January 2020 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                      January 2020

An Epiphany In the Bronx     

Jonathan Kozol, author of a book called Amazing Grace, wrote about his experiences with children in the worst areas of the Bronx in New York City, and records their stories and their dreams. Thirteen-year-old Anthony Green wrote him this description of a future heaven as he envisioned it:

     God will be there. He’ll be happy that we have arrived. People shall  comes in hand in hand. It will be bright, not dim and glooming like here on earth. All friendly animals will be there, but no mean ones. 

     As for television, forget it! If you want vision, you can use your eyes to see the people that you love. No one will look at you from the outside. People will see you from the inside. 

     All the people from the street will be there. My uncle will be there and he will be healed. You won’t see him buying drugs, because there won’t be money. 

     Mr. Mongo will be there too. You might see him happy for a change. The prophets will be there, and Adam and Eve, and all the disciples except Judas 

     No violence will there be in heaven. There will be no guns or drugs or IRS. You won’t have to pay taxes. 

     You’ll recognize all the children who have died when they were little. Jesus will be good to them and play with them. At night he’ll come and visit at your house. God will be fond of you.

     How will you know that you are there? Something will tell you, ‘This is it! Eureka!’ If you still feel lonely in your heart, or bitterness, you’ll know that you’re not there.

     Anthony Green was shot and killed three years later on Beekman Avenue, in the worst part of the Bronx. 

     There’s got to be a city with safe streets of solid gold for people like him. 

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• WE WILL HAVE OUR ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING Sunday, January 12, followed by a communion meal. Bring your concerns and dreams for the future of our house church. 
• OUR GIVING GOAL for the past years has been $18,000. Give your offerings to Susan Campbell or to James Stauffer.
• HARVEY YODER’s radiation treatments begin January 9 and are to continue five days a week through most of February. 
• JOSIAH DUMAS is recovering well from his hernia surgery!
• JANUARY BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to James Stauffer 1/8, Susan Campbell 1/17,  Becky Morlan 1/28, and Dick Dumas 1/30!

January Lectionary Texts

5   Jeremiah 31:7-14   Psalm 147:12-20   Ephesians 1:3-14     John 1:1-18

12 Isaiah 42:1-9 Psalm 29 Acts 10:34-43       Matthew 3:13-17

19 Isaiah 49:1-7     Psalm 40:1-11 1 Corinthians 1:1-9     John 1:29-42

26 Isaiah 9:1-4  Psalm 27:1, 4-9  1 Corinthians 1:10-18 Matthew 4:12-23

January services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

5  Location: 2nd floor meeting room Park Place, VMRC           432-0531 
Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivera-Wenger                             

Bible Study: Paul Swarr                                                     Brown bag meal

12  Location: FLRC 173 Newman Avenue (lower level)            432-0531

Worship, sharing, business meeting c/o Harvey Yoder & Susan Campbell  
Communion service                Meal of bread, cheese, fruit and grape juice    
19 Location: Guy & Margie Vlastis 3399 Caverns Dr. K’own   908-0391                     

Worship and sharing: Harvey Yoder 

Bible Study: Dick Dumas                                                    Carry-in Meal

26 Location: Lewis & Mary Ellen Overholt G49 H’tage Haven 432-7277                

Worship and Sharing: Lewis Overholt                                 

Bible Study: Elly Nelson                                                  Brown bag meal

December 2019 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                   December 2019

A CHRISTMAS PRAYER

O holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend on us, we pray

This season we celebrate the advent of that One and Only Child in whom God descends to earth naked and disarmed--a defenseless Lover and Lamb unwelcomed in the town of his ancestry. "He came to his own, and his own received him not."

Cast out our sin and enter in

Be born in us today

In a world of great evil, need and hunger, we celebrate the baby who comes to us holy and innocent, needy and hungry, so dependent on the care of his parents, young and poor. This is the wonder of Christmas, the focus of our songs and of our celebration.

We hear the Christmas angels

The great glad tidings tell 

We celebrate this time when God tugs hard at our hearts and calls us to care deeply and provide generously for all the newborn of the world, red, brown, yellow, black and white, for all of the Afghans, Hondurans, Haitians, Congolese, Palestinians, Syrians and others for whom there is no room except in stable-like shelters, tents and tenements. "As you have done to the least of these, you have done it unto me."

