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The
Reflector
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REV. MITCHELL LEE MILLER
FALLSTON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH - March 2006
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| FROM OUR PASTOR |
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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, greetings to you all in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here we stand at the beginning of the Lenten Journey toward
Easter. With the tradition of “giving something up” for Lent,
this time of the year has been a time for new beginnings. It is a
time to improve one’s life as we battle those small, mostly harmless
vices. It has become a time to start over on the failed attempts
that were once New Year’s resolutions. All these efforts at
self-improvement are good, for anytime is an appropriate time to
improve. And Lent is certainly a good time to do it as it is a
time in which we are called to prayerfully examine our lives and our
faith.
Jesus caused a great deal of fear among Jewish people, particularly
among their leaders. Change frightens people, and Jesus was
calling for the renewal and rebirth of the Jewish faith that
meant sweeping changes to the way they looked at the world, their God
and themselves. Jesus still calls people to change themselves and
the way they look at God and the world. The message of the Gospel
has always made people nervous, because the hardest thing for any of us
to do is change.
The challenge to live our lives differently, especially when we have
become comfortable is rarely a welcoming invitation. Consider the story
of the wealthy young ruler; he wanted to follow Jesus, but found it to
be too costly. It wasn’t really the amount of wealth he would have to
give up that caused him to turn away, it was the necessity of changing
the way he lived and looked at the world as a disciple of Jesus.
Answering the call of Christ and becoming a disciple has always
involved making changes that might put one at odds with the rest of the
world. Consider your own lives? Are you really living and looking
at the world differently because of Jesus? Has your faith caused you to
live differently than those living outside a relationship with God in
Jesus Christ? Easter is shortly to be upon us, consider the change
brought to the world because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, has it
changed you? Maybe its time to make a shift, adopt a new way of living,
to make a change.
As we journey through Lent and approach Easter, take some time to
consider what Jesus has done for us, that we might have the chance at a
new beginning. Lent –Good Friday-Easter is truly all about new
beginnings, just as Jesus died and was raised to a new life, we too are
invited to do likewise; to die to the old life and be raised with
Christ at the resurrection as a new
creation.
Let the Lenten Journey be more than a time change, let it be a time of
renewal and rebirth in our lives, so that we may experience the Joy of
the Resurrection as never before. Let us Join with our Lord in
his death and resurrection, and praise God for this great gift of a new
life.
May the peace and blessings of God, the joy of Jesus Christ, and the
guidance of the Holy Spirit be with you all, Mitchell Lee
Miller.
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SPOTLIGHT ON MISSIONS
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Medical Benevolence Foundation
What is it?
The Medical
Benevolence Foundation (MBF) is in partnership with the Presbyterian
Church USA in providing support to the healing ministries of worldwide
partners, thus “proclaiming and demonstrating the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.” This support includes the following areas:
Community Health—prevention and treatment
Diseases of Poverty programs
Raising funds to support international health
programs
Recruiting healthcare professionals and other
types of volunteers to
serve in heath-related mission programs outside the
U.S.
Sharing gifts of donated surplus medical
supplies and equipment with
international partners.
How does FPC help?
We make an annual monetary donation of $500.00.
How can YOU help?
Sponsor a medical surplus drive, make monetary donations to MBF
throughout the year, or contact MBF for further information
For more information, contact the following:
Medical Benevolence Foundation International Headquarters
3100
S Gessner #210
Houston, TX 77063-3743
On line: www.mbfoundation.org
By phone: 1-800-547-7627
Mission’s
Focus Donations for March
Toothpaste for the Harford
Community Action Agency’s food pantry
Continued support
for Magnolia Elementary School in donating
school supplies
and children’s underwear
Any additional
donations are very welcome for these or any other organization.
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THANK
YOU!
January
collection results: 33 jars of peanut butter
Souper Bowl
Sunday results: 65 cans of soup
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PRE-K
COMMITTEE
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 The Pre-K
will hold their annual Breakfast with the Easter Bunny on Saturday
April 8th
at 9:00am. This is a wonderful opportunity to show the children of
our community that we, as a congregation,
care about them.
We need your help to make this day a success.
We need people to:
Bake muffins for the breakfast
Donate plastic Easter eggs and/or candy to
fill them
People to help out the morning of the
breakfast
Donations
can be left at the Pre-K office. If you
can help, please call the school office at
410 877 1655. Your help is very
much appreciated.
The event
includes breakfast, picture with the Easter Bunny, door
prizes, crafts, stories, balloons, face painting and an Easter Egg
Hunt.
