A Word from Diane

Though I can hardly believe it’s time, I am making my preparations for my Lenten prayers for you for the tenth time. A decade’s worth of prayer and relationship; a lot of life experienced and faith lived for us all.

I had been your pastor exactly seventeen days that first year in 2012 when Lent began, and I vividly remember going through the stack of your responses to my invitation to share your prayer requests, concerns, and joys. I sat at my desk matching names and faces in my mind and, yes, occasionally referring to the pictorial directory when I got stuck!

Today you are well-fixed in my mind and in my heart as I once again invite you to share with me the things that are on your minds and hearts as Lent begins this year.

Are there things or people you are worrying about? 
Decisions you’re struggling with?
Relationships not going well?
Parents, or children, grandchildren, or friends you want to help but aren’t sure how?
Issues of faith that baffle you?
Is there a health scare looming?
Or concerns for the world?

Are you excited about a new possibility or venture or relationship?
Are you thanking God for answered prayer?
Or hopeful about something in your future?

God cares about all of that and so do I.
Our relational God created us to be in relationship with God’s own self and with the whole human family, and somehow, wonderfully, in prayer we do find relationship and deep connections whether we are physically together or not.

Most years I’ve been able to shape my Lenten prayers specifically for you even if you haven’t sent me a prayer list because when I see you week in and week out, I’m able to pick up on what is going on in your life. That’s not so easy to do this year, though, is it? 

So fill me in, if you would, but either way know that this Lent I will be praying for you and yours.

Peace & Grace, Diane
Prayer Joys and Concerns

Among our joys:
  • We lift up Jessica McCracken and celebrate her many years serving as worship band singer and leader, whose last day in this role was Sunday. Thank you, dear Jessica, from all of us!
  • We are pleased to share that Ben Hinton, who is battling COVID-19, is off the ventilator and has been transferred to a rehab facility for further recovery. Please hold him in your prayers.
Among our congregational concerns:
  • Margie Ray, ill with COVID-19
  • Steve Belding, recovering at home
  • Paul Ayers, receiving care in a rehabilitation facility
  • Karen Bayne, who is home recovering from a mini-stroke
  • Mack Hunter, being hospitalized after a fall and hip replacement
  • Joyce Jones, recovering from pneumonia
  • Kim Fourman, ill with COVID-19
  • Amanda Wilson’s grandmother, Louise Mullen, ill with COVID-19
  • Bev Goforth & Davis Goforth
  • Jerry Fourman
  • Kimberly Amos
  • Jill Maple, Noble York’s daughter and Sue’s stepdaughter
  • Max Oldham, Kathy Speicher’s grandson
  • Joey Lee
  • Michael Smith, Kathie Meyer’s son-in-law
  • Mary Caress
  • Lori Corken
  • Bonnie Ross
We lift up those among our community who are grieving the loss of loved ones:
  • The family and loved ones of Ray Jones, who died this week of COVID-19
  • Tim Bodenreider and Sarah Riester in the death of Tim's mother, Judy Steimel who died of cancer
  • Donna Crimmins in the death of her father, Bill Crimmins
Our local and global communal prayer concerns:
  • We continue praying for all who are affected by Covid-19 and for all frontline caregivers, teachers, and people in the service industry and their families
  • Those engaged in the work of anti-racism
  • We pray with our global prayer partners in Japan.
Update about Ben Hinton

After many weeks on a ventilator in the hospital's ICU, Ben is now being cared for at St. Vincent Seton Specialty Hospital for people who need extended stay care. The good news is he can receive cards and notes there. Let's let him know we've been thinking of him, praying for him, and are wishing him well!

Ben Hinton
St. Vincent Seton Specialty Hospital
8050 Township Line Rd.
Indianapolis, IN 46260
Pastor’s Prayers for Lent

This Lent as usual Diane will be offering prayers for each person in the congregation. It’s been her practice to pray for several people or families each day and send them a note or email letting them know they’ve been remembered in prayer.

If you have concerns or joys you would like her to include in her prayer for you, please send them to her via email or through the mail so she can shape her prayers especially for you.

You can email her at dspleth@allisonville.org or send mail to her at home, 8435 Cleat Ct., Indianapolis, IN 46236 by or soon after Ash Wednesday, February 17th.
Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday 2021-Style!

Since we can’t gather for our annual pancakes and ashes this year, we are planning new ways to mark Fat Tuesday, February 16th, and Ash Wednesday, February 17th.

One aspect to this year’s situation is that we can easily celebrate the Fat Tuesday part of our annual event on Tuesday! You may also know that day by its other name, Shrove Tuesday, so called because people went on that day before Lent began to confess their sins and to receive absolution. It was said that in that process they were “shriven.” The idea of pancakes came into being because that same day people would also use up all the fat and eggs in the house to prepare for their Lenten fasts which featured a more austere diet. 

One way we can share this year in that celebration is to take photos of our individual pancake feasts and either post them on our ACC Facebook Group or send them to either Pastor Doug or Pastor Diane who will post them for you. 

Then on Ash Wednesday evening we will have a special online service produced by Andra Moran and Suzanne Castle of Brim, with a welcome and a few words of homily added by Diane. Andra and Suzanne’s service offers a beautiful, thoughtful entry into the coming season of Lent in this moment when we can’t easily mark one another’s heads with ashes but still want to mark the day. 

Make a note on your calendars for February 16th and 17th.
Please Share Your Lenten Devotional Thoughts

We are still looking for writers for our annual Lenten Daily Devotional. Whether you are an old hand or have never written one before, we’d love to hear from you this Lent! Follow the link below to sign up now.

As usual, we will publish the devotions each day by email and in a printed booklet so that the congregation can be blessed by them throughout Lent. We will also be publishing them on ACC’s Facebook page, so plan accordingly as you decide what to share.

If you have any trouble using the Sign Up Genius process, simply email or call John Quick and he'll be happy to help!

All Lent devotionals are due to be turned in to Ruth Wolff at rwolff@allisonville.org no later than Tuesday, February 9. More information, including the dates and scriptures are found on the sign up page.

Thank you from Ann Ellerbrook

Thank you dear ACC friends and family for your cards and notes after my brother and then my aunt died. I appreciated all of your affection and support. An actively supportive church family is a balm.

Ann Ellerbrook
Food Pantry Sunday

This Sunday bring by your non-perishable food donations.

The Calls will meet you at Door #1, 12 - 2pm this Sunday, February 7.

Food pantry priorities include peanut butter and toilet paper.

Other items that would be helpful are canned fruit, beans (Pinto, white, black, kidney, etc) and/or pasta meals (ravioli, spaghetti, etc).

If you shop specifically for food pantry items, Kroger currently has an electronic coupon for Post cereal for 99 cents.
Book Club: February 23

Our next ACC Book Club will be Tuesday, February 23 at 7:00 PM. All are welcome to join us to discuss the historical novel Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan. From Amazon:

"When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters.”
Allisonville Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)

(317) 849-3957