Sunday, Dec. 5
Cancer Support Group | 10-10:45 a.m. | Zoom (Link on CCB)
Gather for prayer, education and sharing our lives. This is for all cancer survivors, caregivers, and loved ones. Contact Karen Allen with questions or to join the email list.
High School and Middle School Youth Christmas Party | 6-7:30 p.m. | Enter on Iredell St.
Fun and games indoors followed by cocoa and cookies outdoors. Bring a friend! Contact Brad Turnage (high school) or Tanya Kronstad (middle school).
Thursday, Dec. 9
God With Us, God For Us: A Women’s Ministry Advent Celebration | 7-9 p.m. | Rose Garden and Fellowship Hall
Please join us for an evening of fellowship, worship, sharing, and art-making with women from Blacknall and our broader community. After refreshments in the Rose Garden, we’ll hear three women—Amanda Diekman (Blacknall), Susan McSwain (Reality Ministries), and Deborah Eaton (Mt Level Missionary Baptist Church)—share stories of how they’ve experienced God being for them and how that has transformed the way they interact with others. We’ll conclude the evening with a chance to creatively express, here in this Advent season of anticipating the arrival of God With Us, the truth that God is for us. You can write a card, make a card, and/or contribute to a community art project under the capable direction of Liz Shively. Please come and bring a friend!
Sunday, Dec. 12
Prayer for Mission Partners (3 p.m.) and Congo (6:30 p.m.) | Zoom (link on CCB)
From Cape Town to Amsterdam. From Tonga to Kyrgyzstan. From Blacknall to Beni and lots of places in between! We are invited to gather to pray for our Blacknall-supported missionaries. Come participate in what God is doing in our world! Contact: Dave Dunderdale. Please note earlier time for mission partners prayer due to the Community Carol Sing.
Community Carol Sing | 4:45- 6 p.m. | Outdoors under the Oaks (714 Iredell)
A festive evening of outdoor fun and fellowship as we raise our voices and mugs to the birth of the Savior! Join us as we sing our way through a collection of beloved Christmas carols. Please spread the word to our community! Download this image to share on neighborhood listservs, social media and other networks. Take a flyer (available in the narthex) to post on local bulletin boards. We need your help make this a true community event and a witness to our neighbors!
Announcements
Welcome Pastor Mark!
Our Interim Senior Pastor, Mark Hutton joins us today! Please give Mark a warm welcome and stay tuned for a video interview we’ll be sending out this week. Read Mark’s bio here. You may reach him by email at mhutton@blacknall.org.
Advent at Blacknall
View the full calendar of ways we will gather together this Advent season to wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior. Pick up this year’s Advent Devotional at church or download a copy for printing at home or viewing on your device. Listen to our Advent Spotify Playlist, full of songs to accompany you during your Adventian journey to Bethlehem.
Registration is open for Lessons & Carols, Worship on the Longest Night and Christmas Eve
Links are published on our Registration page. Please register your family and any anticipated guests. Limited childcare is available for Worship on the Longest Night and Christmas Eve (5 p.m. service only).
Angel Tree
Our 2021 Angel Tree is up and ready to go! This is an opportunity for Blacknall to bless folks who are struggling to provide for their families this year. We have invited three ministries (Families Moving Forward, St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church and Step Up Durham) to allow us to support their clients this Christmas. Our hope is to fill every wish on this list! Thank you for helping make that possible. Please bring gifts and gift cards to the church by 5 p.m. on Dec. 12.
Changes to sanctuary worship seating options
As of Nov. 28, the center section of the main floor will not be socially distanced during services. The side sections and balcony will continue to have spacing between pews. Masks are still required for ages two and up at all services. Please visit our Sanctuary Worship FAQ page for more detailed information.
Community Announcements
Reality Ministries Live Nativity
December 10, 6-7 p.m. | The Reality Center Parking Lot (916 Lamond Ave, Durham)
Join Reality for a night of fireside carols, warm holiday treats, live animals, and their annual presentation of the Christmas story. You'll be outside — bundle up and bring your family and friends! Scripture readings and carols from 6:15 - 6:45 p.m.
Prayer
Ministry Partners
Durham—We pray for the ministry of Gateway Women’s Care and for their Executive Director, Melinda Dehahoyde as they care for women and couples who are facing a crisis pregnancy They share the following praises and prayer concerns: 1) A record number of women chose life for their babies at Gateway this year. 2) Thank God that the new Chapel Hill center is successful and serving women in Chapel Hill and also in communities west of the Triangle. 3) Please pray as we add new volunteers and staff members, including a Christian social worker who can help women take the next steps after they have made a life decision. 4) Most of all, please pray that we are listening and waiting on God as He gives direction and new ways to serve women and men throughout the Triangle, so that unborn lives are saved and hearts are saved by the Gospel of Jesus. He is so faithful!
