WINTERGARDEN WEEKEND UPDATE

Dearest Faith Community Near and Far, To say the past 10 days have been a blur is an understatement. I almost have been at a loss of words…almost 😉 But today, I met a friend in Tampa for lunch and I am now sitting in a Starbucks that has internet. We have not idea when we will have internet again in Port Charlotte or Englewood, so I am guessing I get to hit the coffee shops for internet. Many of you know how difficult this is for me… First, from everyone I have been able to get in contact with, everyone is alive and well. If I have not been able to reach you, please contact me! Call me at 941-525-6671. Many of our faith community and pantry volunteers have had significant damage to their homes…but everyone is so thankful that we made it through this horrific storm. Friends, please pray deeply for our community at large. The pictures do not communicate the depth of the pain, trauma, and damage.  Second, I am deeply impressed with the speed of recovery in a majority of our area in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda. Compared to when Hurricane Irma hit 5 years ago, the response to Hurricane Ian to get us “back up and running” has been amazing. We are deeply grateful for all the linemen, the tree companies, the volunteers, and our community. Please hear that there will be a huge ongoing need and long term recovery, but for the immediate responses, I am deeply grateful.  Third, my heart is overflowing with gratitude for our food pantry volunteers, our members, our staff, and our friends…and our wider community. Our volunteers have run the food pantry 2 days this week and we will run it on Saturday as well. We are pulling together to be the community and serve those in need, even while we are hurting. We have had churches calling, emailing, texting, and messaging me to see how they can help. I am so incredibly grateful for so many things are this point, that I might need to officially begin a gratitude journal! Fourth, we are in the process of updating and modifying our website. We are going to streamline our website with the essentials. Hopefully that can be up and running over the next two weeks. We will be posting resources on our Facebook page, as well as images of the work being done and how we are continuing the serve our community. Please share the exciting things happening with your friends.  Fifth, for those of you who do not know, our sanctuary has had significant damage. With the first evaluation, it looks like we had about 25-30% of damage to our main building. But only a few shingles are missing from the food pantry roof! We lost 2.5 pieces of plywood from the roof, the sign out front has blown away, shingles are everywhere, trees are down, the food forest is shredded and the garden too a beating…BUT, everything is fully replaceable and fixable. Because of the damage in the sanctuary, we will gather outdoors for the foreseeable future.  Sixth, for worship, we are going to move to having “Breakfast Church” on Sunday mornings. What will breakfast church look like? I’m so glad you asked! We will gather in the garden, around table, and to eat breakfast. With this meal, we will enjoy fellowship, prayer, a scripture lesson, and being in community together. We are going to embody breaking bread together and being the body of Christ in a different way. We will gather at 9:30 and everyone is invited to bring a dish to share. We will be postponing Sacred Space until November 6 and worship online until November 6. We do not have reliable internet in Charlotte County and are not sure when that will return. We also need to reimagine what online worship will look like as we gather outdoors. Please be patient with us as we work on these issues.  Seventh, thank you for the way you are giving of your time and your financial gifts. We have updated our online giving to include disaster relief. Click HERE if you would like to contribute to disaster relief and please share this link with your friends and family. You can also continue to give to the general fund, food pantry, and community garden. Thank you for supporting our faith community and for everything you do to help us live into our mission to feed people physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally in our community. You are helping us truly be the hands and feet of Christ in our community  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

Worship with Wintergarden
Sunday, October 9, 2022
+++++
Sacred Space is POSTPONED
until November 6, 2022 @ 8:30am
We will resume in the garden by the fountain
and the service will be in-person and online
+++++
Casual Breakfast Church @ 9:30am
In the Garden
if you can, please bring a breakfast dish to share
+++++
Online Worship is Postponed
until Sunday, November 6 at 9:30am:
+++++

SUNDAY AT WINTERGARDEN

We’ll be having a casual breakfast gathering in the Garden @ 9:30am.

THE CHOSEN WATCH PARTY AND BIBLE STUDY

The Chosen Sermon Series and Wednesday evening watch party and bible study has been postponed. We will restart this series when the time is better. But I pray we continue to invite people to “Come and See” and join us in rebuilding our community together!

WORK DAY – THIS SATURDAY Join us from 8am to 12pm.  We’ll be working inside and outside to clean up the church property and save items from the Sanctuary.  Friends from other churches will be joining us during the workday.

SUNDAY AT WINTERGARDENWe’ll be having a casual breakfast gathering in the Garden @ 9:30am.THE CHOSEN WATCH PARTY AND BIBLE STUDYThe Chosen Sermon Series and Wednesday evening watch party and bible study has been postponed. We will restart this series when the time is better. But I pray we continue to invite people to “Come and See” and join us in rebuilding our community together! WORK DAY – THIS SATURDAY Join us from 8am to 12pm.  We’ll be working inside and outside to clean up the church property and save items from the Sanctuary.  Friends from other churches will be joining us during the workday. Every Monday Lectio Divina Every Tuesday & Friday Bone Builders 10am Every Wednesday Food delivery Every Thursday Food Pantry 12-4pm Oct. 8 Workday 9am until 12pm Oct 18 Homeless Coalition meal at 4:30pm Oct. 22 MADD (Make a Difference Day) at 9am Oct. 27 CNS Care N Share (Every 4th Thurs.) Oct. 28 Family Fun Night of Trick or Treat! More details to come

At Wintergarden Presbyterian Church we are eager to pray for 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, October 10, 2022.All 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 TBD. 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)