Cedar Heights Community Presbyterian Church | www.cedarheightspres.org

March 2014

In This Issue

Mission

Children's Ministry Happenings

Jr. & Sr. High Youth News

Adult Education

Lenten Book Groups

Music Note

Interim Pastor's Note

Associate Pastor's Note

Life of the Congregation

Mission

Here are some of the recent letters of thanks sent to CHCPC for its mission work in the local community:

Your generous contribution allows us to help youth to develop relationships with caring professionals and to experience programs that build character. We know that it takes just one caring adult to make a lasting difference in the life of a child. Concentrating on youth who need us most, our Club provides programs in health, education, career exploration, the arts, and sports, fitness and recreation, and character development.

--The Boys & Girls Clubs of Black Hawk County

Thank you for your support! Because of donors like you, the YWCA of Black Hawk County has been working for a century to empower women and girls, advocate for equal opportunities for all people, develop young leaders and promote cultural appreciation. Your contribution not only supports our mission but also allows us to continue quality programming and provide a promising tomorrow to thousands of Cedar Valley families who use our services. We appreciate your kindness on behalf of the more than 7,400 people we served last year.

-- YWCA of Black Hawk County

Children & Youth

Children's Ministry Happenings

Sunday School: All children 6th grade and below are invited to attend Sunday school each Sunday at 10:00 AM. We will offer four classes for various age groups: 2-3 year-olds will meet in the Nursery, Pre-K-Kindergarten will meet in Scripture Tent (upper level across from the Nursery), 1st-3rd graders will meet in Creation Station (lower level across from the Youth Room), & 4th-6th graders will meet in the Youth Room (lower level).

Schedule:

March 2nd: PreK-K The Wedding Banquet; 1st-6th: Camp Sunday Activities in Fellowship Hall

March 9th: PreK-K: Jesus Feeds 10,000; 1st-6th Multi-age in Youth room

March 16th: PreK-K: The Transfiguration; 1st-6th Multi-age in Youth room: Parables

March 23rd: PreK-K: Greatest Commandment; 1st-3rd: Abram's Call; 4th-6th: Disciples

March 30th: PreK-K: Philip & the Ethiopian; 1-3: Woman at the Well; 4-6: Parables

Children's Church: All children 3rd grade and below are invited to join Stephanie and a parent volunteer for Children's Church each Sunday following the children's message during the 11:00 AM service. Each week we will explore a bible story, have time for a fun activity, sing a song or two, and say a prayer.

Wednesday Nights @ Cedar Heights: Come out for an evening of fun and fellowship each Wednesday from 6:00pm-7:30pm! We will meet for a share meal from 6:00 PM to 6:30 PM with kids' activities and our parent's group starting after the meal. If your family is willing to help make a meal, please contact Eric or Janelle. This year children 3rd grade & below will enjoy a bible story and fun activity with Janelle, while the 4th-5th graders have adventures with Stephanie!

All Youth

Ash Wednesday Service: All Jr. & Sr. High students are invited to participate in the Ash Wednesday service on March 5th at 7:00 PM. We will rehearse Sundays from 5:15-6:00 PM on March 2nd. Opportunities for speaking parts in a reader's theater style are available, as well as, scripture reading, and other liturgy. Of course, we'll have to get ice cream after the service in celebration of our hard work.

Jr. High (6th-8th Graders)

Youth Group: We meet on Wednesdays from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. Bring your friends and join us for a good time of fellowship, faith, and fun.

Sr. High (9th-12th Graders)

Sr. High Fellowship: We will meet from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM each Sunday in the youth room. Bring your friends and join us for a good time of fellowship, faith, and fun.

Sr. High Lock-In: Join us on Friday, March 14th at 7:00 PM for a lock in. Bring friends! Bring snacks! And be ready for fun. We'll wrap things up on Saturday, March 15th at 8:30 AM.

