September eNews

745 Little Neck Road

Virginia Beach, VA 23452

(757) 340-2840

info@kgpc.org kgpc.org

An Exciting New Church Year Begins

September is such an exciting month in the life of the church. The summer has not only provided some rest and vacation time, but also time to plan and prepare for a new church year. It all begins Welcome Sunday, September 13. Kids and teachers bring their backpacks to be blessed. Children jump around for hours in the huge bounce houses. Everyone gets their fill of food, fellowship, and program information during this wonderful social time.

September often brings changes as new ideas are implemented. The three biggest changes include our children’s faith formation program, a new church app, and a new Family Life Group. King’s Kids, our children’s program, will have a new room closer to the sanctuary and the nursery with a fun new curriculum that’s easier for teachers and students. The preschool class will meet in the nursery and combine lessons with fun and play. Our two new nursery personnel, Zy and Lillian, are ready to welcome infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

Another big idea launching one week from today is our new church app. You will love having everything KGPC at your fingertips. You can watch the service, access the worship guide and connect card, see the calendar, get information on upcoming events, sign up for activities, give online in a variety of ways, receive timely notifications from the church, access the church directory with a code from the office, and even message anyone else who has the KGPC app. The app will be available for all devices and a table will be set up on Welcome Sunday for anyone who would like help downloading it. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it!

In September all of our music and faith formation classes begin again. Have you been interested in trying out the handbells? Children want to check out our Music Makers children’s choir? How about joining a Life Group or forming your own? In fact, a new Family Life Group is starting September 20 from 11:15-12:00 on Sunday mornings during Music Makers rehearsal. Want to learn more about how Genesis and Revelation parallel and play off each other on Sunday mornings at 8:45? This active church has something for everyone so check out all the opportunities and you’ll find something that interests you.

A new church year brings change. That’s why our worship series is called: Re-Shaped Again and Again. Although our brains are wired to be suspicious of change, God created a world that is constantly changing. And God is constantly changing us! We are created for a purpose, formed into something spectacular–not just once, but re-formed again and again. After all, Presbyterians are reformed people. This month we’ll learn about the change cycle and how God prepares us and opens us to be changed, molded, and shaped more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

September is an exciting month as we embrace the positive changes God is calling us to while acknowledging that change can be hard. Let’s just say God loves us too much to leave us as we are, both individually and as a church! So this Fall, open yourself to the new thing God wants to do in you and through you. You might have to let some things go, but in the end, it will all be worth it.

Abide, Grow, Shine, Love, Transform,

Pastor Chris

KGPC God Winks

Submitted by Michele Winslow-Pichardo

Recently, I have been walking through a difficult season—questioning my choices, feeling unsure of my path, and wondering if my best is enough.

Yesterday, I spent the entire day trying to get to the car wash, but errands and commitments to my grandkids kept getting in the way. When Tracy and I finally arrived, it turned out to be perfect timing.

While cleaning up a spill, I noticed a woman watching us. She approached to introduce herself and her daughter, who shares a similar limitation to Tracy's. As we talked, I discovered she understood my journey both personally and professionally. We shared our experiences, laughed about the realities of caregiving, and exchanged numbers to stay in touch.

The timing of it all struck me. I had tried all day to get there, yet we arrived at that exact moment together. What felt like delays was simply leading me to an appointment I didn't know I had.

For me, this "God Wink" was a reminder of "I see you, and I understand." I have received many blessings throughout my life, but in the 11 years since coming to KGPC, God has shown signs of His presence with a clarity that leaves me humbled and amazed.

“God winks” are those coincidences we know aren’t coincidences. They are celebrations for what God is doing in us and through us.

If you’ve seen God at work in this church or in your life, write a short paragraph and send it to the church office (office@kgpc.org). Anonymous stories are accepted as well as those who don’t mind their name being known

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT KGPC

Sunday, September 6

No Adult Faith Formation

No Youth Donuts and Discussion

No King's Kids

10:00 AM - Worship Service

5:00 PM - Gather Dinner Church

Monday, September 7

Labor Day - OFFICE CLOSED

Tuesday, September 8

5:30 PM - Personnel Meeting

Wednesday, September 9

7:00 AM - Prayer Breakfast

5:30 PM - Best LIFE Group

5:45 PM - Praise Team Rehearsal
7:30 PM - Sanctuary Choir Rehearsal

Thursday, September 10

2:00 PM - Caregiver Support Group

7:15 PM - Zoom LIFE Group

Friday, September 11

9:00 AM - Contemplative Prayer Group

Saturday, September 12

9:00 AM - Outdoor Clean Up Day

Click HERE for the Full Calendar

Click HERE for September Birthdays

Staff Notes: While Tonya is back at work (Hooray!) she will only be in her office for limited hours while she returns to full strength.

