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Service Times: 9 and 11 AM on Sunday morning in June;
10AM only in July, August and Sept 2;
Two service schedule resumes Sept 9.
Please mark events on your personal calendars. Send us feedback about the articles!
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Sending Capacity
by Pastor Clancy Nixon
We're now in a rolling period of graduation time. Children grow up, and move on to college or grad school, trade school, or full-time work. It's true that our children are leaving, but even more so, they are being sent out. They are fulfilling their purpose in life, and that means moving on from the nest (sooner or later). Our purpose all along as parents was to prepare them for that sending out. So the leaving is bittersweet for us parents. We love having our kids around, and we miss them when they go; but in most cases, it is far better that they do go, and not stay. It's better for them and for us.
That is also true about Matt Kirk and his family. He served us well in youth ministry for 5 years, and now Matt leads an Anglican church in Jacksonville, FL. We miss all ten of the Kirks! Matt has moved on to a greater leadership position in the church, and I am proud of how you all formed him for that ministry, including helping him to become ordained.
The same is true about those who were sent out to help plant our new daughter church, Church of the Ascension in Jefferson County, WV. We've loved having Darryl and his family around with us, as well as his partners from West Virginia,
like the Spears. It was one year, but it seemed shorter. But we knew from the beginning it was only for a season that they would be with us. The other families from CHS who are with Ascension now are Arthur and Judy Davis, Clarke and Lucille Magruder, Tanie and Jackie Guy, Bill and Renee Geiger, Larry and Gerry Wilber, and Bob and Laurie Wyatt. They are averaging around 30 in attendance on Sundays. They are also raising money now to buy a wonderful building on Rt. 7 in Ranson for a great price. Pray for God to bless them; they are our daughter! While we've planted churches in the past, this is the first time we have sent out a full-time young priest from our staff with a group from our church.
So when you look around on Sundays, you see that it's a bit thinner, particularly at the later service. It's easy to be sad about that. Of course, we grieve when friends move on, and that is right. But as St. Paul said in another context at First Thessalonians 4:13, "We do not grieve as others do who have no hope!" Our hope is in the gospel, and the gospel must move outward in mission, or it is not the true gospel. Some of those empty chairs you see represent those who have left on mission in church planting, so that others in a different city might hear the gospel and be add
ed to the Kingdom.
Our church has a seating capacity, and we do count our attendance. But far more important is our sending capacity - not only our ability, but our track record of sending disciples and missionaries. I rejoice whenever we send missionaries, whether locally or abroad. You do not have to move your residence to serve in mission! It does take a shift in priorities toward God's mission, though. Do not lose heart - churches that plant other churches grow much better than churches that do not. God will send the increase, as we pray, invite, and disciple others.
We have been blessed to have Wesley Owens with us for one year as Interim Sr. High Youth Pastor, and now he is headed off to study theology at Wycliffe Hall at Oxford University. He was recommended by our parish discernment committee for seminary, and your vestry and rector agreed. Now our Diocesan discernment committee and Bishop John have approved him as a Postulant for Holy Orders. Godspeed, Wesley! You go with our prayers and love.
I've been mentored by Ron Soderquist, David Harper, and Martyn Minns. It's been my privilege to mentor Matt, Darryl and Wesley. We receive in order that we may equip others, who will also go. You make it all possible.
Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." (John 20:21)+
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Community Vacation Bible School (July 23-27)
by Terry Johnson
This year we are taking VBS to neighborhoods! Right now we have locatoins in Leesburg and Ashburn, and are looking for more. "GAME ON!"
A week of daily sessions filled with games, crafts, snacks, lessons, prizes and lots of fun! And it's free! Your child will participate in lessons about the love of Jesus, crafts, games, music, and of course, snacks. Upcoming 1
st
graders thru 6
th
graders are invited. Please inivte your child's friends, too!
For Information call Terry at 703-726-0777
Game On! - Join us! Call now!
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Kid's Fun!
by Terry Johnson
We are gonna JUMP into summer!
Elementary grades 1-5 are invited to a fun event on Monday, June 25
th
at Rebounderz- Sterling, VA from 10:00 am - 3:00 pm. Meet at the CHS at 9:30 and ride in the van! Cost including no-slip socks $20.00 per person. Lunch will be included! Be prepared to follow the safety rules!
