New First Presbyterian Church, Las Cruces, NM June 2007 · 2007. 5. 31. · dren, preschool through elementary, using Group Publishing’s curriculum “Agents In Action.” The focus

First Presbyterian Church, Las Cruces, NM June 2007

The Lantern June 2007

2

Summer Intern

It is a most satisfying experience to watch a child grow and mature in their faith. When a young person stands before the congregation, and answers the vows of our faith to join the church, we have faithfully fulfilled the vows that we took at their baptism. It is a moment when I am sure that God who creates and loves us, is pleased.

Earlier this year a young man who grew up in this church began to sing

with the choir. He asked if he could do a Young Disciples Talk one Sunday and then later wanted to join the church. That young man graduated from Mayfield High School in May and will be attending New Mexico State this fall. We celebrate that God has been active in the life of Scotty Burns, and we welcome him to our shared ministry.

Several months ago, the elders serving on the Session supported the idea of

hiring Scotty to help with our children’s ministries this summer. With our expand-ing and busy summer programs, we can use the help. However, we did not have money in the budget for a summer intern. Recognizing that ministry is more about individuals than programs, several of the elders generously contributed the money we needed to hire him.

Scotty began working at the church right after graduation and will be help-

ing all summer. I hope you will support Scotty and all of our youth with your prayers and warm greetings. It is a most satisfying experience to watch a child grow and mature in their faith, into Christian young adult, a developing servant of God. It is a moment when I am sure that God who creates and loves us, the One who calls and equips us, is pleased.

Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in

the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you ..." Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a boy'; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you, Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you, says the LORD." (Jeremiah 1:4-8 NRSV)

In Christian Hope,

Rev. Norm


3

Children’s Summer Sunday School This summer we are offering a multi-age Sunday School program for all chil-

dren, preschool through elementary, using Group Publishing’s curriculum “Agents In Action.” The focus is on being sure children understand that they can choose how to act and how to react to others, and on applying Biblical principles to every-day life. Some examples of our topics are “Choosing to Do What Is Right,” “Choosing to Forgive,” and “Choosing to Speak Kind Words.” Crafts, music, and snacks are also planned to make Summer Sunday School a fun experience. We meet at 9:00 am in the Temple room of Reeves Hall.

The Salt & Light Co.

On Sunday, May 6, the Salt & Light Co. the very successful 2006-07 year ended with our annual Celebration. Everyone enjoyed seeing and hearing the tal-ented students who performed, and the Bells of Praise gave a guest performance, too. We all especially liked their “Mickey Mouse Club Theme” music!

Thank you, thank you to those who prepared and served the delicious food, to those who worked with such dedication to make Salt & Light a wonderful minis-try and outreach this past year, and to everyone who attended and contributed. The proceeds of the dinner, after expenses, came to over $900. This will be a great help to the ministry in the upcoming school year.

Travis Becker

Travis Becker has been appointed as our new Youth Director. If you ask a six year old what they want to be when they grow up, you will

get a variety of answers; fireman, zoo keeper, dinosaur trainer, Christian Youth Director… If someone had asked our new Youth Director what he wanted to be at the ripe old age of six, when he started attending First Presbyterian church, I am sure that Youth Director would not even have crossed his mind. (He actually wanted to be a garbage truck driver.)

Travis Becker has been attending First Presbyterian since he was six years old. He laughed and smiled his way through Sunday School and children’s talks, and learned about the Lord. As in the years past, Travis’ growth, both physical and spiritual, was rapid. His desire to drive a trash truck changed to a desire to spread the good news to today’s youth.

Travis says, “The church has given me an opportunity to follow my dream, my calling. With the support of the members, my church family, we will be able to accomplish many great things that will benefit our youth, our congregation, and all those we come in contact with. My hope is that I will grow, I will learn , and I will share; and through this we will deepen our faith and further out walk with Christ.”

