This Sunday is Easter Sunday!

Happy Holy Week Church!

We are on the final leg of our Lenten journey. It seems like yesterday that we shared a meal and had ashes imposed on our foreheads. The last six weeks we looked at, “Close Encounters of the Jesus Kind.” Friday evening we will encounter the brutality of these last days. It is my deep, deep prayer that you attend the Good Friday service. Rev. Holgie and I have designed an experience that we believe will set us up for a glorious Easter Sunday. The Good Friday service begins at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, April 3rd, in the sanctuary. The emotions we experience on Good Friday, remind us of the gravity that Friday holds. There must be crucifixion before there is resurrection. So … don’t short-change yourself or your family, make every effort to worship together Friday evening.

Sunday will be a wonderful resurrection celebration. Easter is our raison d’etre, our reason for being. As the church, we live in resurrection every day of the year, but it is always good to have a season and a day when we all can return to our “first love.” You will not want to miss Easter Sunday Morning at CCPUCC. We are an Easter People. I love being your pastor.

Holding you close and lifting you high!

Pastor Greg

The Journey to the Cross and Resurrection

Every Holy Week (and the Lenten season leading up to it) we repeat the journey to the cross and resurrection through our worship. It reminds me that worship is a journey. It is not just a one-time act, nor is it a static act we keep repeating, but it should be a pilgrimage, a journey. It will have ups and downs, it will have growth and sorrow, but like Jesus we set our sights toward Jerusalem, to a heavenly city, a new kingdom and way of living. Worship is not just a journey though, the journey itself is worship. What does that phrase mean to you?

Holy Week in the CCPUCC Family!

TODAY Friday, April 3rd, Good Friday—Combined worship with 1st Congo of Escondido

6:00 pm here in our Sanctuary.

Sunday, April 5th, Easter Resurrection Celebration, 9:15 worship hour

Welcome to our New Members

What a joy to have new folks, who are adopting us as their faith community. On March 22nd, we welcomed several new peeps as members of our congregation. I hope you will find them all and let them know how happy you are that they chose us.

From left to right—Pastor Greg, Lanie Goelz, Amy and Ralph Obrist (and Eliza), Jennifer Closson, Lynn Amabile, vice-moderator and Linda England, moderator.

Join Us!

The Book Club is hosting a special Author Talk—come hear directly from Gregg Brandalise as he shares insights, inspiration, and the story behind The Death of All of Us.

Where:

Fellowship Hall

Community Church of Poway

When: Tuesday, April 14

Time: 10:00 a.m.

Prayer Requests and Donations using your computer or smartphone!

Last fall we encouraged everyone to create an account with Church Connect at ccpucc.churchtrac.com/sign-in. Many of you did, but haven’t used it. Some of us installed the Connect app on our phones, but had trouble with the log-in. Good news, we have fixed that issue. I find the phone app to be an easy way to make recurring tithes and one- time gifts to various restricted offerings straight from my bank account!

What is Church Connect? It is a portal for members and donors to give, view their giving history and submit prayer requests online.

The advantages of signing up with Church Connect are that you will be able to view your giving records anytime, and can set up recurring payments and one-time payments with a credit card or directly from your bank account. In addition to your tithes and offering, it will be simple to designate what other gifts are for, such as mission offering, Guatemala, Jesus Birthday, etc. Plus, if you want to add a note, just click on the plus sign next to the giving category and add your note. You can also make prayer requests through the same link.

Just go to ccpucc.churchtrac.com/sign-in, select Create an account. Enter your email address, click on verify that you are human, then continue. Next you will be asked to enter your first and last name and phone number. Then you will need to set up a password. This assures that only you and the office, can view your giving history. At this point, Vicki or I will need to approve your access.

If you will be initiating donations from your phone, you may want to install the Church Connect app on your smart phone. This app will take you directly to the Community Church of Poway Church Connect page. Here is the QR Code to install the phone app:

Once you have set up your account, if you would like to move your current automatic payments, which are through Stripe for credit cards and Vanco for ACH, please email Vicki for assistance at office1@ccpucc.org. Vicki will be able to stop your old automatic payments so that you can set up the new payment method.

To modify recurring payments in Church Connect, first log into your Online Giving page (ccpucc.churchtrac.com/sign-in, entering your login in and password then select giving), then click on the cogwheel icon to the right of “choose a Payment Source”. A window will appear from the right allowing you to view or cancel an existing recurring donation. Then you can setup a new recurring donation.

Linda England

POINT Connections: Spiritual Soundtrack

The Poway Interfaith Team (POINT) is changing our format to have less business meetings, more friendly interfaith conversations. The first of these “POINT Connections” is themed Spiritual Soundtrack, and it will be here at Community Church of Poway, on Thursday April 9, from 6:30-8:00pm. We will share songs, religious or otherwise, that are meaningful to us. Before then, we invite you to add your favorite song(s) to our “soundtrack”! https://tinyurl.com/POINT-Spiritual-Soundtrack

Contact Autumn to learn more: autumnhankinson4@gmail.com

Community Clean-Up!

Attention fellow nature lovers and stewards of Creation! We will have a clean-up event following service on April 19 in honor of Earth Day.

If you are interested, please let Ryan Kelton know. Though gloves and other supplies are available, feel free to bring your own.

Greetings from the Outreach Ministry

It’s time to put our basket of hope back in service for God’s most vulnerable. This month we will be supporting the Alabaster Jar Project. This nonprofit supports women survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. You might ask, “Does this happen here?” The answer is YES! Human trafficking is San Diego’s second largest underground economy, after drug trafficking, an estimated $810 million in annual revenue.

The mission of the Alabaster Jar Project is to provide long-term housing and comprehensive support for survivors of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, empowering them to move from crisis toward healing, stability and successful return into their communities.

The project is comprised of 3 programs, Grace House, which is a long-term residential program; a Resource Center, which is a drop-in center that provides clothing toiletries and other needs; and Peer Support Groups.

For our basket of hope, we want to provide the items needed to create comfort baskets that are handed out to new residents of Grace House, bringing them comfort and helping them feel settled and cared for. New items requested for these baskets include:

· Small blanket

· Reed diffusers (no candles or plug-ins please)

· Slippers or shower shoes

· Coloring books or activity books

· Small snacks

· Tea

· Reusable water bottle bottles

· Notebooks or journals

· Fuzzy socks

· Basic toiletries (full size, body wash or hair care items for all different hair types)

· Small comfort item such as a stuffed animal or stress ball

Please prayerfully consider how you might be able to help this amazing organization. Thank you again for all your amazing support for all of our Outreach projects!!! You are truly God‘s hands and feet!

Blessings,

The Outreach Ministry

Books & More

On Tuesday, March 10, Books and More will start reading “The Death of Us All” written by Gregg Brandalise. The extraordinary life of Sister Dorothy Stang, a catholic nun who was brutally murdered while she dedicated her life to saving the Amazon Rainforest and ending the atrocities inflicted upon its indigenous peoples. Three women rise above their challenges through friendship, faith, and determination amidst the destruction of the rainforest.

This book is inspired by true events.

Everyone is welcome to join this wonderful group of ladies every Tuesday in the Fireside Room at 10 a.m.

Thank you for checking out our BUZZ! Here is what you were waiting for! If you have a favorite quote or any tips to make the BUZZ even better, please send emails to julie@ccpucc.org :)

Quote of the Week: