Dearest Faith Community Near and Far- It is June! School is out! Summer is here! And it is hot…I’m looking for those afternoon Florida rain storms, but not seeing many insight! For our summer sermon series, in June we will be looking at prayer and in July exploring rest.   First, let’s make sure we are ready for hurricane season (even if we aren’t participating!) Here is a great website to check out to be as prepared as possible: https://www.noaa.gov/hurricane-prep.  Second, the past weeks there was a huge amount of work completed at the church. Everything is truly starting to come together. So if you haven’t been following the updates and improvements on Facebook, come check them out Sunday morning. Please follow us on Facebook for all the pictures.  Here are a few updates on construction highlights, updates, and property work. In addition, pictures are being posted on our Facebook page:Again, the Sanctuary walls are finished! So beautiful. The kitchen walls are finished!Flooring is in the HVAC closets by the stage, the media room, and hopefully Kymmie’s office and closet. We are scheduling the work for the kitchen and that should start in the next couple of weeks. We are working on ordering applicances for our “commercial like kitchen” so once the flooring goes in, we are hoping to put the kitchen back together. Oh, and HVAC and electrical is happening this week in the Sanctuary! We are truly hitting the point where every week, we will be closer to getting back into the sanctuary. So I hope you will stop in and check to see the progress during the week and on the weekend. Third, we were so blessed by the two mission teams who worked in our community this past week. The group who arrived on Sunday built the gazebo for the outdoor kitchen, built frames for the garden beds, helped clean up the road, volunteered in the food pantry, and worked in Lee and Charlotte County mucking out homes and cleaning up properties. Here is a link to learn more about their group: https://ryannecefoundation.org/  In addition, our mission team from Faith Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee worked in three different homes this week helping people rebuild after the Hurricane. In addition, the team helped paint rocks for our color garden and repainted the kids picnic table for the sanctuary. And we have a group arriving tonight with Praying Pelican Missions. This team will be working at the church on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, they will help with cleaning the sanctuary and unloading the container. Come around 9am if you are able to help with this task. And on Thursday, they will be helping in the pantry. Throughout the week, they will be working in homes and helping to build community wherever they go.   Fourth, with everything moving in a positive direction with the building, it has been agreed to that I will begin my sabbatical on July 31, 2023. The session met last week to make some final arrangements for the guest pastor. We are still working through a few details, so more information to come in the next 2 weeks.   Praying everyone had blessed weekend! Many moving parts continue, but everything is coming together. It is such an answered prayer! If you didn’t get a chance to write out your prayer, favorite scripture, or hope for our faith community, please do so on the stage this weekend. The stage will have the wood flooring going on it sometime this week!  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  (Also, I am still doing my best to observe Saturday as a Sabbath. I appreciate your help in doing this!)

Worship with Wintergarden
Sunday, June 11, 2023
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Breakfast Church & Worship @ 9:30am
with going Live on Facebook around 10am
Under the Tent and on Facebook Live
*Please bring a dish to share. This Sunday we will have a mission team of 20 extra folks. If everyone can just bring a little extra, that would be amazing!
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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, June 11, 2023, at 9:30 am Breakfast ChurchFour Prayers That Don’t Work The Prayer that You Didn’t Pray Luke 17:11-19Join us under the tent at 9:30 am for a time of Food, Fellowship, and Worship. Please bring a dish to share this Sunday. (A little extra for this week because of our mission team) 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 Every Wednesday Food delivery Every Thursday Food Pantry 12-4pm June 20th Homeless Coalition meal at 4:30pmJune 22nd CNS Care N Share (Every 4th Thurs.) June 29th 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,  June 12, 2023All are welcome to join us as we continue to engage in the spiritual practice of Lectio Divina together as a community.  This Week’s Scripture: Luke 18: 1-8 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. Meditation: (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)