Announcements
SANCTUARY WORSHIP
In-person worship begins today Sunday, April 18, at 8:30 & 11:15 am. The 8:30 am service will be livestreamed and recorded. An abbreviated worship from home liturgy will also be provided. Read more here: Sanctuary FAQ, Sanctuary Plan.
Celebration of Baptism
Sunday, April 25, 4 pm at West Point on the Eno
Join us to witness and celebrate as several Blacknall families present their children for Christian baptism. We will gather for a brief service at West Point on the Eno (see map). All are welcome.
Sanctuary Worship Service Teams
There are various ways to serve during our sanctuary worship services. Even if you've served on one of these teams in the past, please fill out this form to indicate you'd like to serve again. Join a team here.
What to Except: Parenting Teens During Uncertain Times Webinar
In case you missed it, view a recording here. Led by Emily Cox, Blacknall member and a licensed clinical social worker, psychotherapist, and faculty member at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Allan Poole Retirement Celebration
Saturday, June 5 | In-person gatherings at Camp Chestnut Ridge
We will have two gatherings to celebrate and honor Allan at Camp Chestnut Ridge. We will monitor state and local guidelines as to how many people we can safely have at each gathering. Please stay connected and we'll post a registration once we know those numbers.Sunday, June 6, 2-3 pm | Drive-by Celebration at Blacknall
Prayer
Ministry Partners:
Campus—We pray for Libby Boehne working with Presbyterian Campus Ministries on Duke’s campus. She asks us to pray for these things:
Prayers for the mental health of students. This year has been isolating, and there has been an uptick in depression and anxiety.
Prayers for the spiritual growth of students. Students are raising a lot of good questions about God and what it means to follow Christ in the midst of a really difficult year. Our prayer is that we might walk with students and that they would come to love Christ and one another more.
Prayers for the end of the semester and beginning of the summer term for students. This semester has been tense for students, staff, and faculty working and living at Duke. We ask for prayers that those at Duke would stay safe and that Covid numbers would stay down.
International—We pray for Blacknall supported missionary Jenn West who is working with international students in the Netherlands. She writes in December from Amsterdam, “My youngest uncle (on my mom's side) passed away on Nov 19th from COVID - he had also been battling Parkinson’s for 17 years. The service was last week. Then this weekend I got a phone call from my mom that her other brother had a heart attack and passed away on the way to the hospital. This was quite unexpected as he was quite healthy! It's been hard to grieve and support my family from a distance. Also hard on my mom as her entire family is in Kansas and she is in Virginia.” Current prayer requests: (1) patience and wisdom in navigating ISM (International Student Ministry) in these uncertain and difficult days; (2) her spiritual and physical renewal day by day; (3) wisdom in supervising the work of her staff; (4) effective means of contacting international students in the Netherlands, befriending them, and engaging them in meaningful conversations and Bible studies; (5) harmonious relationship with her apartment mate.
Durham—We pray for our Deep Common Journey Partner, Reality Ministries and their Executive Director Susan McSwain. They are thanking God that every Reality participant who wanted a vaccine was able to get one at their pop-up clinic. They are so grateful for the many Blacknall folks who volunteered at the clinic. Once everyone is fully vaccinated, they will be able to begin some in-person gathering. Susan says, “So we are scrambling to prepare to do that well and safely beginning April 26 and would be grateful for prayer for our transition back!!!” Susan also asks us to pray for a couple of male Fellows to join the Fellows cohort that will start in August for the next academic year. She adds, “If you know anyone, send them our way!”
Grief:
We pray for those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus.
Joys
We celebrate the birth of Lily Turner to Alex and Graham Turner on March 29.
We celebrate the upcoming wedding of Amy Whisenand and Joe Krall in early June.
Concerns
We pray for Gordie Simons who is recovering from hernia surgery last week.
We pray for Barry Leonard undergoing radiation for throat cancer. We thank God for how he led Barry and Regina to the exact right doctor!
We pray for Buck Buchanan’s daughter, Ginny, who was thrown by a horse and suffered a concussion, broken pelvis and other injuries.
We pray for Diane and Lowrie Beacham’s granddaughters, McKenzie and Miller, who are continuing to struggle with Lyme’s Disease.
World
We pray against the violence in our nation. We pray that we would repent of our idolatry of violence. We pray for those impacted by the mass shooting in Indianapolis last week.
We pray for a just and peaceful resolution to the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis.
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.
Life Together
We pray for volunteers to step up to help us return to worship in the sanctuary. In this season we have lost many of our normal volunteers. Particularly we need:
· Ushers to help welcome people and direct people into and out of the sanctuary
· People to join the Video team to help with live streaming the service
· People to help with the BAT (audio) team.
We pray for Tanya Kronstad and Brad Turnage as they make plans for middle school and high school youth activities this summer. We pray that there would be members of the congregation who would be willing to volunteer to work with your young people.
Community
COVID-19, Mental Health, & Christian Faith with Dr Warren Kinghorn
Apr. 22, 7 pm, Register Here | The COVID pandemic has been associated with thousands of deaths and many more courses of serious respiratory illnesses. But it has also unleashed a 'shadow pandemic' of mental health challenges. Dr Warren Kinghorn, Professor of Pastoral and Moral Theology at Duke Divinity School, and Blacknall member, will point us to the people of Israel and their wilderness experience as a guide for our current experiences. Guided by their story, we'll look at Christian practices that can help us not only to cope with pandemic stress, but also to follow Jesus more closely in a world that is stretched and hurting.