Weekly Witness for Facebook and Friends

March 13, 2025

This Sunday, March 16

Second Sunday in Lent

Sermon Text: Luke 13: 31-35

Livestream worship. Bulletin.

Liturgist: Denise Baker Psalm: Bill Wehner

Dollars for Deacons This Sunday

Our monthly Dollars for Deacons offering is taken on 3rd Sundays. Donations are used for emergency assistance to church members, to help with the deacons' operating costs, and with the deacons' regular monthly donation to Storehouse West (SHW) for assistance with their clients' critical needs. Your continued generosity in supporting the ministry of the deacons is greatly appreciated. Someone will hand you an envelope with the bulletin as you enter worship.

Some SHW shelves are bare!

And their refrigerator too!

Roadrunner Foodbank, the source of most of Storehouse West's food, is experiencing food shortages and increased demand due to a combination of factors, including food cost inflation and SNAP benefits having returned to pre-pandemic levels. So SHW's food inventory is down.

SHW needs...

• Breakfast cereal
• Pasta (any shape)
• Peanut butter (16-oz. plastic jars)
• 1-lb. bags of dry beans (any kind)
• Canned fruit
• Canned veggies
• Plastic shopping bags

Monetary donations are always welcome! In fact, March 30th is our fifth-Sundays 2 Cents a Meal offering, which will be going to SHW this month. Thank you for your support!

New Horizons Band Free Concert at St. Andrew,

This Saturday, March 15, 2pm

St. Andrew Church is at 5301 Ponderosa Ave NE, Albuquerque 87110. (Just found out about this concert, so it wasn't on last week's calendar.)

Easter Flowers Orders Are Due This Sunday

Only 1 Sunday left to order! Choices are hanging baskets, with petunias or geraniums; a spider plant basket; lilies; and 6 1/2" potted plants of geraniums or daisies.

Order forms are also in the narthex. Please put your orders in the offering basket or bring/mail/email to the church office.

Worship Committee Corner

Change in Meeting Date This Month to This Sunday

The committee will meet this Sunday, Mar 16 (3rd Sunday), instead of Mar 23 (4th Sunday) as was scheduled. And...

The Committee Needs You!

We are looking for a few folks to be Sanctuary Stewards. Stewards make sure that we are ready for worship each Sunday, with the appropriate banners and paraments in place; that there's a new candle to burn in the peace candleholder; and that the sanctuary is generally clean and in order. Stewards work in pairs for one month of the year. If you are interested or have questions, please reach out to the committee chairs or Birgitta at 719.510.0660.

Ladies' Lunch This Monday, St. Patrick's Day

...at 11:30, at Namaste Cuisine of India and Nepal, 1580 Deborah Rd SE, Rio Rancho. Menu. Note later start time this month. Sign-up sheet in the narthex.

Russ's Presentation on Immigration

On Ma 30, Russ will be the first speaker in a new series called 'Fifth Sundays Forum', which will occur at 11:15 in the four months a year with five Sundays. His topic will be immigration.

Building and Grounds Corner

Church Clean-Up Day Apr 5 10a-1p

Spring is just around the corner (and in fact, the first day of spring is next week!). It is time for all church members and friends to help us clean to get ready for the Easter season. On Saturday, Apr 5th, between 10am and 1pm, please join us to wash windows, dust furniture, polish woodwork, and clean up our outside grounds. Please bring your tools. Building & Grounds will provide refreshments and make sure that everyone has a lot of fun. We will have a sign-up sheet in the narthex from Mar 23rd on, so you have time to choose what task you'd like.

Pastor-to-People

Outside of the office on the wall is a display of three crosses donated to the church by Bill Wehner. They are a poignant reminder of our Lenten journey to Jerusalem with Jesus. Let me share with you some of the things Bill has written about his ministry fashioning crosses from dead cactus plants.

Bill first spotted these dead cactus branches while hiking in the Sandia Mountains and is very prickly while alive. When this cactus plant dies, it loses all its thorns and skin, and just the shell or skeleton remains, gray, smooth and hard. Bill notes, "What intrigued me about the cactus skeleton was its hardness and its beautiful designs." So for Bill these skeletons are "symbolic of Jesus' death and that he took our sins (oh that prickliness) so that we might live ('O death, where is thy sting?')." 

Bill notes this about his crosses: "There isn't a cross that comes out 'perfect' as I make them, reminding me that each one is just like everyone of us. It also seemed fitting that I could make something beautiful out of something that seems so strikingly awkward and prickly. I was reminded

that God does that many times over with us." Indeed! And well said!

Thank you, Bill, for your words and your donation. He is glad to give you a cross if you just ask him. What a lovely ministry! May Bill's chola crosses remind us of our Lenten journey with Jesus.

Thanks be to God. 

Frank

Next Sunday Mar 23 After Fellowship

Pastor Frank will offer another in the series, "Short Books of the Bible", next Sunday. We will examine II Peter and Jude and their close relationship. You will learn everything you have ever wanted to know about the Archangel Michael contending with the devil over the body of Moses (Jude 9). No kidding! And other fascinating stuff as well. So mark your calendars for Sunday Mar 23 (the 4th Sunday this month). And read up on II Peter and Jude — see if you can see the relationship between the two!  

Church Calendar for Mar 16 – Mar 21, 2025

Free Spay and Neuter Clinic in Cuba Apr 25-27, 8am-3pm

The Kronos Adam Foundation and Helping Paws Across Borders are sponsoring a clinic (called 'Snip,Snip, Hooray!') next month on the dates above. To have your pet sterilized, please call 505.289.0363 to make an appointment and fill out a waiver.

Prayer Concerns

I believe in prayer. It's the best way we have to draw strength from heaven.

Josephine Baker

For our country.

For Gaza, Israel, Sudan, Congo and Russia.

For Israel and Ukraine.

For all victims of gun violence, war, and unrest.

 Rio Rancho Presbyterian Church

1004 24th Street, SE, Rio Rancho, NM 87124

505.892.6664

Office Hours

Monday – Thursday | 9am–3pm