The monthly newsletter of WFPC

May 27, 2025

Church Meet Up on Sunday, June 1

Food, fellowship, music--what could be better??

Wear your church t-shirt (or youth shirt, or VBS shirt), and let's meet up at the Six Sundays in Spring concert at Joyner Park on Sunday, June 1! Bring a blanket, bring a picnic (or grab some food from the multiple food trucks available!), and fellowship together! Look for WFPC shirts on the RIGHTHAND side of the stage near the food trucks! See you there! (Concert begins at 5:30)

Six Sundays in Spring | Town of Wake Forest, NC

Traveling Prayers

Please pray for our middle school youth as they head to Massanetta Springs Conference Center June 19-22. It will be a time of fun, fellowship, and growing in faith and community. Below are the youth and advisors attending the trip:

Banks Leak, Benson Blalock, Braedon Phillips, Emersyn Berger, Emily Leak, Emma Jewett, James Cebrick, Logan Hall, Maggie Dempsey, Margaret Domack, Merritt Liebman, and Michael Smith

Please also pray for our high school youth, Carsyn Blalock and Faith Moran, who will serve as Advocates at Massanetta this summer. They will help lead in keynote, worship, and small groups. We are excited to see them shine!

With All Your Heart -- VBS 2025

June 22-25

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength

WHAT: WFPC Vacation Bible School 2025 — “With All Your Heart”

WHEN: June 22-25, 6:00-8:00 p.m.

WHO: Children ages 4 (by June 22) through 5th grade

WHY: Each day we will explore stories in the Bible that give us examples of how people have loved God with their HEARTS, their SOULS, their MINDS, and their STRENGTH!

VBS Celebration for All!

This year we will explore all of the ways we can love the Lord with our hearts, souls, minds, and strength! We will look at a biblical story each evening that offers an example of each of these traits. 

ALL ARE INVITED to join us on Thursday, June 26, from 6-7:30 for our VBS family dinner and celebration! (Menu is still in the works but will be nut free and kid friendly!) We will sing our songs, eat a meal together, and enjoy Kona Ice once again. Join us!

Looking for a way to support our VBS participants and volunteers? Donate toward the cost of t-shirts! We invite folks to donate but never require payment for anyone to receive a VBS shirt, so if you'd like to donate toward covering the cost, you can use our church Venmo, or cash or check can be brought to the church (please make a note in the memo line that the money is for VBS shirts). THANK YOU! 

Pentecost Sunday

On Sunday, June 8, we will celebrate Pentecost at WFPC. 

For worship, wear your red and be ready to celebrate the “birthday” of the church with cookie decorating, cake, and fellowship in the lobby directly following worship! 

We will welcome Rev. James W. (Jimmy) Hulsey to our pulpit that morning. Rev. Hulsey grew up in Texas and attended college in Arkansas. He spent forty-six years in New York and New Jersey. While there he studied at Princeton Seminary (M.Div.; D.Min) and went on to serve four congregations before retiring in 2018. He lives in Knightdale with Joanna (spouse of 51 years) and their adult daughter Emily. They travel to Wake Forest a good bit where their son, Robert and his family live.

Since retirement they have enjoyed Hudson Memorial Presbyterian where they

are active. Rev. Hulsey teaches classes and occasionally preaches and leads worship. He enjoys writing and has had one book published since moving to NC. Another is in the hands of the publisher. From their bucket list, Rev. and Mrs. Hulsey have walked on an ice blue glacier in the Canadian Rockies and will be venturing to the majestic fjords of Norway toward the end of June. As beautiful as our world is, so is exploring what God is up to with and all around us.

A Word About Pentecost

What is Pentecost? This is a word we hear every year, but do we know what it means? Watch the video in the link below for a visual storytelling of the beginning of the church! 

Before the fire film SA.mp4

An excerpt from the Companion to the Book of Common Worship (Geneva Press, 2003):

On the Day of Pentecost, we celebrate God’s gift of Holy Spirit which draws us together as one people, helps us to comprehend what God is doing in the world, and empowers us to proclaim, in word and in deed, God’s plan of reconciling all people in the name of Christ (Ephesians 1:10).