Upcoming Special Events!

A Big Thank You to everyone who came out to help with our indoor cleaning days in August! You help keep KGPC literally shining!

2026 Seasonal Farmworker Ministry Update

Every year, seasonal farmworker and aquacultural worker families across Virginia's Eastern Shore face unique challenges as they work to provide for their families. PEVA helps collect a variety of different assistance kits to help. Here at KGPC, you donated food kits for the workers, as well as English and Spanish language children's books.

This summer, 80 families received assistance, including food, gift cards, hygiene supplies, diapers, clothing, children's books, and other essential items.

The ministry distributed more than $14,500 in donated goods, including:

213 food kits
244 hygiene kits
4,530 diapers
84 packages of baby wipes
70 children's books
School backpacks and supplies for dozens of children

In addition, surplus food donations were shared with the Dos Santos Food Pantry, extending support to even more seasonal farmworkers families throughout the Eastern Shore.

Thanks to every one of you who were part of this PEVA effort! Your generosity provided more than resources. It brought hope, encouragement, and a powerful reminder that every child and family is seen, valued, and deeply loved.

Sabbath LIFE Group

Are you always in a hurry? Do you struggle with too much to do? Are you seeking to discern what God is calling you to and wonder how it may fit in with everything else in your life? Hurry has been called "the great enemy of the spiritual life" in modern times.

Sabbath LIFE Group will be starting a new study on September 13, and all are invited to join! We will be reading and discussing John Mark Comer's "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry" each Sunday morning starting at 8:45. The study will go until 9:45, but those who need to leave early for choir are encouraged to come anyway! Contact Suzy Farley with questions (suzyfarley@yahoo.com)

This year, Youth Donuts & Discussion is putting the questions in the hands of our youth! Rather than following a predetermined curriculum, our conversations will be shaped by the faithful questions our youth are actually asking. Youth are invited to bring their questions, doubts, curiosities, and wonderings about God, faith, the Bible, the church, and the world. From those questions, we’ll build guided discussions that are grounded in Scripture and Reformed theology, creating space to explore big questions together without being afraid to wonder, wrestle, or say, “I’m not sure.” Bring your hunger and your questions and come ready to wonder!

What might we discuss?

If people could live forever through technology, should they?
What impact would the discovery of extraterrestrial life have on our faith?
If Jesus returned tomorrow, what would convince us that he was actually Jesus?
Can science eventually explain God away?
Can doubt actually be part of faithful Christianity?
If we could eliminate suffering through technology, should we?

Click HERE to register Children/Youth for the 26/27 Church Year

This fall, King’s Kids is beginning a new adventure with Celebrate Wonder, a children’s faith formation curriculum from Cokesbury designed to nurture children’s natural curiosity, imagination, and sense of wonder about God and the Bible.

Rather than simply learning Bible stories, children will be invited to wonder, ask questions, explore, and connect their faith to everyday life through interactive Bible stories, hands-on activities, conversation, and simple spiritual practices. We will begin this fall by exploring stories from the lives of Joseph, Moses, and Elizabeth and Zechariah, with a special focus on reconciliation, awe, and trust.

We are excited for King’s Kids to be a place where children can grow in their knowledge of Scripture while also discovering that faith is something they can experience, question, practice, and carry with them throughout the week. We look forward to a fall filled with wonder!

We invite you to join Eve Circle, a women's fellowship group. We normally meet on the first Monday of the month in the church parlor at 7:00 pm. Because the first Monday of September is a holiday, we will meet on the second Monday, Sept 14th. We participate in several service projects and support/pray/write to our lovely and joyful Compassion child, Queen Latipha. This year, we are doing a bible study published by Presbyterian Women, called God's Promise: I Am With You. We end our meetings with fellowship time and a snack.

Hope to see you on Sept 14th. If you have any questions, please contact Beth Harrison or Pam Ponce.

All of God's people gather around the Table to celebrate the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Part of what happens around this Table is reconciliation, which is the focus of the World Communion Offering. Experience the grace that comes from reconciling all peoples from all nations around the corner and around the globe through the ministry of this offering.

Causes Supported by World Communion Offering are racial justice, gender justice, peacemaking, global witness, ecumenical & interfaith relations.

Click HERE to give online to the World Communion Offering

Serve is happy to sponsor our 'Need Help Share' board in the Connection Point!

If you have an item (a microwave, a walker, a tool you need to borrow) or a service (a ride to an appointment, someone to feed your cat) that you need, please post your need on the board. And if you have something you can share, or a way you can help, post that.

