Dear Church Family and Community,

Our vision to share Christ’s love with our local and global communities often affords us wonderful partnership opportunities with people and organizations doing great kingdom work. Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is one such organization, and we first got a chance to partner with them in the spring of 2017 to host a 100,000 Meal Pack event.

FMSC is a Christian non-profit founded in 1987 to tackle world hunger by sending volunteer-packed nutritious meals to 70 countries, where they’re used to operate orphanages, schools, clinics and feed programs to break the cycle of poverty in local communities. In 2017 alone, FMSC welcomed nearly 1.1 million volunteers to pack more than 284 million meals to feed more than 779,000 kids daily for a year. This Minnesota-based charity also spends more than 90% of its total annual donations directly on feeding children around the world.

So why am I telling you all of this today? Well, on Friday, May 10th, and Saturday, May 11th, we have been invited to join Grantham Church and volunteers from around Central Pennsylvania to hand-pack an estimated 110,000 life-saving meals for FMSC. When this weekend of serving is complete, volunteers will have packed enough meals to feed approximately 300 children around the world for one year! 500 volunteers and $24,000 in donations is needed for this event. To help pack or financially give toward this event, please visit www.fmsc.org. We are looking forward to overwhelming support for this event and hope you are able to join us in participating.

This past Sunday, Pastor Lynda shared with us the call of Paul, Silas, and Timothy to the Thessalonians and also to us, to love and care for one another. In so doing, she reminded us that when we love and care for each other, we communicate as a body of believers the love of Christ to one another and even our world. Love for God, love for God’s people, and love for all people is what we’re called and must be consistently committed to do. If you missed hearing this message, please be sure to check it out here on our website, or through our sermon podcast on Soundcloud, Google Play or iTunes.

This Sunday, we join with Christians all around the world to celebrate Palm Sunday and Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. All four of the gospels give account to this historic event (Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, and John 12:12-19). The people gathered because they believed, and they worshipped Christ as King. Jesus fulfills prophecy in coming to Jerusalem, and He accomplishes God’s plan for the salvation of the world.

• What do the people believe about Jesus, and what do I believe about Jesus?
• How are the people worshipping Christ as King, and how do I worship Christ as King?
• Why is it significant to the people that Jesus fulfilled prophecies of old, and why is that significant to us?
• Why is it important that God says and does what He promises?
• And lastly, Jesus comes to fulfill not our hopes and dreams, but God’s plan of salvation for the world. How is God calling you to join in this work?

Also, this Sunday we will be participating in communion together, as we do each Palm Sunday. As we reflect on Jesus freely and lovingly giving His body and shedding His blood for the world and to save us, may we continue to live our lives always full for Christ our Lord. Our Deacons will also be sharing about our Maundy Thursday worship service. Oh, and don’t forget about our Good Friday service with Prayer Stations for children (sanctuary) and adults (youth area).