|
In the wake of Hurricane Helene and the completion of our year-long strategic planning process, we found ourselves asking: does our visual identity reflect who we’ve become? The church that gathers week after week for Wednesday spaghetti dinners together, every Sunday for vibrant worship, the community organized around a mission statement: “Has everyone been fed? Body, mind, AND spirit?”, the people choosing embodied love over easy answers—we needed a logo that could hold all of that. So we began the work of creating something new.
What emerged are interconnected organic shapes in Blue Ridge colors—a visual representation of bodies fed, minds nourished, spirits tended, all woven together. This isn’t just a new look. It’s a claim about who we are now and who we’re becoming: a church where everyone belongs at the table, where care is concrete, and where the mission isn’t just words on a wall but the daily work of feeding a hungry world.
Has everyone been fed?
Not yet!
| With much love and appreciation for you - | | |
An ordination celebration! | We celebrate with Jane and Craig Bannerman over the ordination of their son, Levi Bannerman, to the ministry of word and sacrament in the PCUSA. His ordination service was held at Olivet Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, VA on January 10, 2026. Pictured above are nine former BMPC youth advisors with Levi at this joyous occasion. |
A note from our bookkeeper | |
Did you know you can check your pledge amount, as well as your status towards paying it off over the course of the year, in your Realm account? Go to the Giving tab in your Realm account and look to the bottom right corner to see your 2026 pledge information. Please check this to make sure that we have the correct pledge information for you.
Also, if you need help to update or create new online giving towards your pledge, please email Suzane Churchman at finance@bmpcnc.org and I'll be happy to assist you.
|
| |
In addition to the fact that most of you are receiving this edition of The Window in your email inbox, you may notice some other changes. For several months, we've been working with designer Lauren Wright-Pittman to develop a visual identity that reflects where BMPC is on our journey as a faith community.
In this newsletter, you'll see a couple of variations of our new logo, as well as a badge bearing our mission statement: Has everyone been fed?
Over the next few weeks, we'll start to incorporate these changes into our communications, slowly unveiling this new look. Our creative team has approached this process with thought and intention, and we're excited to share more of it with you!
| | | Celebrating 31 years of Guatemalan Partnership | | |
2026 marks the 31st year of our partnership with sister church Ebenezer in San Antonio, Guatemala! This January, a delegation from Black Mountain Presbyterian visited our brothers and sisters in San Antonio. We led a Bible camp for the children of the church, inspired by the fall Moses RAD program. Bill Henderson, Jody Welker, and Ken Kelly shared stories of Moses while Jackson Davis and Gavin Dodd acted them out. Mary Ellen Davis led us in beautiful music in both Spanish and English. We played a variety of fun games, and Jane Belsches led a craft to go along with each of the six stories over the course of the camp, supported by Karen Hagwood.
We also shared many wonderful meals cooked by the women of the church, including pepián, a delicious chicken dish that is the national dish of Guatemala. They showed us beautiful hospitality both during our homestays and at the church. At the school next door, Alan Belsches and Dave Kadau led a group in preparing one of the classrooms for the new school year through woodworking and painting. On Sunday, Mary Carroll Dodd preached during the Sunday service, and after lunch, we enjoyed a fun afternoon of recreation at a local pool with the church community.
We also enjoyed playing soccer and basketball, a self-care workshop for the grandmothers, and meetings with the session, youth, and scholarship students. With money that was generously donated by you during our Christmas Eve service, we were able to purchase items needed by the church, including a ladder, three tables, and 24 chairs.
| |  | |
In addition to our time at our sister church, we also learned more about the culture and history of Guatemala. We visited coffee farmers in San Miguel Escobar, and hiked up the side of the volcano where the coffee from our church coffee subscription is grown! Each year that we visit, we can see the ways direct-trade coffee has made a positive impact on the lives and homes of the farmers.
We visited a Mayan town where we learned traditional weaving techniques, including how they spin thread from cotton and color the thread with natural dyes. We had lunch with a cooperative of Mayan women who were displaced because of the civil war in Guatemala, and heard some of their difficult stories of persecution during that time.
Our journey to Guatemala was a great opportunity to build relationships with both our brothers and sisters there, as well as with one another. We shared meals, bumpy boat rides, deep conversation, and reflections on how to bring our experience back home to Black Mountain. We look forward to sharing what we learned and saw, and we would love for you to get involved with our Guatemala Parnership!
How can you help? Stay tuned for ways to pray for our sister church, sponsor students in their education, or write letters to encourage students in the school year that begins in February.
Gracias!