Then, watch the board, and if you are able to help someone (or see someone that can help you), reach out to them!! What a beautiful way to love our neighbors and do life together!

Posts Currently On the Board

*FREE - InstaPot - Dottie Benson

FREE - Several Gallons White Interior Ceiling Paint - Amy Restrepo

NEEDED - "Help me or I can hire you to make a quilt" - Suzanne Long

NEEDED - Someone to teach or help me make string jewelry (like beaded bracelets) - Suzanne Long

AVAILABLE RECREATION - Kayaking from the Long's House - Suzanne Long

*Means New This Week

For more information on these items, Check the Need/Help/Share Board in the Connection Point, or reach out to the poster!

10 AM Worship Series Information

Sept. 6 - Compassion Sunday Ephesians 5: 1-2, 8-10, 15-17; Luke 10:25-37

Re-Shaped Again and Again

Fall Worship Series

“Change is good… you go first!” Our brains were designed to be suspicious of change, and for good reason–homeostasis creates stability and protects us from danger. But if we look closely at what the Creator set in motion, we find that change is actually the most constant part of life and necessary for animating our spirits as we find renewed purpose throughout our lives. You are created for a purpose, formed into something spectacular–not just once, but re-formed again and again. Ready to be stretched? It’s time to be re-shaped!

September 13 Re-Shaped: We Were Made for This Jeremiah 18:1-6

God’s creative activity is described as an ongoing active force for good. Rather than fashioning us of something that could not change, the biblical metaphor is that we are fashioned of clay, a malleable substance that can be reshaped again and again. When life requires change of us, let us embrace our ability to roll with it, for we were made for this!

Step One: Believe we are created for change

Reflection Questions: What thoughts and feelings rise up inside of you when you hear that we are made to be reshaped over and over? When have you been malleable and adaptive? When have you been rigid and inflexible? Do you notice any patterns?

September 20 Re-Shaped: From the “Inside Out” Mark 1:1-15

Our Scripture this week invites us to remember the baptism of Jesus and the message that we, as followers of Jesus, are changed constantly “from the inside out.” God loves us too much to leave us as we are. Transformation does not start with the action of change itself, but a willingness to “lean into” the change God is calling us to make within ourselves.

Step Two: Start with inner change

Reflection Questions: In what ways have you been changed by God? How would you fill in the blanks: I once was _____ but now I’m ______? What is God wanting to change in you next? Are you open to it?

September 27 Re-Shaped: Everything Changes John 12:20-26

Everything changes. Oftentimes it’s even good. Jesus asks us to let go of life “as it is” in order to create and multiply the love that is eternal. What feels like the chaos, or recklessness, of change is the breaking-open of possibility and the sprouting of new life. This is what it means to follow the change-maker Jesus and serve his purpose of more love in the world.

Step Three: Be willing to let go of old expectations

Reflection Questions: What good changes have you seen in your lifetime and in yourself? How does it make you feel to hear that Jesus asks you to let go of life “as it is”? In what ways are you allowing old expectations to fall away to make room for new growth?

October 4 Re-Shaped: Be En-Couraged Esther 4:9-16

It takes courage to change, to break out of whatever feels safe and secure. Just like Esther, if we are going to change, we have to prepare ourselves spiritually and then take the first uncertain steps out of safety and into the unknown. We may not know how it will turn out but we can be en-couraged as we initiate the change God wants us to make in the world. We are God’s changemakers.

Step Four: Courage to take the first step

Reflection Questions: How do you prepare yourself spiritually for change? What is one step you can take this week to initiate the change God is asking you to make? In what ways will you be God’s changemaker?

Gather Dinner Church Worship Information

Compassion Sunday at Dinner Church

Luke 21:1-4; Luke 20: 45-47

This Week's Menu:

Raising Cane's Chicken, Potato Salad, Baked Beans

Getting to Know Jesus in His Own Words

Who does Jesus say he is? We will listen in on several different conversations in which Jesus makes very specific, far reaching, and even outrageous I AM statements about himself. For Jews who knew their Bibles well and the metaphors Jesus referenced, the message was clear. He was saying, “I AM God.” Join us for our “I AM” series as we seek to know Jesus better. Why he came. What he offers us. Who he still is. And why we need him.

