Calendar
SUNDAY, JULY 4
Cancer Support Group | Sunday, July 4, 10 a.m. | Zoom link
Gather for prayer, education and sharing our lives. The group meets monthly over Zoom on the first Sunday of the month at 10 a.m. This is for all cancer survivors, caregivers, and loved ones. Contact: Karen Allen.
Summer FUN-Day Evenings | Sundays through July 25, 5- 7 p.m. Duke Park Picnic Shelter (106 West Knox Street, Durham). Tonight, Blacknall will provide popsicles from Pincho Loco! Pack a picnic dinner and blanket and join our Blacknall family for fellowship, fun, and devotion. The picnic shelter is reserved for the whole afternoon, so feel free to arrive early, and bring a friend! Park on W. Knox Street for easiest access to the picnic shelter, it is a bit of a walk from Acadia Street.
Last Sunday’s Hymn Sing at Duke Park
Announcements
Welcome Becky Gould!
Becky officially took on her new role as Blacknall’s Director of Congregational Care this week. You can reach Becky at bgould@blacknall.org.
The official passing of the baton from Margaret to Becky.
Interim Pastor Search
Blacknall is actively seeking an interim pastor to work with the Session, staff, Transition Team (congregation, and other stakeholders through the transition process and to develop a mission study. View Blacknall’s MIF for more details and share the word with qualified candidates. Interested candidates should forward their PIF or resume to: interimpastorsearch@blacknall.org. Contact Stephanie Wheatley, Pastoral Transition Team chair, with questions.
The Blacknall Library is open! As Sunday morning worship is now underway, the library is ready too! Our books, DVDs and CDs are here for your summer enjoyment.
Hours: Sundays between services, self-service midweek when the church is open. Masks are requested, and we’ll limit the number of people as needed. Come see us for all the books you’ve missed!
If you have library materials at home, it’s time for the great Blacknall Book Bring-Back! Since the beginning of the pandemic, we extended return dates. Please return any overdue library materials to ensure our collection serves everyone.
Summer Nursery Volunteers | Sign up
We are inviting fully vaccinated adults and teens in our congregation to partner with the Nursery Ministry in providing childcare during our Sunday 8:30 am worship service this summer. You can find the June/July sign-up sheet above and you're welcome to sign up as a Volunteer Worker for as many spots as you'd like.
Ushers needed during both services. | Sign up to receive more details on various ways to serve during worship.
Community
Housing for New Hope (HNH) is in need of 6-8 volunteers for 4-6 hours at their Williams Square location. Reaching, bending, pulling and kneeling is involved. Please contact Lauren Holahan if interested. HNH is flexible and will schedule the time based on volunteers’ availability.
Prayer
Ministry Partners:
Campus—We pray for Terri Shell, InterVarsity Area Director for the Eastern Carolinas. Terri asks for these prayers:
Pray with me for staff in the Carolinas region, that they will have eyes of faith to see and believe that their God is doing great things.
Pray that our students will press on in saying yes to all that Jesus asks of them and continue to share their faith with their friends.
Pray for new staff starting up in ministry this summer.
International—We pray for Blacknall partners Ron and Betsy. Ron and Betsy have been serving the people of Central Asia since 1999. Their work focuses on bringing health, wellness, and a better quality of life to the local community where they live and minister. Their heart to serve the people has opened many doors for relationships and the sharing of the gospel. They have started a Health Education Project in the community as well as a Children at Risk Project that ministers to children in a local orphanage. Prayer requests:
Thanksgiving for the provision of housing in Durham
Wisdom for their colleagues, foreign and local alike, as they consider how to share Jesus in the midst of their development work
A spiritual hunger for many Kyrgyz, leading them to want to study the Bible
Thanksgiving for a successful surgery on daughter Joy’s legs at Duke.
Durham—We pray for the ministry of Walltown Neighborhood Ministries and for Sylvia Belcher and all of the volunteers who make this ministry possible. Please pray for:
Good health for Sylvia as she is at the hub of this ministry.
The individuals and families who come for emergency help for rent, utilities, and basic necessities. We pray that these people might experience the grace of Christ as they come and that they might be connected to a community of support.
The monthly food bank that is needing a new distribution and storage space. Pray for the Lord to provide a space that is accessible and affordable. The current space is no longer available by the end of July so pray for something to become available quickly.
With thanksgiving for the fellowship of joy as volunteers from Blacknall, St. John’s and several other local churches work together in this ministry.
Grief:
We pray for those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus.
Joys
We celebrate with Pete and Mindy Lance on their 40th wedding anniversary last Sunday.
We give thanks for the freedoms we enjoy in the USA. On this 4th of July we give thanks for all of the blessings we have received in this country and we pray for this nation to live more fully into its vision of unity, freedom, and justice for all.
Concerns
We pray for Joe Bohn recovering from heart bypass surgery. Pray for no more complications.
We pray for April Perry and Shiela Rittger as they welcome the Dorsaint Family: Fregga, Gaelle and Hadassa, the wife and children of their partner in mission in Haiti, Romel. For security reasons they have come to stay with April and Shiela.
World
We pray against a surge in cases of the Delta Variant of COVID-19 in South Africa, where our mission partners, Jim and Julianna Gieser live. We pray for our friends in Eastern Congo where there has been a five-fold increase in COVID cases in the last 5 weeks.
We pray for the family and friends of the victims of the Surfside condominium building collapse.
Life Together
We pray for Beth Solie and Leslie Petree, our Children’s Ministry leaders. Please be praying as they prepare for a hopeful return to children’s Sunday School in September. Pray that as a congregation we would be willing to love our children by helping to teach and care for our children. Pray for the needed volunteers to be able to do this.
We pray for our search for a new Communications Director.
We pray for a deepening heart for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with our neighbors. We pray for creativity, imagination, and love for our neighbors as we seek to make Jesus known.