PresbyNews Sunday Services June 2011 9:00 and 11:00 Volume 36 Number 6 Published at th 625 Florin Road Sunday School P-5 : 9 and 11 Sacramento CA 95831 916-428-3439 6th – 8th Grade: 9 am www.faithpresby.org th th 9 – 12 Grade: 11 am Pastor Jeff Chapman Adult Class: 10 – 11 Associate Pastors Jim Zazzera, June 5 Patrick Vaughn, Quinn Summer Sermon Series Begins Vaughn See page 13 Next PresbyNews Deadline June 19 June 22 Justice Mission Begins See page 10 June 10-12 Men and Boys Retreat See page 11 June 26 Blood Drive Many Welcomes! See page 10 June 27-July 1 This month we are excited to introduce Vacation Bible School new members, and a team of new Faith See page 16 leaders! June 28-July 4 Fireworks Sales See Page 22 to meet our newest Faith See page 16 Members. July 6 Faith at the Movies Begins Then, check out Pages 6 and 7 to learn See page 11 more about our six new deacons! July 31 – August 6 Summer Mission Trip See page 15 The PresbyNews is published monthly by a team of volunteer writers. Please send your submissions to Editor Suzy Hughes at [email protected] 2011 June PresbyNews.docx Page 1 of 23 Our Faith Family Thank You from the DID YOU KNOW? Riebers Pat Tatro participates in Rotary (past president), Faith Presbyterian mission trips and donates plasma every eight weeks (Pat’s plasma is Dear Friends of Faith, universal and highly sought after) Thank you so very much for all the beautiful and funny cards you sent. This is the item that appears in the “Did You Know” booklet produced They made my days much happier through the efforts of the Lay Ministry Team and distributed to the being remembered, and Deacons, members of the church. They felt that it would be more helpful and thank you for the beautiful Prayer enlightening to select several of the entries from that booklet and Quilt, so soft and comfy. I will interview the individuals and ask them to expand upon their original cherish it always. A beautiful bed- entry. Steve Canaday, a member of the Lay Ministry Team, conducted throw in shades of purple and this interview with Pat: lavender, made by and angel just for me, thank you Andeen. Q: What is your motivation for all of these activities (giving back, get The wonderful food was so back more than you give, etc…)? appreciated, especially since our A: My motivation stems from being fortunate enough to discover a son, Rick and daughter, Sally came passion twenty plus years ago. I started out coaching my son’s from Boise to cheer up their dad. soccer team (Daniel). I discovered that I truly enjoyed working Our four children including Joann & with and being around the kids (the rest is history). I have no Diane also were here and they said explanation other than to say it is just who I am. the food was delicious. Thanks to all Q: Although you are very involved within the church (various who provided meals! committees, choir, and a senior high youth advisor) did you ever Needless to say the stroke was stop to consider that your activities outside of the church are also devastating! After a good cry I a way to minister and help people outside of the church realized it could have been worse environment? and soon I will be back in the loving A: I have thought about and realize that may be part of why I do it. I arms of Faith Church. Bless you all can’t really say I think about the outside ministries as such. and especially Jeff and Jim, your Everything I do I truly enjoy and I am blessed to be able to be prayers did it. involved with many different ministries. Q: You have been participating in various activities within and outside Lovingly, of the church for 20 plus years. Do you ever envision a time of Flo, Dick and the entire Rieber scaling back? family A: No, I will probably become more involved as I move towards retirement. I can’t ever imagine a time where I am not involved with the Church and outside ministries, (It is just who I am). Thank You from Q: Last and Final question. I hear when it comes to being a senior Sheron Vollstedt high (not your age) youth advisor that you are probably the Thank you to all the bakers that biggest kid of all, any truth to the rumor? contributed to the Compassion A: Absolutely. It will probably never change. Bake Sale. We really appreciate the wonderful goodies and One side note, most of you have heard Pat talk about how he cleans participation. The bake sale gutters. I interviewed Pat on a Monday night at my house (he was earned $210 and the remaining helping Cindy put the senior high photo albums together). Of course goodies went to Loaves & it