To Glorify God and share the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ with new hope for all of God's people.

 
      Worship Times     

At Tuesday night's consistory (church board) meeting: the final slate of those nominated to be

elders and deacons was approved and the interviewing committee will begin contacting.  Reports

were given on the cell tower (moving ahead), the long range planning group (ready to start meeting

with consistory next month), the office manager search team (has good applicants and the first one

met with the pastors on Wednesday) as well as four working teams.  Appreciation was voiced for

those responsible for providing an absolutely wonderful Women's Luncheon last week. Plans were

shared for the Teacher's Appreciation Lunch (May 23 at 12 noon) and the Discovery Class

(May 16, 23).  Prior to the meeting, the consistory and spouses gathered for a "tropical dinner"

in which the consistory voiced appreciation for my ministry and gave me a great card, an extra

week of vacation, a week of lodging donated by a generous family big enough for our whole family

and expense money so that we can gather the whole clan just before Christmas.  Nothing could be

better than to be with our family at Christmas!  Thank you for your kind words and great generosity!

...Feel free to wander out the Community Garden and see the expanded plantings, including fruit trees!

...As you travel this summer, please bring back a bulletin or info from the church you are visiting-it is

always fascinating to see what other churches are doing and bulletins are great places to rip-off (er, borrow) great ministry ideas!

Grateful To Be In Ministry Together,

Pastor Phil

I woke with a start the other night sure I had heard someone call "Mommy." Of course, I'm way beyond
having small offspring in the house, and the grown children I have, even If they were in the house, have
long since stopped calling me "Mommy." Even so, I still respond instantly when I hear any word even
resembling "Mommy." We've all see it happen in a room full of women. A little voice yips "Mommy" and
a whole collection of heads snap around. It is on the level of instinct. The word "Mommy" can rouse a
woman out of a deep sleep even if, as in my case, the word was merely conjured up in some vague
corner of a forgotten dream.

If we humans have such instincts for our children even after they are long grown, think how much deeper
God's "instinct" is for us. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
but you were not willing!" (Luke 13:34.) Isn't it fascinating that the writer here uses this unmistakably
feminine illustration to refer to our God who is most often spoken of as male?  Perhaps it was the best
way for the audience to picture the depth of God's longing to gather the wayward chosen ones home. These
words give a sense of something in a different league from reason or logic. This gathering of baby birds lives
at the level of instinct; a mother's instinct. What a wonderful dimension this verse brings to our understanding
of God!

I suspect that, should I live to be 100, my head will still be one that spins round whenever I hear the word
"Mommy." This instinct was created by the one who hears us when we call, the one who longs to gather us in,
the one who never leaves us, even to the very end of the age.

Grateful to the constant One who is with us always,

Pastor Ann

[ Home ]

Send mail to newhopechurch@comcast.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 12/09/09