Without the gift of the Spirit, Christ’s church dries up and withers away, and we are left with only our broken selves. With the gift of the Spirit, all things are possible. A spirit-filled community of faith opens eyes to needs in the world. The Day of Pentecost is the climax of the Great Fifty Days of Easter, celebrating as it does the gift of the Spirit to the body of Christ — the church.

WFPC FAMILY,

This year’s Si Seiler M&O golf tournament was a huge success. We raised over $10,000, which will go directly to our Mission and Outreach programs. The rain held off long enough for us to hold the tournament, and we had a great time playing golf and raising money for this great cause!

Thanks to the players, sponsors, Henderson Country Club, everyone who donated prizes and money, and those who helped with the tournament.

Thanks,

Si Seiler M&O golf tournament committee

Ryan Borowitz, Kevin Sharpe, Denny Ide

Sweet Potato Planting

What's a vegetable that is great baked, roasted, or fried? Here's another hint: It contains Vitamins A, D, and B6, as well as lots of fiber and antioxidants. In addition, North Carolina farmers harvest more than twice as much of this vegetable as any other state.  

It's the sweet potato!

Come to the Giving Garden the morning of Saturday, June 14 (June 21 if it rains), and help us plant our annual sweet potato crop. Wear your garden shoes and gloves, bring a trowel and a water bottle, and join us for time in the fresh air. You don't have to sign up, just show up!

June Garden Calendar:

3 Tues. Harvest

7 Sat. Garden Workday

10 Tues. Harvest/St. John's Families in the Garden

14 Sat. Garden Workday - Plant sweet potatoes (rain date: June 21)

17 Tues. Harvest first Early Girl Tomatoes

21 Sat. Harvest

Dementia Caregivers Class

Our June meetings will be on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. The topic is Medications to Avoid and includes vital things to know about medications when dealing with Lewy Body and other dementias. Common meds that can create problems are included along with some alternatives for better conversations with your physician.

The in-person class is from 10:00 until noon in Room B017/B018ocated downstairs in the CLC. The same class will be held from 2:00 to 3:30 pm via Zoom. Classes are open to anyone who is interested in learning more about care for individuals with any type of dementia. There is no need to let anyone know that you are going to attend. Those who wish to attend the Zoom class and are not already on our mailing list may contact Pat Snyder via email (patsnyder137@gmail.com) to receive a link for the class. You may also view videos about dementia, including past classes, on Pat’s YouTube channel at Pat Snyder - YouTube or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrjzZYVyeopBjaslMmCLH3g. Click on the playlist to see all videos.

We Have Reached Our Goal!

Big news! With 136 days left in our NexTrex plastic film collection challenge, WFPC has reached our goal and submitted 1,003 pounds of plastic! Many thanks to all who collected and brought their plastic bags to church for the collection since last October. Most importantly, we kept that plastic out of the landfill and out of our waterways, emphasizing our concern and care for God's beautiful creation. Stay tuned for more earth care opportunities at WFPC. Our next Earth Care Team meeting will take place after worship on Sunday, June 1, in Room A128. All are welcome to join us!

Questions? Contact Mindy Hidenfelter and Mike Chapman at wfpcfacilities@gmail.com

The Pentecost Special Offering is traditionally received from April 21 to June 8. It supports leadership development and education at Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color.

Since the Pentecost Offering started in 1998, Presbyterians have raised nearly $18 million for ministries that benefit younger members of God’s family. We believe we are called to do even more — to support and care for young people as they build a strong foundation of faith

The Holy Spirit remains with us, connecting us with the church of the past, continuing to inspire the church of today, and pointing us to the church of the future. Thank you for your support of the Pentecost Offering. If we all do a little, it adds up to a lot!

Ways the Pentecost Offering Nurtures Young People:

~Young adults begin with a strong start, a solid foundation

A year of service for a lifetime of change…

Twenty-five percent of the Offering goes to support the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program, a faith-based year of service in service since 1994, where young adults can engage in experiences that will grow them spiritually. These young adults have an opportunity to address root causes of poverty and reconciliation in an intentional community. Want to learn more about YAV? Check out Young Adult Volunteers | Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

~Youth and children have the opportunity to grow

Twenty-five percent supports nurturing the faith of our youth through events like the Presbyterian Youth Triennium.

