WINTERGARDEN WEEKEND UPDATE

Dearest Faith Community Near and Far- Well, thank you for all the prayers. We arrived safely on Tuesday to the show grounds and fully settled in on Wednesday. Now it’s Friday and beautiful in Georgia! Yesterday, we woke up to the mighty cold temperature of 36 degrees and by mid-afternoon it was 75 degrees! What a swing in temp! Emma isn’t feeling the greatest, so we would really appreciate some prayers for healing and recovery so she can be at her best for this show. Thanks for praying for our journey and our time at the horse show. I’ll be heading back on Wednesday night while Lamont and Emma finish out the rest of the show.  Second, I just wanted to highlight the Holy Week schedule.On Maundy Thursday, we will have a worship service around a full dinner meal. We will gather for dinner and worship at 6pm. Nothing you need to bring…just yourself. Maybe wear sandals if you can. And we will have the tables set up in the sanctuary (not under the tent). This service will be in-person only. On Good Friday, we will gather at 12pm around the fountain in the garden for a meditation service around the scriptures to reflect on Good Friday. This will be on Facebook Live as well. On Saturday, everyone is invited to a day of reflection, praying, and fasting. A separate email will be sent out next week with all these details. And then on Sunday, we will celebrate the Resurrection! We will gather in the garden around the fountain for our sunrise service at 7am. This will be in-person only. Then breakfast church at 9:30am for our Easter service which will be in-person and on Facebook Live. After worship, we will have an egg hunt for all the children. Third, I hope you are following our facebook page for highlights around the construction projects, our mission and ministry, and updates about the church. Here are a few updates on construction highlights, updates, and property work. In addition, pictures are being posted on our Facebook page:After many months of waiting, the engineering preliminary draft work is completed and looks great. What’s even better…our General Contractor approved them! We are praying we have the final plans on Monday. Once we have this, we will be able to get our electrical rough in inspection submitted and scheduled.  The final engineering will also open up the formal permitting for the covered area for the food pantry, the kitchen remodel, and installation of showers in the building and a laundry area. We are in the process of signing the contract for all the flooring in the sanctuary and will have a timeline shortly.Fourth, from our session meeting, we are tasked with writing out our key initiatives by our next session meeting. If you have time over the next couple of weeks, send an email to me (pastor@wintergardenpres.org) or to Maralee (maraleemcgowen@gmail.com) to let us know what you feel our key initiatives are with a descriptive sentence.  It will help us in the brainstorming and finalizing this next step. Prayers for a blessed weekend for everyone! And traveling mercies for everyone heading back north over these next couple of weeks. Please let us know when you arrive home safely! If you have any questions or wonderings or concerns, please let me know. Call, text, or email. Blessings to you all! Much love,  Pastor Devon pastor@wintergardenpres.org

Worship with Wintergarden
Sunday, April 2, 2023
Palm and Passion Sunday
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Breakfast Church @ 9:30am
In the Garden and on Facebook
*Please bring a dish to share.
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How to access the bulletin:
Bulletin HERE
How to Access Services Online:
Join us on Facebook for Worship Services
https://www.facebook.com/wintergardenpres
Remember, you don’t need a Facebook Account
to join us for worship. 

You can also click HEREfor the Facebook link.

SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE

Sunday,  April 2, 2023 – Palm and Passion Sunday Hospitality and Discipleship: A Meal with Chosen Family John 12:1-8 Join us under the tent at 9:30 am for a time of Food, Fellowship, and Worship. Please bring a dish to share this Sunday. Also, if folks can come around 9:00 am to help set up for Breakfast Church it would be greatly appreciated!

Every Monday Lectio Divina on Zoom, 8am Every Wednesday Food delivery Every Thursday Food Pantry, 12-4pm Every Tuesday and Friday Bone Builders, 10am Apr. 4: Wintergarden Wordies on zoom at 1pm Apr. 8: Workday Cancelled!Apr. 9 Easter Sunrise Service, 7am   Easter Traditional Service 9:30am   Easter Egg Hunt after church Apr. 18: Homeless Coalition meal at 4:30pm Apr. 27: CNS Care N Share (Every fourth Thurs.) Apr. 28: Family Fun Night (Last Friday of every month)

Facebook for Wintergarden Presbyterian ChurchFacebook for the Garden of Eatin’ at Wintergarden Presbyterian Church

Do you have a facebook account? If you do, I want to encourage you to like “Wintergarden Presbyterian Church” and “Garden of Eatin’.” Click on the blue circle with the “f” in it to access our two facebook pages. 

Why check out Wintergarden on Facebook? Well, a few months ago, Wendy started doing our Facebook marketing for social media. She spends a great deal of time creating posts, sharing our story, taking pictures, and telling folks about the exciting things happening at Wintergarden. For this, Pastor Devon is incredibly grateful!

One of the things we would love is YOUR help. Every day, Wendy puts up a new post. Then she shares it to her page and the Garden of Eatin facebook page. We would love to grow our audience even more, but it will take YOUR help. When something is posted on facebook, we would love for you to share it with your friends and family. This helps build our online presence and broadens our outreach to share about the amazing ministries and mission at Wintergarden. Oh, and you can share our worship services with others if you would like too. 

Truly, we need your help to connect with the wider community to build more and more excitement about “feeding people physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally in our community.”

FOOD PANTRY VOLUNTEERS NEEDEDPlease contact the church office at 941-743-5335 or email at foodpantry@wintergardenpres.orgIt is starting to warm up, which means we need to be able to rotate volunteers more frequently while outdoors. If you can come and give an hour or more, please talk with Kymmie and come join us.

Interested in joining our Garden? Garden of Eatin’ – Food Forest For more information click HERE.

At Wintergarden Presbyterian Church we’re eager to pray with you!   Please let us know how we can pray by submitting a Prayer Request online (link below). The prayer requests are emailed to Pastor Devon once submitted.

Prayer Request

Lectio Divina for Monday,  April 5, 2023All are welcome to join us as we continue to engage in the spiritual practice of Lectio Divina together as a community.  Our Scripture Lesson is Luke 24:13-35. We will gather via zoom for an intentional time of listening, reflecting, responding, and resting in the Word of God. We will meet on Mondays from 8-9 am.  Here are some details about Lectio Divina.  Lectio Divina, literally meaning “divine reading,” is an ancient practice of praying the Scriptures. During Lectio Divina, the person listens to the text of the Bible with the “ear of the heart,” as if he or she is in conversation with God, and God is suggesting the topics for discussion. There are four movements for Lectio Divina:  1. Lectio: (Listening to the Word of God or Reading God’s Word) 2. Meditatio: (Reflecting on the Word of God) 3. Oratio: (Responding to the Word of God) 4. Contemplatio: (Resting in the Word of God) Here is the Zoom Link:  Join Zoom Meeting: Click HERE https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87832080869?pwd=TUxCRThUcEdRbTNTWmJ6emZRamUyZz09  Meeting ID: 878 3208 0869 Passcode: 396015 +16465588656,,87832080869#,,,,*396015# US (New York)