Campus & National—We pray for John & Jeanie Hamilton, on staff with Navigators, working in Durham and on campus. We praise God for the five Bible Reading Groups that John leads each week with people ranging from a Blacknall Sunday School class to Ukrainians in Zhitomir to local businessmen in Durham to fellow veteran Navigator staff. Praise God that people are learning they can “get the good stuff out of the Bible.” Praise God that the Holy Spirit shows up and is eager to teach and help those who pursue God in the Bible. We pray for Jeanie as she leads a book-reading group of 7 or 8 couples, all non-Christians, who meet every 6 weeks. John shares, that they are able “to proclaim the gospel, or some portion thereof, about every third meeting. And she and I meet with a couple of them individually, every month, always looking for ways to move them toward the Lord.”
International—We pray for Blacknall global workers 'Ale and Lynn VanderWoude 'Aho, with YWAM in the South Pacific nation of Tonga. Lynn is a physician assistant, committed to holistic ministry to build physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy individuals, families and communities. 'Ale is a member of Team Xtreme (featuring amazing feats of strength), challenging youth to commit their lives to Christ. The nation of Tonga’s approach to the Covid pandemic has been to self-isolate; this has been feasible due to its extreme physical isolation from the rest of the world, and there have been no known Covid cases until a plane-load of nationals recently arrived from abroad. The good news is that this has been contained. Prayer requests: 1) the empowerment of the YWAM Tongan staff to minister to one another in love; 2) Opportunities for them to share the gospel in word and deed with many; 3) son Fungani to grow academically and spiritually; 4) the formation of good relationships between Lynn and her healthcare clients; 5) Tongan missionaries Suli and Fane and their 7 children, who are courageously working in Uganda in village evangelism.
Griefs
We grieve the death and give thanks for the life of Jo Oldham. We pray for her children, Philip and Valerie and their families. A memorial service will be scheduled for late January.
We pray for Martha Gore on the death of her sister on Dec. 1.
We pray for Heidi & Ray Hackney on the death of Heidi’s mother.
We pray for the family of Margaret Scearce, a longtime member of Blacknall, who died Nov. 21. The memorial service will be at 2pm on Dec. 11 at Crossroads Baptist Church in Hillsborough.
We pray for David & Cindy Chapman and Hise & Scarlett Chapman on the death of David and Hise’s mother on Nov. 12.
We pray for Jim & Sandra Hagood on the death of Sandra’s mother on Nov. 10.
We pray for Rich & Margaret Frothingham on the death of Rich’s mom, Mary Frothingham, on Nov. 7.
We pray for those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus.
Joys
We give thanks for the many gifts God has given to us at Blacknall in these past several months and for many, many years. We give thanks for faithful pastoral leadership for over 60 years. We give thanks for the bonds of friendship that have lasted decades and those that just formed last week.
We rejoice with Ashley & Chad Kersey on the birth of their son, Samuel Glenn on Nov. 6.
Concerns
We pray for Bob Mutter’s mother who fell and broke her hip.
World
We give thanks that we heard from Blacknall global workers Lynn & ‘Ale Vanderwoude-‘Aho that the first appearance of the COVID-19 virus in the nation of Tonga has been contained and did not spread beyond the first carriers of the virus to the island nation.
We pray for the Supreme Court of the U.S. as the justices deliberate on the future of abortion laws in our nation. We pray for the protection of the most vulnerable in our nation as well as for the care and provision for women and children after birth.
We continue to pray for the release of the 15 missionaries and their driver in Haiti. We thank God for the release of 2 of these hostages. We pray for a cessation of the violence and chaos in Haiti.
We continue to pray for the nation and people of Afghanistan, and particularly for Christian brothers and sisters there. We pray for attempts to rescue those whose lives are in danger.
Life Together
We pray for Mark Hutton who begins his ministry among us as our Interim Pastor today. Pray for him as he “commutes” from Bristol, TN, each week. He will be with us Sunday through Wednesday each week. Pray for his wife, Sherri, and son, Thatcher, still back in Bristol. Sherri is an elementary school principal and Thatcher is a sophomore in high school.
We pray for our BYG (Blacknall Youth Group) Christmas Party this evening. Pray for our young people to continue to grow in relationship with Jesus and with each other.
We pray for our Advent celebrations. We pray that we might be intentional about looking for opportunities to invite our neighbors to any of these events.
We pray for our continued searches for a Communications & Program Coordinator and a Choir Director.