The Parish Visitor
The newsletter of the
First Reformed Church
Fishkill,
February 2012
Dear Friends,
We begin the month of February in the Church Season of
Epiphany, proclaiming the good news that the one born in
February is also when we see with our own eyes that
the days are getting a wee bit longer and there is a small delight when we
don’t have to flip a switch in the morning to see our way down the hall, or
when we manage to get home before the street lights come on. The extra light seems to lift our spirit and
help drive away the doldrums.
For Jesus to be called the Light of the World is a
brilliant example of how God uses the common things of life to teach us. Light
drives away darkness. Light brings health and growth. Light illuminates our
path. Light warms us.
February is also the month when the church calendar
changes. February 22 marks the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday. Lent is a
time when we seek to walk with Jesus as he turns his face toward
Ash Wednesday is so named because of the ancient
tradition of ashes used as a sign of repentance and mourning. We have also
adopted the tradition of burning the palm leaves from last Palm Sunday to
create the ashes we will use this year. If you have a palm leaf you would like
to donate, please drop it off by February 19th at the church office
or bring it to church on Sunday.
The Light of the World has come. May our lives reflect
this Light to the world during Epiphany, during Lent, and during all the
seasons of our lives.
The grace and peace of Christ be with you,
FEBRUARY
CALENDAR
|
1 |
Bible Study - Book Study - |
16 |
Choir - |
|
2 |
Choir - |
18 |
Consistory Retreat - |
|
5 |
Worship - Communion - Sunday School - Chime Choir - Church Membership Class (*) |
19 |
Worship - Sunday School - Congregational Meeting - Noon-2pm |
|
7 |
Worship & Music Committee - |
21 |
Consistory - |
|
8 |
Bible Study - Book Study - |
22 |
Ash Wednesday Bible Study - Book Study - Ash Wednesday Service - Choir - |
|
9 |
Choir - |
26 |
Worship - Sunday School - Chime Choir - Church Membership Class (*) |
|
11 |
Venture Crew 65 - Spaghetti Dinner (*) |
28 |
Lenten Luncheon - |
|
12 |
Worship Sunday School - Chime Choir - |
29 |
Bible Study - Book Study - |
|
15 |
Bible Study - Book Study - |
|
|
The Building and Grounds committee would like
to thank, “Just Exteriors Plus Inc.” (http://justexteriors.com/),
of
We, the “Women of the Church”, wish to thank
all who have so generously supported “Socks for Hedgewood” at Christmas
time. Also with giving of greeting card
fronts & old calendars to be used in
crafts, as well as 2012 calendars for residents in their rooms. Connie Lacey beautifully accompanied us on
the new piano and caroling was a joyous time with seven of us gals
participating. It was a fun visit and ended with many cookies to share. Let’s
plan for a spring visit to be with our Hedgewood friends once again.
If you or anyone you
know needs, on a temporary basis, a ride to a doctor, a meal delivered, a friendly supportive visit
or phone call , please call a deacon
closest to you:
Linda Baron (evenings),
Barbara Harty,
John Houston,
COFFEE
HOUR
In the list of dates and names
below, the first name on the list serves as the host. This means calling the
other names on the list for that day and seeing who will bring what, including
juice and milk.
If someone on the list has a commitment before
or after worship, than the group can make arrangements as to who will set up,
who will keep the creamer pitcher full and who will clean up.
Maisie Minot makes
sure the coffeepots are on and full. Those serving make sure the coffee pots
are cleaned and all the tables and counters wiped down with the water/bleach
mixture found in the spray bottle. Please take the dirty dish towels home for a
wash and bring them back the next week.
If you are not
able to do the coffee hour on your scheduled date, please find a replacement
and call the church office with the name of your replacement. If you have any
concerns regarding your availability at this time to do coffee hour due to
health or other large issues, please contact Karen Twohig.
