News from the Women's Fellowship

Greetings!

On behalf of the Christ's Church Women's Fellowship, I want to remind/inform you that there is a special presentation taking place, February 13, at 10 a.m.

Aaron Wells, who works at the Springfield prison with a model program dealing with treatment of sex offenders will be with us to discuss the program and answer our questions. The presentation will take place in the Fellowship Room is open to all (not only women! and not only church folk!). Coffee and donuts will be provided.

best,
Susie
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January Donations to Our Place

Thank you for the generous donations of spaghetti and pasta for December. The theme for January's donations is protein. This could include peanut butter, canned meats and tuna fish. Please check the expiration dates as Our Place cannot distribute outdated food. (back to top)

Memorial Gifts

This year's participation in the memorial poinsettia has resulted in a contribution to the Greater Falls Warming Shelter of $555. May your generous spirits warm your hearts as we bring warmth to those less fortunate. Thank you!

Mary Kinney Co-ordinator
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Grace to you, and peace! We’ve just come off a sudden bout of wintery weather, belated though it may be, and yet there are signs of spring all around. There’s mud in the places where the earth used to be frozen solid. Frost heaves have re-emerged, making for roller-coaster fun on lots of area roads. Sap buckets are appearing throughout the landscape. These and so many other signs give us the strength to get through the end of winter.

For those of us in the church, it may be hard to reconcile these hopeful feelings with the season of Lent, which traditionally has focused so much on repentance. It’s true, of course, that Lent is a deep season – a somber season, in many ways. But although on the surface it may strike a person as incongruous to link repentance with hope, I would argue that they do in fact go together.

There’s good news, you see! The challenge of Lent is that we’re called to walk with Christ toward Jerusalem. We’re called to face the things in our lives that deal death rather than giving life. And that’s good news, because God doesn’t call us to do things that are impossible. We’re called to change because we can change; we can shed the things in our lives that lead us astray. We can find the courage to stand up to injustice. We can dig deep even in a time of financial hardship to find that we have enough – not only just enough for us, but enough that we can help some of the pressing needs facing our neighbors and the strangers who suffer half a world away.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the story of the fig tree that bore no fruit. Every year for three years, the landowner searched diligently, but could find no sign of fruit when it should have been in season, and so he decided to cut it down. But the gardener, servant of the landowner, intervened. He said, “Give me one year. Let me tend it and fertilize it ... prune it as needed, and maybe even graft on some new branches. If, after I’ve taken care of it for one year, it still hasn’t borne fruit, well, then you can take an axe to the roots.”

That parable gives us a strong lenten message in a nutshell. There’s much in our lives and our world that doesn’t bear fruit – that’s undeniable. The gospel – the Good News – is that there is a gardener who is altogether committed to even the most barren fig tree. There is time – not all the time in the world, maybe, but enough time for growth and change and, yes, fruit.

As the month of March comes to an end, so will Lent, and we will be able to gather in celebration of the Easter event, in which Life in its richest form conquered Death. Until then, let us worship and pray and take heart. Lent is Good News because change is possible!

in Lenten hope, Susie

Click here to contact Rev. Webster-Toleno

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More Donations

Members of Christ's Church shopped for 29 large bags of Christmas presents for Vermont teens in residential care. The children of Christ's Church are eager to sponsor a flock of chickens through the Heifer Project. This project is still ongoing.

Sunday Worship Will Move to Fellowship Room for Winter Months (Flame January, 2010 - Jane Cook)

With the exception of the first Sunday of the month and any other special services, the congregation will gather for Sunday afternoon worship in the Fellowship Room during the months of January, February and March. Palm Sunday will find us back in the Sanctuary. We are looking forward to being in an atmosphere of warmth and increased fellowship during the bleak days of winter. (back to top)

"Upper Room" Available (Flame October, 2009 - Jane Cook)

The Women's Fellowship, which pays for the "Upper Room", a daily devotional guide, has decided to make it available to shut-ins. if you would like to make a delivery to one of our home-bound seniors, please pick up a copy on the back table in the Sanctuary, and deliver it to one of those people listed on the magazine cover. The visit will be appreciated. (back to top)

Click here to view the Fourth of July photos. (back to top)