March 2014 Vol. 3, No. 3 From the Pastor’s Desk Look Inside Rev. Kerri Hefner gone were familiar with the empty Director of Christian Ed 2 feelings of hunger and weakness that In the novel Cold might occur at the end of a long win- Director of Music 3 Mountain, the city- ter. Today, emptiness extends around born Ada learns how us in different ways: the emptiness of Church Calendar 6 to survive a country feeling disconnected from loved ones, winter during hard the emptiness of unfulfilling work or Worship Volunteers 7 times. Her friend Ruby teaches her unemployment, the emptiness of not how to bury cabbages for eating dur- being able to pay bills or buy food. Birthday / Anniversary 10 ing the winter. Ada finds the thought During Lent, I hope you will take Boy Scouts 11 of rooting around in the snow for one some time to examine emptiness in cabbage to be incredibly depressing. your life. Where are your stores run- Concerns / Celebrations 11 Some of you reading this newsletter ning low? In what areas of your life may remember a time when proper do you need resurrection, the spring of Mission 11 storage of food for the winter was es- rebirth? In sermons during Lent, I will sential to survival. Others have never examine emptiness and the ways Photo Album 4-5 known a time when grocery stores Christ reaches out to us with fullness Historical Notes 8 were less than fully stocked (except of life. for the occasional panic-stricken shop- As you think about emptiness in your Youth Program 10 ping frenzies before a snow.) own life, also think about how that Christians who preceded us knew emptiness could make room for some- about storing food for the winter. In thing new. The Apostle Paul writes to the northern hemisphere, those winter the congregation in Corinth about the stores begin to run out as Easter ap- suffering endured by the early mis- proached. It is no wonder, then, that sionaries: "We are treated as impos- those hungry Christians looked for- tors, and yet are true; as unknown, and ward to eggs, rabbits, green grass, and yet are well known; as dying, and other signs of spring. see—we are alive; as punished, and Our spiritual ancestors of days long (Continued on page 2) Upcoming Events Mardi Gras Pancake Supper Tuesday March 4 6:00 PM Ash Wednesday (Hillsborough Pres) Wednesday March 5 6:30 PM Session Meeting Sunday March 9 7:00 PM Youth Group Sunday March 23 12:00 PM Director of Christian Education Prayer is something that for gathering in community, to may or may not come breaking bread together, fellow- Mary Todd Peters naturally to you. It may be some- shipping, and praying together. thing you do in private, something From the Catechism: you write down in a prayer jour- Richard Foster, author of Prayer: Question 96: What is nal, or something you do all day Finding the Heart’s True Home, the purpose of pray- long! Kerri, Mark and I have cho- says this about prayer: “The truth er? sen prayer as our guiding disci- of the matter is, we all come to pline for our Lenten series. It is prayer with a tangled mass of mo- Prayer brings us into communion our hope our Lenten journey will with God. The more our lives are tives—altruistic and selfish, mer- be more enriched and meaningful ciful and hateful, loving and bitter. rooted in prayer the more we through examining what prayer is sense how wonderful God is in Frankly, this side of eternity we and exploring new ways that one will never unravel the good from grace, purity, majesty, and love. can pray. Prayer means offering our lives the bad, the pure from the impure. completely to God, submitting Now I can hear you saying to But what I have come to see is that ourselves to God’s will, and wait- yourselves “NEW WAYS” to God is big enough to receive us ing faithfully for God’s grace. pray? And perhaps you might be with all our mixture. We do not Through prayer, God frees us thinking “I like my OLD WAYS have to be bright, or pure, or filled from anxiety, equips us for ser- of praying just fine!” Please hear with faith, or anything. That is vice, and deepens our faith. me when I say this is an invitation what grace means, and not only to try something that may be a lit- are we saved by grace, we live by What is your first memory of tle out of your comfort zone, but it as well. And we pray by it.” prayer? Was it a blessing you said won’t cause you to completely Come join us as we pray by grace. at mealtimes, or the nightly ritual feel like you have stepped into the of “Now I lay me down to sleep, I unknown. There is a lot to be said -Mary Todd pray the Lord my soul to keep”? Ash Wednesday—March 5 Lenten Dinner and Devotion Over your lifetime, that struggle can bring. How do you feel when you pray? you will experience On Ash Wednesday, we begin Content? Rushed? Calm? Confused? joy and sorrow, the season of Lent with worship Prayer is deeply personal and mean- struggle and and the imposition of ashes. The ingful, yet also challenging. Join us hope. Some people say that we ashes are actually last year's for an intergenerational Lenten series can't understand joy or hope palm branches used on Palm on prayer. Our staff have designed a unless we experience sorrow Sunday, burned and mixed with series of five evenings, each featuring and struggle. So it is with the water. The ashes remind us of a simple meal and a lesson on prayer resurrection of Jesus Christ; to our own mortality and our sepa- that can benefit anyone of any age. understand it fully, we must al- ration from our Creator. Each lesson will be independent from so understand the struggles God This year's service will be held the others: attend just one or attend undertakes on our behalf. at Hillsborough Presbyterian them all. Each evening will begin at 6 Lent is a time to reflect on what Church and I will be the preach- pm and end at 7 pm. RSVP's will be God has done for us, and what er. The texts for the evening placed in the bulletin the Sunday be- Jesus endured in order to reach will be Isaiah 58:1-12, Psalm fore each Wednesday. Our first even- out to us. It is a time to reflect 51, and Matthew 6:1-6, 16- ing together will be Wednesday, on where we have tried to sub- 21. I hope you can join me and March 12 in the old fellowship hall. stitute empty pleasures for true our brothers and sisters in joy, and where we have unwise- Christ at HPC. ly tried to skip over the lessons - Rev. Kerri Hefner (From the Pastor’s Desk continued from page 1) emerge in the lives of people throughout the Roman yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as Empire. poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and Pray during Lent for all to receive their daily yet possessing everything." (2 Corinthians 6:8- bread. And pray for new life in those hollowed-out 10) Through their travails and perils, these early mis- and empty places. Thanks be to God for continually sionaries made room for something beautiful to finding ways to fill our empty hands and hearts. 2 The life of the church is always a This mix will be represented in the Director of Music blend of sacred and secular, especial- evening's musical entertainment, Mark Gorman ly at Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday or which will include some pieces we Shrove Tuesday (shrove comes from would do in church on Sunday morn- On Tuesday, March 4, the old English word "shrive," which ing... and a few we wouldn't do. There at 6:30 pm the bell had to do with penance). It is the day will even be one or two pieces that we choir and choir will before Ash Wednesday, the beginning think children, in particular, will enjoy. host a pancake sup- of the solemn season of Lent. Tradi- per and musical enter- tionally, especially in Catholic areas, Mardi Gras, however, doesn't make tainment for the the days and weeks leading up to Ash sense without Ash Wednesday and church in celebration of Mardi Gras. Wednesday are a time of feasting, of Lent. Even as the choir and bell choir There is no charge, but we do hope eating and indulging (and sometimes are preparing for March 4, we are also you will consider making a donation in overindulging!) in the things that were looking ahead to Sundays in Lent and support of the music program at New to be given up for Lent. In Protestant Holy Week services. We hope you will Hope. Money raised last year was areas, the pre-Lent celebrations have join us in celebration on March 4 and used to help bring guest musicians for usually been more subdued. Mardi in devotion and reflection starting worship services and to maintain the Gras is a mix of secular (the feasting) March 5. new piano for the choir room. and sacred (the preparation for Lent). Mardi Gras Celebration Mark your calendars now for the music pro- gram's annual Mardi Gras celebration on Tues- day, March 4, 6:30 p.m.