If
anyone plans to bring food to coffee hour for a special occasion,
please notify the host for that date. Thanks
to everyone for your continued hospitality!
FEBRUARY MARCH
5 Scout
Sunday
4 H -
Byers, Skinner, Gillert
H - Boy Scout Troop 65 & Venture
Crew 65 11 H - Twohig, H. Hansen, Schmidt
12 H -
Schallenberg,
Lanni, Suggitt 18 H - Aronow, Rudberg, Carruthers
19 H
- Vasquez, Michealis, McGann 25
H - Doerr, Skorewicz, D. Hansen
26 H -
B, J & R VanVoorhis, Moseman
The Building and Grounds committee would like to give a
great big THANK YOU to Karon and Roger Perry.
Karon and Roger have taken care of our
From the Worship & Music Committee - Please be reminded that large print bulletins and
hymnals are available each Sunday from the ushers.
Lenten Luncheon Series - The Worship and
Music Committee is pleased to bring you another Lenten Luncheon program. Bring
your lunch and join us on Tuesdays at
Notes from January
Consistory Meeting
· Elder Don
Porter led devotions based on Psalm 27, urging us to wait for the Lord,
especially when we have questions and when we are fearful. Proverbs 1:7 tells
us that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” As one year ends
and a new one begins we would be wise to trust it all in God’s hands.
· The consistory
completed the annual reports required by the Reformed Church in
· The steeple,
bell tower and rooster weather vane will be repaired in the coming year.
Estimated cost $110,000 - $112,000. Funds will come from: Capital Fund -
$12,000, Investments - $70,000, Surplus in General Fund - $30,000.
· Year end
Treasurer’s report was received and 2012 Budget approved and will be presented
at the Annual Congregational meeting, February 19th.
· Consistory
retreat will be held, February 18th.
· RCA Mission
Trip to
· Next regular
Consistory meeting is February 21st,
The Venture Crew Spaghetti Dinner will be held on
Saturday, February 11th in the Fellowship Hall. The menu includes
spaghetti, meatballs or sausage, salad, bread, dessert, and coffee, tea, water
or soda. There will be two seatings:
Wednesday Afternoon Book Study
February 1 – March 7
Earth –Wise : A Guide to Hopeful
Creation Care
By Calvin B. DeWitt
Earth-Wise is a Christian response to the environmental concerns
that can sometimes overwhelm us all. Calvin DeWitt says our first response to
these concerns is to gain a joyful positive attitude about our ability to work
for good in the world: “Ours is not to grovel in the polluted gutters or to
wring our hands over our sins. Instead we are called to go about reclaiming
creation for our Lord, knowing that ‘the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in
it’ (Psalm 24.1) and that we may eagerly do so out of joyful gratitude for
God’s great gift of salvation.”
Everyone is invited to join this 6 week study,
beginning Feb.1st,
If you
have questions, please speak with Pastor Gloria.
Church
Membership Class
Belonging is the focus on our class designed for those
interested in membership at
First Reformed
belonging to God
belonging to the Reformed Church in
belonging to First Reformed
The class will meet on February 5, February 26 and March 4, following
coffee hour, in the DuBois House Parlor.
If you are interested, please complete the information sheet available
on the table in the sanctuary or in the DuBois House and return it to the
church office. Please contact Pastor Gloria with any questions or concerns.
Treading
Water with God: Caring for the Caregiver
The
in friendship to support the home caregivers
of their communities.
Instructor: Veronica (Ronnie) Badowski
Date: Saturday, April 21,
Location: First Reformed Church,
Tuition: $20
Additional course information and
registration materials are available on the Fellowship Hall
bulletin board.
Sharing Board
The “Sharing Board”, located next to
the big bulletin board in Fellowship Hall and in the
Food Pantry, offers a site where material wants & needs
are seen simultaneously.
Here’s
how it works:
If
you have an item to give: Fill out two forms
and tack them to the board. One stays on
that board and the other will be posted on the alternate board. Photos may also
be posted.
