WELCOME VISITORS! If you are worshiping here for the first time today, welcome! We are glad to have you with us. Please fill out a visitor information card, located on the right as you enter the chapel.
JOYS AND CONCERNS: If you would like to add or update a prayer request, please contact the church office (298-9092).
(We’ll plan to leave celebrations listed for two Sundays—please call the church office if you’d like to add something!)
We celebrate:
• Congratulations to Alex Curcio for winning the lettuce-eating competition on campus to help raise money for the college
• Thanks to Jim Storey for the many hours spent painting the pastor’s office. The freshly painted walls look ready for a new day!
• Rodney Lytle has accepted the presbytery’s invitation to serve on the Nominating Committee of the Synod of the Mid-Atlantic. Thank you, Rodney!
• Thanks to Kay Stockdale and ChrisAnn Ohler for updating the catalog of art and artists whose work is found in the chapel and fellowship hall. One copy of that catalog is available in the parlor.
• Thanks to all who made last Sunday’s presentation by Jeff Keith possible, especially Sharon Lytle, Kay Stockdale, and Donna Eagle Joslin.
• that Beth Newman has returned to Asheville! For now, she and Brownie expect to make weekly trips back to Northside Hospital in Atlanta on Sunday/Monday, but she is delighted to be easing back into rhythms at home.
• that Rebecca Hettrick has moved into her own place on campus! You can drop her a note at 110 A North Lane Swannanoa, NC 28778
• the wedding of Rachel Sparling’s granddaughter, Lilac. Lilac and Eli were married on March 30
• Donna saw a Bald Eagle in a tree across the road from her house on April 7
• the donation of more than 35 lbs of soap to Swannanoa Valley Christian Ministries (SVCM), made possible by your generosity!
• the vital ministry of members during tax season, as Janice Collins, Mary Craig, Tom Eller, Sarah Anne Eller, and Ken Murchison provided free tax preparation services to community members in need!
We remember in prayer: Isaiah Bullerdick (20), Rodney & Sharon Lytle’s grandson recovering from a knee injury that ended his junior year football season; Jackie Ligon Cole; Pat Crumpler; Will Dale (Jamie’s brother), who is much improved, and whose surgery has been postponed until later in the year; Vernon Daugherty, Sr. (Derron’s father); Martha Dugger; Rick Garrison; Houston Huggins (Beth Meriwether’s brother); Erika Lytle; Salyna Morgan, recovering from an infection in her bloodstream; Fran Roberts’ sister-in-law, Linda Briggs; Jon Hettrick and his family; Marjorie Hettrick; Allyson Hettrick’s mother, Sylvia Revis, as she recovers from a fall in assisted living; Kim Reece (daughter of Nancy and Rick Garrison); Shane Reece (Nancy Garrison’s son); Pat Wilson’s son, Kell.
TODAY April 21: Please make plans to attend the luncheon kick-off of “Holy Conversations,” the Mission Study that will inform our path forward, and ultimately guide our search for a new pastor. Congregational participation is crucial as we seek to answer these vital questions: Who are we? What is God calling us to be and do? Who Is our neighbor? We will provide the food; all that you need to do is to come ready to listen and engage with others who care about this worshiping community and its ministry in the world. (You do not need to be an official “member” to participate in this process—if you have interest in this community, we’d love for you to come!)
WELCOME Rev. Brian Combs, founding pastor of downtown Asheville’s Haywood Street Congregation, an urban ministry whose mission is described as “Relationship, Above All Else.” Brian is a graduate of N.C. State and Emory University but knows that his most formative education has come from encountering the living Christ among the most rejected members of our society. Learn more about Haywood’s ministry here: https://haywoodstreet.org.
COLLEGE EVENT In partnership with Warren Wilson College, Churches for Middle East Peace, a Christian organization centered around raising awareness and building support for the Middle East, will be visiting to host an event about the Christian presence in Palestine. A discussion about what is currently happening will follow. The event will take place on April 29, at 7:00 pm in the chapel. The college welcomes guest speakers Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon, Jonathan Kuttab, and Destiny Magnett to share their expertise with the community.
OFFERING Plates are available just inside the doors to the sanctuary as you enter and exit. Our gifts take many forms: our open-hearted presence here, voices lifted in song, the prayers that rise in us, the material gifts we intend to share with the world, and our willingness to live in a world as advocates for those whose needs are overlooked. The money we bring symbolizes the offering of our lives in all circumstances.