Mary Carroll Dodd
| | | |
Earth Care book group reading Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by Jeannie Franklin
If you have ever wanted to read this inspiring book, or would like to read it and be inspired again, please join us on Mondays in the Church House Living Room at 1:00 between January 19 and Easter. This book is for gardeners, non-gardeners, and eaters of all ages. It’s the story of how one family, living on a farm near Abingdon, Virginia, agreed to eat only local food for one year – that is, only food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius of their home, or that they grew themselves. Each person was allowed one exemption from the local rule, perhaps coffee or chocolate.
My husband, Carl Franklin, grew up during the 1950s in a small town in Indiana, where his parents, who had come up during the Great Depression, knew how to grow food. Carl’s father, whose day job was supervisor in an iron foundry, plowed and planted a huge garden each spring; then turned its care over to his wife and the two boys, who hoed, weeded, and in late summer, harvested vegetables by the bushel. His mother and her friends canned jars of green beans, tomatoes, and pickled peaches. Also, each year his father ordered a hundred baby chicks, which the family raised during spring, summer, and late fall. Then one cold day in November the family of four “harvested” all the chickens in one day. Carl, as a small boy, was tasked with taking buckets of heads and feet down to the garden and burying them. By the end of the day, the chickens were packaged and taken to a frozen food locker in town, where they were available all year for one of the boys to walk to town and get a chicken for supper.
As an adult, Carl says he vowed to work hard enough that he would never have to grow his own food . . . until we moved to Black Mountain and he read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. He was inspired to grow a large garden, buy canning equipment, and round up the family in August to can food. In our bookstore that year, a customer talked about Kingsolver’s book and told of her best family times: “Each summer my two sisters and I travel to our parents’ farm, where with our mother we can that year’s harvest while talking, laughing, and telling stories. Then we divide the jars four ways, each of us taking home a trunk full of food for the year.”
Kingsolver’s book will take some people back to the vanishing days when people were more self-sufficient; it will take a new generation forward into an unknown future when they may have to learn the miracle of food production and become self-reliant again.
| | |
Come Away and Rest - Mom's Retreat
March 5-8 at Folly Beach - click the link for more information and to register.
| |
Spaghetti Dinners continue on Wednesdays Nights through February 11, and return again in March.
Click below to RSVP for dinner and to sign up to help cook, set up or clean up!
| |
Moms Group - Always meets on the third Tuesday of the month at 7:30pm at the Church House.
Dads Group - First Wednesday of the month at 7:30pm. Location varies, so contact David Carter Florence or Paul Garrity for more information.
| | |
Discovery class: February 8 at 12pm in the fellowship hall
Please let us know if you plan to attend our next Discovery Class to learn more about BMPC. Lunch is provided and childcare is provided upon request. BMPC seeks to welcome all people and this class is open to any visitors who are interested in discovering more about the church. Attendees will hear from Ministry Team leaders and members of the church and meet staff members. Attending this class does not mean that you are expected to join as a member of BMPC.
| | |
NEW! Empty Nester Group
Are you an empty nester? Have you reached your fifties and wonder what's next in life? Want to get together with some people your own age (if your age is 50ish-65ish)? Are you around this age and still work so you can’t participate in things going on at church during the day?
Let’s get together and figure out how we might create a dynamic group of late middle-agers. We can get together just to socialize, or maybe we want to have a book study, or maybe we want to do service projects or…who knows? Let’s start to figure it out on Sunday, February 15 at 6:00 for a pizza dinner at the church house.
If you plan to come, please email Susan Verbrugge at susanverb1@gmail.com so we can order enough pizza.
| | Winter session of RAD is going strong and continues through February 11th. Spring session begins March 4 - families can register by clicking the button below. | | | |
Route 45 Winter Lock-In
Friday, February 20
5pm-11pm
Wear your coziest winter pajamas and get ready for a night filled with games, food, a movie, and worship time!
| | |
Sunday Morning Opportunities
-
Family Worship - 10 am every Sunday in the Fellowship Hall
- Bible Journey class for 4th-6th graders meets the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays upstairs in room 11 with Jane Bannerman and Blake Martin
- Parents' Group - 1st and 3rd Sundays in the Parlor with Ken and Kitty Kelly.
| | | |
February Events
1 - Potato Lunch - Noon in the Fellowship Hall
4 - Small Group 6:30-7:30pm
8 - Bowling 2-5pm
11 - Small Group 6:30-7:30pm
14 - Snow Tubing 1-6pm
17 - Gathering with Friends of Korea Youth Group 5-7pm Fellowship Hall
21 - PYC Faith Sexuality Retreat
22 - Chopped 2-4pm
25 - Small Group 6:30-7:30pm
| | |
Volunteers Needed:
Youth Progressive Dinner
| |
We're looking for volunteers willing to open their homes and help prepare a meal for our annual Progressive Dinner for our middle and high school students on March 1.