O come to us, abide with us

Our Lord, Immanuel

As you are born in us, help us all to love as God loved, live as Christ lived, so Christmas will not have come in vain, so all will be blessed, and there may yet be "peace on earth, goodwill to all." 

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• WE WILL HAVE A THANKSGIVING CARRY-IN MEAL at Susan Campbell’s Sunday, December 1, following our worship service.
• “SINCERE THANKS for all of your kindnesses, prayers and many expressions of support during my recent surgery and recovery.”                                                                                   - Harvey Yoder
• HARVEY YODER’s surgery revealed a tumor in his parotid gland that proved to be cancerous, but was removed and his prognosis is good. 
• JOSIAH DUMAS’s hernia surgery is now set for December 17.
• DECEMBER BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Karen Campbell 12/26/69!
• A WALKING ROOTS BAND Christmas MCC Benefit Concert will be held December 8, 7 pm in the theater at Eastern Mennonite School.

December Lectionary Texts

1 Isaiah 2:1-5 Psalm 122 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:36-44

8 Isaiah 11:1-10   Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19  Romans 15:4-13  Matthew 3:1-12

15 Isaiah 35:1-10      Luke 1:46b-55 James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11

22 Isaiah 7:10-16  Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19  Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25

29 1 Samuel 2:18-20, 26  Psalm 148  Colossians 3:12-17  Luke 2:41-52

December services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

1  Location: Susan Campbell 1361 Lincolnshire Dr, 22802       564-1524 

Worship and Sharing: Elly Nelson                                  

Bible Study: Dick Dumas  Carry-in Thanksgiving meal (turkey provided)            

8  Location: Lewis and Mary Ellen Overholt                             432-7277

Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivera-Wenger                                    

Bible Study: Kent Palmer                                                  Brown bag meal                                         
15 Location: FLRC 173 Newman Avenue (lower level)             432-0531

Worship and Sharing: Harvey Yoder                                     

Bible Study: Lewis Overholt                               Simple finger foods meal

22 Location: Guy & Margie Vlastis 3399 Caverns Dr. K’own   908-0391                     

Worship and sharing: James Stauffer

Bible Study: Harvey Yoder                                                  Carry-in Meal

29 Location: FLRC 173 Newman Avenue (lower level)            432-0531

Worship and sharing: Lewis Overholt

Bible Study: Elly Nelson                                                  Brown bag meal

November 2019 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                            November 2019

Giving as an Expression of Joy-filled Gratitude

- Harvey Yoder

Iit's easy to see a contrast between the celebrative way God's people were to financially support their new nation (a kingdom governed by priests rather than by monarchs), and the way we tend to fulfill our financial obligations to our congregations, community and governments today.

     The annual offering of fresh produce from their newly gifted land involved a liturgy in which each Israelite household prepared a basket of the best and first of their harvest. Upon bringing this cornucopia of plenty to the priest, they were to announce the following (paraphrased):

"I hereby acknowledge that I have inherited the gracious and undeserved gift of a land that God promised our ancestors."

     The priest then received the basket of fresh produce and placed it on the altar, after which grateful and blessed Israelites were to recite:  

Our ancestor Jacob was a wandering and landless Aramean

who went down to Egypt and lived there,

he and his small family,

but there they multiplied and we became many.

The Egyptians abused us and subjected us to cruel slavery.

We cried out to the God of our ancestors

who listened to our desperate prayers,

who took pity on us in our terrible plight,

and brought us out of Egypt

by great and miraculous means,

and brought us to this grace-filled place,

a land of abundant milk and honey.

So here we are with the best of the firstfruits 

of what the land God has given us has produced.

(paraphrase of Deuteronomy 26:5-10)

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• KENT PALMER was given a good report at his most recent checkup!
• “SINCERE THANKS for your prayers and many expressions of sympathy for the death of my sister Fannie Mae Yoder, who died at age 88 on October 26.”                          - Harvey Yoder
• HARVEY YODER’s surgery to remove a growth on his left parotid gland was rescheduled to November 21 due to his sister’s recent death. 
• JOSIAH DUMAS’s hernia surgery has been postponed.
• NOVEMBER BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Neal Nelson 11/2, Paul Swarr 11/10 and Guy Vlasits 11/21. Neal and Elly Nelson’s 25th anniversary is November 26! 
• WE WILL HAVE A THANKSGIVING CARRY-IN MEAL at Susan Campbell’s Sunday, December 1, following our worship service.

