MAUNDY THURSDAY SERVICE PASSOVER SEDER DINNER APRIL 5 IN FIRST HALL 6:00PM– 7:30PM “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer...” These were the words of Jesus before he shared the Passover with his disciples. You are invited to come and experience a taste of the Jewish meal of Passover like Jesus might have experienced it. We will journey through the major parts of this ancient ritual including dinner and the celebration of the Lord’s Table. Through this evening experience we will walk through the trials of the Exodus – the bitterness of bondage and the triumph of freedom. A special treat will be our Creative Kids for Christ leading us through different parts of this meaningful meal. The traditional Passover Seder can last up to four hours, we have shortened, simplified and adapted the experience so that we can have a sense of the ceremony. This is an experience that you don’t want to miss. Please sign up on our website at www.fpcnorfolk.org. Cost for meal will be $10 per adult; $5 per child; $25 cap per family. Menu: Salad De Colores; Sweet Brisket with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Seasoned Red Cabbage. Dessert: Dried Fruit Compote; Cookies for children. Visit www.fpcnorfolk.org for more information! z Enter Your Mission Field z Come to our fantastic Easter Egg Hunting Eggtravaganza on Saturday, April 7 at 9:30 to learn all about the lost White Egg, and how it can help you to add to our community here at FPC! WWW.FPCNORFOLK.ORG A CCESS 2 0 1 2 A P R I L E D I T I O N First Presbyterian Church HOLY WEEK ACTIVITIES Maundy Thursday Service April 5 at 6pm Good Friday Service April 6 at 7pm Easter Egg Hunt April 7 9:30 Easter Services April 8 8:30, 9:30 & 11:00
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MAUNDY THURSDAY SERVICE
PASSOVER SEDER DINNER
APRIL 5 IN FIRST HALL
6:00PM– 7:30PM
“I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you
before I suffer...” These were the words of Jesus
before he shared the Passover with his disciples. You
are invited to come and experience a taste of the
Jewish meal of Passover like Jesus might have
experienced it. We will journey through the major
parts of this ancient ritual including dinner and the
celebration of the Lord’s Table. Through this
evening experience we will walk through the trials of
the Exodus – the bitterness of bondage and the
triumph of freedom. A special treat will be our
Creative Kids for Christ leading us through different
parts of this meaningful meal. The traditional
Passover Seder can last up to four hours, we have
shortened, simplified and adapted the experience so
that we can have a sense of the ceremony. This is an
experience that you don’t want to miss. Please sign
up on our website at www.fpcnorfolk.org.
Cost for meal will be $10 per adult; $5 per child; $25
cap per family. Menu: Salad De Colores; Sweet
Brisket with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Seasoned
Red Cabbage.
Dessert: Dried Fruit Compote; Cookies for children.
Visit www.fpcnorfolk.org for more information!
z Enter Your Mission Field zCome to our fantastic Easter Egg Hunting Eggtravaganza
on Saturday, April 7 at 9:30 to learn all about the lost White Egg, and how it can help you to add to our
community here at FPC!
W W W. F P C N O R F O L K . O R G
ACCESS
2 0 1 2 A P R I L E D I T I O N
First Presbyterian Church
HOLY WEEK
ACTIVITIES
Maundy Thursday Service
April 5 at 6pm
Good Friday Service
April 6 at 7pm
Easter Egg Hunt
April 79:30
Easter ServicesApril 8
8:30, 9:30 & 11:00
From Where I StandBy Jim Wood
When I think about Easter here at FPC, I can’t help but
remember the fantastic response to the flowered cross we
erected outside the new bell tower. Families stopping to have
a moment and a photo with the cross, then seeing those
families post that picture as their Facebook profile picture
later in the week, was just wonderful. Friends would see it, tag it or share it and our
community grew to this massive viral sharing of peoples’ morning at FPC. I loved it
and I can’t wait to see it again this year!
