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FELLOWSHIP DINNER GROUPS
HBIC helps coordinate an opportunity for individuals and families to be intentional about practicing hospitality and sharing meals with one another through Fellowship Dinner Groups. We hope you will consider participating in one of these groups, which generally consist of 8-12 people. Groups will be formed by early July and are encouraged to meet at least once per quarter, four times over the next year (July '26 to June '27).
Our Fellowship Dinner Groups provide an opportunity to make new friends, to deepen connections with old friends, to share ourselves with others, and to learn more about the foods and traditions of others. If you'd like to be assigned to a group for the coming year, click here to sign up by Sunday, June 21. If you have any questions, please reach out to Pastor Lynda!
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MANDATED REPORTER TRAINING
The Pennsylvania Family Support Alliance will be leading a Mandated Reporter Training at the church on Saturday, June 6, from 9 a.m. to noon.
This training is for anyone who works with children or youth. You should plan to attend if either of the following apply to you:
- It's been more than 5 years since you've participated in a mandated reporter training
- You don't have a current certificate on file with the church
Registration can be found here. If you have any questions, reach out to Pastor Patty.
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JOIN US IN CELEBRATING!
The past couple months brought lots of excitement in our HBIC family! We celebrate with Morris and Makayla Taylor who enjoyed a celebration with family and friends in Ghana and were married in PA on March 22.
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We're also overjoyed for Caleb and Karlin Pursell following the adoptions of Leilani on March 10 and Jose on April 16, joining their big brother, Atticus. Congratulations to both sets of grandparents, as well, Karl and Sue Kanode and Scott and Christy Pursell, and to the children's aunts who are all a part of our HBIC family - Brittney Mione and Emilee and Avery Kanode.
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And in other celebration news, we're thanking God for baby Shiloh Marie, born to Hannah and Luke Niesley on March 18!
Join us in rejoicing with and praying for these families!
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MOURN WITH THOSE WHO MOURN
Serena Lauffer Shaud, who was a long-time member of our church and who attended until recent years, passed away earlier this week. Please pray for her husband, Brian, as well as for Serena's many HBIC friends.
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STAFF TIME OFF
Pastor Brie will be on vacation May 26, 28, and 29. Please reach out to other staff or youth volunteers on those days.
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WEEKLY MINISTRY NEWSLETTERS
Pastor Patty and Pastor Brie send weekly newsletters about ministry-specific announcements and events to the families/individuals they serve. If you don't receive these and you're interested in knowing what's going on in Children's, Youth, or Young Adult Ministries in-depth, click on this week's link below,
Children's Ministry newsletter
Youth Ministry newsletter
Young Adult Ministry newsletter
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Sunday, May 24
Before both services: Coffee and fellowship | Open Area
9am & 11am: Worship Services | Sanctuary
9am & 11am: Kids Sunday School - Grades K-5 | Youth Rooms and Open Area
11am: Rooted | Small Youth Room
Wednesday, May 27
5:30pm: Community Meal | Sanctuary
6:15pm: Youth Group | Meet in the Lobby
6:30pm: Kids Club, Grades K-5 | Large Youth Room
6:45pm: ELL Classes | Sanctuary
7pm: Prayer Meeting (Zoom)
Thursday, May 28
2:00pm: Food Pantry | Sanctuary
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HONORING OUR 2026 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES & LUNCHEON
Calling all high school graduates! If you/your youth are graduating high school this spring, please fill out this form by tomorrow, May 24 if you haven't already done so. We will be honoring high school grads on May 31 during our worship services.
We would also like to invite all of our graduating high school students to a barbecue lunch on May 31 after the 11am service to welcome you to our young adult ministries. Lunch will be in the blue building (garage) for our barbecue (with the sanctuary as our rain location.) Members of our young adult group will be there to welcome and celebrate you!
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YOUTH POOL PARTY!
All youth are invited to join us for a pool party Saturday, June 6 from 5-8pm at Pastor Brie's home. There will be swimming, yard games, boards games and dinner will be served! We ask all youth to bring a side dish or dessert to share. If you'd like to swim, plan to also bring/wear a bathing suit and bring a towel. We're looking forward to a great time together to celebrate the beginning of summer break! (Rain date, June 7th.) You can RSVP here.
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DISCIPLESHIP MINISTRY LUNCH
Join us for lunch after second service on Sunday, June 7 as we talk about what's going on with Discipleship at HBIC! This is a chance to connect with others, enjoy a meal together, learn about Life Groups and Spiritual Mentorship, and hopefully hear from God about new ways you could engage in following Jesus with others. There will be childcare provided and kiddos can come and eat before going off to their spaces! For planning purposes, please register here.
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SPRING COMFORTER DAY
Join friends and neighbors at HBIC in the open area on Saturday, June 13 from 9 am to 3 pm for our Spring Comforter Day! We'll tie comforters for the relief work of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC.) Come when you can and stay as long as you'd like!
If you can tie a knot, you can help! No sewing experience necessary. But if you can sew, great!
We do need sewists to sew the comforter tops prior to May. There are bundles of fabric squares with instructions in the foyer under the mailboxes. Contact Kim Mumper for more info.