November Lectionary Texts

3 Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4  Psalm 119:137-144  2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12 Luke 19:1-1

10 Haggai 1:15b-2:9  Job 19:23-27a  Psalm 17:1-9 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17 Luke 20:27-38

17 Isaiah 65:17-25  Malachi 4:1-2a  Psalm 98   2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Luke 21:5-19

30 Jeremiah 23:1-6  Psalm 46   Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43

November services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

3  No service this week because of the annual Festival of Praise at 4 pm held at the Park View Mennonite Church (Note change of location).                                                         
10 Location: Lewis and Mary Ellen Overholt                    432-7277

Worship and Sharing: Harvey Yoder                                    

Bible Study: Elly Nelson                                                 Brown bag meal                                    
17 Location: FLRC 173 Newman Avenue (lower level)   432-0531

Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivera-Wenger                                     

Bible Study: Harvey Yoder                                Simple finger foods meal

24 Location: Park Place meeting room, 2nd floor                       432-0531

Worship and sharing: Lewis Overholt

Bible Study: Paul Swarr                                                   Brown bag meal

October 2019 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                    October 2019

Family of Hope—Who Are We?

We are followers of Jesus. We believe in one God as revealed most fully in the life, teaching,  death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We base our faith on the Bible. We do not claim to understand or to live it perfectly, but we embrace the Bible as the trustworthy and inspired Word of God.

     We are members of God's worldwide family. Our spiritual roots, like those of all Christians, go back to the story of God's people in the Old Testament. Likewise, we are a part of the universal Christian church, the story of which begins in the New Testament.

      In our faith, we affirm the ancient creeds of the early Christian church. We are also spiritual heirs of the sixteenth century Reformation, which emphasizes salvation by faith, and of the Anabaptist wing of that Reformation, which stresses voluntary adult baptism as a pledge of covenant with Christ and the church.

      We are a part of the Mennonite Church. While we see ourselves first of all as members of God's worldwide family, we are linked with the Mennonite family of churches in our concern for Christ's example of a life of simplicity and peace, and in our support of that denomination's mission, relief, education and publishing efforts.

      We are a living, growing and serving local family of faith:

LIVING: Our desire is to be a community of people who love God above every other love or loyalty and who love our neighbors and even our enemies as Christ taught us.

GROWING: In order to experience more and more of the spirit of Jesus in our lives, we urge the practice of spiritual disciplines of prayer and the study of scripture, accountable relationships with others, and regular attendance at house church meetings for worship, study and fellowship.

SERVING: Together we want to continue the kinds of ministries Jesus began when he was here on earth. We urge the giving of at least a tithe (10%) of our working hours and of their incomes for direct service to others through the church.     

- summary of FOH statement revised 6/14

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• KENT PALMER is will be off work for several more weeks but is recovering well from his recent surgery at UVA.
• HARVEY YODER’s growth on his left jaw turned out to be benign and is set to be removed October 25. Thanks for your faithful prayers.
• OCTOBER BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Joyce Ulrich 10/14, and Elly Nelson 10/28!
• MY COINS COUNT total for Family of Hope was $75.80. The overall Relief Sale income looks to be exceptionally good for this year. Mary Ellen and Lewis won the Everence door prize given away at their SOS Giving Table!
• PRAY FOR JOSIAH DUMAS, who is set to have hernia surgery.
• WELCOME BACK Lewis and Mary Ellen Overheat and Lois Rivera-Wenger!

October Lectionary Texts

6 Lamentations 1:1-6  Psalm 137  2 Timothy 1:1-14  Luke 17:5-10

13 Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7  Psalm 111  2 Timothy 2:8-15  Luke 17:11-19

20 Jeremiah 31:27-34  Genesis 32:22-31  Psalm 121   2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Luke 18:1-8

27 Joel 2:23-32  Psalm 84:1-7  2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 Luke 18:9-14

October services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

6  Location: Park Place meeting room, 2nd floor                        432-0531

Worship and sharing: Harvey Yoder

Bible Study: Paul Swarr                                      Optional brown bag meal                                                         

13 Location: FLRC 173 Newman Avenue (lower level)             432-0531

Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivera-Wenger                                     

Bible Study: Lewis Overholt         Indoor picnic meal (provided by Lois!)                                                                                                    

20 Location: Lewis and Mary Ellen Overholt                             432-7277

Worship and Sharing: Elly Nelson                                    

Bible Study: Harvey Yoder                                               Brown bag meal

27 Location: Guy & Margie Vlasits 3399 Caverns Dr., K’town 906-0391

Worship and sharing: Kent Palmer

Bible Study: Dick Dumas                                                       Carry in meal

September 2019 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                                   September2019

Imagination Can Fuel Either Faith Or Fear

In light of the many uncertainties we face in our future, our imaginations inevitably fill in gaps with details we have no way of knowing, thus either adding to our fear or enhancing our faith. 

