November 6, 2011

Honey from The Arc of Buffalo County’s 47th annual Honey Sunday Drive will be available when community volunteers and members from The Arc go door-to-door in Kearney throughout the afternoon of Sunday, November 6, 2011. Your $5 donation helps support many Arc programs for children and adults with developmental disabilities and their families. (The honey is fresh, pure honey from local beekeepers and processed by Chandlers Sandhills Honey of Anselmo, NE). Honey will also be available outside the Kearney Wal-Mart on November 12, 13, & 20. For more information, please contact Kristen Larsen at 308-237-4343. Thank you for your generosity!

Many parts of the United States have experienced a large amount of flooding this year due to rapid melting of an above-average snowpack in the Upper Midwest, above-normal precipitation during the spring, and after-effects from Hurricanes Irene and Lee. One of the ways that PDA helps in response to flooding is through Gift of the Heart kit Clean-up buckets. These buckets are extremely helpful as a first step in the recovery process. Unfortunately, the large number of disasters has pretty much exhausted the Church World Service supply of Clean-up buckets. A shipment of 250 Clean-up buckets was recently sent to a Presbyterian church near Binghamton, New York, to help that community begin the recovery process, but more are needed for other locations. Please prayerfully consider participating in this important mission. Instructions for putting together the buckets can be found on the PDA website www.pcusa.org/pda.

Every time our congregation receives the Lord‟s Supper, there is opportunity to remember other Christians around the world who are also receiving these gifts of God. But we make a special point of remembering our unity with Christians worldwide on World Communion Sunday, the first Sunday in October, it is a day to be mindful of the love of Christ, who draws us all together despite our many differences.
As Presbyterians, we recognize that Christ taught us to be peacemakers as part of being Christ‟s followers. So on World Communion Sunday, we receive the bread and cup of heaven, and we bring our gifts of self, service, and money to be put to work for Christ‟s peace in the world.
This year is the thirty-first anniversary of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and the Peacemaking Offering. The Offering was set up in a way to encourage all levels of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to work for peace. Each congregation is invited to find ways to promote peace within the congregation and within the community. For that reason, our church will retain 25 percent of the Offering we receive, and the Session will decide how best to put this money to work. Another 25 percent goes to our Presbytery or Synod, and the remaining 50 percent goes to the General Assembly for peacemaking involvement throughout the world.
Join us on October 2nd as our church celebrates World Communion Sunday and as we commit to being instruments of the peace we find in Christ. Come ready to give generously to the Peacemaking Offering.