Interested in exploring membership here at RCLPC?
An inquirer’s class has been scheduled to begin on Wednesday evening , March 5, from 7-8pm and will run for three consecutive weeks (March 5, 12, & 19). This class will meet in the Lounge. We will explore what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be a Presbyterian, and what it means to be a member of RCLPC. Dinner and childcare will be provided. Dinner is part of our WEAVE program (Wednesday Evening AVEnues) and is served between 6 and 7pm and is open to everyone. Please RSVP to the church office (815-459-1132) for the class itself or sign up in the Connecting Link.
The Good Life or Abundant Life?
The Gospel Call to Simplicity
Wednesday evenings in the sanctuary at 7pm
Richard will lead the discussion
March 5: How Much Is Enough?
We will consider our consumption habits as they relate to the effects of the global economy on people and the environment.
March 12: Broader Impacts of Our Everyday Food Choices
We will reflect on and remember the joys of good food and consider our food choices as they relate to personal and environmental health.
To be alive is to be vulnerable.
To be faithful is to resist the temptation of security.
-Dorothee Soelle
Lent 4 (March 2), Psalm 23. We are reminded that, though we walk through the darkest valley, God is with us, and though we may be surrounded by enemies, God prepares a table of blessing for us.
Lent 5 (March 9), Ezekiel 37:1-14. In the story of the valley of dry bones we see that it is never too late for God, and so we should never lose hope.
Palm Sunday (March 16), Matthew 21:1-11. Jesus enters Jerusalem as a King…but what kind of king is this, who rides not a warhorse but a donkey’s colt? What kind of king is surrounded not by an army but by singing children? This is not your usual parade, not your usual power, not your usual king...
May this season of Lent be a time of meditation on “holy insecurity”—finding God and trusting God in the midst of our insecure lives.
-Richard
We will again be gathering at 6:30pm on Maundy Thursday (March 20) for a meal and worship. We will be exploring our Journey to the Cross as well as experiencing a culinary journey around the world. Please join us!
The Northern Illinois Food Bank is making Easter baskets available for the needy. It will include a 6-8# ham with all the trimmings and a dessert. Baskets cost $15. If you can help, please make your checks payable to the “Crystal Lake Food Pantry” and put them in my mailbox or place your check in the offering plate. If you make them out to RCLPC, please write “Food Pantry baskets” on the memo line. Help make Easter special for someone out of work, a senior or a single parent and their children. Thanks to all of you for being the kind generous people you are. ~ Nancy Vazzano
Thank you so much for all your support! We collected about 27,000 pennies, which will feed a child for a whole school year. We also collected another $1200 in sponsorships, so altogether we have fed 4 children for a year! Thank you so much for helping us help others.
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Don’t Forget...
Spring Ahead
Turn your clocks forward
Sunday, March 9th
The Middle School Youth Group will be participating in a Bowl-A-Thon on March 2nd at the Westland Bowling Center in Crystal Lake. They will be collecting donations to help support the Big Brothers, Big Sisters of McHenry County, an organization that matches kids with adult mentors. If you are interested in donating, please ask one of your outgoing youth for more details or go to www.bbbsmchenry.org. Thank you as always for your wonderful support!
On the first Thursday of every month we gather in the sanctuary for a different kind of prayer—we pray together in song and silence. That’s right, we just sing together for almost an hour. We also practice listening for God in the silence. This candlelight service is a perfect way to unwind from a busy week, to listen for God in the midst of our hectic lives, and to just come together to sing.
Our next service of prayer in the spirit of Taizé is Thursday, March 6 at 7:30pm in the sanctuary. We hope you will join us in praying for peace and in listening for God in song and silence.
Please come to Fellowship Hall on Sunday, March 9 to write Easter greetings to RCLPC's troops serving in the Middle East: Ryan Atkinson (friend of the Stipatis), Christopher Erwin (nephew of the Basers), Charles Gay (friend and former student of Karla Koenig), Andrew Pohl (nephew of the Baumans and Pohls), and Jonathon Roach (son of Cindee Robinson). If you wish to donate Girl Scout cookies to them, please leave the cookies in the box in the Gathering Place across from the office. If you have a loved one serving in the military in the Middle East, please contact me. ~ Mary Moltmann
It is time again for the children and youth in our church to prepare Easter Baskets for the children from Home of the Sparrow. There are 36 kids and 16 women in the program at this time. This is such a great opportunity for the young members of our church to bring a smile to another’s face. The opportunity is also available to the adults in our church through various donations of items and/or time. This year we will be preparing the baskets on Palm Sunday, March 16, at 9:30 (during the Sunday School hour). The following are some of the items needed: volunteers to assist, small Easter baskets, candy, healthy snacks, small toys, books and or coloring books, small plastic eggs (no grass please). There will be donation boxes in the hall by the classrooms and by the office. If you are able to volunteer, please contact Wendy Sanders.