Sept. 13 - I AM the Light of the World Isaiah 9:1-2; John 8:12-20

Sept. 20 - I AM the Gate Ezekiel 34:1-10; John 10:1-10

Sept. 27 - I AM the Good Shepherd Ezekiel 34:11-16; John 10:11-21

Oct. 4 - I AM the Bread of Life Exodus 16:13-15; John 6:25-59

Oct. 11 - I AM the True Vine John 15:1-17

Oct. 18 - I AM the Way, Truth, & Life John 14:1-7

Oct. 25 - I AM the Resurrection and the Life John 11:17-27

BOOK CLUB

The Correspondent

by Virginia Evans

September 29th 7:00 pm

As always, ALL are welcome!

For more info contact Julie Seipel at jseipel57@gmail.com

Our Book Club meets on the last Tuesday of the month

at 7:00 p.m. in the Parlor.

Need a book, contact Julie Seipel for information.

KGPC FINANCIAL REPORT

PERIOD ENDING: JULY 2026

MONTH OF JULY

GENERAL FUND

INCOME:

EXPENSES:-

DIFFERENCE:

$30,888

($53,421)

($22,533)

SPECIAL FUNDS

INCOME:

EXPENSES:-

DIFFERENCE:

$ 6,437

($20,300)

($13,863)

YTD BUDGET COMPARISON

ACTUAL INCOME:

ACTUAL EXPENSES:

DIFFERENCE:

2025

$380,359

($354,486)

$ 25,873

2026

$365,435

($383,291)

($17,856)

Click HERE for Financial Summary

Grow In Your Faith!

Our Livestream is available Sundays on YouTube and also on Facebook! Use the links below. The links will also be in the Sunday Morning Worship email.

Click HERE for the Worship Guide

Click HERE for our Service Live Stream

Those Serving our Church This Sunday:

Head Usher: Bill Hudgens

Greeter: Sharon Gardner

Tech Team: Cameras - Bob Larose; Slides - Lisa Hemmrich;

Soundboard -Mara Montoya; Livestream - Rebekah Kerr-Montoya

Communion Preparer: Miriam Callahan

Communion Servers: Suzy Farley, Chris Andersen

Communion will be served by coming forward to collect the elements this Sunday

Fall ‘26 “LIFE” Groups

(“LIFE” L=Love God, I=Impact Others, F=Find time together, E=Engage authentically)

Join a LIFE group this Fall!

Prayerfully consider where you might spend “LIFE“ at KGPC!

There is a place for you in this small group experience. And there is always room for more… more members & more groups.

For more information, contact Julie Seipel (jseipel57@gmail.com).

Please contact the LIFE facilitator for details on the LIFE group you would like to be a part of.

Sunday:

Sabbath LIFE, 8:45-9:45 a.m. @ church, Suzy Farley (suzyfarley@yahoo.com)

Family LIFE, 11:15 am - 12 pm @ church Pavilion by the Playground, Kailey Stephens (k.stephens@kgpc.org)

Monday:

Lunch Bunch LIFE, 12:30-2pm @ church Connection Point, bring a lunch, Julie Seipel (jseipel57@gmail.com)

Tuesday:

Porch LIFE, 6:30 p.m., every other Tuesday in various homes. Contact Marion Mitchell for more information. Group is at capacity at this time.

Wednesday:

Prayer Breakfast LIFE, 7 a.m. @ church Fellowship Hall, Don Bradway (bradway.don@gmail.com)

Faith Walkers LIFE, 1:30 @ church Connection Point, Resuming Sept 16th, Sue Mooney (susannemooney@gmail.com)

Best LIFE group, 5:30 p.m., various restaurants, Brian Miller (brianjmiller50@gmail.com) Contact Brian for next location.

Thursday:

Thursday Evening Women's LIFE, 6:15 pm, every other Thursday, Suzy Farley (suzyfarley@yahoo.com)

Zoom LIFE Group, 7 p.m., every other week, online, in the comfort of your home, Karen Pleas (pleask.2@verizon.net)

Monthly LIFE groups:

Women of the Church Eve Circle: 7 p.m., first Monday of the month (Sept. meeting is Sept. 14), in the Parlor @ church, Beth Harrison (Ha2ison@aol.com)

Women of the Church Lydia Circle: 10 a.m., 2nd Tuesday of the month in the Connection Point @ church, Claudia Hudgens (claudiahudgens@gmail.com)

Book Club, 7 p.m., last Tuesday of each month @ church, Julie Seipel (jseipel57@gmail.com

Home Communion

Are you unable to make it to worship on a regular basis? Would you like to still participate in the sacrament of Communion? Every Communion Sunday, we have several elders willing to bring Communion to you in your home.

If you would like to receive home Communion, please notify Miriam Callahan or the Church Office. (757-340-2840)

Session Members

The Members of Session are always open to have conversations about what is happening in the church. Let's Talk!

Class of 2027