July 2015 newsletter

House-to-House
Family of Hope House Church                             July 2015

Choosing and Cherishing                 - Harvey Yoder

I remember talking with someone once who was debating whether to include a grown step child in his will. He wanted to make sure everything associated with the “home place” would “stay in the family”, and didn’t feel good about the idea of having an unrelated person get part of the family inheritance.

I couldn't resist pointing out that every family starts as a union of two biologically unrelated people who have bonded together by choice. They do this in fulfillment of  the Biblical text, “For this reason shall a person leave father and mother (with whom they are biologically related), and shall cleave to their spouse (with whom they are not biologically related), and the two shall become united, as one.”

Then, of course, this union of two people can produce offspring who in turn will later leave them to form other unions. And so life gets passed on, from generation to generation.

Paul Peachy writes that typically our strongest ties are not our biological ones (those that are unwilled) but the covenanted ones that are willed, or chosen.

Two kinds of “blessed ties that bind our hearts ” are our marriages and baptisms. In each case we form covenant bonds that have the potential of blessing us forever.

“Now you are no longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven, but you are members of God’s very own family, citizens of God’s country, and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.”

                                                                     Ephesians 2:9 (Living Bible)

Notes, prayers and praises

JULY BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Lois Rivera-Wenger 7/30 and a Happy Anniversary to Guy and Margie Vlasits 7/27!
JOSIAH DUMAS’s current address is 40990 Waxwing Drive, Leesburg, VA 20175.
MENNONITE WORLD CONFERENCE convenes in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 21-26.
WE WELCOME LOIS RIVERA-WENGER home at 1135 Hamlet Drive.

July Lectionary readings

5   2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10  Psalm 123     2 Corinthians 12:2-10  Mark 6:1-13
12  2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19  Amos 7:7-15  Psalm 85:8-13 Ephesians 1:3-14  Mark 6:14-29
19  2 Samuel 7:1-14a  Psalm 89:20-37  Jeremiah 23:1-6  Ephesians 2:11-22  Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
26  2 Samuel 11:1-15  Psalm 14  Ephesians 3:14-21     John 6:1-21

July services worship at 4, meal at 6

5 Location: Family Life Resource Center 273 Newman Ave.  432-0531
Ken and Laura Litwiller, MCC East Africa Area Representatives, will speak to us about MCC’s work in that region, and Rachel Sommer, MCC East Coast Communication Director, will lead our Bible study.      
12 Location: James & Ruth Stauffer 1250 Parkway Dr 22802   574-6141
Worship and Sharing: Harvey Yoder
Bible Study: Paul Swarr                 Carry-in Meal                                       
19 Location: Guy & Margie Vlasits 3448 Caverns Dr., K’town 908-0391
Worship and Sharing: Guy and Margie Vlasits
Bible Study: Harvey Yoder                                           Finger Foods Meal
26 Location: Susan Campbell 1361 Lincolnshire Dr, 22802             564-1524
Worship and Sharing: Susan Campbell
Bible Study: Dick Dumas                                                     Carry-in Meal