Summer Mission Trip Team Meeting: All students participating in the summer mission trip should plan to be at our second team meeting Sunday, March 23rd at 6:00 PM in the Youth Room.

What Will You Do?

A typical DOOR-Denver week begins on arrival Sunday evening after supper and ends with departure after breakfast the following Friday. A two-hour logistics session Sunday evening helps prepare everyone for the week. You'll divide your group into smaller work teams, (4-6 participants with one adult sponsor as designated leader) that are also your meal teams. Meal teams are responsible for helping to prepare and clean up after all meals. Groceries, menus, and cooking instructions are provided by DOOR staff. Once assigned to work and meal teams, participants generally stay with those same teams for the week. Work teams usually spend each day at a different service assignment. However, due to the nature of some assignments, there are cases where we will ask the same work team to stay at a site for more than one day. Our goal is that all participants will have a variety of experiences that they can then share with each other.
Examples of service assignments are preparing and serving meals at a soup kitchen; helping with children whose moms may be looking for a job, in school, or living on the streets; lawn and building maintenance for individuals, seniors and/or for organizations that temporarily house homeless families; stocking shelves in food banks; sorting donated clothing; taking a tour of a homeless shelter; meeting with and listening to groups that are working for change in the city; conversing and singing with senior citizens.
What Will The Schedule Be Like?

Although the schedule varies and is flexible, a typical day may go as follows:

6:30 a.m.	Wake up, prepare, eat and clean up breakfast
8:00 a.m.	Travel to service assignment
Noon	Lunch at work site
4:00 p.m.	Return to church, clean-up, free time
5:30 p.m.	Supper
7:00 p.m.	Evening session/ Group Reflection

Evening sessions include worship, presentations, and group reflection. Thursday evening is set aside for a time together to help participants reflect on and process what they have seen, felt, and learned during the course of each day. This is perhaps the most important time of the week. Issues raised are addressed in light of our calling as Christians to love others and to respond to those in need.
On Wednesday evening a formal reflection time is not scheduled. DOOR does not provide supper on this evening so most groups choose to eat out and spend the evening seeing more of Denver. (Please keep in mind that some work teams may not finish their assignments until early evening.)

Adult Education

Morning Prayer: Lent is a wonderful season to explore new disciplines, practices, and avenues for spiritual growth. Join Pastor Eric each Sunday morning at 8:15 AM in Brinkerhoff lounge for morning prayers. We will use a simple liturgy from Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, as our guide. Each week will provide space to hear God's voice in scripture & silence, as well as, opportunities to give voice to joys and concerns.

Adult Forum: During the month of March, Pastor Eric will lead a discussion of Sara Miles's book Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead. Join us for discussion around Sara's beautiful articulation of the Christian faith and life as she has experienced it through worship, service, and relationship.

Schedule:

March 2nd: Marriage Conversation Wrap Up

March 9th: Lenten Book Discussion: Jesus Freak by Sara Miles

March 16th: Lenten Book Discussion: Jesus Freak by Sara Miles

March 23rd: Lenten Book Discussion: Jesus Freak by Sara Miles

March 30th: Lenten Book Discussion: Jesus Freak by Sara Miles

Oxygen: Join this group of adults for a lively, refreshing, and renewing conversation. It is a little time on Sunday morning to reconnect and recharge. We are currently watching and discussing short films by Christian leader and popular author, Rob Bell.

Men's Bible Study: Meets weekly, at the Cedar Falls Panera on Friday mornings at 7:00 AM for a time of bible study and fellowship led by Pastor Eric. This month we will continue studying lectionary passages. Please contact Eric with any questions.

Women's Circle Bible Study: Women's Circle Bible Study will meet Thursday, March 27 at 1:00 p.m. This is open to all women. They are using the Horizon's Bible Study-An Abiding Hope: The Presence of God in Exodus and Deuteronomy.

Women's Book Club: Come join our Women's Book Club that meets at the church on the second Thursday of each month at 9:30 a.m. On March 13, we will discuss The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.

