Calendar
Thursday, Sept. 30
Prayer for Afghanistan
Please consider joining John Nicholson and Paula Rinehart for prayer (and fasting, if you can) for Afghanistan as we pray for the church under duress there, for allies who need safe passage out, for the mercy of God in a crisis situation, for Christ to reveal Himself to this stricken people. We’ll pray together on Zoom on Thursdays, Sept. 30, and Oct. 7, 12-12:30 p.m. Zoom link on CCB. Contact: Paula Rinehart.
Sunday, Oct. 3
Cancer Support Group | 10-10:45 a.m. | Zoom (link on CCB)
Gather for prayer, education and sharing our lives. This is for all cancer survivors, caregivers, and loved ones. Contact Karen Allen with questions or to join the email list.
Sunday Evening Outdoor Worship | 6-6:45 p.m. | Iredell St. Lot (714 Iredell St.) |
Please join us on Sunday evenings (Oct. 3, 10, 24, 31, & Nov. 7) for outdoor worship at our Iredell St. lot (714 Iredell St.). This is an opportunity for all ages to see familiar (or new!) faces, witness to our neighbors and celebrate the Lord’s table.
Coming Up:
Festival of the Bean (Fall picnic/Chili Cookoff)
Sunday, Oct. 17, 4-7 p.m. at Camp Chestnut Ridge in Efland. Rise to the chili challenge, and you may be crowned Lord or Lady of the Bean! Come enjoy fellowship, s’mores, and the beauty of autumn. More details.
Inquirers’ Class
Sundays, Oct. 24, Nov. 7, 14, 21, and Dec. 5, 5-6 p.m. Are you curious about life and membership at Blacknall? Come get to know more about Blacknall, and let us get to know you! Contact Goodie Bell if interested.
Women’s Retreat
November 12-14, 2021 (Location/Format TBA). More details here.
Blacknall Opportunities
Worship with Children – Orientation Session
Saturday October 2, 2021 from 9am to Noon
Have you been watching and worshipping at home with the videos of a Children’s Worship session Blacknall has been offering throughout this Covid season?
Do your children come home chattering about the new story that they have heard and worked with on Sunday mornings?
Do you watch the children file out of the Sanctuary after giving a blessing to the congregation and wonder where they go and what they do for the rest of the service?
If any of these apply to you, you are invited to come to an Orientation to Children’s Worship. Saturday October 2, 2021 from 9am to Noon. We are hoping to expand our team of Hosts and Storytellers in order to offer a full program of Children’s Worship again. Coming to the orientation does not commit you to that however, so please come and see what we do! Please let Beth Solie know that you plan to attend, so we can have materials ready for you. If you have questions please contact Beth as well. bsolie@blacknall.org or (919)286-5586.
Be a storyteller at “The Betty”
The Betty is Blacknall’s storytelling event. It is an effort to create a space for women to bear witness to the amazing/head-scratching/wonderful/ impossible/painful/glorious/joyful work of God in our lives. Save the date for the fall 2021 edition of The Betty- Thursday, October 28, 7-8:30 p.m. outdoors, on Lauren Holahan’s lawn. We invite 3-4 women to step up to the mike and share a reading, recite a poem, do a comedy sketch, or tell a short story about a time they encountered Jesus. Humorous content is encouraged! Serious reflections are too! Maybe you’ve encountered Jesus on a literal mountaintop, or maybe it was in a cramped office, or maybe it was in a grocery store. If Jesus was there, no story is too wild or too mundane. The Betty is a forum for all of us to hear, resonate with, and reflect on these sacred stories in the company of other listeners. It is the promotion of a culture of God-story tellers. We hope you’ll join us. Contact Maria Bradshaw if you’re interested in being at the mike or have questions.
Serve on Sunday Mornings
Serve as an Usher (Aaron Ebert), or join the Stream Team (Wen Reagan), BAT (Blacknall Audio Team) (Leslie Eibest), or Coffee Crew (Tana O’Keefe). Contact the leader (in parentheses) for more information.