     In times like these, it's not hard to imagine a lot of things in our world or in our personal lives coming to some unfortunate end. And it’s not hard to see that we naturally become far more anxious when we spend the majority of our time ruminating on that fear end of the spectrum, imagining all manner of worst case scenarios. In accordance with  'Murphy's Law' we assume that whatever can go wrong, will go wrong, most likely terribly wrong. 

     On the other hand, when we are operating within the faith end of the spectrum, we are visualizing better than expected outcomes. This doesn't mean we don't recognize the possibility of things turning out badly, but we don't see those outcomes as being inevitable. By faith, we see bad things as less likely to happen than good, and trust that as a people of God, the odds are truly in our favor. 

      So what if we made a practice of  occasionally spending some time prayerfully preparing for the worst, but devoting the majority of our time picturing things turning out reasonably well--and ultimately very well. 

     And to believe that even if bad things happen, we will never have to face them alone, and that God, and God's people, will help us through whatever comes. 

     Until the very, very best finally comes.

• Harvey Yoder

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• KENT PALMER will have his surgery at UVA September 12. Please pray for a good recovery. 
• SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Lewis Overholt (9/5), and David Weaver (9/23)! 
• MY COINS COUNT Drive is on until the October 4-5 Relief Sale. Bring coins and cash to church for this project.
• PLEASE SUPPORT the SOS (Sharing Our Surplus) campaign at the Relief Sale October 4-5 to raise money for refugee relief worldwide.

September Lectionary Texts

1 Jeremiah 2:4-13 Proverbs 25:6-7 Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16 Luke 14:1-14

8 Jeremiah 18:1-11  Deuteronomy 30:15-20  Philemon 1:1-21 Luke 14:25-33

15 Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28  Psalm 14  Exodus 32:7-14 1 Timothy 1:12-17  Luke 15:1-10

22 Jeremiah 8:18-9:1  Amos 8:4-7  Psalm 113  1 Timothy 2:1-7  Luke 16:1-13

29 Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15  Amos 6:1a, 4-7  Psalm 146  1 Timothy 6:6-19

Luke 16:19-31

September services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

1  Location: Park Place meeting room, 2nd floor                        432-0531

Worship and sharing: Harvey Yoder

Bible Study: Paul Swarr                                                    Brown bag meal                                                         

8 Location: Lois Rivera-Wenger 204 Homes Lane, S’tn     502-663-3195  

Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivera-Wenger                                     

Bible Study: Kent Palmer                                              Shared picnic meal                                                                                                                                       

15 NOTE: We will meet with the Table Congregation at Community Mennonite at 4:30 pm for a joint session with guests Grace and Yugo Prasetyo, missionaries in a slum area where many make their living salvaging items from a large landfill in Jakarta, Indonesia.   Carry in meal       

                                                                                     

22 Location: Family Life Resource Center 273 Newman Ave.   432-0531

Worship and Sharing: James Stauffer                                     

Bible Study: Dick Dumas                                                  Brown bag meal

29 Guy & Margie Vlasits 3399 Caverns Dr., Keezletown            906-0391

Worship and sharing: Elly Nelson

Bible Study: Harvey Yoder                                                    Carry in meal

August 2019 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                       August 2019

Some Things I Learned From Major Surgery  

1. Never take life or health for granted. I was assured that the survival rate for heart bypass patients was near 99%, yet I'll never forget the good feeling I had when I first became awake after a five hour surgery. Life is precious indeed.

2. Having strong family support is priceless, a blessing beyond belief.

3. I’m equally grateful to God for the countless friends, neighbors and members of our church family who have showered us with prayers, cards, visits, food and other favors too numerous to count.

4. Health care professionals are worth their weight in gold. Before, during and after my hospital stay, scores of care providers invaluable help through the healing process.

5. I gained a new appreciation of a loving God who designed the human body in an amazing way, then gifted myriads of people who have helped perfect medical treatment to help us when we need it. 

6. Healing takes time and patience, You can expect some really encouraging progress followed by days and nights that seem endless and with fewer signs of healing.

