Calendar
Sunday, May 9
Communion in the Rose Garden | 9:45-10 am & 12:30-12:45 pm
For those who worship with us virtually and who would like to receive communion, a pastor will be present in the rose garden following each service.Pray for International Missionaries | 4-5 pm, Zoom Link on CCB
We’re Only Praying! This Sunday we are only praying. We are only praying for what only God can do. We are only praying, admitting what we cannot do. We are only praying and connecting the needs of our brothers and sisters around the world with the Risen Christ to whom has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. We are only praying. Let’s change the world.Pray for Deep Common Journey with Congo Initiative
6:30-7:30 pm, Zoom Link on CCB
Sunday, May 16
Pentecost Celebration Packets | 9:45-10 am & 12:30-12:45 pm
Available for families to pick up in the Rose Garden after services.
Tuesday, May 18
Pentecost Celebration Packets | 10:30 am-4:30 pm
Available for families to pick up in the Rose Garden. Unable to pick up during those times? Contact Beth Solie or Leslie Petree.
June
Children’s Worship & Nursery
Sunday mornings in limited capacity beginning in June.
Announcements
Celebrate Allan & Betsy
Celebrate Allan and Betsy’s 36 years of service as Allan retires May 31.
Allan’s last sermon | Sunday, May 23
Registration for May 23 in person worship opens May 9. Look for a link in the Sunday worship email.
Allan & Betsy’s last Sunday in worship | Sunday, May 30
Registration for May 30 in person worship opens May 9. Look for a link in the Sunday worship email.
Camp Chestnut Ridge Gatherings
Saturday, June 5, 10-11:30 am & 1:30-3 pm | Register here
We are monitoring guidelines as to how many people we can safely have at each gathering.Drive-by Celebration at Blacknall | Sunday, June 6, 2-3 pm
A drive by farewell parade around Blacknall’s building.
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.
Take a Meal
Take a meal to Alex & Graham Turner as they welcome baby Lily.
Take a meal to the Shoenfelts as they care for John’s brother.
Take a meal to the Freyers as Rachel recovers from surgery.
Blacknall PowerPoint Team
The Blacknall PowerPoint team needs you! We’re looking for a few volunteers to help out with our PowerPoint slides on Sunday mornings. Rotations would be once a month and no expertise or tech skills needed! Contact: Wen Reagan.
Prayer
Ministry Partners:
Campus—We pray for Dean Storelli working with Navigators on campus at Duke. Dean also works at Duke with students for whom English is not their first language and helping them with their writing assignments. Please pray:
· That Dean would be fruitful in the fields God has called him to: Duke, their neighborhood, and the broader Navigators community
· For wisdom as he walks alongside 20s trying to adjust to their new lives after college and the staff and staff couple he supervises
· That his wife, Anne, and our kids would prosper and find rest
· As he works with Navigators nationally developing several Bible study materials.
International—We pray for Blacknall supported missionaries Tom and Judy Harvey in Oxford, England. Tom is the academic dean of the Oxford Centre of Missions Studies (OCMS) and Judy continues her pastoral work with St Andrews Church in the Cutteslowe Community of Oxford. Tom writes, “OCMS continues to go full steam ahead even in lockdown, but everything has been moved online and I'm the officer overseeing that transition. That said, we have had 12 students successfully complete their degrees from around the globe. We hold the examinations online via video conferencing. We also have a strong cohort of students wanting to join the programme, which is good. On the down-sided we won't be able to hold their induction in Oxford due to travel restrictions, housing matters, social distancing, and required isolation upon arrival.” [On March 1, their webpage describes nine recently completed PhD dissertations. (For example: “This thesis seeks … potential for Christian enculturation in the larger Vietnamese culture through the voices of Vietnamese Evangelical Christians and those adhering to indigenous ancestral worship practice. The enculturated traits are said to be in the Evangelical ritual of the Lord’s Supper which, the thesis argues, helps in bridging the cultural gaps between Evangelical beliefs and indigenous pre-Christian practices.”)] Prayer requests: (1) full recovery of health for Judy; (2) adequate support for OCMS in the midst of UK’s battered economy, so that they will not have to lay off staff; (3) protection of their students in the Congo from armed bandits and in India from covid; (4) vaccines so that students can travel and do research for their dissertations; (5) discernment and caution, as they begin in person chapel services at the center. An exciting example of interconnectedness is the news that David Kasali from our Deep Common Journey partner, Congo Initiative, is now on the OCMS Council of Trustees.
Pray for International Missionaries using the May Prayer Guide.
Durham—We pray for the ministry of the Durham Rescue Mission. Please pray for:
· The continued safety of their clients and staff. They have been blessed to not have a huge breakout even though they serve 400 men, women, and children each day.
· This time of transition as founders, Ernie and Gail Mills (photo at right) step away from their current roles after 47 years and turn the ministry over to the current Chief Operating Officer, Rev. Rob Tart.
· People will be moving into different positions and learning new roles for the rest of this year, as well.
· Plans to be able to offer their Victory Program virtually. The Victory Program is their program where they seek to teach their clients Christian values so that they can overcome addictions and other obstacles that have knocked people down.
Grief:
We pray for Phil Vandermeer in the death of his mother, Marie, on April 23
We pray for those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus.
Joys
We celebrate with Abby Turner (and parents Don & Karen) as she is engaged to be married to Hunter Cox.
We celebrate with Aaron & Deb Ebert as he passed his preliminary exams for his PhD.
We celebrate with Taylor Brennan (and Luke and Cornelius) as she passed the bar exam!!
Concerns
We pray for Jill Marcantonio who is in the midst of taking her PhD preliminary exams and Julie Leyva who will be taking them later this month.
We pray for Rachel Freyer facing carpal tunnel surgery this week.
We pray for Joe and Karen Bohn living and working in Budapest, Hungary. Joe was diagnosed with blocked cardiac arteries and they need to decide when and where to do bypass surgery.
We pray for Julee Weems who is entering into a two-week program to try and ascertain and treat the serious health conditions she has been suffering under.
We pray for Dean Bidgood who has been diagnosed with bladder cancer.
We pray for Diane Bidgood recovering from cataract surgery and fighting cancer.
We continue to pray for Oscar Shoenfelt, John Shoenfelt’s brother, who is in Duke hospital waiting for a heart for heart transplant surgery.
World
We pray for those parts of our nation and the world where the coronavirus is spiking. We pray for the nation of India with over 350,000 new cases every day. Our mission partner in India asks for prayer for several of their discipleship leaders who have come down with the virus.
We pray for those around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. We pray that they might be faithful and that their persecution would lead to the spreading of the gospel.
Life Together
We pray for volunteers who love youth and love Jesus who would be willing to volunteer in our Middle School and High School ministry with Tanya Kronstad and Brad Turnage.
We pray for volunteers who are willing to help care for our infants and children so that we can offer childcare for worship as we gather together.
We pray for the Pastoral Transition Team as they begin the work of searching for an Interim Pastor. We pray for Stephanie Wheatley (chair), Lauren Holahan, Jack Simonds, Julie Leyva, Ann Talton-Lee, Paul Tshihamba, and David Dunderdale.
We give thanks to God for our mothers and we remember in prayer those who long to be mothers and are longing that they might have children.