If
you need an item: Fill out two of the
forms and tack them up. One will remain
there and one will be posted on the alternate board.
When you notice an item you need or one
you would like to donate, please call the phone number on the form. If you decide
not to take the item, please return the form to the bulletin board for others
who might be interested.
Guidelines
1. All items must be clean and in good
condition.
2. The person who is receiving the item is
responsible for picking it up.
(unless the
giver makes other arrangements.)
3. Postings will remain on the board for one
month.
4.
All items are free.
For more
information about the Sharing Board, please contact Karen Twohig.
BSA Troop 65 Venture Crew 65 First
Reformed Church
February News
Troop & Crew 65 finished out 2011 and
began the New Year with a full line up of activities and
events.
The Crew membership continues to grow with
the addition of 5 new youth members. From
5 new Crew members learned about youth
leadership opportunities in the Crew, working together as
a team, the importance of communication and
having fun in a program called “Introduction to
Leadership Skills for Crews” (ILSC). They
made baked macaroni and cheese in a Dutch oven,
chicken stir fry for dinner and cinnamon
buns for dessert. The Crew helped the Troop learn about
First Aid for rock climbing. Family Feud as
the basis for the First Aid game, and all the scouts took
part in the learning experience.
Crew 65 Vice President Amanda Giusto has completed
all the requirements for the Venturing
Silver Award, the highest award in the
Venturing Program. She passed her Board of Review on
November 30th and we look forward
to a Court of Honor for her in the Spring.
Troop 65 kicked off the New Year by
volunteering to assist with a blood drive hosted by the
First Reformed Church on January 3rd. By the end of the day, 35 pints were
collected.
On January 7th, the Troop stayed
overnight at the Inner Wall in New Paltz. All 19 scouts had a
great time completing the requirements to
receive their Rock Climbing merit badges.
On January 21st, the Troop
volunteered at the Dutchess District Eskimo Run. Scouts spent the
snowy day testing Cubs on the trail to
Webelos and the Arrow of Light Award. They also kept a fire
burning for the parents of the Cubs and
served hot chocolate to everyone who visited their station.
If you would like more information regarding
scouting opportunities, activities, or service
projects, please check out our website
at www.troop65fishkill.scoutlander.com
or contact Ed
Tucholski, Scoutmaster or Venture Crew
Advisor Stacey Tucholski.
Chartered Organization: First Reformed Church
Meetings: Monday Evenings
Southern Dutchess & Putnam Sportsman’s
Children’s Community Services
Now that the New Year is here,
we have some new things happening at CCS. We had one of our longstanding staff
members leave as she and her husband are beginning a new phase of their lives
in PA. We were able to fill the slots she left open with current staff and one
of our former parents. We look forward to having new opportunities and fun in
the months to come.
Beginning this semester we are hosting three students
from Dutchess. We are honored to be chosen to have these students experience
early education with us. It is fun working with them and watching them grow in
their abilities with children. Each student comes one day per week and is
visited by their supervisor on occasion. We also will be hosting students for a
“one time” visit several times in the coming months.
With February approaching, we
are anticipating some really special times. The four year old class will be
hosting their “Mother’s Tea”. There will be Valentine parties, school pictures
and at the end of the month, we will be having our annual Open House. Mark your
calendars for Tuesday, February 28th from
Registration has begun for all
of our programs. For more information, please give us a call.
Heather Hansen, Director
+ + +
Dear Friends,
January 2012
We hope
you had a blessed Christmas celebration, remembering the Word made flesh who
dwelt among us, so that we could see and touch and understand the message God
was communicating to us from the beginning. We enjoyed celebrating with our
Nigerien family and spent many hours at church. It is great to be surrounded by
brothers and sisters in Christ when you are far from home. We were also
reminded of the love shown us by our supporting churches in a very tangible way
with Christmas cards and treats appearing in our mailbox! Thanks for
remembering us!