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RAINFOREST FALLS VBS
Mark your calendars! This summer's VBS is June 28-July 2 from 6-8:30PM. Registration for children age 5 through grade 5 opens on May 24 for HBIC kids and May 28 for everyone. Note - due to ongoing renovations, there are limited spaces for preschool-age children. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Adults and youth - we need you to make this week happen! Please sign up to here to help with planning, logistics (set-up and tear-down), registration, crew leading etc.
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SUMMER BAPTISM CELEBRATION
Are you interested in being baptized? If so, fill out this form or sign up at the info desk in the Sanctuary. We will celebrate baptisms on Sunday, July 12. And a mandatory class will be held on June 23 at 6:30pm led by Pastor Ryan.
This year's summer baptism celebration will be similar to last year!
We're going to have one worship service at HBIC at 9am on July 12. This will allow us to hear the testimonies of those being baptized. We will then gather at 11am at Five Senses Gardens in Harrisburg for baptisms in Spring Creek.
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BABY BOTTLE BLAST
We're collecting coins again this year to benefit the Capital Area Pregnancy Center! Pick up a baby bottle at the info desks to fill, or use your own container and collect between now and June 21 (Father's Day)!
You can also make a donation online (choose Baby Bottle Blast from the funds menu) or learn more about the clinic here. After June 21, we'll deliver the donations to CAPC.
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STEWARDING OUR CALL
The Stewarding Our Call: Rebuild and Renew capital campaign is a three-year initiative of Harrisburg Brethren in Christ Church to raise $1.5 million to fully retire our church loan and rebuild.
Check out the Stewarding Our Call page on our website for all of the information about the capital campaign and to print the pledge form. You can either drop your completed pledge form in the “Stewarding Our Call” lock box located in the church lobby or email it electronically to stewardingourcall@harrisburgbic.org. All pledge forms are kept confidential.
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RENOVATIONS UNDERWAY
It's been another week of great progress for the top floor of our building. Almost all windows have been installed, the exterior walls have been insulated and dry wall is going up.
If you're on FB or Instagram, you can find weekly updates shared on both platforms.
We're grateful to so many who have gotten us to this point - most especially our Facility Manager, Aaron Johnston, who is working closely with Cor Construction and is coordinating so many details.
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Each month, we highlight a Missionary of the Month, helping the congregation to know more about their work and inviting special prayer for them.
Throughout the month of May please join in praying especially for Hannah Marie Woland. Hannah Marie serves as a campus minister with InterVarsity Campus Fellowship, partnering with students to share the love of Jesus.
About a year and a half ago, Hannah Marie and Bryce began discerning a career change for Bryce, who has worked as a nurse on the cardiac intensive care unit at Hershey Medical Center for the last three years.
God answered their prayers, and Bryce was accepted to the Doctorate of Nurse Anesthesia Practice program at Virginia Commonwealth University! The program will begin full-time in August, which means that Bryce and Hannah Marie will be moving to Richmond, Virginia this coming summer - hopefully in June. It will be difficult for them to leave their Pennsylvania family, wonderful church community at HBIC, and the Penn State Harrisburg students Hannah Marie loves so much, but they believe there are very good things in store for them there!
Next fall Hannah Marie will be working as a campus staff with InterVarsity at the University of Richmond – which is another answer to prayer. She loves the work she gets to do with students, and is so grateful to be able to continue growing in her ministry skills in a new place!
Click here to access the monthly page with a number of specific prayer requests for Hannah Marie, along with her contact info to send a note of encouragement.
(Touch base with Pastor Lynda or others on the Missions Ministry Team if you'd like to know more about any of the missionaries sent out from HBIC.)
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BIC CORE VALUES SERMON SERIES
As we have begun a sermon series on the BIC Core Values (and as our children's ministry focuses on the same through the next few months), we thought you might appreciate seeing a short description of each of the ten values that have shaped the ministry of the Brethren In Christ and HBIC's ministry for more than two decades. Click here for a summary of all of the Core Values; some hard copies of the core values brochure are also available on the Info Desks at the back of the sanctuary.
In addition, a book about our Core Values, Compelling Convictions, was published in 2024. (Our own Pastors Hank and Lynda were invited to work together on writing one of the chapters.) The intention of the book was to revisit the Core Values more than twenty years after the values were first articulated and published (2000) in the book, Focusing Our Faith. Each chapter of the new volume is followed by two brief responses written by BIC people from the US and various countries throughout the world. If you've not yet read Compelling Convictions, we'd encourage you to pick up a copy and read along throughout the sermon series! (Copies can be purchased from the BIC Office in Grantham for the discounted price of $12, and they're also available from various online booksellers, some of which are discounted even further. We also have a couple copies that can be borrowed from our church.)
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SAFETY AT HBIC
Though we are hopeful that ICE and local law enforcement won’t be attempting to detain people at churches, we also want to be prepared. Out of our belief that all individuals have a right to worship freely and to be safe at a church, we have designated our Prayer Room (which has entrance doors from both the sanctuary and the open area) as a “private” space in our building. Anyone is welcome to use that space at any time for prayer or for refuge from fear.
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OUR WEEKLY SETLIST
Did you know you can preview the upcoming worship set or listen to songs that were meaningful to you from the week before? Each Thursday, we update our Weekly Setlist playlists on YouTube and Spotify! Use them to help familiarize yourself with songs for Sunday, or just to continue worshipping throughout the week!
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We welcome you to contact us by email or by phone if you have a need. Here is the contact information for our pastoral and office staff.
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