Pause for ThoughtRemembering this story gives me pause. Why do you think our flowery cross had such
an impact on our congregation? Without any question it is you, the congregation,
reaching out to your neighbors, friends and families, that makes our family grow.
Consider for a moment: Have you tried, have you really tried, to invite someone to
church this year? Have you asked a friend or family member to join you for a Sunday service at FPC? If not,
why? Or if so, what prompted you to reach out? If we feel the tug of evangelism, why do we ignore it?
These questions seem so much bigger when we think back to those viral pictures of the flowery cross from
Easter last year. Why is it so easy to hit “like” or to “tag” a photo and share it with everyone you know in the
digital world, when we have so much trouble with a simple invitation in the real world? Consider this our
moment to pause and think.
Ordinary Radical Practices
After Holy Week and our “Add to the Community” theme, we begin the last miniseries in PRA•X•IS:
The Experiment. From April 15-May 27, we focus on “Ordinary Radical Practices.” Ordinary radical
sounds like an oxymoron, perhaps, but the word radical just means “root.” What ordinary aspects of
our lives are rightly understood as spiritual practices that keep us rooted in Christ? These practices are
not included in our PRA•X•IS acronym but are no less important. Join us for worship as we explore
what it means to be an ordinary radical.
NEW NEO CLASS
STARTS APRIL 155:30 to 7:30pm
The NEO Courseis a class whereyou have the freedomto ask questionsabout the Christian faithin a caring environmentwhere no question is too simple and none too challenging to deserve an honest response from a Biblical perspective.
The NEO course combines equal parts of fellowship, Biblical teaching and small group community. Each week participants meet for dinner, followed by a talk on the Christian faith and small group discussion.
Who is NEO for? Everyone is welcome! This is an excellent class for folks outside the church, especially those who want to learn what our Christian
faith is all about. Or maybe you’ve been visiting First Presbyterian for awhile, or maybe this is your first time.! You’re seeking.! You believe in God, but you don’t know how Jesus fits into it all, and you wonder why we keep talking about Jesus dying on the cross.! NEO would be great to help you learn how to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Or, maybe you’ve been a Christian for a long time.! NEO is not just a “beginner’s” course.! We want everyone at First Presbyterian to go through NEO at some point.! This theological refresher is useful where ever you are in your faith.Contact Jim Gates [phone 625-1697] for more information.Register Online at www.fpcnorfolk.org
XIAO-TAO AND
XIN TIANby Jim Gates
Jim and Nancy Yuan are two of the unsung heroes of FPC. For thirty years, they have led a Bible study in their homes primarily for young Chinese and Taiwanese ODU students. Although most of those students are from non-Christian countries, cultures and families, they can’t get enough of Jim and Nancy. The Yuans exude kindness, humility, and brilliance in equal measures. Over the last thirty years, it’s almost impossible for me to estimate how many of those students began a relationship with Jesus Christ because of that Bible study – 100? 200? More?
On March 18th, we baptized two such students – Xiao-Tao and Xin Tian. Xin Tian, a young Chinese student at ODU, was invited by a fellow student to Jim and Nancy’s Bible study the first day she arrived on campus. Although she wasn’t a Christian and had never been to a Bible study before, Xin Tian attended the Yuan’s study the next day. Over time, she invited Xiao-Tao, who is now her husband, and through that Bible study, both came to profess Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. As an added blessing, their families, while not Christians, were supportive of their new faith (many Chinese parents will disown their children if they covert to Christianity, because a Christian
will not participate in ancestor worship).Before their baptisms, the couple wrote these words to describe their new faith:
“Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing himself to me. Jesus, thank you for dying for my sins. You know my life and that I need to be forgiven. I ask you to forgive me right now and come into my life. I want to know you in a real way. Come into my life now. Thank you that you wanted a relationship with me. Amen.”
