As we prepare for Christian Education Sunday on June 5, our Sunday School students and our youth have been talking about what it means to “make God real every day”. Some education materials we have been using suggest that we can make God real everyday through worship, gratitude, generosity, and hospitality. These are actions and attitudes that make us a conduit for God to break into our world in tangible ways. When we gather as a community to tell again the “old old story” and consider how our stories connect to it, when we open our hearts to God and allow our lives to be shaped by God’s word, when we pray for ourselves and those we know especially need God’s care, we allow God’s spirit to work within us and change us. When we recognize the blessings that have been poured into our lives and point to God’s abundance, gratitude makes God real. When we use the gifts and talents God has given us to make a difference in our community, we make God real. When we welcome another into our church, our home, our community, we make God’s acceptance real and God’s care known.
I had the blessing to spend a weekend with our youth at Silver Lake (a place of great hospitality!) talking about some ways that these practices are real in their lives. They discussed soup kitchens and mission trips, friends helping friends in trouble, camp experiences, and how they lived out their faith in their families. They also made some movies about their thoughts on “making God real” to share with the Congregation on CE Sunday.
Christian Education Sunday always reminds me that we don’t just minister to and educate our children and youth; our children and youth minister to and educate us, as well. So I hope you will come and hear what they have to say on June 5 – the ways that they find to preach God’s word in our midst. I hope they will inspire you to think about how worship, gratitude, hospitality and generosity make God real for you!
Peace!
Pastor Paige
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Our church is online in a number of ways! Here on our web page you can find news articles, weather cancelations, a calendar, and information about our church.
Most weeks, we are sending out emails on different topics. Most weeks, we send out “This Weekend at Church” with reminders and updates about church activities. On Mondays, we send out a “Prayer Network” email with reflections on prayer and lists of current prayer requests. There is also a “sermon email” going out many weeks with texts of the sermon for those who are away from worship. Youth have their own email list for updates on group activities. To be added to any of these lists, send your name and email address to goshenchurch06756@sbcglobal.net with a request to be added!
Wonderful coffee for a wonderful cause! Simply Smiles is a mission program helping people in Oxaca Mexico with basic food needs. The Coffee Project is helping people to become self-sustaining. One bag of coffee – costing us $10 – feeds a child rice and beans for 2 weeks! That is a great cup of coffee!
We continue to use Simply Smiles coffee at Coffee hour. We are also selling it on the last Sunday of each month. Decaf and whole bean coffee is now available! Thanks for your support of this mission!
Check out the Simply Smiles web page at: www.simplysmiles.org
