Announcements

Lenten Livestream Services
Wednesdays during Lent, Feb. 17-March 24, 7-7:30 pm
Lenten Book Study
Sundays, Feb. 28-March 28, 7-8 pm, Register Here
Take a step forward in your life with Jesus by joining our Lenten study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship. Led by Chris Blumhofer and friends. Pick up a copy of the book. (Any edition will do, but this is the one we recommend. For those who have access to it, the Duke Library also has an e-version of this book.)
View a video invitation from Chris here.
Lenten Prayer & Fasting with DMET
Saturdays, 9-10 am | Zoom link on CCB
During this season of Lent, you are invited to join us in fasting Friday lunch and spending that time in prayer for our city, especially for our partners in ministry who will be sharing updates with us each week. We will meet each Saturday morning on Zoom to pray and reflect together for our city and our partners.
DMET Lent Devotional Offerings
As we enter the season of Lent, these on-line resources may be useful in expanding our Christian imagination for coming alongside those who are marginalized and to listen in on what the Lord may be whispering to us. Our hope is that these resources may help us to situate the real issues of our time theologically.

Habitat for Humanity – weekly Devotional exploring ways “we can honor Jesus by caring for others.” Each weekly reflection includes prayer, scripture, a contemporary reflection and questions for discussion.
An American Lent – an on-line (or downloadable) daily Lenten Devotional developed by The Repentance Project and is a “journey through America’s history of slavery, segregation and racism.” Each day includes an opening and closing prayer, scripture, reflection and links to resources for deeper resources.
Presbyterian Mission of PCUSA Beloved Community Lenten Devotional – Using a model of Christ’s words in Matthew 25, this Lent Devotional is intended to increase commitment to “creating beloved communities in our own backyards.” Each day includes scripture, a reflection, and a closing prayer. This guide was designed in 2020 but is very current and easy to use.

New Blacknall Directory
Blacknall is updating the church directory! You can help us out by updating your CCB profile (view tips) with a current photo and information. Sign up here to let us know if you’d like a hard copy mailed to you.

Prayer

Ministry Partners:

Campus—We pray for Young Life of Durham, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, and Pittsboro as they make their way with great care through the pandemic with their emphasis on meeting students and spending time with them focused in smaller groups per the NC Covid guidelines. They are also currently training over 30 new leaders from Duke, UNC and Durham Tech who will join their existing leadership of over 100 volunteers. The Gospel continues to advance through the relationships their leaders are consistently investing in throughout the area. Please pray for:

· For wisdom as they are expanding their staff team. They want the right "who.”

· They recently received their first large donation towards long term efforts to raise $2million towards reaching every school across the area. Pray for these efforts.

· For leaders reconnecting with students that they only could find or be around when schools are open and operating normally.

· The mental health of their leaders as they hear heavy and hard things from students on the frontlines. That they'd find peace in Jesus.

· For their staff team who have each felt the painful loss of someone dear due to Covid.

International—Please pray for Blacknall missionary Stacy Rinehart, who founded MentorLink Leadership Institute in January 2000, based upon the servanthood model set forth by Christ in Mark 10: "You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.” In the “Prayer Team Update” put out weekly by MentorLink International, that features the prayer needs of many frontline missionaries, the first entry sadly reports, “Rene went to be with the Lord on Thursday Feb. 11. …. We, in the MentorLink community and many around the world, mourn his passing. He was a champion for the Kingdom and widely influenced leaders in West Africa and beyond. Pray for his wife, Faustine, and their children.” Specific prayer requests: (1) the MentorLink Board meeting this month to be a time of listening to the Spirit; (2) praises for the completion of Days With Jesus (DWJ) in Russian, bringing the number of languages to 43; (3) the wide use of DWJ as an evangelistic and training tool; (4) protection for partners in Africa and Asia who are regularly threatened by anti-Christian violence and persecution; (5) their steadfastness and faithfulness in the midst of danger.

Durham—We pray for Durham Rescue Mission and Ernie and Gail Mills who lead it. We pray for their Easter outreach event being held on Friday April 2. They will be giving away Bar-B-Q and Hot Dog lunches, Easter baskets, and packs of new socks. Please pray that they get the volunteers they need for this event which usually serves several thousand people. They need volunteers from 5am-3pm that day. Pray that the gospel is demonstrated and proclaimed that day.

Grief:

We pray for Anne and Mark Paulson on the death of Anne’s Mom on Feb. 17.
We pray for Kay Ferguson on the death of her brother-in-law, Rausey on Feb. 15.
We pray for Mark and Helen Atkinson on the death of Mark’s Dad on Feb. 14. Pray for Helen’s Dad, 93, who is in the ICU in Charlotte with COVID
We pray for Tana O’Keefe whose sister, Verna, died on Feb. 14.
We pray for Dan & Tanya, Eric, Caleb, and James Kronstad on the death of Dan’s Dad on Feb. 10.
We pray for Brenda Boardman on the death of her Mom to COVID-19 on Feb. 10.
We pray for Martha Gore whose sister, Linda, died on Feb. 6.
We pray for Sandy & John Stevens on the death of her brother on Jan. 31.
We pray for those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus.

Joys

We celebrate the news that Rose Condon is engaged to be married to Daniel.
We give thanks that Wen & Casey Reagan, our new Director of Music and Worship, are with us now and pray for them and their children, Ezra, Pax, and Lovewell, and give thanks that they have a contract on a house off of Cole Mill Road.

Concerns

We pray for Deanna Koenig who is in the hospital and for her parents, Doug and Cheryl.
We pray for Paul & Phyllis Immanuel who are struggling with persistent health problems.
We pray for Lori Riggs as she struggles with headaches, sinus problems, fatigue and ongoing symptoms from the coronavirus.

World

We pray for a speedy and just distribution of these vaccines locally and around the world.
We pray for people in Texas and across the U.S. who have been impacted by the winter storms this week.

Life Together

We pray for the search committee for the Director of Congregational Care (chair, Melissa Hartemink).
We pray for our worship life together, whether that is online or in backyards or over Zoom. We pray for our live stream Wednesday evening Lenten services.
We pray for our elders as they meet this week and seek to discern how we might best begin to gather together to worship.
We pray for Beth Solie and Leslie Petree and for wisdom, imagination, and love as they seek to minister to our children and families. We pray that children and families might be discipled into the way of Jesus as they celebrate the season of Lent.