I was at the soup kitchen one day and I took my camera to capture some shots. While shooting, a man by the name of Isaiah came beside me and said, “I love to take pictures.” I stopped and looked at Isaiah, his deep brown eyes reflected my gaze, and asked if he would please remain after the soup kitchen just for a moment. I went to Walgreens and bought two disposable cameras. I handed them to Isaiah and asked him to return them to me when they were full. Five days later when I came into work I had a bag waiting for me from Isaiah. I processed the camera and took them into the class that Chris Tyre, a professional
in the world of film was teaching. Chris was so impressed with Isaiah’s pictures he decided to featured them in the photography display at the church the following week. One picture in particular was of a beautiful young woman, with piercing eyes, standing by a dusty road. Isaiah said, “he loved to see things a little differently when he looked into a camera.” He was thrilled to be a part of the display. I haven’t seen Isaiah for quite sometime now. My prayer for him is that he has found a perfect lens though which to view the world and that he is still freezing frames in royal style. I hope that one day I will see him again. I know that we could develop a great friendship.Contact Sheryl Wood for more information about
It sounds like such a film-noire start to a Saturday but, it was a chilly and wet day, the kind of day you want hot soup and a comfy couch. Your basic grey dreary day outside. Inside, however, was a different story! The dreariness of the day was lost in splashes of color and laughter. An image to warm and motivate, even the laziest of hearts, to serving their community.
Our day was an artistic adventure, our students in the
advanced painting class continued working on their masterpieces, while the other students made necklaces using sand art as pendants. It was a beautiful piece of handmade jewelry to bring home!
With artistic grace the teen girls completed a special devotional that paired real life issues to scriptures that illuminated the
appropriate biblical response to each negative circumstance that was presented. The visuals of their everyday lives related to biblical practices was a message that really hit home in the lives of our students.
Spend one Saturday at the Park Place Child Life Center,
spend the day making arts and crafts or just talking and listening to the young people. You can touch the lives around you. Please make plans to come and visit the Child Life Center and be blessed with a wonderful day of children growing in Christ. Contact Annie at [email protected] for more information.
KENYA PILGRIMAGESIf you have been considering a pilgrimage to Kenya, if there is a tug at your heart as you listen to the stories of
so many who have made this pilgrimage before you, perhaps 2012 is the year to just do it! !There will be a team leaving in late June. !Will you be on the plane with them? !
As you consider and pray about whether this is the place for you to be the hands and feet of Christ this year, think about some of the things the team will do while on the ground in Kenya:
Provide hands on assistance and experience the happiness, struggles, aspirations and dreams of nearly 200 teens living with HIV/AIDS.! Join our program to increase patient treatment retention through relationship building.
Through the creative process of Art Therapy, provide encouragement to children at Holy Family Center HIV/AIDS clinic, Korogocho area and Allamano School.
Work and minister at the Joy Children’s Home in Ngarariga, Kenya, and be blessed by the lost who have been found.
If you would like more information, please contact Rudy Miller at [email protected].
Updates from the FieldOn December 19, 2011, on the lawn of Nazareth Hospital in Kenya, the annual distribution of Boxes of Love took place. !It was a gloriously beautiful day, filled with great anticipation and prayers of thanksgiving by the 450 HIV/Aids children and teens receiving their Box of Love. !Sixty-two children from the Allamano School also received Boxes of Love, including food and school shoes. !On hand to oversee the festivities were the staff of Holy Family Center and the Administrator of Nazareth Hospital, Sister Clara. In addition to the distribution of 450 Boxes of Love, this year 150 teenagers were blessed with a special gift of their own – a wrist watch meant to help them adhere to their medication schedules. !With 11 of the 189 teens in the program on the second line regimen, the treatment of last resort, the wrist watches are a symbol of Christ’s desire for healing and wholeness in this place of overwhelming suffering and poverty.
Thank you to the many, many churches and individuals who supported Boxes of Love this year. !May you be blessed abundantly by the love and grace of Christ in 2012