We know what love is because Jesus Christ gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for our brought and sisters. (1 John 3:16)


4


5

June Calendar

For a weekly calendar or a calendar for other months, see the web site at www.zianet.com/fpc


6


7


8


9


10

BEYOND OUR WALLS

June 2007 Missions Bulletin of First Presbyterian Church, Vol. 9, No.4

This issue of Beyond our Walls features Ron and Donna Pontier, one of the mission families for which we provide partial support. Ron and Donna work for AIM/AIR in central Africa. AIM/AIR is an arm of African Inland Mission, an evan-gelical Christian mission agency dedicated to the establishment of maturing churches among the peoples of Africa. More information on AIM/AIR can be found at the URL http://www.aimair.org. Ron does not run a remote mission station. He does not preach regularly. He does not translate the Bible, although he is profi-cient in several languages. He is a pilot and mechanic on a small airline.

Africa is a large place. Transportation is a major problem with large isolated areas devoid even of roads. Many mission stations are far from anywhere. Medical emergencies are extremely serious. Even routine supply is a problem. Pontier’s job is to carry people, supplies, and information from one place to another. He is a pi-lot, who flies small airplanes which provides the transportation needs of an area around Uganda.

Ron grew up in Africa in a missionary family. He graduated from LeTour-neau College in Texas, (see the stewardship section of this issue for more informa-tion on LeTourneau) with degrees in mechanical engineering and aircraft mainte-nance.

Donna is a trained nurse who has served in Guatemala, Kenya, and Zaire. Donna and Ron met at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and started their life together in Zemio in the Central African Republic. Ron’s first task was to build a home and a hangar.

All missionaries have interesting tales to tell and the Pontiers are no excep-tion. Theirs range from medical emergencies, to family sickness, to being forced to rebuild 15 of 19 bridges on a 150 mile truck trip.

The most harrowing was a time in 1983 when Ron (and John Haspels, an-other one of the missionaries we partially support) was captured and held hostage by a group of rebels in southern Sudan. They were captured, escaped, and recap-tured before being rescued by government troops. Ron’s personal diary of this ex-perience is in our church mission files. Another difficult trip took place in May 2002 when Ron had to fly out of Uganda the bodies of two missionary friend who had been killed by Muslim extremists.

The Pontiers have been supported by our church since 1986. They have vis-ited the church in 1988, 1994, 1998, and 2003. They will be in the US this year. The mission committee is trying to arrange another visit.


11

Committee Minutes There is a lot of information about the workings of our church posted on the

south wall of the hall in Jones Hall. There you will find the minutes of about all the organizations in the church. In this article you will find very short abstracts of some of the more important or interesting actions and thoughts about the activities that keep our church running, interesting, and focused on God’s work.

It was reported to the session that an ongoing successful effort has been made to transfer most of the debt of the church from banks to the members. About 75% of the debt is now owed to members of the congregation who have purchased certificates of deposit from the church. The result is a transfer of much interest from the bank to church members at a net savings to the church.

The administration committee concentrated on staff evaluations. Buildings and Grounds reported on the fulfillment of many work orders.

They will be looking for congregational input on the proposed columbarium. A sewer pipe was replaced and signage for the church discussed.

Christian Education noted that the Salt & Light program will start up again in September. The garage sale netted over $1000. The church school survey should be completed by the end of May.

The Congregational Life and Outreach committee set the date of a Heritage Dinner for June 24 and for a White Sands trip June 29. A three fold brochure is under development.

The Music and Worship Committee decided that the date of the June com-munion should be June 10.

Camp Chimney Spring

Our church has had a long history of involvement with Camp Chimney Spring, although it has been a long time since the church as an organization made use of it. More information about the camp can be found at URL http://www.chimneyspring.org.

The camp has been in financial difficulties for some time. In 2006 the net operating loss was over $55,000.

Many members of Presbytery have a great interest in the camp so the ques-tion of what to do to prevent a serious continuing drain on the finances of Presby-tery is a difficult question. Presbytery sent a letter to all the congregations which was published in the bulletin on May 27.

The main points in the letter state that • 20 of about 320 acres of the camp have been sold with the proceeds

going to offset the existing debt and remaining on-going expenses. • An Administrative Commission (with Rev. Story as moderator)

had been set up to run the camp and develop recommendations for the Presbytery to consider for the future use of the remaining property


12

Two of the options being considered are • Sale of the rest of the property • Development of the rest of the property for a conference center.

