May 2015 Newsletter Aurora Presbyterian Church PO Box 78// 21553 Liberty Street NE Aurora, OR 97002 [email protected] T: 503-678-5701 Easter Egg hunt, April 2015 Upcoming Events May 3 Potluck Sunday Join us this Sunday for lunch after worship. May 10 Ladies Hat Sunday Hats are smart and under-employed these days. Women are invited to reverse this trend at our 9:30 worship service. May 17 Music Sunday Music Sunday May 17th Our spring concert, featuring Roger & Nancy, the choir and special guests will take place during the worship service on May 17th. Invite your friends, family and neighbors for this 9:30 concert where we will hear (as Bach put it) that “all music aims for the glory of God.” May 24 Pentecost (see page two) May 31 Blake Shelley speaks during worship about Capernaum Ministries to youth with developmental and physical disabilities. Page 1 of 3 Church Finances General Offering April Year to Date Offering $10,370 $40,840 Expenses $10,585 $42,791 Net -$215 -$1,951 Easter offering for family in need: $312. Pentecost for Presbyterians Presbyterians are not usually described as Pentecostals. A Pentecostal is often portrayed as a Holy Roller, a participant in “antic Christianity” as my British friend puts it: all sorts of over the top televised miracles and the like. That is not the truth about the majority of Pentecostals (we only get to see the flamboyant ones). But what about Presbyterians? How do we relate to Pentecost, the event described in Acts 2 where the Holy Spirit is poured out on the church? We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus who is like the air: sometimes the wind blows hard and we hear it. Other times we take the air for granted on a still day even though if it were not there we would be dead. The Spirit gives us courage to live as Jesus did: taking risks to love and crossing boundaries to serve. We trust that the Spirit is at work even when we don’t see or feel anything. We hope and pray that the Spirit will work through us and in our world in transforming ways. Pentecost Sunday is May 24th! A Prayer for Mother A young boy had been misbehaving, so his mother sent him to his room. Sometime later, he came out and told his mom he’d prayed about the matter. “That’s good,” she replied. “If you ask God for help to not misbehave, he’ll help you.” “Oh, I didn’t pray for help behaving,” said the boy. “I prayed for God to help you put up with me.” Page 2 of 3 The Blessing Called Aurora Presbyterian Church Aurora Presbyterian blesses the world in unique and important ways. We aren’t the Red Cross or Heifer International, but we do link households to larger charities. More importantly, we are able to effectively use resources in our local community by coordinating with other local partners to provide help and hope to our neighbors in need. The week before Easter I received a call from the North Marion Intermediate School. The counselor learned that a local family was barely scraping by: the father had been out of work and there were some hospital bills. The electric company notified the family that the power would be shut off the Wednesday after Easter unless a payment was made. We took a collection on Easter and were able to send funds to Portland General Electric to keep the lights on for the grateful family. That same week the church received a call from Wayne at Weyerhaeuser’s Aurora Tree Farm. He told me they had heard that we knew places to take 3,406 diapers that they had collected and wanted to donate in the community. We did know how to get in touch with Love INC and Jubilee Food Pantry so Rachel transported the diapers to the church and arranged shipments to our ministry partners. The whole time I was wondering how Weyerhaeuser had found our name. God was clearly involved. But God often works through people to bless the world and in this case we later learned that Rise Estergreen had received a call from Wayne while she was working at the Molalla Food Pantry and referred him to the church. Again, God has used our congregation doubly: Rise’s service in Molalla and the church building and phone line that we all support so that diapers could be distributed in a timely fashion to other local ministries. Session is excited about a new mission opportunity: offering musical instrument scholarships to middle school students who otherwise could not afford to play in the band. The idea is not simply to give the scholarships but, through Roger Wilhite, to find ways for those students to share their musical talents with us at the church. If you were here on Easter you saw and heard some of the possibilities going forward (two of those students received instrument scholarships this year). It’s a mutually beneficial relationship: we encourage them and show them that church stereotypes are just stereotypes. They bless us with music. We will continue to develop this idea and let you know how it goes. There are more stories to tell but the page is nearly full. All of this happens because God works through us as a community and we provide an identifiable space where people can turn for help. Thank you for being part of Christ’s body and Aurora Presbyterian Church! Gratefully, Pastor Paul Page 3 of 3