Parents, you are invited to come and watch the fun or bounce if you'd like! A waver must be signed by parents for each child. Let me know if you can go, call Terry @ 703-726-0777
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70,000 People Die Each Day Not Knowing Jesus
by John Nuzum
It is estimated that two-and-a-half billion people around the world have
never heard the Gospel, and some two hundred-and-fifty-five million die each year not knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That is 70,000 people die daily being lost to the fires of hell.
Church of the Holy Spirit (CHS) has always been a sending church to reach the lost by being obedient to Matthew 28:19 where Jesus tells His followers," To
go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit."
Pastor Clancy has always led the way in promoting missions through Reach Work Camp, trips to Uganda, Haiti, and the support of foreign missionaries.
In the last three years CHS sponsored mission trips to Haiti have resulted in over 300 Haitians coming to Christ plus experiencing many miracles, healings, and deliverances at the loving hands and hearts of the missionaries ministering to them.
The 2018 trip was especially challenging (as well as the 2017 trip) in that the flight from Dulles to Miami was cancelled. A combined team of 29 missionaries from Purcellville Baptist Church (PBC) and CHS were stuck locally because of snow and flight cancellations on Tuesday and into Wednesday. Arrangements were made to travel to Charlette, NC by vehicle in less than ideal road conditions so the teams could board a plane at 6:00 am on Thursday for a flight to Miami then arriving around 1:30 pm at Port au Prince, Haiti.
PBC went to rebuild a large playground at Lacroix and CHS went to do outdoor crusade meetings proclaiming the Gospel, healing the sick, deliverances from the demonic, and feeding the poorest of poor families. The overall mission motto was
"Two Churches One Purpose."
Both teams worked well together to accomplish their respective goals. Team leadership coordinated and compromised where necessary to ensure unity and oneness in purpose among the two churches.
The Mission Haiti 2019 brochure will be arriving soon. Please pick one up, fill out an application, and pray about your involvement in next year's mission trip.
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News from Ashby Ponds
by Dave Prosser
God loves seniors and invites them to take Him more seriously than they ever did. Carole and I are on the front lines of that invitation. We befriend, facilitate, invite, teach and encourage seniors to hear God's invitation and to respond. In truth, when we are born, we stand on the threshold of eternity. We seniors have crossed much of that threshold and there is not much further to go. One resident of Ashby, having prayed a prayer of commitment, exclaimed, "I am no longer afraid to die." Which is a good position to be in when you are 93 years old!
The residents are learning to pray on their own. They read scripture for the fun of it, for the comfort of it and for the revelations that God's Word brings forth to them. Residents are learning to praise the Lord without singing it in a song. There is rebirth at senior times in life. I invite you to come be a part of this exciting time in many people's lives.
We are leading a bi-monthly hymn sing and need a second music team to make it monthly. We sing the old songs, like, "A walk in the Garden" and "Church in the Wildwood." These are the singable songs that many of us grew up with. If you and some friends would like to form a music team to lead a bi-monthly hymn sing, Carole and I would love to work with you to make ir a reality.
The Ashby Ponds campus is growing; more bible studies are needed in the new sections - two in fact. Times are flexible: morning and night. We prefer two-person teams with prayer, teaching, music if possible and fellowship. We will provide publicity and announcements for the in-house mail system and posters. It is truly a pleasant thing to watch someone have an aha moment as they begin to understand a passage of scripture. Try it, you'll like it.
There is also morning prayer and a healing service that can use support. We would like to see morning prayer 6 days a week.
As the campus expands and new people move in, they are looking for spiritual activity as well as simply activity to pass the time. We are finding the new comers to activities we lead are typically seniors who have just moved into Ashby Ponds. Our role is to make Jesus real to them so He will not be a stranger when they meet Him.
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Senior High Service
by Wesley Owens
Last April, we had the opportunity to gather a team of CHS high-schoolers and adults for an afternoon of service in a small, poor, historically black community in Upperville, just outside of Middleburg. There, we spent the day cleaning up a neglected slave cemetery dating back before the time of the civil war. Before we arrived, the cemetery was completely overrun with debris, weeds, and brush. There were fallen trees, tree limbs, and invasive bushes everywhere. Many of the grave-markers had gradually become buried after years of neglect. The community had asked for help in the past, but they had repeatedly been overlooked and ignored.