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Our high school youth will once again be offering their services to the highest bidders this spring. Have yard work that needs to be done? Need a babysitter? Have an “ugly job” you just can’t get up the energy to do? Want your dog or your car washed? We can help!
This year we will be offering services on specific dates, to help us keep track of the jobs that need to be done. (Except for babysitting, of course!) Beginning March 16, look in the Connecting Link for the dates you are available to have work done and for the job you need done, and then bid bid bid!!
Need something that isn’t currently offered? Fill out a request form and we will get someone to come over to help you out for a very reasonable hourly rate. All the money goes to support the high school youth mission trip to inner-city Chicago, where we will be learning about (and doing something about) urban poverty. Thanks!
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We are involved in mission in many different ways, and one of those is the Meals on Wheels program. This is hands on involvement that costs us only a little bit of our time (1-1/2 - 2 hours). The Meals on Wheels program provides regular contact with the elderly, and the primary goal is to help people remain in their home as long as possible. This is a ministry that would not be able to operate without volunteers from this and other congregations, currently 11 churches deliver meals. Our participation is a vital contribution to this program.
If you feel you could join others from this congregation in providing delivery service during the week of March 10 to March 14, please call Marina Hoffman or sign up on the sheet in the Connecting Link on your preferred day. Your participation is appreciated.
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Last year members of our congregation began providing financial support for Sara at Fairhaven School, the special school in Alexandria, Egypt, for handicapped children that we have been associated with for several years.
The Mission Outreach Ministry has stepped out in faith to offer the sponsorship of a second child. The director of Fairhaven has sent us information about another student in need. Randa, age 14, has been deaf since birth and was unable to speak until recently when she was taught at school to read lips and make herself understandable through signing. When she first arrived at Fairhaven, Randa could not walk because of a back problem. The director of the school informs us that Randa’s walk has “straightened and she is always cheerful and willing to join in games and activities.”
Prayerfully consider helping in sponsoring Randa. Monthly tuition costs are $140 per month for the eleven-month school year. One time donations as well as monthly or quarterly contributions in whatever amount you can afford are acceptable. If we receive pledges and contributions exceeding the monthly tuition costs, we will sponsor additional children at Fairhaven School.
If you would like to help, please call Rick Johnson. Learn more about Fairhaven at www.saraychurch.org, click on “Community Service” then click on “Mentally Challenged.” ~ Mission Outreach Ministry
Standing Bear
By Kevin Abourezk, a reporter and editor at the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star newspaper.
“As the country honors the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr, I think it’s a good time to remember a man many consider to be our country’s first civil rights activist. He is widely known in Nebraska but few have heard of him beyond those borders. He is Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca Tribe.
In January 1879, Standing Bear and 30 followers left Indian Territory in Oklahoma where they had been forced to live for two years, to return to their former lands in Nebraska. They preferred their homelands along the Niobrara River to the barren earth of Oklahoma so as the Chief’s son, Bear Shield, was dying and asked his father to bury him in the soil of his homeland, Standing Bear felt he had to honor his last request. On January 2, 1879 they started their trip home. Two months later they were arrested and the Chief was put on trial. After two days, the trial ended and the chief offered an impassioned plea to the court in an effort to prove he was a human being and entitled to the same right to freedom as every human being:
‘That hand is not the color of yours, but if I pierce it, I shall feel pain. The blood that will flow from mine will be the same color as yours. I am a man. The same God made us both.’
Two weeks later, federal Judge Elmer Dundy ruled that an Indian is a person within the meaning of the law and entitled to the constitutional rights of U.S. Citizens. This decision allowed the Ponca to return to their land and freed Standing Bear. For the first time in this country’s history, Native people had the right to go where they wanted, to leave the confines of the reservation and roam where they pleased. “As noted at the beginning of this article, he was little known beyond the borders of Nebraska and it wasn’t until 1920 that the acceptance of Native Americans as human beings was generally recognized. And all because a father wanted to fulfill his son’s wish.
The Native American Connection.
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