Dearest Faith Community Near and Far-
It’s almost Thanksgiving! Not only one day to eat lots of food and be thankful, but we are hosting 2 Thanksgivings! On Sunday, everyone is welcome to join for a Thanksgiving celebration at Wintergarden with our siblings from FPC in Port Charlotte. Dinner will be around 5pm. Please bring a dish to share. Pastor Syl and I are really looking forward to finding ways to bring out two congregations together to fellowship, share meals, and worship. Then on Thursday, we will have our Community Thanksgiving Gathering at 2pm. Again, please bring a dish to share for we have no idea how many people join us for this meal. Follow our meal, everyone is invited to stay for the movie “Jesus Revolution.”
Over the past 2 weeks, I have slowly been getting caught up and am looking forward to continue to do so each and every day. I look forward to seeing you more and catching up as well.
We will continue to join for breakfast church at 10am and will go online for worship at 10:30. More details to come after the Session meets on Sunday afternoon.
Again, a huge thank you to Pastor Syl, the staff, the session, and all our volunteers for keeping the ship afloat and finding many ways forward each and every day. I know everyone learned a great deal about all the stuff at church. And I look forward to moving forward in a way that is healthier for everyone and allows us to embrace our mission to feed our community in the way God intends for us to.
As I was thinking through what “re-entry” would look like for me personally, I realized I needed to do so slowly. I will primarly be working from home through Thanksgiving. There are many different reasons for this and I pray you will all understand. I will be available via phone, text, email, and video conferences. Just reach out! Know I will be limited with communication on Mondays because I will be working on my sermon. So, if you pray for me on Mondays for the Holy Spirit to come and inspire me and fill me with the word needed to be preached, I would greatly appreciate it!
A huge change in my schedule is that I will be taking Fridays and Saturdays off. There will be some exceptions to this (like workdays on Saturdays), but I’m really going to work hard on sticking to this for my sanity and for my family. I will not be checking or responding to emails, returning text messages or phone calls, and trying really hard to not work at all. If there are emergencies, I will absolutely respond to those. Please just call twice or reach out to Lamont if you cannot reach me.
As we continue into November and keep inching closer to December, our series for the month of November will be “An Attitude of Gratitude.” In the midst of everything going on, having an attitidue of gratitude can help make or break any situation. I’m looking forward to being back in worship with you all and seeing what God has in-store for us this upcoming season. Blessings to you this weekend.
Dates to Remember
- Thanksgiving – We’re having 2 of them! Lots of turkey, food, and fellowship!
- We’ll do a joint celebration with First Presbyterian Church the Sunday before Thanksgiving at 5 pm at Wintergarden. A sign up sheet will be circulated. And we look forward to gathering around table with our siblings in Christ to share in a wonderful meal.
- We’ll also do our traditional Community Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day at 2 pm. After our meal, folks are invited to stay to wath the movie “Jesus Revolution.” A sign up sheet will be circulated.
Making Headway
We’re making some headway on some more projects around the church.
- The canopy for the food pantry is completed! And the fininshing touches for the electrical will happen next week.
- Shower permit is still in the final stages. Hopefully that project will begin this month.
I am looking forward to seeing you all.
Much love,
Pastor Devon
Worship with Wintergarden
Sunday, November 19, 2023
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Breakfast Church @ 10:00 am
Worship following about 10:30 am
IN THE SANCTUARY and on Facebook Live
*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, November 19, 2023 Breakfast Church @ 10:00 am Followed by Worship @ 10:30 amSermon: Counting Our Days Psalm 90:1-12 |
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| Every Monday Lectio Divina 8am Every Wednesday Food Delivery Truck Every Thursday Food Pantry 12-4pm (Except Thanksgiving week, will be Nov. 21 from 12-4pm) Nov 19 Thanksgiving with First Pres at 5pm at WintergardenNov 21 Homeless Coalition 4:30 pm Nov. 23 Community Thanksgiving Meal beginning at 2 pm with a movie to follow Nov 28 Giving Tuesday Nov. 30 CNS Care N Share (5th Thursday because of Thanksgiving.) |
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| 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. |
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| Interested in joining our Garden? Garden of Eatin’ – Food Forest For more information click HERE. |
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| 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. |
| 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.” |