7. The healing of mind and body go hand in hand. I expected to catch up on a lot of reading in my recovery, but for the first couple of weeks I found that my mind was unlike its usually motivated self, and that my brain, like my newly repaired heart, also needed some recovery time.

8. The world can get along quite well without my having to be in constant control of the kind of full schedule I've become used to.

9. Just as there are an amazing number of ways of helping people experience wellness and healing, I’m newly aware of just as many unbelievable ways in which people are capable of creating destruction, suffering and misery on vulnerable, pain-prone human beings.

10. In summary, I've gained bucketsful of gratitude to God for all my blessings, and want to use every opportunity possible to preserve life and to promote healing.                

                                         -                        condensed from Harvspot blog

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• KENT PALMER continues to meet with doctors about possible treatment options for prostate cancer. The good news is that the cancer is at an early stage and so there is not an immediate rush to start treatment.
• AUGUST BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Kent Palmer 8/10! Alma Jean and Harvey’s anniversary is 8/8 and James and Ruth Stauffer’s is 8/30.
• MY COINS COUNT Drive is on until the October 4-5 Relief Sale. Bring coins and cash to church for this project.
• ALSO PREPARE TO support the SOS (Sharing Our Surplus) campaign at the Relief Sale to raise money for refugee relief worldwide.
• “SPECIAL THANKS to all of you good church people and others for all the blessings of your prayers, meals, visits and acts of kindness (far too many to mention!) during my recent recovery from surgery.”                                                                 - Harvey Yoder (and Alma Jean)

August Lectionary Texts

4   Hosea 11:1-11  Psalm 107:1-9, 43 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21

11 Isaiah 1:1, 10-20  Psalm 33:12-22 Hebrews 11:1-16  Luke 12:32-40

18 Isaiah 5:1-7  Psalm 82  Hebrews 11:29-12:2  Luke 12:49-56

25 Isaiah 58:9b-14  Psalm 103:1-8  Hebrews 12:18-29  Luke 13:10-17

August services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

4  Location: Park Place meeting room, 2nd floor                        432-0531

Worship and sharing: James Stauffer

Bible Study: Paul Swarr                                                    Brown bag meal                                                         

11 Location: Guy & Margie Vlasits 3399 Caverns Dr., Ktown  906-0391

Worship and Sharing: Lewis Overholt                                      

Bible Study: Elly Nelson                                                        Carry in meal                                                                                                                                       

18 Location: Lewis & Mary Ellen Overholt   Heritage Haven    432-7277                                   Worship and Sharing: Kent Palmer

Bible Study: Dick Dumas                                                  Brown bag meal                                                      

25 Location: Family Life Resource Center 273 Newman Ave.   432-0531

Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivera Wenger                                      

Bible Study: Harvey Yoder                                Carry in finger foods meal 

July 2019 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                                  July 2019

Virginia Mennonite Conference Assembly Convenes July 18-20 at Lindale and EMS   

All delegate sessions are being held at Eastern Mennonite School this year, but the public evening sessions will be held at the nearby Lindale Mennonite Church as follows:

Thursday evening (gathering at 6:45 p.m., service at 7:00)

“Sowing Gospel Seed, Seeing Transformed Lives”

Willard Eberly (former worker in Italy)

Richard and Margaret Keeler (former workers in Trinidad)

Alfonso Alvarado (Latino church-planting, USA)

Jason Wagner (Prison chaplain, USA)

Dini and Klementina Shahini (Education leaders, Albania)

Jacob and Hosanna (Discipleship, worship, and media ministries, South Asia)

Aaron Kauffman, VMMissions President, will also share reflections on the past 100 years, and vision for the future. 

Friday evening message: (gathering at 6:45 p.m., service at 7:00)

“Cultivating the Soil in Adverse Conditions” Kevin King, Director of Mennonite Disaster Service

What should the church do when we are facing the droughts, fires, floods, hurricanes and winds of change?

Morning Bible Studies at Eastern Mennonite School will be led by Sarah Ann Bixler, who will also lead a workshop on “Christian Formation throughout the Life Course” Friday afternoon. 

She will be teaching spiritual formation classes at Eastern Mennonite Seminary starting this fall.