CLP

A CLP is a Commissioned Lay Pastor, an elder of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to whom The Book of Order grants, "a local commission by the presbytery to lead worship and preach the gospel, watch over the people, and provide for their nurture and service."

Some of the churches in our Presbytery of Sierra Blanca cannot afford a full-time pastor. In order to provide pastoral care and worship leadership to these churches, the Book of Order permits presbyteries to train and authorize commis-sioned lay pastors to fill this need. Commissioned lay pastors receive basic and ad-vanced instruction in Bible, reformed theology and the sacraments, Presbyterian polity, preaching, the educational ministry of the church, program and mission in the local church, and pastoral care. Some will serve in churches that cannot afford a pastor. Other commissioned lay pastors use their training to fill the pulpit at churches when the regular pastor is not available to lead worship and preach.

If you are interested in learning more about this program, Rev. Story would love to discuss it with you. You do need to be an ordained elder in our church or to have been ordained at another Presbyterian (USA) Church. This is a wonderful op-portunity to serve God in a significant and meaningful way. The CLP training will prepare and equip you to serve in this much needed ministry as it helps you deepen your own faith and teaches you more about what we believe. We celebrate the continuing success of this program in our Presbytery with Lewis Toland, CLP Training Director. He describes the program in more detail in the following letter to our churches.

CLP Grows Steadily in Its First Year

I am very proud of our CLP students in this first year of the revived pro-gram. Larry Loy of Roswell Westminster was commissioned at the April presbytery meeting in Clovis, and Pam Richardson of Artesia needs to finish her last course by August in order to seek her commission at the September presbytery. More than anything else, students are the core of a school, even one as informal as Commis-sioned Lay Pastor training. Mary Lynn Bogle, Bev Coots, and Genia Devenport have attended faithfully and asked useful questions. We admire Christy Bullard for commuting from Las Cruces this year. Cindy Bostick from Las Cruces began the program in late spring.

Two or three pastors at the Clovis meeting complimented the program for running smoothly. This kind of respect tends to invite opportunities to serve as pastors begin planning for summer vacations. Other congregations face more pressing needs. Lovington has an open pulpit, and Hobbs will follow suit in Octo-


13

ber when Rev. Jim Lacy honorably retires. Rev. John Camp has generously do-nated several dozen books from his library before he retires in two or three years. When I mentioned CLP students who thirst for more knowledge, he generously supplied books to them. I also picked up about twenty books to use for a CLP li-brary or to blend with our library.

We benefited from the first-rate teaching of area pastors. Stephen Deutsch taught Preaching in the fall and gave most of his students the chance to preach in Dexter so that they could gain precious experience. Rev. Charles Fullinwider taught Polity this spring and drew on his decades of faithful service to advise stu-dents on how to lead meetings according to the Book of Order. Rev. Sam Lanham of Carlsbad followed Charles’ course later in the spring with the Sacraments class. I taught Old Testament Survey in the fall and New Testament Survey in the spring.

Next year looks promising. Rev. Cathy Anderson agreed to teach the Lead-ing Worship class. David Sallee, the campus minister at NMSU, will probably teach the Pastoral Care class sometime this summer. I am looking for an instruc-tor for the Christian Education course. If possible, I plan to offer an elective in Church History, an area sadly neglected by many seminary graduates, which yields much insight into current problems and offers many useful sermon illustra-tions. Two potential students from Carlsbad have expressed interest in starting the training next fall.

The courses are open to any adult Presbyterian. Some, for instance, Genia, are content to learn without the pressure of earning grades or worrying about ex-ams from the Committee on Preparation for Ministry and from the Presbytery. I urge others in the Pecos Valley to take some or all of these classes to deepen their understanding of God’s Word and the opportunities for better trained Sunday school teachers and home Bible study leaders. Other opportunities include working with shut-ins, youth groups, or the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center per-sonnel in Artesia, which is Pam Richardson’s interest.

