The Messenger Newsletter

Lent
We are three weeks into using Come, and Fill Our Hearts With Your Peace for the Introit and May the Road Rise Up to Meet You for the response to the Benediction.  Those will continue until Easter morning.

Passion/Palm
Sunday March 20th — One Great Hour of Sharing offering during 8:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. worship.  Musically, the Chancel Choir will sing Gabriel Faure’s The Palms, a classical piece for Palm Sunday.

Maunday Thursday
March 24th 7:00 p.m. — The Office of Tenebrae and Holy Communion, Maunday Thursday was the night of the Last Supper and Jesus’ command for us to love one another.  We will mark the evening with the Lord’s Supper and Office of Tenebrae, in which scripture readings, classical musical texts and hymns, along with extinguished candles lead us again through our Lord’s passion.

Easter
March 27th
8:30 a.m. Easter Worship
9:00 a.m. Easter Worship (Contemporary Service if we are all moved into our new facility!)
9:45 a.m. Easter Breakfast, for all ages
10:15 a.m. Egg Hunt (for children)
11:00 a.m. Easter Worship

(Due to the situation with construction and moving, the Worship Committee has announced that there will not be a Son-Rise Service this year.)

Invite a friend, a family member, a neighbor to any or all of these opportunities at Lake Highlands Presbyterian Church.

Both of our denominations, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Presbyterian Church USA, have responded to the relief efforts for the victims of the Tsunami that occurred on December 26, 2004.  Through the World Emergency Fund with Church World Services, contributions have been sent by the Presbyteries, churches and individuals.  We at Lake Highlands have been involved as well.  Throughout the month of January, donations of toiletries and band-aids were received and used to make 160 “Gift of the Heart” Health Kits to be sent to Church World Service who will make sure they get to the victims.  Many of the donations received came from the participants at the Youth Winter Retreat, sponsored by Red River and Trinity Presbyteries.  Also, an overwhelmingly generous amount of monetary donations, totaling over $2100, have been given by members of our congregation, and will be sent on to Church World Services for further relief efforts.  Thank you from the Missions Committee and Reach Out Task Force for opening your hearts during this tremendous time of need.

Missy Rodgers,
Missions Committee Chair

Once again this year the Missions Committee and Reach Out task Force will sponsor a community outreach project designed to let our neighbors know what is going on at L.H.P.C. during the Easter season.  We will have extra bulletins available beginning on Sunday, March 6, for members of the congregation to deliver to neighbors on their street.  The bulletins will list all of the activities for Palm Sunday through Easter.  Look for the sign-up sheet to indicate the number of bulletins you will need for distribution.  This is a simple way of getting information about our church and the programs that we offer to those in our community.

Missy Rodgers,
Missions Committee Chair

Lake Highlands Presbyterian Church will use the following Worship Schedule, although the new Contemporary Service, Praise on High will not begin until our building is completed.

• Worship  8:30 – 9:30
• Praise on High  9:00 – 9:45
• Coffee & Fellowship  9:30 – 9:45
• Christian Ed. Classes  9:45 – 10:45
• Coffee & Fellowship  10:45 – 11:00
• Worship  11:00 – 12:00

Colorado:  Ana Maria sleeps on a mattress under a bridge in the San Luis Valley.  She is a migrant worker.  She didn’t always stay under the bridge.  She came to the valley for the potato harvest.  After a couple of days of work, rain drenched the potato fields, and she could not afford to stay in the migrant worker housing, thus her bridge “home.”  After the rain came bitter cold.  A migrant service worker provided her with accommodations, food and friendly counsel.

Lorenzo, the migrant service worker who assisted Ana Maria, knows what it is like to work in the fields.  He grew up there.  Through the insistence of his parents, he escaped the cycle of moving and took a permanent job.  Then he went back to the fields, not as a migrant laborer but as a service worker.  Knowing both the obstacles the workers face and some of the ways around them, he bridges between their needs and a future he, himself, found.

Pakistan:  Refugees, many from Afghanistan, struggle to provide the bare necessities of life for themselves and their families.  A relief agency provides materials for quilts and trains 400 refugee women in quilt making, for which they receive modest incomes . Within four months and just before the onset of cold weather, 25,000 quilts were made and distributed to over eight thousand refugee families.

One Great Hour of Sharing  provided funding for these relief efforts.  It has been doing so for over fifty years, responding to disaster relief, conflict refugees, providing places to live, food to eat, clothes to wear, tools and skills to make a living, health and nutritional necessities, among others.  Currently, One Great Hour of Sharing helps provide funding for projects in over one hundred countries, including the United States and Canada.

Our non-budgeted offering to One Great Hour of Sharing will be received on Palm Sunday, March 20th. Your contributions will be divided equally between our two denominations.  Please give generously.

Circle l will meet Monday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Eloise Love, 9412 Buxhill.  For more information call Joni Kern at 972-412-1059.

Circle 2 will meet Tuesday, March 22, at 9:30 a.m.  Meeting place to be announced.  Hostess: Lucy Zaccone.  Please call Velma Smith at 214-328-8949 or Harriet Dingman at 214-348-2317 for information.