Volunteer in the Nursery. Fully vaccinated adults and teens are invited to support families by providing childcare during our 8:30 a.m. worship service and Sunday school hour.| Sign up. Contact: Leslie Petree.
Community Announcements
Reality Ministries Community Worship
Wednesday, Sept. 29, 7-8 p.m. A family-friendly hour of worship led by Reality friends of all abilities. Outdoors in the parking lot at the Reality Center. All are welcome!
Bible Study Fellowship Men’s group
BSF has a men’s group that meets at Blacknall, Monday evenings at 7 p.m. Blacknall men and their school-aged children are invited to participate in this fall’s study of Matthew. Contact Ross Green (864.450.0592) or Kelly Corbet for more information.
Love and Serve
Volunteer with StepUp Durham. Particular needs right now are for volunteers to serve as Resume Builders and Mock Interviewers at job readiness workshops, and to walk with participants as Co-Partners in Step2’s 8-week training modules. All opportunities are virtual through the end of 2021. To learn more, email StepUp’s Volunteer Coordinator, or contact Nancy Grigg.
Take a meal to Josh and Lori Riggs and pray for Lori as she’s experiencing health issues.
Volunteer at the Iglesia Emanuel Food Pantry. Not comfortable gathering? Sign up to bag rice and beans from home.
Volunteer at the Walltown Neighborhood Ministries Food Bank
Responding to the Afghanistan Crisis
Our hearts are heavy as we continue to hear the news coming from Afghanistan. Let us continue to pray for this nation and the people there. If you are looking for ways to respond and to support the people there, here are several options:
Give financially to Concilium, recommended to us by global workers working in Afghanistan. This helps expat Gospel workers and local Afghan Christians get to safety.
Give to Team Expansion, working to provide for the essential needs of displaced Afghans.
Contact Blacknall’s Andrea Tshihamba, our liaison with World Relief Durham if you’re interested in being a part of a Blacknall team that helps welcome Afghan refugees.
Please contact David Dunderdale if you have questions or thoughts on how we might respond.
Deep Common Journeys
What’s a Deep Common Journey? One of Blacknall’s commitments in mission is that we would intentionally enter into “Partnership with an organization in mission toward learning to be disciples of Jesus Christ.” We call these partnership relationships “Deep Common Journeys.” While Blacknall supports approximately 60 different international, Durham, and campus mission partners, we have focused on four Deep Common Journey partners—Reality Ministries (Durham), Families Moving Forward (Durham), International Students, Inc. (Campus), and Congo Initiative (International).
How can I enter our Deep Common Journey? There are many ways to get involved:
Reality Ministries — Reality has a wide variety of volunteer opportunities including gardening, beekeeping, karaoke dance, art, music, cooking, Bible study and much more. Join a daytime or evening group at the Reality Center, have fun and make some new friends! Check out Reality’s Volunteer page or contact volunteer coordinator Tammy Rodman.
Families Moving Forward— Be a Study Buddy, join the Hospitality Team, donate to Barrels of Joy, be a Room Refresher, or dine with Chefs for Change. Visit FMF’s volunteer page or contact Mark and Anne Paulson to learn more.
International Students Inc.— Join the IstudentsDuke prayer ministry and engage in regular conversation with an international student (in person or virtual). To learn more, fill out the volunteer interest form, visit ISI’s Volunteers page, or contact Dan Kronstad (630.903.1300).
Congo Initative— Join the monthly prayer time for our Congolese brothers and sisters (second Sundays at 6:30 p.m. over Zoom), be a pen pal to a university student at UCBC, serve on the Congo Leadership Team. To learn more about these and other opportunities, fill out the CI Volunteer Interest Form or contact Kim Dunderdale. Sign up to receive news and updates from CI.
