John Calvin Presbyterian Church

DEVOTIONAL SPOTLIGHT: God Is Still Speaking: 365 Daily Devotionals “God is Still Speaking: 365 Daily Devotionals” is a collection of light-hearted, God-filled, and provocative devotionals for the person who thinks devotionals are “too religious.” Do you wonder if God has anything to say about what you face each day when you get up in the morning? Not sure that the Bible has much to tell you, but you are curious and willing to find out? The book includes relevant, brief, insightful devotionals designed to give you a powerful jolt each day. Each easy-to-read devotional provides a scripture verse, reflection, and prayer for every day of the year. Whether as a thoughtful gift or a personal resource, this book will encourage, inspire, and strengthen anyone’s Christian journey.

OUR NEXT CLOTHING DRIVE: Are you taking advantage of this season to do some spring closet cleaning but don’t know where to donate your clean gently used clothes? Fear not we are collecting clothing for the Program of Hope. We will distribute items to our POH guests in the hot  month of June along with lunches.

The Drive will end on May 24 with our sorting  and boxing party.

Needed are Men’s  and Women’s: Summer Casual Slacks, Jeans, Tops, White Shirts, Blouses, Black Pants for Work, Plain Sturdy shoes. (No formal shoes or high heels, please), Tote Bags, new socks and underwear In ORIGINAL UNOPENED PACKAGE, Rain Ponchos and Sunglasses.

ALL CHURCH AND COMMUNITY PICNIC: Please plan to Join us on May 21st for our next youth service followed by an all church and community Picnic to kick off the Summer. This is an all hands on deck activity so please see the insert in your Bulletin to sign up to help. We welcome all volunteers and have lots of options for before, during, and after the event. The Church will provide the main dish, hamburgers and hotdogs. Please bring a dessert or picnic side to share, such as salad, fruit, a variety pack of chips, or whatever you like to eat at a picnic. Most importantly don’t forget to invite your friends and neighbors. This event is for everyone, and we can’t wait to fellowship together. 

WORK DAY!!!: Thank you to all those that helped at Work Day on Saturday. Rev. Ochart, Amy Cardinale, Emily Garland, Andrew Nolan, Gwen Nolan, Ian Nolan, Mathew Fredenthal, Sharon Fortin, and Beverly Kenedy all worked hard to beautify our campus. They trimmed trees, cleaned gutters, trimmed hedges, weeded the garden beds and repainted our wooden sign. We don’t have another Work Day scheduled as of yet but remember if you have a project you want to do, we are always happy to help you plan and support your efforts. Many hands make light work! 

PW Birthday Offering: Next week we will be taking up the PW Birthday offering. Each year, the Birthday Offering awards grants to up to five programs. Primarily making possible capital improvement projects, the Birthday Offering supports domestic and international ministries, focusing on areas such as agricultural development, child care, community organization, criminal justice, drug counseling, economic justice, elderly care, employment training, homelessness, literacy, violence or women’s concerns.

GIVENOLA: Givenola day is May 2nd!  Our New Orleans Area New Worshiping Communities: Okra Abbey, Be Well, Come Together, and Labyrinth Café are all on the list of recipients.  Check it out on May 2nd at https://www.givenola.org/. 

Tongues of Fire challenges us to seek answers on what today’s church can learn from Jesus’s first followers and how they moved under the Holy Spirit’s power. This easy-to-read Bible study will give you forty days of devotional insights that can help you grow in your faith and discover how to celebrate the role of the Holy Spirit then and now. It will encourage you toward deeper community and an effective personal ministry. Perfect for women, men, or small groups.

HYMNS AND BEER We’ve also scheduled our next Hymns and Beer for Monday, April 24th at 7pm at Zony Mash! The brewery is child and pet-friendly, and there will be a food truck (Boils by Brad) serving up crawfish. In celebration of Earth Day, all the hymns will be nature-themed and half of the musicians’ tips will be donated to Glassroots, a New Orleans non-profit which turns glass bottles into sand for use in coastal restoration projects. See you there!

