St. Paul’s Newsletter: Summer 2012!

Due to some technical difficulties, we are releasing our summer newsletter here on the blog! Thanks for bearing with us and look for a re-vamped version of our newsletter this coming fall!

St. Paul’s Communications Team. 

Two Notes from the Lead Pastor 

I’m going to Israel!  I’ll be gone from May 21^st to May 30^th visiting the Holy Land with a group of pastors.  This is a dream come true for me—to actually walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.  Also this means I’ll be out of communication in that time period.  So please be patient: I’ll respond to phone calls and emails when I get back.

This means I won’t be at St. Paul’s for Pentecost Sunday. But no worries: we’ve got a great service planned.  There won’t be a sermon.  There will be a series of responsive readings and time for corporate prayer as we celebrate and welcome the Holy Spirit.  I’m bummed I’m going to miss it.

See you in June!

Vince 

Prayer Team Update.

We would like to make known all of the exciting things that are happening with our prayer team. In addition to the privilege of praying with you after the services and praying over your written requests, we are also offering morning and evening Restorative Prayer sessions two days per month through the summer.

Restorative prayer is a safe, confidential, loving environment of acceptance, affirmation, and powerful meeting with God. We will post the dates on the bulletin board in the café with our contact information and how to sign up for a session.

If you feel that the Prayer Ministry is where you may be called to serve, there will be a Basic Prayer Servant class offered at Walnut Hill Church in Bethel, CT one Saturday in June. The cost is approximately ten dollars, which is for lunch and materials. We will keep you posted on the details as we learn of them.

Vicki Oldham. & the Prayer Team.

Missions Update.

Recently, I have been spending some time going over the Giving Budget that we will propose to the membership.  It gave me an opportunity to reflect and give thanks for the great things that God is doing missionally at St. Paul’s.

With God’s help we plan on reaching out to our local community by offering friendship and support to those suffering through some of the hardship that life can bring. We plan on uniting with other local churches and increasing our focus on the UCONN community.  We will continue our partnership with MACC in the Manchester and surrounding areas.

Regionally, we will continue to make ourselves available to assist those families that have been devastated by the effects of hurricanes or tornadoes.  We will do this through our partnership with Lutheran’s CARE.

On a global level, we will be traveling to Panama in July or August to continue and to expand our work with the local churches there.  Finally, in January we will be returning to Tuxpan, Mexico to work with the churches that we met during last years trip.

I hope that each of you will continue to heed the command to “Go”.  I look forward to serving with you in the months to come.

Bob Jeram     

Hospitality Update.

Making our church feel warm and welcoming has always been a priority for us at St. Paul’s. Currently, I am looking for more people to serve on our Hospitality Team. Starting in July, I will begin to officially schedule Greeters, Communion Servers, and Bakers. No experience is necessary, except for maybe the baking part (unless you make wise use of Big Y’s bakery section!).  You would be asked to arrive half an hour before the service to help out, and the time commitment will most likely be every six weeks or so, unless you wish to serve more often.  So if you’re interested, please contact me by email (jmmullaney@gmail.com) or by phone (623-258-0873) by June 16th.

Thanks!

Jeanne Mullaney.

Teen Ministry Update.

This fall, I was terrified to begin meeting with the teens.  High schoolers.  Teenagers.  I wasn’t sure what leading a group of them would be like (aside from being horrifyingly certain that they would hold me to a standard of coolness that I simply couldn’t meet), but I couldn’t shake the firm belief that St Paul’s needed a group for our teens.  With much support from Emma and from Vince, this October we began our weekly small group for teens. 

Now, months later, I can tell you that our St Paul’s teens – Kayla Donaldson, Jonathan and Rosie Alumbaugh, and Kaylee Yacono – are amazing.  We currently meet Sunday evenings, after church, although all of us seem interested to keep meeting through the summer.  Together, we discuss the sermon and our questions about life and God and godly living.  As I’ve gotten to know them, our teens’ honesty, openness, and genuine care about each other and others in their lives is an inspiration and an encouragement. 

If you would like to pray for our group, please pray for the strengthening of friendships amongst us and for our summer plans for teaching, fellowship, and outreach.  

Zara Rix

 

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