Announcements
Congregational Meeting to Elect Officers
Sunday, March 21, 12 pm | Zoom link on CCB
Deacon nominees (6 nominees for 6 spots): Rhett Davis, Daniella Goldfarb, Heather Hodge, Kristy Roberts Ponce, Bill Shively, and Ryan Stults. Elder nominees (6 nominees for 5 spots): Lauren Holahan, Cullen Rodgers-Gates, Sherbie Skeen, Paul Tshihamba, and Michael Whisenhunt.
Sanctuary Worship | Live stream & In-person
Sundays, 8:30 & 11 am
Blacknall will begin livestreaming worship on April 11. Registration will open to the congregation for Sunday, April 18. An abbreviated worship from home liturgy will also be provided. Read more here: Sanctuary FAQ, Sanctuary Plan.
Update your photos, win a gift card!
Until we can see each other in person and without masks, let's stay in touch by posting updated photos to our CCB profiles. View these tips before uploading your photos, then enter the drawing to win your choice of a $20 gift card to The Regulator Bookshop, Joe VanGogh Coffee, or Pincho Loco Ice Cream. Request a hard copy of the directory here.
47th Durham CROP Hunger Walk
The week-long virtual event will kick off Saturday, April 10 and end on Sunday, April 18. Many of you knew and loved Deanna Koenig who was involved in CROP and CWS fundraising for 20 years. Her personal walk ended March 1, 2021, but you can continue to donate and walk in her honor. Register or donate here.
Holy Week & Easter
Maundy Thursday Communion Services | 12pm & 7pm
Join us for an opportunity to hear the word, share the Lord’s Supper, and sing a hymn together. We will meet on the sanctuary steps and in the rose garden for 15-20 minutes. Please wear a mask; all ages welcome.Good Friday Scriptural Way of the Cross
Friday, April 2 | Experience the stations of the cross through imagery and prayer. Modified from past years, there will be no tactile engagement.Holy Saturday Vigil
Saturday, April 3, 6-6:30 pm - Parking, 6:30-7:30 pm - Vigil
Together with Mt Level and the Mt. Level Community Partnership for Racial Justice, participate in an outdoor Easter vigil. The service will be held at Mt. Level.Easter Outdoor Worship
Sunday, April 4 at 9, 10, & 11 am | Celebrate the resurrection with the birds of the air in an outdoor worship service on Easter morning. Details coming soon. Worship from home liturgy also provided.
Love & Serve
Take a meal to the Meyers
Take a meal to the Bradshaws
Take a meal to the Knapps
Prayer
Ministry Partners:
Campus—We pray for Scott and Jenny Hawkins working with international students with our Deep Common Journey partner, International Students, Inc. on Duke’s campus and in the Triangle.
Thanksgiving
Jenny & Scott celebrated – albeit quietly – 50 years of marriage in December, through the magnificent enabling of our LORD.
Requesting
Recent returnees to connect with believers so as to continue growing in grace and knowledge of Jesus: Wei in Beijing & David near Shanghai.
Spiritual breakthrough in current students E., P., and B., who appear “on the way” to trusting Jesus, though at different paces.
Bold ingenuity in growing the outreach so that every international student may encounter Christ.
International—We pray for Blacknall supported missionaries John and Karen Friesen, affiliated with the Mennonite Central Committee, involved with Community Development in Egypt. Karen writes, “We are grateful for the work here and it has been going well. We continue to support our various Partners with financial grants for projects such as women’s literacy, education for youth, health and peace building … many of our partners are tackling the problems of Gender Based Violence and FGM [female genital mutilation].” Specific pray requests: (1) stable health for Karen’s father in New Jersey; (2) a harmonious and fruitful relationship with their Egyptian partners; (3) comfort for the many who have lost loved ones during the pandemic; (4) the ability to minister comfort and hope to refugees and vulnerable people in Egypt; (5) the protection of Christians and their churches from violence and their freedom to walk worthily as Christ’s ambassadors.
Durham—We pray for Durham CAN in Durham and for their Lead Organizer and Executive Director, Tinu Diver. We pray for:
Efforts to convince the Durham Housing Authority (DHA) to revise their eviction policies so that renters have more time to pay past due rent before legal procedures begin and it becomes a permanent mark on their record
Efforts to organize resident leaders of DHA housing to demand repairs of apartments that are in disrepair. Residents have been living in apartments in need of significant repairs and the repairs have not been done or have been done in a shoddy manner.
Thanksgiving for the announcement that the state of NC will be releasing 3,500 prison inmates early as a result of action by CAN and others, protesting that the coronavirus protocols in the state prisons were not adequately protecting the inmates.
Grief:
We pray for Faye McLamb on the death of her husband and longtime Blacknallite, George McLamb on March 7.
We pray for Doug & Cheryl Koenig and their family on the death of their daughter, Deanna on March 1.
We pray for Bob and Cathy Leslie on the death of Bob’s Dad on March 2.
We pray for those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus.
Joys
We celebrate the birth of Joanna Austell Bradshaw to Maria and Zach Bradshaw on March 10. We thank God that Joanna was able to go home this past week after dealing with some medical issues.
We celebrate the group of Blacknallites who were at Reality Ministries last week to help with their vaccine clinic and the joy of the Reality community being able to be vaccinated and the hope of being face to face again.
We celebrate that Taylor Brennan has finished her course of treatment for breast cancer and pray that she is completely free of the disease.
We celebrate the birth of Catherine (Kitty) Myers to Mary Lynn and Jimmy Myers on March 1.
We celebrate the distribution of the COVID vaccine and the hope that we will be able to begin coming back together in worship soon.
Concerns
We pray for David Chapman who had surgery last week.
We pray for Bill Beckman who will be having back surgery this coming Friday.
We pray for Taylor Knapp whose arm was broken when a tree branch fell on him.
We pray for Caroline Raby with severe back and neck pain
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 the coronavirus vaccines locally and around the world.
We pray for our schools as students are back in class. We pray for teachers and pray that the bonds between teachers and students would quickly be deepened and students might recover academically.
We pray for the families of the eight women who were murdered in Atlanta this past week.
We pray against actions and words of violence and hatred being done to Asian Americans.
Life Together
We pray for good weather Holy Saturday and Easter morning so that we might be able to worship together outside at Mt. Level on Saturday and at Blacknall’s parking lot on Sunday.
We pray for wisdom and the necessary volunteers who will be able to help out so that we might begin having worship inside the sanctuary on April 18. We pray for all of the ways that we will be worshiping “together” so that we will feel connected to one another and to the Lord.
We give thanks for the announcement that Becky Gould will be Blacknall’s new Director of Congregational Care beginning on July 1. We give thanks for the hard work of the members of the search committee.
We give thanks for the service of Mary Grimm, our communications director, and Ali Shoenfelt and for all of those who help us know what is going on at Blacknall.