April 10, 2014 - William Kent Krueger - Ordinary Grace

Where Moms Connect: Moms come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing's for sure- all moms need to connect with other moms! Where Moms Connect is a unique curriculum that brings women together and helps them connect naturally, through faith-based discussion, and fun. No matter where a mom is on her journey, she's welcome at Where Moms Connect. Each one-hour session includes insights on the day's topic, small-group discussion time, Bible insights, and practical ideas to apply what's learned. Any questions, contact Janelle Darst at 319-231-2435 or [email protected]. We will meet the third Saturday of each month: March 15, April 19, May 17.

"When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours." (Romans 1:12)

Lenten Book Groups

Once again we will offer a chance for our community to enjoy great conversation and grow friendships while reading good books together. Eric, Christine, and Jay each plan to offer a different option to entice you. If you are interested in selecting a book and gathering a group, please let Eric know. Groups will begin meeting sometime after Ash Wednesday, March 5th and conclude on Holy Week. Signup sheets will be available in the Commons and books may be purchased through Amazon or other retailers. Here is what's on the schedule so far:

Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead by Sara Miles

Led by Pastor Eric at 10:00 AM on Sunday mornings and, if interest permits, noon on Wednesdays.

Location: CHCPC building

Sara Miles offers a fresh, fully embodied faith that sweeps away the anxious formulas of religion to reveal the scandalous power of eating with sinners, embracing the unclean, and loving the wrong people. Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead is her inspiring book for undomesticated Christians who still believe, as she writes, "that Jesus has given us the power to be Jesus." Join pastor Eric on Sunday mornings or for a midweek lunch where we'll feast together at the table of Jesus Sara's words so lavishly set for us.

What's the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian? - A Guide to What Matters Most by Martin Thielen

Led by Pastor Jay at 7:00pm-8:30 on Mondays: March 17, March 31 and April 14.

Location: Panera, Cedar Falls

"This book answers well a burning question. It is a quick and easy read, but don't let that give you the impression it is simplistic. It boils the faith down to the essential issues. and breaks through the logjam many of us and many churches are facing in trying to live the faith. We will just be reading only Part 2 for our Lenten meditation, "Ten Things Christians Do need to believe." For some who have done this book, it is good enough to warrant a second look. For those who haven't, be prepared to be surprised and inspired by what really matters."

Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman

Led by Christine Kaplunas at 11:00 AM on Thursday mornings: March 6, 13, 27, April 3, 10.

Location: Brinkerhoff Lounge

"[This book] is the centerpiece of the Black prophet-mystic's lifelong attempt to bring the harrowing beauty of the African-American experience into deep engagement with what he called 'the religion of Jesus.' Ultimately his goal was to offer this humanizing combination as the basis for an emancipatory way of being, moving toward a fundamentally unchained life that is available to all the women and men everywhere who hunger and thirst for righteousness, especially those 'who stand with their backs against the wall." -Vincent Harding.

Note from Christine: Read the 1st chapter for the first gathering, one chapter per class. Come with an open mind, and be ready to think out loud.

Music Notes from Sue Feltman, Director of Music

Women and Girls! Mothers and Daughters!

We are singing a soprano/alto arrangement of "Amazing Grace" for the anthem at the 9:00 service on April 6. We would love to have many voices! Come and rehearse with the sanctuary choir women for 15 minutes, 7:45 - 8:00 pm, on Wednesdays, March 12, 26 and April 2.

Please come and sing! Let me know of your interest so I may have music ready for YOU!

Sue, Director of Music

Interim Pastor's Note ~ Dr. D. Jay Losher

In Orlando there are giant billboards advertising "Mardi Gras." Ironically they are up all year around ~ that is, a "Mardi Gras" completely shorn of its original meaning of "Fat Tuesday," For Universal Studios and pretty much the rest of the world, Mardi Gras means 'party-down-all-year-around.'