was raining and one of my gutters plugged up. Being true to his Fishes. word Pat went out on my patio and unplugged the gutter (true story). Many Thanks, Sheron Vollstedt To Learn More…There are links to ‘Did You Know’ on the church website, at 2011 June PresbyNews.docx http://faithpresby.org Links are found on the ‘Our Community’ page, under Page 2 of 23 ‘Resources’, and on the ‘Outreach’ page, under ‘Missions’. Pastor’s Column Notes on My Upcoming Sabbatical (Part 2) Pastor Jeff Chapman As I mentioned last month, our Session has graciously allowed me and my family to take a three month sabbatical this summer from June 13 to September 6. (If you’re curious as to what sabbaticals are all about, please see part one of this article in the May PresbyNews.) As promised, I want to share with you some of our plans. This spring I was awarded a grant from the Louisville Institute to help fund this sabbatical. The application process for that grant forced me to carefully consider how I wanted to use this great gift of time. I’ll share with you here a portion of what I wrote in my application as a way to help you understand what I’ll be doing all summer. I’ve heard it said, “The Christian faith is always personal, never private.” In other words, God knows us each by name, deeply; and we can, in turn, know God in an intimate way. Our relationship to God is uniquely personal. That relationship, however, is always meant to grow and deepen in the context of community. It’s not meant to be private. As a follower of Jesus, God has ordained that I need others and, in fact, can hardly follow God apart from other followers. Having grasped this truth intellectually, I now long for a Sabbath where I can step out of the engrained rhythms of my often-isolated life and seek to infuse those rhythms with new habits of community. I seek a season where I can focus daily on living, working, playing, worshiping, serving, sharing and growing alongside others. By spending an extended time in a culture where others uncompromisingly depend upon Christian community, it is my hope that I can learn from others what has been so lacking in my own life and the lives of many other Christians I know and serve. My family and I will spend six weeks living in and among a community of Christians in Erseke, Albania. Albania is the poorest nation in Europe, in part because the communist government that ruled there during the Cold War era was reputedly the most brutal of its time. It devastated this proud nation and essentially wiped out the Albanian church. In fact, when the country finally re-emerged from communism in the early ‘90s, only a handful of underground believers remained. Since then, the church has again taken root in Albania in magnificent ways. Nevertheless, Christians there remain a slim and stark minority in an overwhelmingly secular culture. Much like believers in the early church, Albanian believers have had to learn to stick closely together or risk being overrun by the dominant and antagonistic majority. As a result, churches in that nation tend to reach much deeper levels of interdependent community than typically found in the American church. Erseke, a city of nearly 8,000 people, contains only one, small church, yet this congregation is vibrant in its life and witness in that city. In fact, on a visit to Erseke in 2000, I marveled at how much the congregation there resembled what I imagine the Acts 2 community must have been like in its time. During our sabbatical in Erseke, we will live among this particular community of believers, sharing daily in their work, their service, their worship, and their fellowship. I intend to be immersed in this church’s “life together”, not as a pastor or leader, but simply as a member of the community. My daily activities will include: family devotions; service alongside others; plenty of recreation; personal study; and daily life in the community. We chose Erseka, Albania, because I have an old friend, Mark Stoscher, who serves there as a long term missionary. Some of you may remember Mark when he preached here at Faith several years ago. Coincidently, our own Natalie Reyes , with the support of our Mission Team, will be serving in the same community in Erseke for four weeks this summer. So far from our home community, it will be wonderful to be able to see at least one person from Faith! 2011 June PresbyNews.docx Page 3 of 23 Following our time in Albania, we will spend our final three weeks abroad traveling through Italy and then enjoying the Appenzeller region of Switzerland.