We would love for you and your families to join us. We will begin
taking
reservations on March 6th at a cost of $8.00.
All
reservations must
be made and paid for by April 2nd
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HELP THE
HOMELESS
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The Faith
Communities and Civil Agencies United (FCCAU) sponsors a day shelter
with a hot
meal and a rotating night shelter for the homeless in Harford County.
They are
having a Longaberger Basket Bingo to help finance their efforts. The
FPW has
decided to sponsor a kitchen basket. The FPW will purchase the basket,
and we
are asking for you to help fill it with attractive, new items (may be
homemade). The FPW is donating one of our cookbooks, some kitchen
knives and
flavorings. Another member is enclosing a gift certificate for a
homemade cake
to be made at the winners’ request.
The bingo
will be held on Friday, April 7, at St. Mathews Lutheran Church on
Churchville
Road.
Please
bring your contributions by the end of
February so we can see where we stand with this. Cash
contributions will be used to purchase
items. Thanks for your help to help the
helpless in our area.
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PRAYER
SHAWL MINISTRY
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Please
be sure to let me know of anyone that you believe is in need of a
prayer shawl.
It gives great comfort to those in need of healing or in time of loss.
It can
also be used for those that are expecting new babies or for someone
that is in
need of prayers. It has become a wonderful outreach of our church and
keeps
those of us who like to knit or crochet, busy.
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PROJECT
6:15 UPDATE
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Remember
Project 615? The plan for Church
renewal? Well we haven’t abandoned it,
just put it on hold. The committee met
on 2/8 and has a plan to move forward with a report to the session at
the April
meeting. All committee members agreed
that the time away, spent in spiritual development through the 40 Days
of
Purpose, was fruitful. We returned to
the table with renewed enthusiasm and a better understanding of our
Church and
Congregation.
As
many
of you know, we asked some pointed questions to all committees. Some of those questions were not well
received. However, we believe that they
needed to be asked. The purpose was to
stimulate
prayerful thought and dialogue about why we do things.
Some committees identified gaps and weakness
and have already taken steps to correct. That
is the purpose of Project 6:15 to move us to an
inclining (on the
rise versus declining) church both spiritually and in ministry. “So the wall was completed on the
twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When
all our enemies heard about this, all the
surrounding nations were
afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this
work had
been done with the help of our God “ (Nehemiah 6:15-16). Continue to
pray for
the Committee and our Church because we know that the work cannot be
done
without the help of God.
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MEALS FOR
FAMILIES IN NEED
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One of the most helpful
traditions of our church
is to provide meals for families in trouble. This
is a tradition the current Deacons would like
to continue. At this time, a family in the
Preschool is in
need of help. The mother has acute
breast cancer and will be in treatment for a long time.
The Preschool is providing meals at this
time, but I would like us to be ready to step in when needed. I would also like for us to be ready when
another need occurs.
If
you are able to provide a meal that is ready to eat or just needs
heating,
please give me your name. You may
email churchoffice@fallstonpc.org.
Thanks.
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MARCH
BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES
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2 – John
6 – Katelyn
8 – Matthew
10 – Dororthy
11 – Jeff
12 – Joanne, Nathan 
13 – Linda
15 – John, Ann
16 – Bryan
17 – Ryan
19 - Karen, James & Joanne (A)
20 – Kelly
21 – Benjamin, Walter
23 – Eric, Dennis & Holly (A)
24 – King
26 – Matt, Ben
29 – James
30 – Eric
31 – Dennis, Lisa
Happy birthday, Happy Anniversary from your FPC family!
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NEWS FROM
THE FACILITIES AND GROUNDS COMMITTE
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The
improvements made in the last few years have put the property in Good
Shape and
we think 2006 will be a chance to keep the momentum going. We have
identified
some needs and hope to be ready to make repairs when the weather
allows.
The
service station
next door has quit selling gas and he is being forced to
remove his tanks within one year. In 2006 testing of the water
continues to
find MTBE in the water and we will continue to monitor the levels and
change
the carbon filter as needed. Within the past year a level of 3.99 ppb
was
detected in the drinking water and the filter was promptly changed. All
records
of the water testing are kept in a red folder adjacent to the filter
and are
available for anyone to see.
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DINNER
THEATER
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Fallston
United Methodist Church’s Friendship Players present “Love Letters” by
A. R.
Gurney on Sunday March 26th at 2:30 pm. Proceeds from the
Dinner
Theater will be used to purchase microphones. Admission is $25.00
(additional
contributions will be gratefully accepted). Call 410 893 4725 for
reservations.