Nonetheless, the original intention of "Fat Tuesday" was the ritual cleansing of all the oils and fats out of the home anticipating the Lenten fast. The Episcopal Church in my hometown held a pancake supper every "Fat Tuesday" to ritually use up the oil and thus prepare the church and ourselves for the coming fast season. This is a common practice around the world among more liturgically inclined churches.

Thus, "Mardi Gras" is the Christian parallel to the ritual cleansing of the household before Passover in Judaism. "Mardi Gras," Ash Wednesday and Lent represent for us ritual cleansing in preparing ourselves, our hearts, minds and souls for our Passover ~ and the liberation, celebration and resurrection beyond.

This month Lent begins. What is the purpose of Lent? Lent is for Listening. I try to fathom this in a poem sermon of mine entitled "Lent is for Listening." It can be found in the Presbyterian Outlook, or more conveniently on the link below if you wish to read it:

http://drdjaylosher.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/lent-is-for-listening.pdf

Lent is indeed for listening. Let us enter this season of preparation so we may receive with open hearts and fresh understanding the great Good News of "Jesus is risen. Jesus is alive."

In Jesus' service,

Pastor Jay

Associate Pastor's Note ~ Rev. Eric Sunderland

The arrival of March also brings us the season of Lent this year. Each time through the Christian calendar, we begin these forty days of preparation with an Ash Wednesday service. This solemn service reminds us of the powerful promises made to us in baptism-it reminds us that before all else, we belong to God.

This is a powerful little notion. If we really do belong to God, in life and in death, there is an immense freedom opened to us. We no longer have to limit ourselves to the labels and definitions our consumer-istic, materialistic culture would paste upon us. We are free to be the children of God-people defined by the love we give and receive; people shaped by grace; people no longer governed by fear.

But these pieces of who we think we are-who we think we have to be-are deeply ingrained within us. So, the ashen mark does not just remind us of who we are but, in the words of Jan Richardson, "initiates and impels us the wilderness where we remember what is most essential to us." It drives us into a new way of seeing ourselves; seeing our world; and living life. Learning a new way of living can be challenging. Perhaps, this is why many people commit to engage or re-engage spiritual practices during Lent.

Taking on a spiritual practice can help us map out our journey into a new land; it can help give shape and form to this new life we are seeking to live as God's children. This Lenten season I will be offering a time of Morning Prayer each Sunday. This practice is at heart an invitation to experience the daily office-a set of times put aside each day for prayer, for connecting with God. Such a practice reminds us of God's constant presence in our lives and the world around us. It encourages us to rest in the certainty of God's provision and invites us to enjoy to simple beauty and goodness of the life God grants us. I hope you will consider joining me.

I also hope you will commit to a practice of regular worship attendance, starting with our Ash Wednesday service. We have several wonderful young people who are working hard to prepare a service that will lead us all into God's presence and set us off on our holy Lenten journeys.

Of course, there are many other ways to embrace God's invitation to a life of love and grace. May this Lenten season lead you deeper into the heart of God and give you a taste, a vision, for the fuller life God desires to live in and through you.

Grace & Peace,

Pastor Eric

Life of the Congregation

Prayers, Letters & Thank You's

PRAYERS FOR OUR CHURCH FAMILY: Linda Gleissner, Joyce & Henry Hermanstorfer; for Mila Daman's son; for Kathy Orr's sister; for Norma Caquelin's cousin; for Linda Walther's brother.

SYMPATHY TO:

Jim & Lois Hart on the recent death of Jim's brother-in-law.
Ken & Norma Caquelin; Ken's brother, Mel Caquelin, died on Feb. 14.

Thank you:

...to Kathy Ott for providing and delivering the soup, salad, and muffins after my surgery. It was greatly appreciated. Also Pastor Losher-thanks for your call and thank you for taking the time to talk with me when I stopped by the office to pick up Johnny's picture. I greatly appreciated your support and encouragement from our conversation. Lynn Dickinson