Inside This Issue The First Epistle Worship, Serve, Grow Newsletter of the First Presbyterian Church 510 West Ottawa Street, Lansing, MI 48933 June/July 2016 N N Newsletter of the First Presbyterian Church 510 West Ottawa Street, Lansing MI 4893 May Inside This Issue 2014 Inside This Issue Saturday, June 4 at 7:30 p.m. ewsletter of the First P Newsletter of the First Presby terian Church 510 West Ottawa Street, Lansing MI 4893 Pastor’s Corner 2 and Sunday, June 5 at 3:00 p.m. FinanceMay 2014Update Book Sale Update resbyterian Church 510 West Ottawa Street, LansingLanSINGout MI 4893 Annual May Spring 2014 Concert Buildings and Grounds 3 2ewsletter-Cents-A-Meal of the First Presbyterian Church LanSINGout 510 West invites Ottawa you Street, to their Lansing annual spring MI 4893 concert; “Rock - nMay-Roll: 2014 Music CHRISTIAN EDUCATION 4 That Changed Our Lives”! Tickets are $10-$20 and are available at the door. Children and Worship Program Summer Sunday School Thank You Sunday Morning Children and Youth Teaching Teams A New Old Opportunity to Serve Sunday, July 3 at 3:00 p.m. Our Youth Summer Camping Opportunities at “I Am America” Camp Greenwood Join us on Sunday, July 3 at 3:00 p.m. for a celebration of the rich Labels for Education 5-6 General Assembly Meeting Again diversity of what the word “American” means. We will have speakers, Covenant Gathering, 2016 readers, soloists and choirs presenting a concert, as well as food and an YOUTH AND FAMILY MINISTRY Summer Events for All opportunity to engage with our neighbors from other congregations, NewsletterGlobal Institute ofof Lansing the First Presbyterian Church community 510 West groups, Ottawa cultures Street, and Lansing, backgrounds. MI 48933 May 2013 Graduation June Calendar Insert Guy’s Lunch Out FPC Men’s Group Golf Outing July 11-15 July Calendar insert The Celebration Club of First M.A.D.D. Camp Presbyterian Church Salad Luncheon Report BACK FOR A SECOND YEAR!! We are holding our second annual Remember These Dates 7 day-camp for Music, Art, Dance and Drama. We have designed this week Birthdays in June Birthdays in July of fun to also include instruction and creativity in all four of these program areas. We have volunteer program leaders with specific skills to lead/teach in New Members Received in April 8 Membership Committee News those areas and are looking for more volunteers to assist them. Sign-up sheets SMALL GROUPS 9 are posted in Litten Hall for volunteers and also donations. We need art Book Group supplies, food and of course, financial contributions. Book and Movie Gathering TLC Registration will be open to all school age children and youth, as participants; Beyond Boomers Luncheon 10 grades K-8. We also welcome high school students to be assistants/helpers. Music Notes Age/grade; K-4 and 5-8 will separate the classes and instructors. This will be Music Blurbs adjusted as needed when we have more definite numbers of participants. We Worship Schedule 11 Our Church Family will operate from 9-4, Monday through Thursday and end the week with a LINK News performance on Friday at 12:30. Registration forms are available on-line, or Equal Exchange Chocolate 12 in the church office. Registration will close when we have either reached our Newsletter Deadline maximum, or by July 1st, giving us enough time to purchase supplies. Everyone is welcome, so this is a great time to invite your family, friends, and neighbors to enjoy a week of instruction and fun in the arts. In addition, the schedule will include recreation, storytelling, and puppetry. COME ONE COME ALL! email:[email protected] Hours M-F: 8:00 a.m. – noon; 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. www.lansingfirstpres.org CHURCH OFFICE: Phone (517) 482-0668 Facebook – Lansing First Presbyterian Fax (517) 482-8662 -2- Please mark July 3 on your calendar! In celebration of Independence Day, we’re planning a wonderful event called “I Am America”. Along with Union Missionary Baptist and members of other area choirs, our choir will present a community-wide event of musical selections, historic readings, the sharing of immigrant stories, labor stories and all sorts of incredible things in celebration of our country. At the center of the program will be the 1939 cantata “Ballad for Americans”. You can hear a wonderful Bing Crosby (I love Bing Crosby!) version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm_OKFX32Jc and you can read about the fascinating history of the piece here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad_for_Americans. If all works out we might even have a performance of Aaron Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man”, arranged for organ and complete with timpani! How cool would that be. Aside from observing the national holiday, this