Greetings!

Have you ever felt stuck with a situation, a problem, or a crisis that seemed impossible to address? Maybe it was a difficult relationship with a family member, friend, or co-worker. Perhaps you’ve seen bad things happening in your neighborhood that were too big to handle on your own. Or maybe you’re especially pained by the political conflicts in our country that seem to divide folks at every level of our society. 

So many hard things—especially the conflicts that shape our lives—can feel completely beyond our power to change. And so we give up even trying. We live our lives as if these bad things are just the way the world is. 

But what if God is calling us to a different reality? What if our faith is about working to change these seemingly unchangeable, hard things?

During this upcoming stewardship season, we’re going to reflect on ways that we can invest in ministries that make a real difference in the world and in our lives. I hope you’ll join us on Sunday, as we talk about how our wide-ranging mission relationships might hold important keys to addressing hard problems. Let’s talk about how we can grow ever more into being a church that acts!

In hope,

Hardy

Join us after church on Sunday for Coffee Hour in Trinity Court or online!

bit.ly/SVPCCoffeeHour

Theme for Sunday

“…the key challenge of local peacebuilding is not only securing, but also protecting, ‘the space and the freedom to imagine something different’, without triggering ontological insecurity. From this perspective, peacebuilding stories from other frontier societies, which are not threats and/or obstacles, not only enable fresh perspectives on the nature of peace and conflict in frontier societies, but also reduce the potential escalation of ontological insecurity.”

Ontological Security ad Protracted Conflict in Frontier Societies: Towards a Trans-local Turn in Peacebuilding

-Dong Jin Kim and Duncan Morrow 

• Has there ever been a time when you faced a crisis or a need that you knew couldn’t be addressed by anything that anyone had? What was that situation like?

• Even though no worldly thing could change the situation, do you remember anyone that was there for you? What did they do? What difference did they make?

Acts 12:1-11

About that time King Herod began to harass some who belonged to the church. He had James, John’s brother, killed with a sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he arrested Peter as well. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. He put Peter in prison, handing him over to four squads of soldiers, sixteen in all, who guarded him. He planned to charge him publicly after the Passover. While Peter was held in prison, the church offered earnest prayer to God for him.

The night before Herod was going to bring Peter’s case forward, Peter was asleep between two soldiers and bound with two chains, with soldiers guarding the prison entrance. Suddenly an angel from the Lord appeared and a light shone in the prison cell. After nudging Peter on his side to awaken him, the angel raised him up and said, “Quick! Get up!” The chains fell from his wrists. The angel continued, “Get dressed. Put on your sandals.” Peter did as he was told. The angel said, “Put on your coat and follow me.” Following the angel, Peter left the prison. However, he didn’t realize the angel had actually done all this. He thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself. After leaving the prison, they proceeded the length of one street, when abruptly the angel was gone.

At that, Peter came to his senses and remarked, “Now I’m certain that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod and from everything the Jewish people expected.