ANNOUNCEMENTS
TODAY - Cancer Support Group, 10 a.m. | Zoom Link
This group meets the 1st Sunday of every month for prayer, education and sharing our lives. This is for all cancer survivors, caregivers, and loved ones. Contact Karen Allen with questions.
Women’s Bible Study | Fall 2020
Please join us in "Discovering Hope In The Psalms" together. Online audio teaching begins the week of Sept. 21. This semester will be flexible with audio teaching and various times for small in-person or zoom groups. Register here.
Director of Congregational Care Job Opening
The search committee hopes to find a person who will not only extend care to those in need, but will encourage all at Blacknall to engage in one another’s lives in meaningful ways. Learn More
Photos of Life Together While Apart
Do you have a photo of worshiping from home, gathering over zoom, or another creative way of sharing life? Please send them to Mary Grimm. Thanks to Lauren McCrary for the above photo of her family following along with the Children’s Blessing from Goodie Bell.
BLACKNALL CLASSIFIEDS
A forum/exchange to support one another at Blacknall with items for sale, loan, or free; housing or job postings; and community events or opportunities.
Prayer & Thanksgiving
We celebrate with Erin & Brad Boswell in the birth of the daughter Hallie Caroline Boswell on August 28. Sign up here to take them a meal.
Pray for Blacknall supported missionaries using the September Prayer Guide.
Pray for Blacknall missionaries R & B, 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: (1) healing for friends who have been infected with the virus; (2) the tapering off of COVID cases where they live; (3) provision of finances and air travel for their daughter, who would like to enroll in school abroad.
About the music
We have been in “sanctuary shut-down” since March 15; it’s safe to say that no one expected this to last 6 months. I want you to know of some remarkable work that has gone on during that time. Every week, there have been folks that have gathered to record music for our worship services. To say that it is strange doesn’t get at it – to sing and play in that beloved room, but without our beloved worshiping community…ugh and oof! For the vocalists, to make the recordings work, they have to use microphones but without amplification – in other words, once the instruments begin playing, the singers essentially cannot hear themselves. Making music is, among other things, an emotional experience, and these months of congregation-in-absentia have been emotionally-conflicted. So I hope that you will join me in acknowledging the sacrificial gift that these friends have given: Annie Scott, Kate Wilkin, Bob Mutter, and Matt Bridges have played, and Dana McCarty and Sarah Solie have sung, all of it with skill and soul. But especially, let’s honor these three: Scott Laird has been on violin almost every week, and Jamie Turnage has sung throughout. All of it has been “tech-mastered” with a gentle, skilled touch by Leslie Eibest. I cannot imagine what these months would have been without the gift of making music with these three. They have given, week in and week out, out of reverence for Christ and love for His people at Blacknall. Psalm 137 says, “How can we sing the songs of Zion while in a foreign land?” That’s what it has felt like to me – but thanks be to God, I have been surrounded by, and encouraged by, these friends, helping to enable all of us to sing to the Lord while “in exile”. I hope that you will reach out to them with gratitude.
COMMUNITY EVENTS
Celebrating 15 Years, Kawa with Congo Initiative | Saturday, Sept. 12, 9-10 a.m.
This month, please join us and your friends in Congo for a morning of coffee (“kawa”) and a virtual celebration on one of three Saturdays in September. Grab a cup of coffee or tea to enjoy during the celebration. You will have the opportunity to see firsthand the impact Congo Initiative has made in eastern Congo over the past 15 years. RSVP here.
Faith & Votes | Sept. 14, 5:30 p.m.The world is buzzing with issues and questions of human rights, global public health, climate change, the education system…, and all in an election year. How should people of Christian faith think about these issues that face our country and the world? Duke Professor of Political Science Kyle Beardsley and Founder and Director of the Institute for Public Trust Frank Hill will discuss how their Christian faith informs their engagement as voters. Details here.
Duke Divinity School Theology Medicine and Culture Seminars
These semi-monthly seminars are a regular gathering of faculty, students, clinicians, and others interested in the intersections of theology, medicine, and culture. Due to COVID-19, our seminars will be held online during 2020-21. We are excited to announce the availability of continuing education credit in association with our TMC Seminar Series. More details here.
Participating in the census shapes our future!
Census results inform how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding are allocated to more than 100 programs. It shows where Durham needs new schools, clinics, roads and services for families. Durham’s current rate of participation is about 60%. We only have until Sept 30 to bring that number up. Increasing participation in the census, particularly with undercounted groups, is a Christian task because it is a direct tool to equitably put resources where they are truly needed.
How can Blacknall help get everyone counted?
Do your census, if you haven’t yet: https://my2020census.gov/
Help friends/family who need help figuring it out/getting it done. (Yes, you can do it in non-English languages online and/or you can do it over the phone!)
Post about the census in your networks, especially networks working with under counted groups, ex. Meals on Wheels or Habitat for HumanityPost on social media. Click here for some possible posting options. Use the hashtags #MakeNCCount #DurhamCounts
Work as a paid census worker, or share the idea with a job-hunting friend.
Reach out to the census to see where else they may need help.