We are now gearing up to host a team of friends
from our Iowa State days who will be
helping to finish the ‘new’ guesthouse and get
it ready to host its first guests! We are looking forward to working
side-by-side with our friends and watching our student workers and others
from the EERN and neighborhood interact with the
team. One of our friends is also bringing his daughter…our girls are very excited! Please keep the team, their
activities, and Jeremy in your prayers.
I would like to share with you in a bit
more detail the story of the clinic…both the temporary clinic where I currently
see patients and the permanent clinic that the EERN is hoping to build. When we
came to
In addition to being a great service to the
neighborhood and a learning laboratory for the EERN for creation of future
clinics, the
More good news…we are overflowing the one room we are
using and really need to build a small clinic/hospital. We hired a nurse at the
end of February 2011. She is a Christian sister and has proved to be a joy to
work with. In September, Yacouba
Mahamane Kakale, a very bright, energetic and busy medical student from the
EERN committed to helping us three mornings per
week. It is great to have someone else from the church engaged in the work.
Please pray for him. We also just received a French medical resident who was
planning to go the interior of
Finally, we have been blessed to have a missionary
physical therapist from
Anyone can see that one room in the clinic can no
longer contain us! The EERN is ready to build a three room clinic with a small
gymnasium for physical therapy. A place has been cleared in the front corner of
the compound that also contains the CADR office and guesthouse. We are looking
at several options for layout and construction materials (concrete or more
traditional construction with mud). The construction and finishing of the
clinic is estimated to cost around $50,000
(which is higher than the early estimates I’ve shared with some of you). We
have about $10,000 raised. Please consider supporting this effort financially.
To contribute a
tax-deductible gift, please write a check payable to the “Reformed Church in
Four years in and we’re still just getting started yet
we praise the Lord for His mercy and grace and the work He has put before us
and for you and your support.
Grace and peace,
Susan
(for
To access extensive information about theBeebouts, or to
make a financial gift for their ministry, simply go to www.rca.org/beebout.
By Nancy Titus
My
elderly father and I, at very different points in our lives, share an amazing
number of similarities. For both of us,
everything is a-kilter, a bit distorted, out of proportion.
Even
something as simple as understanding what time it is has us both a little
fuddled. My father is 87 and has lived alone for 10 years in a very quiet,
rural setting, so it is understandable that he could become confused when he
has no natural markers dividing his day or his week. My family and I have made
an international move, quickly adjusting our watches but having a little more
trouble getting our internal sense precisely matched up to the time on the dial
and the day on the calendar.
We are over the biggest aspects of
jetlag, but we are not entirely over the sense of not quite knowing where we
are – in time or space or things even deeper.
That disconnect with our surroundings is
part of the normal re-entry adjustment that missionaries returning from abroad
go through. In many cases, re-entry can cause a crisis of its own, referred to
as reverse culture shock. That is especially true if the mission work was done
in an area where there is extreme poverty or hardship. I can easily see that
such a situation would almost inevitably induce personal crisis.
Our mission setting in
Still, on an essential level it was
completely different. The other day, Samuel and I went to buy some supplies for
a box we mailed to a friend in
You will be glad to know that in this
re-entry adjustment, we are not on our own. The Reformed Church in
This is a program specifically designed
for missionaries returning to the
Also, there will be special sessions for
our children. These will be led by those who have lived as missionary kids themselves
and understand the special challenges that go with sometimes feeling that the
culture of your parents and even your own birthplace is more “foreign” than the
“foreign” culture you have grown up in. For our children, the five and a half
years they lived in
Just as my siblings and I have stepped up
to accommodate my father’s changing physical needs at this stage in his life,
we are happy that the RCA will help us as we adjust to our new life back in the
United States. Thank you for this and your continued prayers for us as we make
this transitional journey.
Eric and Nancy Titus are
RCA missionaries in