event has a wider purpose. We hope to be able to present a check to the city of Lansing at this event for a scholarship for a person of color to the police academy. As you will recall, this is a joint effort with Union Missionary Baptist and an outgrowth of our Conversations on Race series. We’ve secured the funding for our half and Union Missionary is working on theirs. From this foundation we hope to open the effort to the larger metropolitan area of Lansing, with the goal of perhaps raising enough money to endow a scholarship to the academy for a person of color. Indeed, as disciples of Jesus Christ we are called to press our world toward the fulfillment of God. Here, once more, we have an opportunity to help shape our community in concrete, edifying ways. More specifically, as American Christians, we have an opportunity here to shape our nation’s story. In lifting up the diversity of voices that make up our national narrative we are making a statement about God’s radical inclusiveness and the egalitarian, democratic (small “d”) values of our country. Oh, and did I mention that there will be a barbecue? So please mark your calendars and if you plan to be up north this summer, I would request that you consider taking a brief vacation from your vacation and come back for this particular event. We need your witness! In Christ, Stan Finance Update The Finance committee wants to share where the Church finances are. After a review of the first quarter, we forecast that we will break even. No surplus, but no deficit. Of, course, as with any forecast, this can be off a little. With your continued support and no large, unexpected expenses, we will be good. If you would like detailed reports, contact Bev Bockes [[email protected]; 290-1655] Harold Seelye Book Sale Report We had another successful Book Sale this year!! We made $1212 cto be used in the church library and the Little Neighborhood Library located on Pine Street. Thank you to all contributors and workers. We could not have done it without your help. The Library Committee Pastor Director of Youth Director of Christian Custodian Organist Bell Choir Director Rev. Stanley Jenkins and Family Education Steve Taylor Sergei Kvitko Shelia Conrad Ministry Kathy Banghart Parish Associate Sallie Campbell Director of Music Rev. Charles Herrick Church and Chancel Choir Child Caregivers Administrator Director Pastoral Assistant for Abigail Grill Tracy Weldon Megan Higle Member Care Heather Pollok Chris DeYonke -3- Buildings and Grounds Report The Building and Grounds Committee has prioritized projects using the monies from the 2012-2015 Capitol Campaign and a partial distribution from the estate of Marilyn Cullpepper. Session has approved this list. Note: there is no money to replace the parking lot at this time. It will be repaired as funds allow. Session approval to create a new prioritized long-term list of building maintenance projects as listed: 1. Roof of the main sanctuary (this work will start soon!) 2. Indoor sanctuary window sills 3. Chapel columns 4. Front granite steps 5. Sidewalks 6. Porches 7. Painting front columns 8. Atrium passageway repair seals on glass panes 9. Atrium passageway repairs between building and tunnel 10. Steeple cleaning 11. Parking lot 12. Capital repair/replacement fund (3%) B & G Discretionary Funds (Eleven thousand dollars was donated at the end of last year and has been allocated as follows): 1. Chestnut Street Concrete Steps 2. Air conditioning for parlor and library 3. Chapel Entrance and 2nd Floor Wallpaper and repainting 4. Closet Organization shelving, etc. Building and Grounds Committee Don Heck, Chair Two-Cents-A-Meal The Presbytery of Lake Michigan is sending $9,000 collected from Two-Cents-A-Meal offering to CEPAD in Nicaragua to support patio projects which help to provide food and income for families. Below is an article about how one family has benefited from this money. Please think about them as you drop your 2 cents in a can for the collection on the last Sunday of the month. “You Have Given to Us and Expect Nothing Back” April 13, 2016/ by Josh Garcia Reed Come in to see our chancha!” Oscar and his older brother Witer ran ahead of us as their mother excitedly invited us into their house. We followed, expecting to walk out the back door after entering the house, but the two brothers turned into the small, smoke-filled kitchen. There she was, their pride and joy, snout to the hard dirt floor, hunting for food with her 12 little pink piglets. For Sugeyli, this family of pigs living in her kitchen eases her worry about her sons not having enough to eat. These pigs give her hope for their future. Sugeyli was born and raised in Las Milpas, about two hours from Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast.