come
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome Him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart.

Which we will give Him, and bequeath
The Holly, and this Ivy wreath,
To do Him honour, who’s our King,
And Lord of all this reveling.

—Robert Herrick

Join us for a service of Lessons and Carols TONIGHT at 7pm.

And if you’re are around this weekend, we conclude our Advent and Life of David Series with Isaiah 9:2-7. Also, in lieu of Sunday School, we will gather for a Christmas Brunch from 9:30-10:15am. Bring something to share if you’re able and join us around the table as we enjoy the good company of friends, new friends, and family.

Though our Sunday School classes for December 20 have been canceled, we will meet to worship at 10:30 am. Join us as we look at how the Lord promised to turn the world upside down through the son named Emmanuel.

This Christmas Season we are reducing the scheduling of our normal weekly meetings in favor of opening up space and time for a purposeful and thoughtful celebration of Christmas. At a time of year when largess and leisure should be the normal experience, we are more often frenzied harassed. This is a far cry from how we should experience “glad tidings of great joy.”

One opportunity to lean into the Christmas Season is to host a Neighborhood Christmas Party. These parties are designed and planned to help you to meet and reach out to your neighbors. If you are interested in hosting a party or in learning more about them, GPC is hosting a training and informational meeting on Sunday, November 22nd at 2pm at the church building. Hope to see you there.