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• OUR SPECIAL PRAYERS for Kent Palmer as he begins treatment for prostate cancer, and for Harvey Yoder’s full recovery from his dual bypass surgery at the University of Virginia Medical Center July 5.
• VIRGINIA MENNONITE CONFERENCE ASSEMBLY will feature a Mennonite Women Prayer Breakfast, Saturday, July 20, 2019 6:45-8:15 a.m., at Eastern Mennonite School. Breakfast will be catered by A Bowl of Good and the program features the Tobin sisters. To register call or email Gloria Lehman: 540/421-2122 <glorialehman67@gmail.com>
• JULY BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS, Lois Rivera-Wenger, Billy May 7/30!
• MY COINS COUNT Drive is on until the October 4-5 Relief Sale.

July Lectionary Texts

7   2 Kings 5:1-14   Isaiah 66:10-14   Psalm 66:1-9  Galatians 6:7-16 Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 

14 Amos 7:7-17  Psalm 82   Deuteronomy 30:9-14  Colossians 1:1-14 Luke 10:25-37

21 Amos 8:1-12  Genesis 18:1-10a  Psalm 15  Colossians 1:15-28

Luke 10:38-42

28 Genesis 18:20-32   Psalm 138   Colossians 2:6-19   Luke 11:1-13

July services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

7 Location: Park Place meeting room, 2nd floor                         432-0531

Worship and sharing: James Stauffer

Bible Study: Paul Swarr                                                              Chili soup  

              

14 Location: Lewis & Mary Ellen Overholt   Heritage Haven    432-7277                                              

Worship and Sharing: Elly Nelson

Bible Study: Dick Dumas                                                  Brown bag meal                   

21 Location: Park Place meeting room, second floor                  564-3716                                  

Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivera-Wenger                                          

Bible Study: Kent Palmer                                              Brown bag meal                                                     

28 Service Cancelled in favor of our attending a 7 pm presentation at 
VMRC's Detweiler Auditorium by Lewis and Mary Ellen Overholt 
on their years of service in Berlin, Germany.

June 2019 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                            June 2019

When Heaven Comes Roaring Down To Earth      

"That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met. They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God."

                                                                        Acts 2:41-47 (the Message)

I've usually read these words with a sense of reservation. They seem far too idealistic, way beyond anything any of us believers would ever be able to experience today. 

    What? Sell everything and share with everyone? Daily prayers, praises and celebrative meals with fellow believers? That would require an unbelievable miracle, far beyond the most amazing of "signs and wonders".

    It would be like heaven.

    Then it dawned on me. Pentecost Day is exactly that, God's heaven breaking into earth, a true foretaste of things to come.

    Will not our eternal life with God be all about praise, all about sharing an abundance of everything with everyone? Isn't it all about harmony and shalom and a life of joy beyond compare?

    For me, that sheds a new light on Pentecost. On this day nearly 2000 years ago, newly baptized believers from all over the world experienced a gale force wind of change that revolutionized their lives forever, one that was about to set the whole world on fire.

    Should this not be happening today? Do we really want to wait until the next life to celebrate this wonder?                             - Harvey Yoder

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• OUR SPECIAL PRAYERS for Elly Nelson as she pursues treatment June 5 for fractures in her vertebra, and for Kent Palmer as he undergoes some tests June 12 due to high PSA levels.
• OUR ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP COVENANT SERVICE is on Pentecost Sunday, June 9, in which we agree to the following: “I support the goals, vision and faith of Family of Hope, will attend weekly services as regularly as I am able, and will use my gifts and offer my encouragement to this church family to the best of my ability. I invite other members to support me--and to confront me as needed--in being faithful to this commitment.”
• JUNE BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Josiah Dumas 6/9 (212 N George St., Charles Town, WV 25414), and Harvey Yoder 6/30!

June Lectionary Texts

2   Acts 16:16-34  Psalm 97 Revelation 22:12-21 John 17:20-26

9  Acts 2:1-21  Psalm 104:24-35  Romans 8:14-17 John 14:8-27

16 Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31  Psalm 8  Romans 5:1-5 John 16:12-15

23 1 Kings 19:1-15  Psalm 42  Isaiah 65:1-9  Gal. 3:23-29  Luke 8:26-39

30 2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14   Psalm 16  Galatians 5:1, 13-25  Luke 9:51-62

June services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

2 Location: Park Place meeting room, 2nd floor                         432-0531

Worship and sharing: Harvey Yoder

Bible Study: Paul Swarr                                              "all manner of fruit"                

