Calendar
Congregational Meeting
Sunday August 22, 10 a.m. | Sanctuary/Livestream
The session has called a congregational meeting to receive the fiscal year 2021/2022 budget, approve changes in terms of call for our pastors, and pray together for the year ahead. The meeting will be held in the sanctuary between services and will be livestreamed. Childcare provided for nursery through 5th grade. Parents, look out for an email with childcare details from Children’s Ministry.
Donuts in the Rose Garden
Sunday August 29, 10 a.m. | Perry Street
Glazed or Jelly? Krispy Kreme or Dunkin’ Donuts? Whatever your preference may be, please join us between services on August 29 for donuts, fellowship, music, and a chance to get to know our staff and learn how you can serve at Blacknall this fall. Many thanks to our Deacons for hosting this event. Questions? Contact Maggie Holland.
Fall Sunday School Kickoff
Sunday September 12, 10 a.m.
Children and Adult Sunday school classes begin on September 12. Details coming soon.
Announcements
Finance Update
Blacknall’s 2020/2021 Fiscal Year ended on June 30. Our total income was $1,855,955. Our budget was $1,684,034, and our expenses totaled $1,644,073 (98% of budget). The difference between income and expenses (around $210,000) has been transferred to the Future Vision Fund. The Blacknall session directs the use of this Fund.
Our total income in FY2020/21 was derived from the following sources:
Regular offering: $1,691,733 (91.2%)
PPP loan forgiveness: $163,900 (8.8%)
Other income: $322 (0.02%)
Total income $1,855,955 (100%)
Blacknall received a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of $163,900 in May 2020. As required by the terms of this federal program, we used this loan to cover salaries over the next several months. We were notified in late June 2021 that our application for loan forgiveness was approved, so this amount appears as income for FY2020/2021. We do not anticipate any future income from this mechanism.
We are thankful for God’s provision and the generosity of our congregation through the pandemic period. The Blacknall session has approved a budget for next year of $1,844,103, representing a 9.5% increase from this year’s budget. We will present this budget along with a more detailed financial update at the Congregational meeting on August 22.
Please see our Giving page for details on various ways to give. Questions? Contact Rich Frothingham.
COVID Safety Update
Due to a spike in COVID cases due to the Delta variant, the city of Durham and Durham County has enacted an indoor mask mandate as of Monday, August 9. For the health and safety of our community, masks will be required for all individuals (regardless of vaccination status) when in the building at Blacknall. Please view our updated COVID-19 Safety Precautions and Vaccination Policy for more details.
Dance Worship | Sign up (Children 1st-5th Grade)
Worship at Blacknall happens in many ways. For the past 10 years, many elementary age girls have worked at participating in and sometimes leading worship at our church. When everything shut down in March 2020, these girls continued practicing their gift via Zoom. In the fall of 2020, they moved their practice to the backyard of Sara Stults’ house and continued practicing into the spring of 2021. Several of their worship dances were shared via Zoom with the church on Sundays; we now ask you to worship along with their last “Stults Studio Backyard Worship Dance” of Oceans. Registration for the Blacknall Dance program for the fall of 2021 is now open. We are moving back to the community room, which means limited enrollment and masks for everyone. Practice will be Sundays, 5-6 p.m. beginning September 12.
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 a.m. worship service.
Community
Reality Ministries Volunteer Gathering— Tuesday, August 31, 7 p.m. at the Reality Center, 916 Lamond Ave. Join us to discover how you can get involved with this dynamic community of friends of all abilities sharing life together in lots of different ways! We have a wide variety of volunteer opportunities, including gardening, beekeeping, karaoke dance, art, music, cooking, Bible study and much more. If you'd like to learn more about our growing community and life at Reality Ministries please check out our web site, contact our Volunteer Coordinator Tammy Rodman or just show up on August 31. Feel free to bring a friend! We will follow CDC guidelines for in-person meetings, virtual option also available (email Tammy.)
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson - A book study led by the Mt. Level Community Partnership for Racial Justice . The 10-12-week study begins Thursday, September 16, 6:30-8 p.m. Each weekly meeting will include a brief overview of the content, small group discussions, and a large group wrap-up. Registration is required and participants will be asked to agree to a covenant of participation. Contact: Lauren Holahan
Prayer
Ministry Partners
Campus & National— We pray for Kris Cooper, working with Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) at North Carolina Central University. Thank God for the positive reception on campus to RUF from students and administration. Please pray for RUF’s summer reading series through the book of Ecclesiastes. Please pray that Jesus works in the hearts of the students during these summer months and that this study will lay the foundation to help build community once the fall semester starts. Please pray for increased financial support for this ministry.
International—We pray for Blacknall global workers with Wycliffe Bible Translators, Fraser and Liz Bennett. Fraser has been seconded to SIL LEAD in their work to encourage literacy. He manages SIL LEAD’s part in two large literacy and education projects. After five years, the Central Asian project has ended. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the project helped over 1.1 million children learn to read and trained 18,000 teachers. Nine languages—two national languages and seven minority languages—were involved. Prayer requests from Frazer and Liz: (1) thanksgiving for the 2 community-based literacy projects in Asia; (2) the removal of obstacles to the literacy project in Africa; (3) full recovery of Liz’s mother following her surgery; (4) provision of a good job for son Isaac (18).
Durham — We pray for Iglesia Emanuel and for their pastor, Julio Ramirez-Eve. Please pray for these concerns: 1) For Guillermo and for his health and strength as he bears responsibility for organizing the weekly food distribution each Wednesday as well as leading the congregation in music and worship. 2) For the provision of needed volunteers for the food bank. Thank God for the volunteers from many churches who are helping with this service to our community. 3) For wisdom about how and when to be able to restart Iglesia Emanuel’s ministry to children in the community.
Griefs
We pray for those who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus.
Joys
We rejoice with Ruth Harrell as she celebrated her 90th birthday last Monday.
We celebrate with Pamela and Madison Perry on the birth of their 6th child Warren Walker Perry on July 21.
Concerns
We pray for Greg and Sue Duncan. Greg broke his pelvis and pray for wisdom as they make decisions about his care.
We pray for Margaret Scearce having cancer surgery on Monday.
We pray for Sean & Carmen Garrigan and Nathan and Lily as they settle into life in Honduras. They plan to be serving on the field there for the next 9 months in their work with Missionary Air Group.
We pray for April Perry and Sheila Rittgers as they care for their friends from Haiti, Romel and Fregga’s, daughters, Gaelle (7) and Hadassa (3) for the next several months.
We pray for Matt & Andrea Bridges and Alden, Rosie, and James as they settle into life in Champaign-Urbana, IL and as Matt begins his PhD program and the kids start up in new schools.
World
We pray for wisdom for our leaders as COVID-19 spikes again in our nation and in our community. We pray for a just distribution of COVID vaccines around the world.
We pray for children and teachers who are starting back in school and that their education would not be negatively impacted by the coronavirus.
We pray for Emmanuel and Ijeoma Nnadi, friends of Blacknall living in Jos, Nigeria, as they seek to recover from a devastating flash flood that destroyed almost all of their possessions. Emmanuel also asks us to pray for Christians living in and around Jos as Boko Haram has threatened Christian residents, pastors, and churches with violence if they do not leave Jos.
Life Together
We pray for our congregation to volunteer to care for and disciple our children by volunteering for the Nursery, for Children’s Sunday School, and to be leaders of our Middle School and High School youth groups.
We pray for Leslie Cenezy, Ali Shoenfelt, and Carol Smith, as they serve us in the church office. Pray as they carry a heavier load while we search for a new Communications Coordinator.