Circle of Hope will meet Wednesday, March 23, at 9:30 a.m.  The meeting place is to be announced.  Refreshments: Linda Swanson.  For information call Sara Secor at 214-348-7628.

Circle of Joy will meet Tuesday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Kathy Eversole, 10119 Kirkhaven Drive.  For more information call Meg Richardson at 214-763-1359 or Rebeka Stephens at 214-673-4759.

Other Opportunities
Women’s board meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 9, at 10:00 a.m. at the home of Geri McCleskey, 9945 Acklin.

For the women’s mission work Doris Bruner is accepting regular-sized packages of baby diapers and receiving blankets to complete the fifty baby layettes to be given to Parkland Hospital.  Please get the diapers or blankets to Doris by March 16.

Brazos de Cristo/Las Amigas will meet on March 10th at 10:00 a.m. at El Divino Salvador Church for the annual luncheon.  Luncheon price is $6.00. R.S.V.P. to Hilda Flores at 214-328-1694 or Nelda Walker at 214-824-7685.

Men’s Fellowship will meet Tuesday, March 8th, at 7:00 p.m.  Guest speaker TBA.
Bring your own meat to grill for fun, food & fellowship.

With Spring Break, Easter and moving into the new building all being in March, all youth activities will be announced on a week-by-week basis this month.  Some upcoming activities, dates and details to be announced:

Easter Activities, Crop Walk, Family Day Retreat, Youth Led 11:00 Service

Camp Dates:
Junior Camp, Jr. High Camp, and Sr. Camp will be July 23-28 @ Camp WOW. Registrations to come this spring. Cost $245.

Cumberland Presbyterian Youth Conference- July 10-15 (Cost TBA)

Winter Retreat Update
On January 15-16 at Camp WOW in Oklahoma, 148 youth and sponsors from Red River and Trinity Presbytery gathered for the annual Winter Retreat.  Wouldn’t you know that it would be one of the coldest weekends of the year!  The good news is, except for two rooms in the lodge, everyone had heat and stayed toasty.  Who was in the room with no heat, you ask?  Well, that would be Meg and Brandi!  We are still trying to get warm.

We all had a great time over the weekend.  This year’s theme was “SHINE!” based on Matthew 5:16.  Leadership from LHPC was quite evident, three of the worship band leaders were youth from our church.  The churches who participated brought items to help with two service projects.  Twenty-two soccer balls were sent to soldiers in Iraq to be given to children there.  Other items collected were used to help LHPC put together 160 Emergency Health Kits that were sent to Church World Service.  We all look forward to seeing our friends again at camp and other Presbytery events!

Thank You,
     My family and I appreciate the phone calls, cards and prayers at the time of my brother’s death. You are truly a loving and caring congregation of the living God.

     Thanks for being there.

     Robbie Meusel & Family

From Captain Clint Alexander stationed in Iraq:

Dear Lake Highlands Church:
     Thank you so much for the soccer balls. It has really made a difference in the lives of children here.

     Sincerely,

     Clint

Memorial Gifts Claire Lankford Danny & Rebecca Burgin Harriet Dingman Kathryn Forrest Family of Claire Lankford Tom & Elloise Little Shana Nalls J. B. & Mary Lou Pendergrass Foster Smith Velma Smith Marion Watson Patti Ann Witherspoon Shirley Sowell Mary A. Cox Merle Wensley Martha Boyd Keith & Charlotte Meek Helen Dublin Mary L. Natho J.B. & Mary Lou Pendergrass Clara Mae Perkins Grace Smith Marion Watson CDC Recovery Gifts Betty J. Anderson Ralph & Jan Gifford Mac Hubbard Steve Moore Conor Puckett Mason Puckett Howard & Glenn Eva Riggs Paul & Jill Schreiber Ann Shelton Sammye Wood Contemporary Worship Gifts Hollis & Zoe Jacobie John & Gladys McMahon Norma Moore Steve Moore Lorene Pinnell Howard & Glenn Eva Riggs

The best thing about the future is that it comes only on day at a time.

The church expresses Christian sympathy to the family of Thomas Drews.  A memorial service is pending.

The church expresses Christian sympathy to the Bruner family upon the death of Bob on February 2nd.  Memorial services were held at Sparkman-Crane Funeral Home on February 5th.

The church expresses Christian sympathy to the Dobkins family in the death of Lora Beth on January 27th.  Services were held on January 31, 2005 at St. Mark Presbyterian Church.

The church expresses Christian sympathy to John McMahon and family in the death of Gladys.  Memorial services were held at Grace Presbyterian Village on Saturday, February 12th.

The following persons visited worship during the months of January:

Mark Russell, Ciocan Family, Paul & Jill Schreiber, John Conley, Madison & Dylan Wood, Thelma Waters, Maxie Hardin, Leslie Durham, Dan & Vicky Higgins, Cathy Bullard, Doug Van Wey, Robert & Bonnie Thiebaud, Roy & Vivian Sayler, Rachel & Ian Davies, Bill & Irene Keil, Dixie Edwards, Emily & Jere Turner, Roland & Dorothy Mackey, Kim & Lois Leeb, Patti Williamson, Andrew & Joy Bond, Heather Hardesty, Louis Bodnar, Alton Kolpien, Nadine Maxwell, Nic Santangelo