We need one home to host appetizers, one for dinner, and one for dessert. This has been a youth group favorite and a great way to connect our congregation members with our awesome students!
If you are interested in hosting any part of the evening, please reach out to Katie. Your hospitality helps create a meaningful and fun experience for our students!
| | | Flips, laughs, and flying socks —trampoline park night was a hit! | | Lock, load, and laugh! Our Nerf Wars event brought big energy, friendly competition, and nonstop fun. | | Students in grades 6-12 are invited to join us for youth group! Build friendships in small groups, enjoy fun recreation, and serve together in our community. Bring a friend - everyone is welcome! | | |
Young Adult Service & Connection Opportunities - Get involved!
We’re excited to offer upcoming service project opportunities for young adults and college students to serve in our local community. If you’re interested in participating or being added to the communication list, please reach out to Katie.
In addition, we’ll be hosting group dinner opportunities for younger adults who are post-college, without children, and looking for connections. Couples and singles are both welcome - we’d love for you to join us!
Our next meet up is February 26th at 6:30pm.
Contact Katie with any questions.
| | | Serving the community with Hammer & Heart | | Riley Gall, BMPC’s Hands and Feet of Asheville Fellow, Paul Ginther, church member, and Randy Shaffer, BMPC young adult, all participated in a wonderful day of service for Hammer & Heart Ministry. A client received a new insulated shed and home! | |
Looking ahead to the Lenten season
Look out for our Lenten guide coming on Ash Wednesday, February 18. We will follow Sanctified Art's theme, Tell Me Something Good: Grounding ourselves in the good news this Lent.
We will observe Ash Wednesday with our sister church, Montreat Presbyterian Church, at Upper Anderson, 6 p.m. on February 18.
| | |
| |
Pray to end hunger this Lent
Nearly 1 in 10 people around the world go to bed hungry - but Bread for the World believes hunger is solvable. During this Lenten season, find their weekly prayers printed in the BMPC bulletin.
Want to get involved in more practical ways? Click the link below to visit the Bread for the World website, and find out other ways to work to end hunger - including writing letters to Congress and sharing resources on social media.
| | | | January & February Birthdays | | In the absence of a January newsletter, we're including January birthdays here in our February newsletter. We don't want anyone to get left out! | | |
3 Don Ford
4 Levi Hall
5 Carol Tyson
Valorie Speegle Snell
6 Becky Peterson
Nancy Thomas
Ayla Maidment
7 Kate Nelson
Jeff Ruppert
8 Kim Fisher
Susan Banzhoff
9 Cammy Holt
Wyatt Lehman
William Caruso
10 Carey Jo Elam
Nell Summerlin
Annette Chilton
12 Charlie Edwards
Rebecca Hughes
Karen Hagwood
13 Sara Owen
14 Ian Cearley
15 Terri Teague
| | |
16 Scott Gregory
Michelle Ferguson
17 Katherine Stanley
Jim Payton
21 Steve Imig
22 Christa Corwin
23 Lucas Dodson
24 Dusty Lindsey
25 Rick Lindsey
26 Bill Straughan
John Brown
Cece Greenwalt
27 Clare Davenport
Joyce Ackerman
28 Maggie Ray
Judy Gregory
Joyce Massey
Ann White
29 Travis Childs
Sam Maynard
30 Wilder Vance
31 Nan Higgins
Suzanne Money
Porter Reece
| | |
2 Bobbi White
Rylan Baker
3 Lynn Jostes
4 Ina Hughs
5 Natsanet Solomon
Pat Newbold
Gay Van Osdall
Jillian Munn
Sonya DiPalma
Sally Jenkins
6 Jim Griffin
Sadie Neligan
7 Betty Walker
Gracyn Farish
Parker Donaldson
8 Jo Majka
Skylar Hollifield
Eliza Cullen
10 Rock Ward
Carson Campbell
12 Matt Begley
Kay Salmon
Chuck Sandy
Gay Ferguson
13 Campbell Cauthen
Zayne Acker
14 Mike Ballard
Nolan Atkins
Nathan Imig
| | |
15 Cole Roy
Ernest Banzhoff
Sam Webber
Joe Covert
Gary McGill
16 Cailyn Hollifield
Ann Wiig
Tanner Kelly
17 Chloe Munn
Cain McClary
18 Clay Hile
David Castello
Matt Horne
21 Leila Cox
Alexandria Carver
Charlie Cappelli
22 Austin Brown
Jolie Atkins
23 Mylo MOrgan
24 Sue Cauthen
Ashley McClary
25 Dan Davis
Wayne Mullis
27 Andy Gwynn
Rebecca Askew
Faith Dwight
28 Cynthia Keever
| | | | |