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FALLSTON
UNITY AL-ANON
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On
February 22nd, the Fallston Unity Al-Anon Gamily Group
celebrated
their 31st anniversary. A sincere thank you to the
congregation for
providing a safe and comfortable place to meet. If you are concerned
with
someone else’s drinking, the Al-Anon program can help you. We meet
every
Wednesday evening at 7:30 or call 410 836-6209 for information about
other
meetings in Harford County.
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| THANK YOU |
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I want to
thank everyone for all of your support in helping the students at
Magnolia
Elementary School. Everything donated so far has already been tapped
into and
put into good use. Your generosity has been highly spoken of at school.
It has
been said that it is amazing that a small church such as Fallston
Presbyterian
can be so extremely generous to so many at need students.
Once
again, in addition to the school supplies, the need still continues for
underwear for boys and girls sizes 6 to 10 and jogging pants for boys
and girls
size 6 to 14.
I
would like to extend an extremely big THANK
YOU to a special person for donating so many stuffed animals to the
school.
We will
be giving each student a stuffed animal for a reading buddy in the near
future.
Now, students that do not have anyone to listen to them read at home,
will have
a buddy to listen to them or read with them. |
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 The membership/fellowship
committee would like to
invite everyone to the Lenten Series Dinners which will begin on
Wednesday
March 8th. We will enjoy
dinner together, fellowship together and have a different game each
week. Please plan on joining us for five
Wednesday
evenings beginning March 8th.
Wednesday Night Lenten Series
Dinners for 2006
March
8
Spaghetti
Bingo
March
15
Corn
Beef/Cabbage/Ham/Chicken
Bible
Charades
March
22
Pot Luck Dinner
Jeopardy
March
29
Pizza/Salad
Pictionary
April
5 Fried
Chicken/Mac & Cheese
Mission
Report
Dinners begin at 6:00 pm.
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| SHRIMP
FEAST |
| Stella Maris Auxiliary is
hosting a Shrimp Feast on Sunday April 30, 2006 from 1:00pm until
6:00pm at Tall Cedars of Lebanon Hall in Parkville. The afternoon
includes all you can eat buffet unlimited soda and beer, great auction
items to bid on, music, games, raffle and good company. Tickets are
$35.00 per person. All proceeds directly benefit the residents of
Stella Maris. To purchase tickets or for more information call John
McLoughlin at 410 252 4500 extension 7513 |
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HOU KOLA
SUMMER LEARNING CAMP
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The multi-church, Hou Kola Steering
Committee for the Presbytery of Baltimore has been busy planning for
the upcoming camp season on the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation in South
Dakota. This year brings camp expansion in terms of location and
number of weeks during the month of July. It is the commitment of
individuals from many Baltimore churches that make the experience of
the Hou Kola Summer Learning Camp so rich and successful. Listed
below are the details of the many opportunities for participation.
An elementary camp at
Makasan Presbyterian Church - July 7 - 15
(cost $690) 20
staff are needed for this camp.
An elementary camp in
the village of Pine Ridge at the Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church and
Conference Center- July 8 - 15 (cost $690)
17 staff are needed
for this camp. There will be some joint activities for the
2 camp staffs in the afternoon and evenings.
A NEW middle school
camp at Makasan Presbyterian Church - July 15 - 22. 10 staff are
needed for this camp. (cost $690)
If you want to be on
the staff for both weeks at Makasan or week 1 at Pine Ridge and the
middle school camp at Makasan, please contact Chrystie Adams ASAP
at DougAdams@comcast.net The cost for the 2nd week will be
about $110 making the cost for 2 weeks $800.
There will be Turner
scholarship monies available for youth but we do not know the amount at
this time.
Staff
vacancies will be
filled with former camp staff first, and then with new applicants but
never fear, we need lots of folks to fill all the staff spots.
The application will be on line at the Presbytery website at http://www.baltimorepresbytery.org by the end of this week. Anyone interested in joining us needs to fill out the application and send the $200 deposit to Chrystie Adams by March 20th.
For more information or
to schedule a presentation and viewing of the DVD made during last
summer's camp contact:
Chrystie Adams
301 N.
Beechwood Ave.
Catonsville,
MD 21228
410-788-8354
DougAdams@comcast.net |
Becky Thomson
1304 E.
33rd St
Baltimore,
MD 21218
410-467-2527
TArtes@aol.com |
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