SMALL CHURCH OPTIONS: Are you concerned about church attendance, finances and community engagement? Do you want to get involved with the solutions? Do you want to know what options are available and have productive conversations with other churches experiencing the same thing? Then join us on April 26th for the Small Church Options presentation. We will enjoy delicious pastalaya and an informative presentation about what the church can do in this day and age. Presented by the Presbytery’s Committee on Ministry. Please use the RSVP insert so we know you are coming and we can have enough food.

GIVENOLA: Givenola day is May 2nd!  Our New Orleans Area New Worshiping Communities: Okra Abbey, Be Well, Come Together, and Labyrinth Café are all on the list of recipients.  Check it out on May 2nd at 

https://www.givenola.org/. 

OUR NEXT CLOTHING DRIVE: Are you taking advantage of this season to do some spring closet cleaning but don’t know where to donate your clean gently used clothes? Fear not!! Our next clothing drive is starting right now. We are collecting clothing now through May 14th to be given out at the Program of Hope in June. We will have a sorting party on May 24th from 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM. See Sue or Sharon if you are interested in joining the party. 

ALL CHURCH AND COMMUNITY PICNIC: Please plan to Join us on May 21st for our next youth service followed by an all church and community Picnic to kick off the Summer. This is an all hands on deck activity so please see the insert in your Bulletin to sign up to help. We welcome all volunteers and have lots of options for before, during, and after the event. The Church will provide the main dish, hamburgers and hotdogs, please bring a dessert or picnic side to share, such as salad, fruit, a variety pack of chips, or whatever you like to eat at a picnic. Most importantly don’t forget to invite your friends and neighbors. This event is for everyone and we can’t want to fellowship together. 

ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING: A Big thank you to everyone who felt called to donate to One Great Hour of Sharing this year $1630.21 has been collected as of 4/10!

DEVOTIONAL SPOTLIGHT: One Year of Dinner Table Devotions & Discussion Starters: 365 Opportunities to Grow Closer to God as a Family A daily serving of spiritual nourishment for your whole family. Between sports practice, music lessons, and homework, we can feel like our days pass by without ever really talking with each other about the most important matters of life and faith. This family devotional serves up a year’s worth of daily truths from God’s Word to chew on and apply to real life. Going beyond Bible stories, your whole family will enjoy discussing biblical words and themes at a level kids from 5 to 95 will understand and relate to.

SPECIAL MUSIC OFFERING: This morning we are taking up a Special Music Offering. This offering is used to supplement the music program at John Calvin Presbyterian, and has been used for things like:  guest musicians, music rights, music staff development, and special arrangements. If you would like to give to this offering, please use the pink envelope, or use ‘Music Offering’ in the memo line on Venmo. 

POTLUCK LUNCHEON AFTER THE CANTATA!: Join us after the service for food, Fellowship and a community in the Fellowship hall. 

HYMNS AND BEER We’ve also scheduled our next Hymns and Beer for Monday, April 24th at 7pm at Zony Mash! The brewery is child and pet-friendly, and there will be a food truck (Boils by Brad) serving up crawfish. In celebration of Earth Day, all the hymns will be nature-themed and half of the musicians’ tips will be donated to Glassroots, a New Orleans non-profit which turns glass bottles into sand for use in coastal restoration projects. See you there!

OUR NEXT CLOTHING DRIVE: We are looking for prom dresses and party dresses to take to the folks we have been working with in Lake Charles. Short, long, and all sizes. We will be collecting in April. Look for a clothing rack in the Narthex for this collection.

BIRTHDAYS: Chuck Corcoran 4/9

EVENTS AND MEETINGS THIS WEEK:

4/10 – 4/14 – Office Closed 

4/12 -6:00 PM – Worship Committee Meeting 

          7:00 PM – Cantata Choir Rehearsal 

4/13 – 10:00 AM – Game Day Sponsored by PW

4/16 – 9:30 AM – Canta Warm-up and Rehearsal 

         10:30 AM- Easter Cantata 

         11:45 AM -Potluck luncheon

Over the course of 40 days, this Discipleship Travel Log explores the role of the Spirit as a sculptor who shapes us to look more like Jesus. The daily Scripture readings, devotions, and prayers help you lean into the work of the Spirit in your everyday life. Custom-made Faith Experiments will help you: try something new, find the next step, and get into the groove. The Spirit is already working in your life. The Father gladly gives the Holy Spirit to those who ask. Today is a good day to pray, “Come, Holy Spirit! Help me take a small next step.”