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When I first visited the site, I had the opportunity to meet with some of the residents and hear their stories. It would be fair to say that the condition of this cemetery was symbolic of the treatment that these people have received over the years. Less than a generation ago, the community was without electricity, and only recently has it had ready access to clean drinking water. Many residents are descended from former slaves buried in the cemetery. Yet, even though they are poor and used to being forgotten, they are extremely joyful and welcoming of outsiders. This service project was a prophetic act. It was our chance to show them the love of Christ by honoring their family legacies, building relationships, and addressing a tangible, physical need.
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The residents were extremely gracious and passionate, and those we met were devoted followers of Jesus! The afternoon began when Carol, one of the residents of the town with a love of history, hosted us in her home for lunch. We ate together and prayed together, and shortly thereafter, we went to the cemetery and listened to Carol share stories about its past. Work began, and everyone pitched in. For the rest of the afternoon, we facilitated the restoration by removing brush and clearing all the dead trees from the area with help from one of the residents and his chainsaw. As our work progressed, we raked leaves, cleared bushes, and began moving the refuse into two pickup trucks. We loaded and carted away many truckloads (well over a dozen) of debris to a nearby bonfire.
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When we finished, Carol was overjoyed! She had never seen the cemetery looking so nice, and she was elated to see the progress that had been made. Special thanks to everyone who volunteered, especially Todd DeBerry and Mark Pinkman who provided most of our tools and helped spearhead the cleanup effort. In the future, we hope to continue our relationship with Carol and the people of her community. There is more work that can be done, and we were blessed by such a wonderful opportunity to serve. If you know of any other needs in our area or if you are interested in helping with a future service project, please let us know! You can call Pam in the church office at 703-726-0777.
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The Gift of Hospitality
by Monica Whitmer
Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
-- Romans 12:9-16
I have been told before that I have a gift of hospitality. I would acknowledge what I saw as a kind compliment and shrug it off. This was not the sort of gift I sought, or even something I thought of truly as a gift of God. This was not something people gave accolades over like prophecy or healing, and I, too, didn't feel it was as worthwhile as teaching and transferring knowledge. This was an invisible, overlooked, at times exhausting gift. You were in a corner, away from the actual people and happenings, sometimes missing out on the important teachings and occasionally being a Martha and not a Mary so others could be comfortable, eat and things ran smoothly, all the while being invisible. I also bake the communion bread for Sunday services. I pray over each loaf, for those to come, those who have come, all those who have or will eat the work of my hands. For all the meals I made for Tuesday evenings, praying for the people that would eat, for the conferences where I ran the church's hospitality and so much more. All the prayers, baking and food. Love poured out through the work of my hands to God. Yet, I saw none of this as a gift. It was not that I did not want to do it, because I did and do, I just did not see how it was a gift, how it was something given by God.
Then I went to Uganda. I was in a place not of my own. Nothing was expected of me, but to receive, for the first time in my life there was no choice but to receive. I could give nothing but my presence and my thanks. For the first time this opened up to me the ability to absorb the breadth and depth of true hospitality. I had people stop and wash my hands for me before entering their home, cleaning away the travels. I was offered the best of what they had over and over, fresh food made for the honored guest. I was greeted with hugs from complete strangers like we were long lost friends. We had little children sing songs in honor of our visit. School choirs singing original songs in thanks for our time and being there. Given baskets, mats, bibles and hymnals, purses, plates and jewelry, just for being us. Then there was the overwhelming spiritual peace and love from the prayers said over the food as it was being made in certain places. This love, this peace, this feeling and wonderment and love of a particular food at a time and place, I could feel the prayers, the true hospitality and intent of the people.
Now I get it. Hospitality is a gift! See 1 Peter 4:9,10.
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You're Invited to Join Our 2019 Pilgrimage to the Holy Land!
by Pastor Dean Schultz
SHALOM! Have you ever thought about what it would be like to walk in the footsteps of Jesus (not to mention the Old and New Testament saints)?
I would like to invite you to join Glorianne and me for our Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, January 21-31, 2019, which will include visits to top Biblical sites accompanied by life-transforming times of worship, teaching, praise accompanied by Davidic instruments, intercessory prayer for the peace of Jerusalem and the nations and great fellowship over delicious meals.
