What’s Happening at Good Shepherd
Lunch with a Missionary Thank you so much for taking the time to make Pastor Jorge and Darling feel welcome last Sunday! Please continue to be in prayer for the work that CHE Nicaragua is doing, and for the upcoming government meetings that Pastor Jorge will be a part of.
Life Choices The baby bottles for Life Choices Change for Life campaign are due back this Sunday. Please make sure to get them to Christine Osgood or the church office as soon as possible.
Life Choices helps teens and college students facing unplanned pregnancies before, during and after. Any questions can be directed to Christine Osgood.
The Soup and Stew Cookoff is this Sunday! There will be five categories to be judged.
- Broth Based Soup
- Creamy Soup
- Meat Stew
- Vegetarian Stew
- Best Overall Soup/Stew
If you’d just really love to judge everyone else’s submissions, please sign up to be a judge! You may not be a judge if you have a soup in the competition. When you bring your soup into the kitchen, please make sure to let the kitchen crew know which one belongs to you. Please remember to clean up after yourself and your family. May the best soup/stew win!
Mobile Food Pantry A huge thanks to all those who have volunteered and helped this ministry run and serve the many families in our community over the years. Jan 23, 2018 was the last Good Shepherd Food Distribution until further notice. If you collected food from the Good Shepherd site, please refer to the Southern Tier Food Bank website to access the many other sites in the area.
Shrove Tuesday Shrove Tuesday (known in some countries as ‘Pancake Day’ or ‘Fat Tuesday’) is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. This year it will be on March 5th. ‘Shrove’ comes from the Latin word Shrive, and means ‘absolution’. It is thought that the tradition started when families would eat all of the fatty, rich foods in the house so as not to be tempted during the penitent season of Lent. Good Shepherd hosts a free pancake and sausage supper to mark the day, which is followed immediately by a short ceremony in which all of the palm fronds from Palm Sunday of the previous year are burned to produce the ashes that are used for Ash Wednesday.
This year, Good Shepherd will also be offering crepes with toppings for sale, as a way to help raise funds for the Capital Campaign.
Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is a day of reflection in the Christian tradition. On this day that begins the Lenten season, Christians all over the world come together and have ashes imposed upon their foreheads as a reminder that we are all sinners and to “remember that we are made of dust, and to dust we shall return”. The ashes are imposed in the shape of a cross to remind us that Christ bore the weight of our sins on the cross and ultimately defeated death to offer salvation to all who would come to him. The Ash Wednesday services this year are on March 6th at 7am and 6pm.
Ongoing Ministries
Good Shepherd Youth Group Youth Group meets on Sunday night from 6:00 – 7:30pm at Good Shepherd. All youth between the ages of 12-18 are welcome to join as the youth group continues to study the book of Romans. Please contact Tyler Van Fossen if you’d like to know how to help or be involved in the Good Shepherd Youth Group in any way. Email: tvf.arrowhead@gmail.com
Bread and Wine If you are interested in joining a group of ladies for a monthly supper and discussion, please contact Liz Hull. The group is currently studying a book called Money, Possessions and Eternity, by Randy Alcorn. The next meeting will be in April, at the Hull home.
Good Shepherd Food Pantry With winter upon us, those of us who use the pantry can’t always get out and get to the store. That’s where pantries like ours come in handy. We can supply what is needed, however, the pantry needs to be restocked regularly so that no one goes hungry. The next time you’re out shopping to restock your pantry, please consider buying something to help restock the member food pantry too.
Items needed: canned meats and tuna, pasta sauce, shelf stable milk, coffee and tea, peanut butter and jelly, canned soups and stews, canned fruits and juices, condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, relish, salad dressings, etc.), rice in 1 lb. packages, one box meals, canned vegetables (other than beans), toilet tissue, paper towels, napkins, toothpaste and toothbrushes, deodorant (men’s and women’s) and anything else you’d like to bring.
Last Week
Last Week in Christian Ed In the first part of Christian Ed last week, we began the next section of our Systematic Theology Course which centers on the topic of “God’s Will”. We looked at the various ways that God wills various things. God wills, for example, that some things necessarily come to pass while other things he desires but chooses not to bring about. These are just two categories of God’s will and there are more.
For the second portion of Christian Ed, we had guests from Nicaragua, Pastor Jorge Riveras and Darling Lopez, (both connected with Community Health Evangelism, a mission organization Good Shepherd supports) who talked to us about the church in Nicaragua and how God has helped them through the political turmoil in that country. Tyler and I met with them the previous Friday and were both greatly encouraged by their story.
Last Week’s Sermon was called ‘Judging with Right Judgments’ and was based on John 7:21-24. It can be listened to or downloaded here.
Preventing Grace Podcast Did you know that Matt and Anne have a podcast? They talk about everything from church polity to rustic breads. In this week’s episode, ‘We are All Doomed’ Anne and Matt discuss the United Methodist Church’s debate over human sexuality, men competing as women in women’s sports, the wokeness of the church, and children disrespecting senators.
You can catch up on all of the older podcast episodes here.
Tuesday Morning Bible Study This Tuesday morning we finished up, Leviticus 20 and moved into Leviticus 21.
This Tuesday morning we will move into Leviticus 21 and discuss the Aaronic priesthood and the limitations required by God for priests to maintain ritual purity. A priest, mourning the death of a relative, could only touch the body if the deceased was his mother, father, brother, child, or wife. He could not touch the corpse of his married sister or married daughter. The high priest could not touch even these. Contact with a dead body infects the priest and high priest with ritual uncleanness. This is another illustration of the limitations and incompleteness of the Aaronic priesthood. Jesus, Priest of the order of Melchizedek, takes the hand of a dead little girl and brings her to life. He reaches out and touches leapers and cleanses them, he walks up to the funeral bier of a dead son, touches it, and the boy lives. Corruption and death cannot withstand the Giver of life. Impurity cannot survive contact with the Holy One of Israel.
Posted by Matt Kennedy on Tuesday, February 26, 2019
This Week
This Sunday’s Sermon will be based on John 7:25-31.
Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.” So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Yet many of the people believed in him. They said, “When the Christ appears, will he do more signs than this man has done?”
Team Galations is working on the altar this Sunday.
The readings for this week are Exodus 34:29-35 and 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13. The Gospel reading is John 7:25-31.
Karen C. will be serving on the altar guild this Sunday.
Brenda V. and Rachael W. will be working in the nursery this Sunday.
Shepherd’s Bowl Team 3 with Michelene Raphael (3/7)
To download a PDF of the 10:30 service bulletin, click on this link.
Have an item for the Update or an Announcement?
Email the secretary at:
gs.binghamton@gmail.com
by Monday night.