Notes and Announcements

Congregational News Deaths: Louise Whitlock died on May 6, 2007.

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23 New E-mail Address: Brian McPherson, [email protected] Robert and Barbara Aikin, [email protected]

Please update your church phone directory Address: Clint Woodward (will be in Albuquerque all summer) Working at Flying Star Café, located at 4026 NW Rio Grand


14

Contact: Cell, (505) 644-3023 and Work, (505) 405-7022 or E-mail: [email protected]

Thank you I would like to thank everyone for all the prayers and all the beautiful and

thoughtful cards sent to me while I was recovering from my knee surgery. My re-covery took longer than I had expected, and I still have a little further to go but with all your prayers I have no doubt that I will get there. Everyone has been so loving and caring to me and my family during this situation.

I would also like to send a special THANKS to the Deacons for the donation to-wards my medical bills. I don’t have the words to express my feelings but it was quite a surprise and very much appreciated.

Linda V. Ramirez and Destiny A. Lara Staff News • Office hours are Monday-Friday, 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. • Deadline for announcements going into the weekly Sunday Bulletin is 10:00 am on Thursday mornings. • Rev. Norm Story will be out of the office from June 4 till June 30. • Kathy Shannon will be out of the office on Friday, June 8. • Tracy Geiger will be out of the office on Thursday, June 28. Operating Funds: April 2007

Income $56,021.09 Expenses 37,177.18 Balance $18,843.01 Year-to-Date through April Income $177,464.23 Expenses 147,098.65 Balance $30,365.58

Communion Communion will be served on Sunday, June 10 and July 1.

Lantern Deadline Thursday, June 21 is the deadline for the July Lantern. Please submit your

articles to Linda on or before that day. [email protected] Special Events for June

• Heritage Dinner — June 24 • White Sands Picnic — June 29 • Inbetweener’s Prayer Breakfast — June 29

More information on these events can be found on our web site http:/www.zianet.org/fpc as the date approaches.


15

The Cover I am sure that all have seen this

cross a number of times. It is prominently displayed on the Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church on the north side of US 70 on the way to White Sands.

The Lantern is a monthly publication of First Pres-byterian Church, Las Cruces, NM. Articles and photos, preferably in computer readable form, are welcome, and will be used at the discretion of the publisher. For further information call 526-5559 or send e-mail to [email protected]. Editor: Alex Burr Production: Linda Ramirez

First Presbyterian Church 200 East Boutz Road Las Cruces, NM 88005 Tel (505) 526-5559 E-mail [email protected] Web www.zianet.com/fpc Rev. Norman Story, Pastor

Birthdays 6/1 A.B. Conrad 6/3 Thomas Burnham 6/5 Jim Parks 6/6 Judith Wood 6/8 Richard Dale 6/11 Allan Hoffman Jr. 6/11 Michael Petersen 6/18 William Gould 6/18 Carissa Brealey-Rood 6/24 Wesley Seaton 6/24 Michelle Ugalde 6/24 Barry Prahl 6/24 Shirley McDowell 6/24 Jasey Loman 6/25 Ariana Garcia 6/25 Ashlynn Hoffman 6/25 Norma Klein 6/30 Melanie Grant


16

P FIRST

E S B Y T E R I A N

200 E. Boutz Rd. Las Cruces, NM 88005

Non-Profit Org. U. S. POSTAGE

PAID PERMIT NO. 91 Las Cruces, NM

Return Service Requested

Heritage Dinner - June 24

Our Mission

To nurture members, to encourage loving relationships, and to develop an atmosphere that will equip our members to reach people outside of the church for Jesus Christ.

Purpose Our purpose is to witness the Word to encourage people to seek and serve the Lord through local ministry and world mission.

Our Vision Objectives for 2006 – 2007 are: • To constantly promote a spirit of unity, coopera-

tion, communication, and giving within our entire church community.

• To support and expand ministries, to attract young families and youth.

New First Presbyterian Church, Las Cruces, NM June 2007 · 2007. 5. 31. · dren, preschool through elementary, using Group Publishing’s curriculum “Agents In Action.” The focus

Documents