The following are a few testimonies to give you an idea of what our pilgrims have experienced:
"I did not know what to expect before making this pilgrimage since I had heard so many differing experiences from others who have gone to the Holy Land. So, I went with no expectations and prayed that God would meet me in a new way! And He did just that. I can honestly say that I am changed because of having made this pilgrimage. Being in the places of the Bible and seeing what Jesus saw, walking where He walked and standing at the exact places where He performed miracles has opened the eyes of my understanding of His Word. He has given me a new hunger and thirst to rush to Him first thing in the morning. His word has come alive for me! Going to the Holy Land has deepened my relationship with Christ, and I am forever thankful." (Marilyn Heigl)
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"Fr. Dean and Glorianne Schultz were wonderful pilgrimage hosts. They partner with an excellent Israeli tour guide. I felt safe always. This trip not only allowed me to see the Holy Land sites but challenged me to go deeper in my walk with Christ. Before going, I had difficulty picturing or relating to what I read in the Bible. But now, I can picture Bible stories much more vividly than I was able to before, including the climate of a culture that I witnessed firsthand"! (Michael Walker)
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"
What a tremendous blessing our pilgrimage to the Holy Land was to our whole family! We are still unpacking our souvenirs, looking at our photos and savoring all the memories. Perhaps the most moving experience I had was the worship and singing that we did every day. You even called us, the "Pilgrimage Choir." I remember singing The Lord's Prayer with a group of Japanese pilgrims at the Church of Our Father where Jesus taught his disciples to pray. That really brought home to me our unity in Christ with fellow believers from all over the world. Traveling with a one-year old granddaughter went more smoothly than I could imagine. To everyone's delight, she took her first steps in Jerusalem at the Farewell dinner on the last night of our tour. What a memory!
Several of the sites we visited made a huge impression on me. Nazareth Village, a living history museum, opened my eyes to Jesus' teaching on separating the sheep from the goats, shepherds leading their flocks, the significance of "roots and shoots" of the olive tree and most of all the parallels between the olive press and Jesus' time in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Bible lunch we enjoyed there was delicious as well as authentic. Visiting Jacob's well in modern day Nablus (Biblical Shechem), where Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well (john 4) as well as the actual very DEEP well that the patriarch Jacob dug to water his flocks and herds made a huge impression on me when I saw the rope marks cut into the stone from drawing up a bucket over thousands of years. Visiting the kibbutz in Galilee and seeing the 2000-year-old preserved fishing boat from the Sea of Galilee in Jesus' day was absolutely mind blowing! Stepping over the threshold of the first century synagogue where Jesus worshipped and taught in Magdala and knowing we could put our feet where He is known to have been was awe inspiring.
One of my most precious experiences was sitting on the balcony of our hotel room in Tiberias, reading my morning devotional and watching the sun rise over the Sea of Galilee where Jesus lived, taught and performed so many of his miracles then going down to the dining room for a fabulous breakfast buffet. I loved the Shakshuka and the fish salad.
Our Israeli tour guide, Ruby, was so knowledgeable, flexible about rearranging our itinerary to suit the various changes in the weather and fun. I learned so much about Israel in Bible times as well as the customs and conflicts in Israel today. I now have a much greater appreciation for the land and its various people than I had before the trip.
I also appreciate all the logistical arrangements for the entire pilgrimage so that we did not have to be concerned with managing luggage, finding places to eat, currency exchanges, reservations needed to visit holy sites, even arrangements for Holy Eucharist were all taken care of ahead of time. Vendors were pre-screened to ensure we had positive experiences and fair prices as we all picked up souvenirs on the trip.
One concern my family had before our trip was safety since much of the Middle East is so dangerous. We felt and were completely safe the entire time we were in Israel-safer than we are at home.
I know my whole family has been changed by this pilgrimage. Our eyes have been truly opened to the Bible and to our Lord by this experience. (Leslie Hannah)
Please click on the following links to access a brochure with our itinerary, registration information, and an introductory video (or you may go to our website at worshipequippers.org and click on Holy Land Pilgrimages):
Please register as soon as possible to reserve your place on the pilgrimage and feel free to contact me at 703.470.1077 or
[email protected]
if you have any questions!
Hope to see you next year in Jerusalem!
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Mark Your Calendars
CHS has a number of events scheduled for this year and next year already. Please go to www.holyspiritleesburg.org/events-calendar to see all of them.
Here are our upcoming events!
June 17: Father's Day June 17: Annual Meeting and Vestry Elections 10:15 July 1: Beginning of One Service Sundays 10:00 July 8-14: Reach Work Camp July 15: Baptism July 23-27: Holy Spirit VBS! July 23-28: Loudoun County Fair Aug. 26: Church Picnic Sept. 9: Two services resume 9:00 and 11:00
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Church of the Holy Spirit | 703.726.0555 | www.HolySpiritLeesburg.org
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