Prayer
Ministry Partners
Campus & National— We pray for Ben Davison, Blacknall’s Divinity School Intern who is working with undergraduate students at Blacknall. Ben asks for prayer for:
· “Discipline and focus to complete my ordination requirements while completing school.”
· “For clarity on my next steps and that God will direct me and send people into my life to help me discern where I should go after I finish school.”
· “That God would gather college students and that our group will be a place where we can ask honest questions about what it means to follow Jesus on our campuses.”
International—We pray for Blacknall supported global workers Woody & Mary McLendon, with Wycliffe Bible Translators in Waxhaw, NC. Woody “is a natural problem-solver, from his early days of creating software for NASA, to studying languages in Niger, to helping launch a secure email system for our partners. He’s been with JAARS since 2001, primarily in IT leadership. Before stepping in as president, he also served as our vice president of organizational strategy. Whatever the challenges, Woody finds that a solid spiritual foundation is critical—keeping a close relationship with the Lord through prayer and God’s Word. When he’s not in the office, you’ll find him spending time with his family, playing a pickup game of soccer, or woodworking.” Prayer requests: (1) thanksgiving for a wonderful vacation in July with all their family; (2) wisdom and fruitfulness for Woody, as he makes several trips during September; (3) his wife Mary and Dr. Kikama, as they translate Philemon in the Iyansi language; (4) the Iyansi translation team in DRC, especially for the village checking process now under way.
Durham—We pray for Families Moving Forward as they care for families dealing with homelessness. Please pray for:
· School-aged children who have returned to school for safety from the virus and from any potential unsafe situations;
· Improvement with school bus transportation as families are spending hours waiting for their children to get home from school which can impact employment and other things they need to focus on;
· Sound leadership as their board of directors and executive search committee are seeking a new executive director;
· The general emotional and mental health of the staff and guests as they continue to navigate FMF during the pandemic
Griefs
We pray for Nancy Congleton whose mom died on September 17
We pray for Jim & Linda Demarest and family on the death of his mother, Rose, on September 16
We pray for Ilene Stitsinger and Abby Stitsinger whose mother/grandmother died on September 12.
We pray for Carmen & Bob Pennington on the death of Carmen’s father, Hassel, on September 13.
We pray for Peter Feaver and his family on the death of his mom on August 28.
We pray for those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus.
Joys
We rejoice with Jane & Vincent Stubbs who celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary yesterday.
We rejoice with Ken & Christine Woods-Henderson who celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary yesterday
We rejoice with Abby Demarest & Toby Finizio who were married yesterday in Swansboro.
Concerns
We pray for John Blake, Executive Director of Child Evangelism Fellowship in Durham, to be able to fully recover from surgery to remove a brain tumor last week
Pray for Jane Stubbs having finger surgery on Tuesday
We pray for April Perry and Shelia Rittgers as they care for their friends from Haiti, Romel and Fregga’s, daughters, Gaelle (7) and Hadassa (3) for the next several months.
World
We pray for the immigration crisis on the southern border of the U.S. We pray for our leaders to come up with a policy that is compassionate and just. We pray for efforts by Christians like the Evangelical Immigration Table and World Relief who are working in Congress to develop a new immigration policy.
We pray for Afghan refugees and for the Mangal extended family here in Durham. We pray for Makail and his family still stuck in Afghanistan. We pray for a new family just arrived in Durham and for Andrea Tshihamba as she spearheads efforts by Blacknall to care for this family.
We pray against the spread of COVID and we pray for people to be diligent in taking precautions to prevent its spread. We pray for the health workers who are caring those infected with this virus.
Life Together
We pray for Wen Reagan as he leads us in worship each week. Please pray for Wen’s physical health as he awaits surgery to remove a melanoma. Pray for physical strength and stamina him.
We pray for small groups, both existing and new ones being started up this Fall. Pray that our small groups would be agents of discipleship and fellowship. Pray especially for new groups forming that the members would quickly connect with one another and become places of trust.