9 Location: Guy & Margie Vlasits 3399  Caverns Drive            908-0391                                              

Worship and Sharing: Lois Rivers-Wenger

Bible Study and annual covenanting: Harvey Yoder             Carry-in meal                    

16 Location: Family Life Resource Center 273 Newman Ave    432-0531          

Worship and Sharing: James Stauffer

Bible Study: Dick Dumas                                                           Pizza meal

23 Location: Lois Rivera-Wenger 204 Homes Lane 22401 502-663-3195

Worship and Sharing: Kent Palmer

Bible Study: Elly Nelson                                              Simple picnic meal                     

30 Location: Lewis & Mary Ellen Overholt   Heritage Haven    432-7277                                    

Worship and Sharing: Lewis Overholt                                                 

Bible Study: Mary Ellen Overholt, Kent Palmer, James Stauffer, and Harvey Yoder (each taking a passage)                               Brown bag meal                                              

May 2019 newsletter

House-to-House

 Family of Hope House Church                                May 2019

Awl           

by Minor Junior Smith, a blind poet and author at Deerfield Correctional Center who is still waiting for his well-deserved parole release.

An awl is a tool for piercing holes, particularly in leather. It is a simple metal shaft, with a knob of wood for a handle, polished by its fit in the sinewy cradle of a leather worker's palm.

   It is likely the tool with which Louis Braille blinded himself as a three-year-old child in France, in an accident in his father's saddle making shop in the early nineteenth century. (1) Braille later invented a system of raised dots as a means of reading and writing for the blind. 

   We don't know whether he was in the shop with his father or alone, whether it was a damp and rainy day, or whether the sun shone and brought to life the floating dust that always hung in the workshop air.

   Maybe it was just a little poke in the eye with this small tool, a small slip of the hand, a small injury, a little fumble that resulted in his blindness.

   This was decades before general anesthesia or antiseptics. Perhaps the doctor they rushed him to believed n the value of "laudable pus" in a wound. I don't want to picture it.

   And as a child in his father's saddle-making shop, did Louis Braille already know the names of the parts of a saddle: pummel, stirrup, tree? Did he know the smell and feel of each grade of leather? 

   Of all the tools, punch and pincers, gauge and groover, chisel and awl, he chose awl. 

   Was it an accident that the tool I used at the blind school in Staunton, Virginia, for pressing hand-punched Braille dots was like a blunt, very small awl?      

(1) Braille’s injured eye developed an infection that spread to his other eye, eventually causing totally blindness. At first he didn't realize he had lost his sight, and kept asking why it was always so dark.

Notes, Prayers and Praises

• MAY BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS to Margie Vlastis 5/1, Alma Jean Yoder 5/15 and Karen Soich 5/20!
• A MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR BERTHA SWARR will be held at the Ridgeway Mennonite Church at 11 am Saturday, May 11.
• NEAL NELSON’s new address is Envoy of Staunton, Rm. 311b, 512 Houston Street Staunton, VA 24402  Neal loves getting cards!
• LOIS RIVERA-WENGER has invited us to her home for a picnic meal and for our service on May 26!

May Lectionary Texts

5   Acts 9:1-20     Psalm 30 Revelation 5:11-14     John 21:1-19

12 Acts 9:36-43   Psalm 23 Revelation 7:9-17     John 10:22-30

19 Acts 11:1-18   Psalm 148 Revelation 21:1-6     John 13:31-35

26 Acts 16:9-15   Psalm 67 Revelation 21:10 -22:5   John 14:1-29

May services, worship at 4, meal at 6 pm

5 Location: Park Place meeting room, 2nd floor                         432-0531

Worship and sharing: James Stauffer

Bible Study: Biblical Drama! Guy: A Dramatic Conversion, Elly: A Dramatic Rescue, Jim: A Dramatic Restoration, Dick: A Dramatic Outpouring of Worship     No meal   

12 Location: Guy & Margie Vlasits 3399  Caverns Drive          908-0391    
Worship and Sharing: Harvey Yoder

Bible Study: Kent Palmer                                                      Carry-in meal 
                   

19 Location: Lewis & Mary Ellen Overholt   Heritage Haven   432-7277  
Worship and Sharing: Elly Nelson

Bible Study: Lewis Overholt                                             Brown bag meal

26 Location: Lois Rivera-Wenger 204 Homes Lane 22401 502-663-3195       

Worship and Sharing: Lois River-Wenger                                           

Bible Study: Harvey Yoder                                         Carry-in-picnic-meal