Bigger isn’t always better: Have you been wondering why the Bulletin is getting smaller? As we continually assess our call to be good stewards of both the earth and the financial resources that God has given us, we are working on reducing our footprint. Using smaller paper, and printing less of the service is both less expensive and better for the environment. While sometimes we need to use creative spacing, nearly everything that was on the larger paper fits on this smaller version and with a font that is only .5 smaller then we were using. Also everything that is in the paper bulletin is also on the slides or available online, so you may find that you don’t even need the paper version. We will have a QR code available to scan that will take you to the online version, on our website, or you can go completely hands free and just use the slides.We will also have copies of the announcement page for those who opt out of a bulletin but still want the prayer list and announcements to take home.  We will of course keep providing a printed version for those who prefer it, but the less we print the better for the earth and our budget. 

Love Offering For Olga: Olga, our long-term cleaning help, is retiring this week. Her husband, who has been battling mouth cancer for the last several months, started radiation treatments last week, and then will undergo chemotherapy. She needs to retire to be able to care for him. We would like to take up a love offering for Olga in recognition of her time with us and to support her in her time of need. Please put “Love Offering” in the memo line.

Good Friday Prayer Vigil: We cannot experience the glory of Easter if we do not first experience the pain of Maundy Thursday, the loss of Good Friday and the sadness of Holy Saturday. Setting aside specific time in church to wait and pray with Jesus, to reflect on the events that led up to his death and resurrection, to speak to God and seek his guidance and listen to his heart, is essential to preparing our hearts for the Joy of Easter. To that end we would like to host a Prayer Vigil on Good Friday. This will be a time to blanket our church, our community, our parish, our state, our nation and the world in continual prayer. Please take a moment to consider what time you would like to come in and pray for yourself and our community. Our hope is to have an extended vigil with at least two people in the sanctuary throughout Good Friday. Use the sign up sheet in the Bulletin to let us know when you would like to come in and pray. 

Birthdays: Beverly Ross 3/28, Tracy Wayne 4/1, 

Encompassing the full breadth of the emotional landscape, these deeply tender yet subversive prayers give readers an intimate look at the diverse language and shapes of prayer.

Work Day Thank You!!!!: A Big Thank you goes out to all the amazing people who came out for our work day on Saturday March 4th. Look at all we were able to accomplish together with Little Farms. 

1. Cleaning The Sanctuary: Emily Garland, Sue Crawford, Evelyn Tobey and Charlotte (LFUCC). 

1. Painting Classrooms in the Fellowship Hall: Linda Lowry, George Cowand, Susan (LFUCC), Chole (LFUCC), Steve (LFUCC), Gwen Nolan, Julie Hebert, 
2. Youth Space Projects: Aaron Ochart, Deborah Nolan, Jeremy Moore, Jacob Russo 
3. Various Gardening Projects and Trash Pick-up: Matthew Freudenthal, Sam Garnet, Kelly Cuppett, Ann Trapani, Amy Cardinale, Linda (LFUCC), Scott (LFUCC), Asher Ochart, Ian Nolan, Jeremy Moore, Adris Moore, Brock Moore, Aaron Ochart
4. Re-striping the Parking lot: Kelly Trail, Jonathan Zea, Caleb Hebert, Jacob Russo, Andrew Nolan, Asher Ochart, Ian Nolan, Gwen Nolan, Aaron Ochart, Kate Russo
5. Cleaning Gutter:  Linda (LFUCC), Scott (LFUCC)
6. Fixing Sinks and Lights in Food Pantry: Gary Lowry, Mike Trapani 

We are already looking forward to the next work day on April 22nd to spruce up the garden beds for Earth Day. 

Congregational Meeting: Join us on Sunday March 12th for a congregational meeting for the purpose of electing elders for session.

Liturgy Lagniappe! In the reflective season of Lent, we are asked to listen more carefully. A voice cries out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. Our acappella processional hymn responds to that voice with conviction of faith, forming the Church Body which breathes and sings together even when our supports are lacking.