Ten percent of your gifts to Pentecost support education for at-risk children through the Educate a Child, Transform the World initiative.

~ Young people in our own community benefit 

Forty percent of the Pentecost Offering stays with our congregation to support ministries with young people in our community.

Minute for Mission: RISKING EVERYTHING TO CHOOSE LIFE

It was a cold Sunday in January. “M” and her family sat huddled together near a back pew of the Beechmont Presbyterian Church in Louisville. (For this message, we will just be referring to her simply as “M” to preserve her anonymity at her request.) The family had walked to church — but their 1½-mile walk to worship that morning was nothing compared with the dangerous passage they had just endured. Because “M” and her children had been threatened with violence in their native country by cartels demanding money, she decided to risk everything — traveling by foot through six countries, across a dangerous river and through a treacherous jungle to seek asylum and start a new life with family in the U.S. “They came to church with all their kids, stayed for our potluck and told us their story,” said the Rev. Debbie Braaksma, parish associate at Beechmont. “M” spoke of crossing a jungle without any food or supplies for her frightened family, urging them to keep going while she carried her disabled, teenaged son on her back. Beechmont member Sylvette Rivera Pabon came to know “M” and her two youngest children, now 10 and 13 years old, when they later enrolled in La Escuelita Learning Hub (say ES-kweh-LITA), the congregation’s after-school program, which Sylvette directs. Originally launched by the church and the Presbyterian Hispanic Latino Ministry of Preston Highway, La Escuelita services some 30 children and youth from refugee and new immigrant families — like “M’s” — offering them trauma-informed care, including homework help, enrichment activities, ESL assistance and family case management support. Addressing the needs of vulnerable children is what the Pentecost Offering — one of the PC(USA)’s four Special Offerings — is all about. Not only do gifts to the Pentecost Offering benefit children at risk through the “Educate a Child, Transform the World” national initiative, but the Offering also encourages, develops and supports the church’s young people through the Young Adult Volunteer program and the Presbyterian Youth Triennium. Forty percent of the Pentecost Offering is retained by individual congregations like ours for our own ministries with young people, while the remaining 60% is used to support children at risk, youth and young adults through the ministries of the Interim Unified Agency. Since that cold January day, “M” has become very engaged in both the Presbyterian Hispanic Latino Ministry of Preston Highway and the church, where she has served as a volunteer at Beechmont’s Vacation Bible School and ensures that her children attend Sunday school every week. We can make a very real difference in the lives of young people at risk who need us. When we give to the Pentecost Offering, we join in welcoming, loving and affirming all children as Jesus does and calls us to do. And when we all do a little, it adds up to a lot.

Let us pray — Holy God, You are the source of our hope in a world filled with violence and fear. Thank you for faithful people who walk alongside those who flee their homes and homelands. We pray that all can know the comfort of your embrace. Amen.

Ways to Give – If we all do a little, it adds up to a lot!

✚ Online at https://pcusa.org/donate/pc999999-pentecost-offering

✚ Text OGHS to 91999 to give

✚ Checks may be sent Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); P.O. Box 643700; Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700 (include OGHS in the memo line)

✚ By phone, call 800-728-7228, ext. 5885

Offerings/Tithes vs. Expenses -- April, 2025

• April 2025 YTD Offerings/Tithes include $24.3K pledges being made in full.
• April 2024 YTD Offerings/Tithes include $43.0 K pledges being made in fullAp[r
• April 2025 YTD Expenses include 2 new HVAC units- $34.1 K and $5K BOP benefit adj. and $4K for Narthex Sound Absorbing Panels

Next Finance Team Meeting: June 9 at 7:00 p.m.

Next Generosity Team Meeting: July 27 at 9:00 a.m.

Next Engagement & Vitality Team Meeting: June 22 at 11:15 a.m.

Please join us in offering love and sympathy to our Pastor Emeritus, John LaMotte,

on his beloved wife of almost 70 years, Olivia Ann Bishop LaMotte

Jody Alston | Evelyn Patton | Dan Root

Events are subject to change. For a full and updated calendar , please visit the events page on our website using the button below.

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Save the Date for these future events:

• Children's Sunday -- Aug. 24
• Lake Day -- Aug. 24
• End of Summer Bash -- Aug. 28